Armytek Prime C2 Pro v3 Warm review (XHP35 HD, 18650)

What a great review :slight_smile:

Thank you very much for your extended testing ! I like this light a lot .

Nice review. The light is nice but mine only lasted for 13 days. I had the exact same light and one of the 4 emitter dies died in mine. I was able to return it to the re-seller and exchanged it for a different light (Non-Armytek). That made the third Armytek light that I’ve owned fail before having it for a year. The same happened with a Barracuda and a Dobermann. I really like the body styles and finishes of Armytek lights but will never buy another one as the internals are garbage.

Guys,

Interested to get FREE (well not entirely true) 600 - 700 extra OTF lumens from your Prime C2 Pro? I’ll show you how. Taking beam shots now….

EDIT: Also to get rid of the ugly ringy beam pattern.

- Clemence

Left OEM, right with correct TIR optic. Better color mixing too. No more overly rosy hot spot. 700 hidden lumens unleashed!

The OEM TIR only uses ~ 60 degree of the beam. The rest just dumped and absorbed by the head. The Prime is running cooler now. The picture shows the OEM optic paired with 144AM

Left OEM, right Yiajiamei 5 degree XP TIR optic

Reduced temperature can’t be seen in this test since it’s watercooled.

Find the optic HERE

NOTE: I have no affiliation to Shenzhen Yiajiamei, or paid by them. I just like the products so much!

Enjoy! :wink:

- Clemence

To illustrate Clemence’s point, here are room temperature runtimes for the current Tiara C1 Pro and Prime C1 Pro, which have the same LED and driver, but different optics. The Tiara has much higher output and slightly longer runtime! The Prime doesn’t come remotely close to Armytek’s claimed OTF lumens.

It’s Prime C1 Pro XPL version, isn’t it? A very good host for high CRI pocket thrower (YJM 5degree optic + 219C R9050)
Hahaha, you got the same bad optics too? Looks like newer Primes have bad optics.

- Clemence

Great find Clemence!

The Prime C1 Pro has the same crappy optic as the C2. It gives an extremely rosy hotpot with ringy rainbow spill.

Here is the effect of swapping the stock Prime optic for a Tiara optic. The beam is (obviously) the same as a Tiara, nice and smooth. Output increased from 635 lumens to over 800 lumens, just short of what I measured for the Tiara in the first test. The light runs cooler, which means it steps down later, shortening runtime. I gather with the Yajiamei optic the output would be even higher.

TL;DR wtf Armytek :person_facepalming:

Thanks for doing all theses tests. It does seem weird.

Boc_McBob, can you take a picture of both Armytek optics next to each other?

Wow, that’s pretty shocking that the optics Armytek uses in their new Primes are that bad. These are not budget lights, so I’d expect a more efficient optic design than they use. Why throw away a third of the light?!? I wonder if a supplier messed up, or did Armytek really do that intentionally?

Why is the optic correlated with light’s temperature?

The color temperature from the LED varies by angle. If some angles aren’t getting out, the result is different. Also, different optics and reflectors blend the angles differently. Just like adding a diffusing material in front of the lens might make the beam look very different in color.

I’m not expert in this field but I’ll share you my observations. Perhaps Maukka can chime in too
The CCT and tint are highly affected by the primary (LED’s dome if any) and the secondary optic used (reflector or TIR optics). Ideally the LED will have a tiny spot - point source and a perfect sphere dome centered at the exact die center. This will make the LED emits light with perfect 180° light distribution with no diffraction at all. Each light ray will exit the dome at 0° relative to the entry point out off the die. But this is not possible because there’s no such thing as a point source, the die requires a dimension.
Because of this, each light rays closer to the outer dome radius will be diffracted more than those in the center. This means the light rays from the outer die will exit the dome at angle, farther from the center light ray. This what makes the lambertian light distribution in most single die LEDS. Thus, the center ray will have different CCT from the outer ray, depending heavily on the dome’s index of refraction.
Usually, the high angle emissions will have warmer CCT than the low angle emission. The dome - die size ratio gets worse as the die gets larger (same dome diameter).

And flip chip technology makes things worse as the outer light rays produced tend to be even lower in CCT because it has to pass through thicker phosphors layer.
Good optics is mandatory in this flip chip era. The primary optic just can’t handle the job unless it’s made overly large to keep the ideal proportion. In my opinion, XPG has the optimum ratio between die - dome size.
In this Armytek Prime case, most of the light says from the high angle emissions are dumped unused, upsetting the designed tint and CCT
Anyone with more valid expertise in this field are welcome to
Add/correct me.

- Clemence

clemence, maukka,
thank you for explanation :slight_smile:

Is this an issue with the XP-L emitter as well, or just the XHP35 model? I have a Prime C2 Pro with the XP-L emitter, and I’m wondering if this is worth looking into.

Also, which angle is generally recommended for an EDC light?

+1 and Bob

What great info in short thread!

BLF at its finest.

AFAIK, all current Prime models use the same optics. Just open the bezel and take a look inside, it’s very easy to open. If it’s too hard to open, you can make your own wrench from an M12 Hex bolt.



Check your Prime Pro C2 special modes (4x clicks) if it still has the voltage reading then it’s the older Prime with good TIR optic. Older Prime optic creates very clean and well defined hotspot, while Yajiamei is tighter and has good transition from hot spot to spill.

How to check:
4 fast clicks to enter special modes. Hold and release to select: strobe - fast beacon - and voltage reading like this: (long) Blink………(fast) blink blink blink blink.
The last four fast blinks will follow your battery voltage, four blinks for fully charged, three blinks 75, two blinks 50, and one short blink 25% to near depletion.

- Clemence

Ok, thanks. I’ll check to see if I have the battery check later tonight. If not, I’ll try to open it up and see what the TIR looks like.

I’m interested in one of those Yajiamei reflectors if someone wants to get rid of one or knows how to order a single reflector… i only saw an option to buy them in lots of 20 on the AliExpress link.

OK, want to see something even more ridiculous? I replaced the optic with a dimpled Yajiamei (45 degree I think) which is installed without glass. The output is now 967 lumens from 635 lumens with the stock optic. It handles heat so much better the runtime is shortened by over 5 minutes because the driver can maintain higher output in addition to the improved optical efficiency. This light is in a different class with a simple drop-in mod.