Emisar D1 / D1S review

My Emisar D1S arrived in the US today, just 12 days after ordering it via Neal’s Deals on M4D M4X’s site.

In short, I love it! :heart_eyes: Here’s a family photo with a D4 and D1.

I prefer the smooth finish of the earlier Emisars, but the new matte finish isn’t unattractive or unpleasant to handle.

I opened it immediately to swap in ToyKeeper’s awesome Andúril UI. The D1S is my 8th light running Andúril. :partying_face:

The driver fits tightly, but is not glued. I desoldered the emitter’s wires and pushed the driver out from that side.

The switch PCB’s wires are long enough to access the driver without issue.

Here’s a hotspot comparison of the D1 and D1S at 6 feet (1.83 meters) from a wall. Both are 5000K XP-L HI V2 3A.

I hope to share some outdoor beamshots comparing the D1S to a few other lights soon.

Sweet! Hoping to see mine by tomorrow.

I’ve been really disappointed with the new Emisar finish so far, aside from feeling cheap and unpleasant to me, it flakes off too easily. I have a D1 with the original finish and it is flawless despite much harder use.

Thanks for the beamshot comparison, looks pretty promising.

Did you receive any shipping or communication about it being shipped?

I have no problem waiting :innocent: Just knowing something is eventually coming would be nice :laughing:

goshdogit, that’s a really good beamshot / hotspot comparison. The PCB pic also reminds me I still haven’t taken mine apart to get pics and reflash it…

I didn’t get a shipping notice or tracking number, just an order confirmation email. I didn’t notice that at the end of the message, it instructed to reply back with my phone number.

Neal sent me another email a few days later asking again for my phone number, but I didn’t see it for several days because it went to my spam folder.

The D1S got here only 7 days after I replied to the second message with my phone number, so I wonder if Neal sent the light before I replied. Oddly, there are no dates on either of the shipping labels.

Cool, thanks. Just wondering, first time ordering anything through m4d m4x/Neal. Will order more things in the future.

I also received and replied back to the same phone number email.

When I first shined the D1 and D1S at a wall, for a moment I thought I had picked up the D4!

Whaaat?! :smiley:

When I placed my order it gave a date of when it would arrive. I let it go 4 days past (I live in Alaska and somehow it takes a week longer to get priority air mail….) before contacting Neil.

He pulled a tracking number for me and it was here shortly after that.

I did not have any dates on my package either.

give him an email and see what he says and see if he will send a tracking number. I know all orders going forward for me I will pay to have tracking number so I can watch it fly around.

fixed for you.

I’ll include my D1S tracking info so you don’t feel left out. “Send to Chicago 11/08”

Number: LSxxCN
Package Status: In Transit
Destination Country: United States
2017-11-07 02:05 Origin Post is Preparing Shipment, We have received notice that the originating post is preparing to dispatch this mail piece.
2017-11-07 02:05 CHINA, GUANGZHOU EMS, Processed Through Facility
Origin Country: China
2017-11-08 22:42 Guangzhou, leave Guangzhou sent to Guangzhou Express Company
2017-11-08 22:42 Guangzhou, leave Guangzhou and send to Chicago.
2017-11-06 18:42 Guangzhou, Guangzhou Postal Courier logistics Company International Business Branch has received (name of the Collector: Jianbo, Tel: 18818911168)

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Mine arrived from China today!

Since it requires soldering for each reflash, I’ve been kinda waiting until I go back to tweak thermal regulation again… and I’ve dragged my feet on that because it’s a long and obnoxious process.

My last D4 thermal regulation test showed some pretty annoying oscillation, but perhaps it’d be fine on something with a lower power-to-mass ratio. Perhaps I should flash the D1 as-is and find out.

Wish these enthusiast lights would create a way to easily re-flash the light. Now that mfg’s have entire lines of fancy lights it makes sense. You want to keep a user in your product line give them a consistent experience from light to light through firmware updates.

Reflashing by USB would be great!

Finding a place to fit a USB port, though, is not so great. Or fitting the internals to handle it.

With a bigger MCU, though, direct USB reflashing is at least possible. Some of the atmega chips support it. They’re a bit overkill for flashlight purposes, but it was nice being able to reflash my keyboard that way.

Just did in grey :slight_smile:

I ordered a grey D1S from Neal and got the same phone number email. That was on the 4th. No word as yet on the light…

The D1S is a bit odd-looking, TBH.

I can’t quite put my finger on why exactly, but something about its strictly utilitarian minimalist design makes it seem distinctly different than other lights. It’s like it sheds a pretense of being aesthetic in nature and instead is unabashedly functional in an unromantic and frugal kind of way. It has not a single detail which can truly be called fanciful or cosmetic, posh or indulgent. Even the label on its tailcap serves a practical purpose, to indicate make, model, and what it does. Not unlike the first few days of owning a label maker, in which everything in the house receives plain labels like “table”, “door”, or “cat” (sorry about that, Mister Bigglesworth). Its strict adherence to purely pragmatic plain-ness is kind of an aesthetic of its own, like manufactured buildings made entirely of right angles and concrete. Or, more appropriately, like a rocket which consists only of an exhaust cone and a column of fuel.

I kind of like it better in 18350 shorty form, because then it’s even more blatant that it’s mostly just a big reflector with a power source and a shell, and really challenges traditional ideas of what a flashlight is supposed to look like.

It is, regardless, very good at what it does… but “what it does” is not “look pretty on a shelf”. It’s made to be used.

i ask neal about the mails

i know his gmail sometimes is buggy due to chinese censorship....

That isn’t entirely true though TK, the fins on the head are conjunctive to the reflector, not the emitter shelf, and as such are more cosmetic than efficient. I like how it follows the form of it’s lesser siblings, enlarged only to serve as a holder for the larger objective: throw.

I may take that a step further and machine a second enlargement to hold a yet larger reflector, somehow it just begs for it. :slight_smile:

If you do, be sure to get the shorty tube working too. Instead of a tube light, it can be a pyramid light! Or a Towers of Hanoi light.