This is a common problem. By doing so standard unprotected 18650 flat tops will not fit well (insufficient pre-stress). But again, even if it fits, it’s probably just going to trip leaving you with a non functioning light.
I do like the idea of these batteries with built in charger. But like I said, length is the biggest issue. As far as I know, they’re all around 70.7mm. There is a nice video about it where this problem is demonstrated here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jesz4eL-cvQ
I find it interesting if such a battery is based on an 18500 cell, so there’s plenty of space to fit a charger and making the total length about 68 or 69 mm. You have less capacity, but it will be so much more compatible with many lights.
I’m not sure about “smallest”, but the Lii-100 is pretty small and lightweight:
http://www.gearbest.com/chargers/pp_272183.html
I will order a green with XP-Ls today.
But why is the XP-L Version “only” 500 Lumens brighter than the Nichia Version?
4* 5W vs. 4* 10W LEDs - there should be more difference
Got my black Emisar D4 today.
This was one of Richard’s leftover stock from the first one. Fortunately he flashed it with the updated V2 UI before shipping. Mine’s S4 2B.
Also purchased at the same time for this light:
- Black 18350 tube
- some of those new ultra-high capacity 18350 cells
- One of Richard’s offset quad boards with high-CRI 4000K Nichia 219C on them.
Though I purchased the 18350 tube to try out, this light is small enough I’ll probably just run it on 18650.
Here are my initial impressions:
- Fit and finish - excellent. The black anodizing is flawless and everything is assembled well. Light worked perfectly out of the box. Looks and feels very high quality. The laser engraved lettering on the back of the tailcap is crisp and clean.
- Size - very nice. Definitely small enough for EDC. Smaller than the Nitecore Concept 1 I’ve been EDC’ing for the last 3 weeks. It’s also considerably smaller than the Astrolux S42 and Manker E14II (with all 3 lights using 18650 tubes. Note that the comparison isn’t completely fair: All 3 lights are small quad-emitter setups, but the D4 lacks onboard USB charging present in the other lights. This allows the D4 to save some space.
- “Hand feel” - OK, but could be better. This is the term I use to refer to how secure and comfortable the light feels in my hand. With the stock 18650 tube, the light is nicely sized to fit the hand and the switch and heatsink fins provide a small amount of extra grip. However, the light really needs some kind of knurling on the battery tube to get a higher rating. Smooth battery tubes may look good, but they feel slippery. Even a small amount of knurling in the right places goes a long way and this light has none except for the ribs on the tailcap. Maybe they will sell some 18650 tubes with knurling on them. A knurled tube would increase the “hand feel” rating to excellent.
- Output - Outstanding. This really is a pocket-rocket. Output at max power is tremendous… over 3500 lumens at max turbo going all the way down to a true moonlight mode (NOTE: I consider “moonlight” to be low enough that you can stare into the emitters without hurting your eyes. If it’s brighter than that it’s “low”, but not “moonlight”). After I swap the Nichias into this one I’ll buy another and put in XPL HI with 5A2 tint. XPL HI should produce more lumens and more throw than the Nichia.
- UI - EXCELLENT. Truly one of the best UIs out there. Very simple, with shortcuts to moonlight and turbo and smooth fast ramping between. The light remembers the last used mode. This is truly one of the best UIs out there. That said, it could still be improved slightly: Rather than having a single-click go to last used mode, I would prefer it to remember and go to the last ramped mode. As-is, if you use the shortcuts to moonlight or turbo they will override your memorized intermediate mode. It’s not a huge issue though since ramping is so smooth and easy in this light. I would probably also add an extra click to all the multi-click shortcuts after the first two. That would free up triple-click to use as another preset mode… maybe have triple-click be 30% power or something like that.
The ramping on this light deserves special mention. It’s fast, taking maybe 3-4 seconds to go from moonlight to max turbo. It is also incredibly smooth with no visible steps, and it ramps both directions. I’ve tried other lights with ramping and this is by far the smoothest. The only other lights I’ve tried that are as smooth as this are ones with infinitely variable brightness rings.
- Thermal management. As expected, the head of the light does get hot quickly at max turbo. After 10-20 seconds thermal management kicked in an gradually diminished the output. This decline occurred in gradual, but noticeable, steps. The thermal management is fully programmable in the UI, but I found that in the stock configuration it was just right. The head got quite hot, but never dangerously so. This is calibrated just how I like it, so no need to recalibrate.
- Switch - the switch button is relatively small and has ridges making it very comfortable to find and press. It is not recessed. The center of the button projects maybe 1 mm above the head of the light. When I rolled the light upside down on a table and pressed, the light turned on from the pressure of the table. The button is close enough to the head that it is almost, but not quite flush. To me this is not ideal. For hot-rodded side-switch lights I prefer to have the button recessed like on Zebralights, to minimize the chances of accidental activation. A lot of the convenience of a side-switch light is lost if lockout must be used.
