This is my first flashlight review/tear down in BLF. My friend received this compact UV flashlight from his company and later he passed it to me because it's useless to him. Here's the official link the product page: http://www.mte-led.com/show_imgnews.asp?id=484&title=UV302
MTE is a Singaporean multi company. Flashlight is just one of it's smaller division. The flashlight factory is located in China.
I checked it and it's clearly a 385nm UV. I was excited because my friend told me MTE seems to specialized in UV lights using only Nichia UV LEDs. The company makes more UV lights compared to other Asian flashlight manufacturers. They also put "professional" wording in the website. I don't mind with the literal mandarin - english translations used on it's website. Who knows, this one could be promising rather than just using normal white LED driver..
For example, most battery powered UV flashlights have much shorter runtime due to higher voltage of most UV LED used. I thought being a specialized UV torch company, MTE should know about this and perhaps implementing buck-boost drivers to make the most out of the Li-Ion batteries. But sadly this is not the case.
Nice looking carton box
Thin plastic support to protect the inside
2600mA ICR 18650A, lanyard, two spare O-rings. The double O-rings arrangement is useless as you will find out later
The flashlight holds nicely and somewhat heavy. I like the styling and it feels solid and strong.
NVSU119C 385nm inside driven @ 1000mA behind a plain non A/R coated glass. This is a single mode reverse clicky flashlight.
Slightly off-center but for a flooder like this, it's not a problem.
Nice square thread at the tail cap, slightly greased
reverse clicky contact
No anti polarity protection. Note the black thin S T I C K E R. That's the only barrier to prevent the battery anode touching the negative erminal on the driver. Not good
To remove the bezel I had to use a heat gun, nylon webbing , and a multipurpose wrench. 150C and the threadlocker started to soften.
The heat damaged the (other) S T I C K E R used to hide the mess below it...Not good.
This company loves G L U E and S E A L A N T
This model although looks and feels nice hid so many surprises.In my opinion this model is a failed good (looking) design. Keep reading...
I really like the use of total 5 (five) O-rings to make it waterproof. 2 O-rings in each tailcap and the bezel, and one in the pill (to prevent loosening). But those O-rings are useless because the glass lens sit directly on top the slim brass pill's cylinder. The glass lens pressed directly by the aluminum bezel WITHOUT any O-ring/seal/gasket/grease. I'm pretty sure the glass lens will break under normal wear and tear. And definitely a hydrophobic and dropphobic flashlight despite those many O-rings used.
The components
Simple 3 x 7135 driver? With such a high voltage I'm pretty sure the flashlight will run out of regulation very fast. The idea to swap the NVSU233B (higher voltage than NVSU119C) is now seems not that promising unless I can find a better driver.
The measurements:
I dropped the pill. The thin wall deformed instanly. Fixed easily using a mallet
High temp OEM solder used, a rarity
From the website this UV302 advertised for money checking. Well, at least it's useless for Indonesian rupiahs. Only after 365nm swap then I could use it for money checking. But other than that this flashlight still has many other uses such as UV curing (ink/epoxies), minerals checking, etc...
Before - after beamshots.
Output and efficiency measurements:
Great looking flashlight with far from great internals. With some creativity and good driver, this could be a good host. The tube is thicker than average.
- Clemence
