[Review] Niwalker Vostro BK-FA30S XHP35 HI 4x18650 thrower flashlight

viele danke

comparing with TN42 and MK35 would be interesting )

Mauuka has one review light as well and he also owns a TN42, so he can compare

Great review!

Disappointed in the driver quality. :frowning:

Yeah the Astrolux MF02 driver is more sophisticated with better parts

I hope they change driver for production run

The last light I had with flickering output was a Klarus XT11GT which died after a few weeks with electronic crisp smell

made a NarsilM design for it

Niwalker BK-FA30S

added 3 pads for the auxillary switches,
one providing 5V for the Turbo switch
one sets multiples the current by 10 or goes to Turbo
the other divides the current by 10

Nice driver! Will you make it? I would like one! :slight_smile:

I have ordered 3 prototype boards from Oshpark

I got yesterday the MF02 ones that have a little design error but nothing dramatically, same on the Niwalker Prototype

I got here the TN42 driver that fits the Niwalker light, but they do not support the auxillary switches

I need to test them but I am pretty sure they will work, so I got 2 boards left

:smiley: One of the two to me. PM sentā€¦

I changed the LED to one of my XHP35-E2-3C

the throw did almost not increase so I assume they use a CW E2 or very good D4 flux bin

the bezel is not glued, not sure if this will be on production lights as well, as they wrote on my suggestion to thermal epoxy the head and middle piece together that in Production it will be glued on that spot

The reflector is deep

nice square cur threads on bezel

Thermal paste is an uniform thin layer with little air pockets, that pattern comes from removing the board and prooves thats a thin layer

Back of the MCPCB is perfectly flat

Also the heads shelf is pretty flat with a good surface finish looks roughter than it is

reflowing NW LED


using thermal epoxy to bond head and middle for better heat transfer

What epoxy improves your thermal transfer over that of a good paste?

I see light on the end of the tunnel, of course not so good that actual BL frmwares are single switch, but I can use em to momentary stup up or step down current manipulating the MCU output channels

The my Niwalker is on the wayā€¦ I hope this will be perfect with the your driver! :smiley:

I had today the opportunity to compare the NW GT driver modded Niwalker with a CW GT driver modded Thrunite TN42

all pictures 50m from target

a bit overexposed on the first shot

reduced ISO on camera for control shot

zoomed iout both lights

TN42 CW

Iā€™ve received the this flashlight today. :smiley:
I like the handling of 3 programmable buttons and the lamp brightness!
I compared this with the TN42.
My lux meter is not accurate, but itā€™s good for comparison.
I measured lux from 9.2 meters:
Not moded TN42: 612100cd
Not moded BK-FA30S: 559150cd
I canā€™t see this difference with my eye, and the usability with 3 buttons is very good!

What are the annoying red/green LEDs on the battery tube for?
Not necessarily a question!!

The light has the same electronics as the reviewed by Lexel,or better with the suggested changes?

I havenā€™t changed the lamps yet. The lamps are in the factory state.
I used vtc6 batteries for comparison.

I had mooded the driver but it seemed the buck controller did not like new FET and lost current after a few hours use, so I put in a TN42 driver with some mechanical modification
I received yesterday first 3 prototype boards of the 3 switch driver and will test it asap

Need to finish a review first that got not enough attention last 10 days

Awesome review but arenā€™t you temping fate by not only using different batteries but different battery chemistries? :open_mouth:

The picture is only to show both protected and unprotected fit the carrier

In fact that Klarus protected use the same Samsung cell and has almost no resistance added by the PCB so it would not make problems