I know these threads are probably done to death on here but I was hoping for a little help.
I have wanted a Convoy s2+ for many years but I was always intimidated by all the choices.
I finally sat down and read a bunch about all my options and I think I finally have made my decision but was hoping for some advice.
I have decided to get a Convoy s2+ with SST-20 2700k with either 7135x4 or 7135x6 and OP reflector for camping. (white lights really spoil the mood as they feel very unnatural imo, especially by a campfire)
Should I choose a 7135x6 light because 2700k might appear quite dark? or will the 7135x4 be bright enough?
Perhaps the 7135x6 at 50% will be better than the 7135x4 on 100? Or will the 7135x4 on 50 still be enough? Battery life is very important to me while camping.
Will a Convoy s2+ 7135x4/6 be safe if we fall asleep without turning off the light? Can we rely on the biscotti safety built in or do they not get hot enough to worry about?
I have a lot of Panasonic NCR18650B and Samsung 35E / 30Q unprotected cells and only 2 protected Sanyo NCR18650GA.
Will they all be fine?
I use a Xtar PB2S for charging
I will probably use this very often with a diffuser as a hanging lantern under a tarp. Would it be a good idea to make a lamp reflector to avoid any upwards light being wasted? Are these sold? Or would it be more of a diy thing?
I am also getting a Convoy s2+ with 219C 4000k with 7135x6 and OP reflector for general use. I will probably use it on Group 8 Biscotti with a 50% limit.
If battery life / runtime is the main concern, get the 4, and the panny-Bs.
Generally speaking, 100% at 1A is more efficient than 50% at 2A. Power-used will be the same, but the LED will be less efficient even in those small higher-current bursts so it won’t appear as bright (even if the difference is hardly noticeable).
Untouched, with nothing (hand, etc.) to wick away heat, especially in warmer weather, you don’t want to run the light too hot.
Best way to conserve battery life is to get used to cranking it down. Ie, get used to moonlight mode for almost everything, let your eyes dark-adapt as much as possible so you don’t “need” more light, even when using it as a lantern. You’d be surprised how little light you can get used to.
Thanks, actually the nights here in the UK are quite cold so that will help but I agree, I am always suprised at how impressive our eyes are at adapting to low light, thanks for reminding me.
Ill go for the 7135x4, I think this will be the perfect light for camping, ill probably never even use more than 50% anyway
I will always have the 7135x6 4000k 219C if I need more light.
Yeh, and while I like the idea of having “enough” light when you “need” it (ie, excuse for pocket-rockets), they’re largely not all that necessary. Even a Q8 that weighs a brick and spits out 5000 lemons can’t reach all that far as a smaller dedicated thrower can.
And the difference between a 6 and 8 is that the 8 will use 33% more current on max, but only put out something like 20–25 more light, which is even less of a difference, visually.
I recently got one of the 4*7135 2700k s2+ flashlights and really like it. I did add a disc of dcfix to it to make it more floody. No fried egg anymore. It is plenty bright enough at the low end (0.1%) for nocturnal trips inside the house, and I would think the top end is 300+ lumens, but I don’t have a way to measure it.
I like it a lot for what it is, a fairly simple warm white light with great battery life.
Yeh, that’s similar to my Xeno E01. WW, always m/l/h (yecch, but at least I always know where it starts), and I stuck some nice DF on it to diffuse the beam a lot. It’s an indoor light, nice and really floody, and warm.
If there’s any fried-egginess to the beam, you can always replace the reflector with a 20mm TIR lens of your choice, from flood to spot or anywhere in-between, and minimal if any tint-shift.
I’m working on a big convoy runtime sheet and did some calcs for the sst20 2700k J4 bin that convoy supposedly uses, and 7135 chip selection. I have a 2700k 7135*8 and I regularly use the 10% level (~56 lumens) as a lantern with night adapted eyes and it’s an excellent brightness for reading and close activities.
The runtime @10% is also constant output for almost 9 hours before it drops below 95% brightness. LVP kicks in at 9 hours 57 minutes, 36 lumens brightness and 2.9v on the battery. For 30Q cell. Here’s the graph, just to give you an idea. 7135*6 or 4 should have much better curves for 100%/40%.
The first S2+ I bought was 7135x6, the next 3 or 4 were 7135x4, if that tells you anything. For a general use light 7135x4 is plenty bright and with that config I still rarely go past medium when indoors. If I need a small blaster I pull out one of the BLF special edition lights. The S2’s tend to be one of my most used lights, I leave them scattered about the house so they’re quick to grab.
Thanks that is really helpful, 10 hours is great! I wonder how the 7135x4 will be at 35%
Thanks, I bought 2 in the end, a SST20 2700k 7135x4 and a 219C 4000k 7135x6. I have a feeling I should have gone for a 7135x4 on both but oh well, I dont have any other lights for now so itl be handy to have one that has a bit more.
I have an S2+ 4x7135 with 219C 4000K with me right now, and another very similar to your 2700K one (only difference is that my reflectors are both smooth) on the mail. I legitimately can’t see how you might fall asleep with one of these turned on in a Biscotti mode where it would build up any heat.
Based on maukka’s numbers I projected the following data for a Convoy Biscotti driver and an SST-20. Does this look right? The 1/10th resolution lumens are directly from his data, the mutliple decimal resolution lumens are from a 6th degree polynomial I created in Excel based on his numbers. Clearly the fit isn’t perfect as your approach 0mA but I bet it isn’t too far off (estimate 0.5lm at 2.8mA).
