TK's Emisar D4 review

Any info when this will be available directly from Intl?

Well thought I’d better mention this, today I was taking off to show the XPL D4 to a friend in 18350 Efest Purple wanting the shock and awe effect, and wearing my as always Wrangler jeans with big pockets and I dropped the light in my pocket, jumped in my truck put on the seat beat and took off for one block where I had to stop for a light, right at that moment something was seriously wrong so I look down and the problem was extremely obvious as I could see the light,
I tried to reach into my pocket with the seat belt on and that didn’t work, now it was critical so I dump the seat belt and leaped out of the truck and grabbed that light out of my pocket and it was so hot all I could do was throw it on the seat, now people are peeping their stupid horns and I am not a happy fella, finally with one finger I poked the switch off, so moral of this story is,
Yes it will self activate in your pocket and my advise is to Always either head or tail lock it, man I have a huge burn right next to my … well it was really a worrisome place to see the light and on full blast, now have a nice big red looking burn I think, but darn tender for sure, just a FYI if pocket light user or purse even I’d suspect, it doesn’t take a lot of force to activate the switch.
Only thing I know for sure is lock it out always, great idea, and that my experience could have been way worse than it was, only a few more inches or less to the East and I would have had severally roasted, Edit: and save a rude probably.

I’m drooling all over my keyboard with anticipation :disappointed:

…. when are the new D4s with Toykeeper’s driver tweeks going to be available?

Will MtnElectronics also sell the version with the tweaked driver?

Well, I haven’t finished the code yet… so not until that’s done. But hopefully within a few days?

I think RMM is planning to update his stock too, because, as T18 discovered, the thermal regulation really needs some updates for safety.

… For the sake of avoiding posts about… roasted… well you know. :person_facepalming: :smiley:

Accidental activation almost caused roasted nuts? ….Yikes! :open_mouth:

Lights with side e-switches come in 3 flavors:

  • Raised button - the button sticks up above the casing of the light. Easy to find the button, but also very easy to accidentally activate. Takes up very little space inside the light.
  • Flush button - Button is at the same level as the casing. Accidental activation is less likely than with a raised button, but the button can sometimes be hard to quickly find.
  • Recessed button - Button is recessed below the level of the casing. least likely to suffer accidental activation as the raised sides of the light tend to keep things like the sides of your pants away from the button. A deeply recessed button can be easier to find than a flush button as it acts like a funnel for the thumb. This is probably the best option for a pocket EDC light as it offers the most protection from accidental activation, while still having the convenience of instant access with no lockout. Downside of this type is it may take more space inside the light.

This is one lesson Zebralight learned.
The Zebralight SC51 had a large soft-touch raised button. Accidental activation was very common and tailcap lockout was a necessity. There were lots of complaints about it. Zebralight fixed this problem in their new switch design, which debuted in the SC600 Mark 1 and has been used in all their subsequent lights. Their new switch features:

  • a smaller button
  • stiffer switch. The button is still easy to press, but requires more pressure than the original SC51 switch.
  • deeply recessed switch. The high sides of the casing surrounding the button makes accidental activation very unlikely. Tailcap lockout is no longer necessary.

For the D4: From looking at the disassembly of the light, the simplest hardware solution to solve the problem of accidental activation would be to replace the bare-metal retaining ring over the rubber switchboot with one that has high sides that project above the level of the light by several mm.

With this proposed new retaining ring, the sides of the retaining ring would tend to come into contact with your pants before the button making accidental activation much less likely. Replacing the Emisar D4’s retaining ring with a raised one is a good solution as it would only require replacement of 1 part and would effective convert the light from a “raised button” to a “recessed button”.

I measured the XP-G2 (5700K) and XP-L HI (6500K) versions. Here are the numbers I got for all three emitter families on the same cell:

  • Nichia 219c 5000K: 3826 lm (Efest 18650 @ 4.18V)
  • XP-G2 (4000K or 5700K): 3343 lm (Efest 18650 @ 4.16V)
  • XP-L HI (5000K or 6500K): 4322 lm (Efest 18650 @ 4.18V)

Also, the XP-L HI melted my ND4 filter. Dangit. That’s okay though; it still works for my purposes.

