Yes, I Love that color, but,
Houston, we have a problem
Its all Clemence
however, unfortunately, it has come to light that the Utorch driver does not appreciate the lower voltage of the quad E21a and that results in runtime on Medium dropping to 2 hours, instead of 3.25 hours. So Clemence has told me he does not recommend the quad E21a w the Utorch Driver.
Im still hoping he can make a single E21a work.
apparently the Utorch driver is designed for the Vf of the XP-L, and if presented with a lower Vf LED, the driver simply increases the current, thereby defeating the whole purpose of using a quad to increase efficiency.
Clemence Rocks
the Utorch Driver, not so much
I still Love my 4500k N219b modded Utorch, it has no Vf issues. Utorch should also be fine with N219c swaps, though I prefer N219b (NLA unless you find someone holding stock, such as Texas Ace)
fwiw, the Klarus Mi1c driver has the same design as the Utorch, except the screw that grounds the white wire is accessible without removing the LED board. (Mi1c modes are slightly different)
fwiw, the sw45 N219b Utorch mod drops lumens by 60% on all modes… quite a large penalty, but for my indoor, full dark use, not an issue.
my N219b lumen levels, on my homebrew meter are 0.1 2.6 40 220… runtime @40 lum is 3.25 hours… Turbo steps down at 40 seconds to 110 lumens.
also fwiw, w the stock NW XPL, the battery monitor blinks once at 3.8v, which with the sw45, the battery monitor recalibrates slightly, and blinks once at 3.6v
so, anyone interested in a Utorch S1 Mini, currently on sale for $20 at gearbest, bear in mind that it is a cheap light, with a cheap driver. And there are issues with the screw connection for the white ground wire. Some are not secure from the factory, and create issues such as, failure to work on Medium. Both Texas Ace, and Clemence, found loose ground screws in Utorch S1 Mini, and someone just posted here
https://budgetlightforum.com/t/-/50360/42
that they received a Utorch that wont work on Medium nor high… I suspect the loose grounding screw… and fixing that requires removing the LED board…
I have not heard of Klarus having the same grounding screw problem, and on that build, the LED board is cut away so that the ground screw can be accessed without removing the LED board. This is the version with a reflector
sooo… If you choose to buy a Utorch, dont expect too much from it. It might work out of the box, or it might not. Unfortunately the quad E21A gives up not only ~50% of the lumens, it also gives up ~40 of the runtime sad
the Klarus Mi1c aluminum uses the same aspheric lens as the Utorch. Klarus also offers a Ti and Copper Mi1c, those have reflectors and flat glass lenses. They produce a small and intense hotspot, that I do not care for indoors… but works OK outdoors for longer distances.
and trivia, the aspheric lenses are plastic, not glass… many have asked, few have been able to inform… so, you heard it here first! LOL
more trivia, the Utorch has a NW option, listed at 5000k, it tests at about 4250k. The Klarus has no NW offering, only CW…. All are low CRI. People will claim the NW shows colors better, but imo, not really, being low CRI, it still fails to show RED correctly, and makes it look Brown. Speaking as a Tint snob, with a strong bias for High CRI Ra, and High R9 CRI