I’ll have to do more testing to see if I like it as-is or have to use the lockout. Even turning off the light in moonlight mode probably won’t help because if it turns on in the pocket it will likely ramp to turbo and stay there.
The light does feature electronic lockout so can be locked or unlocked easily with one-handed operation. However, a better solution may be for the next version of the Emisar to use a taller switch retaining ring that projects above the surface of the head and helps shield the button.
- Other notes: the light tailstands perfectly and the switch housing prevents the light from rolling when placed sideways on a flat surface.
Overall Impression: This is an outstanding light that breaks away from the pack. Truly one of the best I’ve tried in years. The size, output, UI, weight and choice of emitters make this light much superior to the other small quads on the market from Manker and Astrolight. I’m extremely impressed and will definitely be buying more samples of this light. This is about as close to a perfect pocket EDC that I’ve come across yet.
I am getting fed up with usps. Once again I have an order from Richards business that is 2 days behind schedule. It has to be something with his Utah post office. Literally 2/3rds of everything I buy from his website has some tracking issues that causes a side trip off course that costs a couple of days. It’s nothing to do with his business, just usps incompetence. This time I haven’t had an update for two days. I stop in my po and do a trace, since I was supposed to have my item delivered today. And of course now my new updated tracking time is Saturday. Oh well. This time my package decided to come to KY only after a trip to Detroit and then Washington DC. Hope you guys are having better luck getting your D4 than I am.
Both leds are 3V leds and are FET driven.
Yes, I had better luck. Mine took 2 days to arrive (I’m in California). That actually beat the initial USPS tracking number estimate which predicted 3 days.
I suggest contacting Richard at Mountain Electronics about your switch issue. He’ll take care of you. It may be you’ll need to send the light back to him for repair or replacement.
Their site estimates 12 business days. So figure 2-3 weeks.
Be careful with the thinner MCPCB.
XPL HI should both throw further and have more lumens than 291C or XPG2.
Is there a way to consistently get to max 7135 level?
Nope. When the light is in ramping mode it will blink when it passes that point. But the ramping is quite fast and smooth and it doesn’t really pause for more than a fraction of a second for the blink. If you release the button when it blinks you’ll be fairly close to max 7135 level, but probably not exactly there.
The ramping is pretty seemless. Apart from that blink, you wouldn’t even know you’d transitioned to FET mode. The light ramps perfectly smoothly over its entire ramp.
Perhaps in a future revision to the UI, triple-click can be a shortcut to max 7135.
Joey, me too. I was supposed to get a package today from Richard but the last info on the tracking is still showing Utah. He sent it out on the 22nd, since when does it take 5 days for anything in the US to reach Texas? Easy to see why they’re losing money, they need better training for lazy people. UGH!
Green one with Nichia 219CT 83CRI, 5000K ordered.
18$ for 500 Lumens more (XP-L) is just a bit too less value for the money.
I do like the middle and right ones. Seems the left one was the production version. I was confused with so many different rings around it.
All of those batteries are protected and based on a low-drain cell. They are not appropriate batteries for a FET quad. The protection should trip at higher output levels and it might be dangerous to the battery if it doesn’t.
5W vs 10W? Are you going off the current limits in the datasheets?
That’s not how this works. Those are advice from the LED manufacturer about power limits lights designed around the LED should use, and the D4 ignores them. Instead, current is determined by three things:
- The forward voltage curve of the LEDs; this is how much voltage is required at a given drive current.
- The resistance of the circuit, which adds to the LED’s forward voltage curve.
- The ability of the battery to deliver power. At high current, the voltage sags until it intersects the forward voltage curve for the complete system. This determines the drive current.
The 219C has a significantly lower forward voltage curve than either the XP-G2 or the XP-L HI. I was actually surprised that the XP-L HI is brighter at all. Based on this test, TK’s lumen reading and a rough estimate of optical losses, the 219Cs are getting over 12W at power on.
Dale I suggest talking to your post office. I had no tracking for a couple of days and I had them check it. Miraculously my items tracking keeps updating now. It’s in knoxville so I maaaaaaay get it tomorrow. Sad day when you can get something from banggood nearly as fast as Richard. I really think it has something to do with his regional usps hub. They screw up a lot. Good luck
You should move to California so you too can receive Richard’s shipments in 2 days. 
IIRC, if you insert battery (or loosen and tighten tailcap), then single press will go to memory mode, and by default it’s max 7135 (level65). At least that’s what I thought.
Last thing I heard from Toykeeper’s tweaks is that a single click from ‘off’ gets you to the memorised last mode, but if battery contact was broken the memory is lost and then instead it will get to a default level which is set to 100%7135. So in practice: unscrew the tail a bit and tighten again, then a single click gets you 100%7135.
I hope this feature made it into the final UI.