Will XPL2 emitters fit under an unmodified Carclo quad optic? If so, what would be the output with them Toykeeper? :slight_smile:

Nope (IIRC), and no clue. But there are reasons people aren’t using XP-L2 in flashlights. I hear the beam is pretty terrible.

I’m surprised the output was so high with the XP-L HI. I figured its higher forward voltage would limit it to about the same as the 219C.

I think XPL HI has generally always produced more lumens than 219C. That’s been the case since both emitters came out in numerous different reviews. XPL HI simply has higher output. More throw too.

219C may pull more amps so the light heats up faster and battery runs down faster, while XPL HI tends to produce more lumens.

That was my impression too. But based on Texas_Ace’s tests of the D320 219C and the XPL HI V2 1A, they produce right about the same output at a given current. So with the lower Vf of the nichia it seems like it should output more. Maybe this light has lower bin 219C.

I suspect Toykeeper also measured max output on a full cell.

It could be that XPL HI starts off with higher output on a completely full cell but due to the higher vF as the cell depletes the Nichia will overtake it in output.

Now I’m tempted to mod my D4. I have Richard’s new quad board with XP-L HI V3 3C and 219c D320. The problem is that I love the light as is…

Well did edit that part but I guess my point was made except it would have been roasted peanuts, that situation sure was certainly NUTS…
Just the combination I think of those being new jeans and sort of stiff, along with seat belt snugged caused the pocket material to fold up and just press that switch all in under a minute blazing hot, couldn’t even hold the light.

I wonder what the people behind my truck were thinking when they see me bailing out of my now rolling truck, I didn’t even have time to put the E brake then at the same time doing a little jig around in the street holding my pocket, probably looked differently to them, and pulling out this massively bright light, man that hurt, must have looked insane I guess… Still hurting…

TK, not technically correct on one point… the XP-L2 will actually fit under the Carclo optic. It’s a tight fit and you can do damage if not careful but they do indeed fit. (I should say the ones I got early on from Cutter fit, haven’t done it again in a while due to, uh, circumstances beyond my control)

I have the user-configured thermal calibration working. The UI for this is a little more detailed though…

  • Fast-click 10+ times, then click and hold.
  • Light blinks out the current temperature limit in C.
  • Let go of the button if you want to exit now with no changes. Otherwise keep holding.
  • Light “buzzes” for two seconds. Let go during this time to set limit to the maximum (~70 C). Otherwise keep holding.
  • Light goes up to turbo.
  • Hold until you feel it’s too hot, then let go.

The light then blinks out the new temperature limit in C, and shuts off.

This way, you can check the current number, set it to maximum, or set a new calibration by feel. Also, setting the ceiling to a high temperature … will hurt. But that’s probably a good thing.

Does this seem like a good way to do it?

Sure does to me, great work TK, is this in the next release…?

I like that it flashes out what it is currently set at so you can check where you left it.

XP-L is pretty beast… but I think I’ll go Nichia on this thing. Would be my first floody Nichia and highest amped light. My mouth is watering at the thought.

I’m getting pretty close to done.

Currently, there is no way to disable mode memory. It’s easy to bypass during regular use, by turning the light on with a long-press or a double-click… but it could be a potential issue when kept in a pocket or a bag if you left it in a high mode and it gets tapped by accident.

Making it optional would need some sort of config mode. Adding an actual config mode would require deeper changes and make the interface more complicated.

So, I’m trying to figure out if it’s okay to always have memory or if it needs a config mode.

Anyway, here’s the UI so far:

Changes from the original version include:

  • added full thermal regulation with user-calibrated ceiling
  • added mode memory on click-from-off (default 100% 7135)
  • made beacon use current ramp level
  • made double-click toggle turbo (not just one-way any more)
  • made LVP drop down in smaller steps
  • calibrated moon to ~0.3 lm on Emisar D4-219c hardware
  • blink when passing the 100% 7135 level, for reference
  • fixed display of “zero” digits
  • fixed/cleaned misc internal things