Sofirn SP36, impressions of a sample

I want one with XP-L HI !!!

The performance of the SP36 was definitely better than I expected. It’s like a BLF Q8, but smaller and with a pretty decent charger built in. I’m not sure how exactly it manages to throw as well as it does, since the optics are smaller and it’s not using a dedomed emitter.

I’m not sure how much I’ll actually use it, because multi-cell lights like this are a bit large for me to carry around, but I like it more than I thought I would.

Even Minor Deity’s enjoy having extra power in their wand. :wink:

Thanks for information Rozz. I might have to pick up one if on Amazon.

I own Sofirn Q8 x 2 so this will be nice addition.

I recently translated the manual of the SP36 and NarsilM 1.2 into German. Currently, I’m asking Sofirn if they agree to let me publish the part of the manual that is about NarsilM only, so no specific information about the SP36 would be disclosed before it is being sold on Amazon.

I assume this would actually help a lot of German/Austrian/Swiss people who bought the Q8, BLF GT and many other flashlights that come with NarsilM.

Do I need to ask anyone else for approval, e.g. Tom E who created NarsilM?

By the way, what if I plan to do a German translation of Andúril‘s UI? Selene („Toykeeper“), if you are reading this, maybe you could give me some advice if there’s anything to consider? Thank you!

Cheers, Thomas

Andúril doesn’t have much of a manual, so you would need to write most of it instead of merely translating something. The closest thing there is to a manual right now is the manual for RampingIOS V3 by phil_g. It uses a CC0 license so it is okay to make and publish derivative works. The basic ramping functions are the same, but the rest of the interface is different.

In any case, I would be happy to add a manual into the firmware repository if one is written.

Thank you for your quick feedback Toykeeper! :-)

If I get to find some time I will try to set up something similar to the NarsilM manual both in English and German. FWIW, the Andúril UI chart is very helpful and self-explanatory already.

I saw that this light is back down a few bucks on Black Friday and who am I to resist a flashlight sale? I’ve enjoyed my four other Sofirn lights (and gifted three to family members who also love them) so why not take a chance on this?

Well, I did it. Ordered one just now and a trio of 30Q cells from Mtnelectronics.com.

I’m planning some night snowshoeing hikes with my son and this will be fun to try out.

Just ordered a SP36, actually I have a SP33 on the way too, and yet another C8F 21700 host.

Since they rate the temp at 5350K-5700K. I think is about 2A to 2B or so. I'm confused what firmware it comes with, suppose it's Anduril even though the listing says NarsilM 1.2.

Since the Sofirn Q8 is rated at 5000 lumens with XPL HI's, the rating of 6000 lumens for the SP36 makes sense with XP-L2's, assuming it's V5 or V6 bin cool whites -- 5500K is cool white as I understand it, not NW as Sofirn claims. 5000K is borderline NW/CW.

Seems like everyone in the world is like 20% higher than the maukka standard, and they are using the true integrating spheres. Hhmm... I don't think they are intentionally fudging the reports coming straight out of the equipment, could be a case of not using the equipment correctly, they are all calibrated wrong, maybe they simply are not taking the 30 seconds min runtime into account, or some combo of these issues. But something is wrong somewhere - the maukka standard, the rest of the flashlight world, or both, least as we know it.

Does anyone know of any manufacturer that matches close or under the maukka standard readings? I guess if 100%, or near 100% of the market uses overrated #'s, a new guy on the block certainly can't come in 20% lower than all the rest.

Nah. It’s probably just manufacturers measuring direct LED lumens off of a power supply at 0 seconds turn on.

Tom, the first batch is shipping with NarsilM 1.2. Sofirn wanted to upgrade the thermal regulation though, so I think later batches are using Anduril.

The lumen rating thing has been an ongoing issue for a long time. A few companies (like EagleTac) use what appears to be a more accurate ANSI standard, but most use sort of a communal industry “standard” instead — the ZebraLight/cpfselfbuilt scale. By design or by coincidence, they mostly differ by about the same amount as emitter vs OTF lumens. If it helps with web searches, BLF user “reppans” has studied it somewhat extensively, or at least likes to talk about it.

The common scale is, as far as I can tell, based on matching a curve to fit the data. For example, here’s how selfbuilt did it. I used a similar method. So my numbers match his pretty closely, but they’re consistently higher than maukka’s.

Maukka’s numbers seem to be pretty accurate in terms of ANSI standard lumens, while almost everyone else uses the more popular industry scale. To fix this, people can get reference lights from maukka, for calibrating their measurement devices to a couple of known values. This greatly reduces the discrepancy.

So, let me try to get this straight. Me, Tom, Richard, David and Rick… all the THOUSANDS of lights we have measured are suddenly wrong because Maukka’s results don’t jive with ours? Even as we have found equality with so many name brand lights, so the manufacturer’s are all wrong too? Maukka must really have something special going on…

This is nothing new. The two competing definitions of a lumen have been a matter of debate since before I even made a BLF account. When I calibrated my light box several years ago, I made a conscious choice to go with the definition more commonly used on the forums instead of using the ANSI standard.

However, the matter has come up again more lately because there’s finally a relatively cheap way for people to calibrate to the ANSI metric instead of calibrating to match popular brands.

According to Sofirn and to their manual of the SP36, it comes with NarsilM 1.2. Adelina from Sofirn told me they intend to sell later versions with Andúril, though. Tom E, sorry for bugging you again but do you have any objections if I publish the German translation of NarsilM's manual on BLF/TLF? I also sent you a PM lately for I want to avoid any conflicts with possible copyrights or license agreements. No worries - I don't mean to push you for an answer but a lot of German/Austrian/Swiss buyers of the SP36 would greatly appreciate to have a manual in their native language. ;-) Thank you very much for sharing your thoughts about it (maybe also via PM to me, too).

Don't worry bout any of that - you are free to publish it, improving it, of course, would be nice .

Regarding the ANSI/NEMA FL1 standards, currently it's the 2009 standards and the likes of SureFire, Fenix, EagleTac, Olight, Klarus, NiteCore claim they adhere to those standards. I couldn't find Sunwayman or JetBeam referencing the standards. I haven't seen this debated much at all. Occasionally, for sanity sake, I'll test a name brand light and I find I'm pretty close. Last night I tested an old unused Sunwayman C20C and my tests in my PVC tube with the old calibration scale of 0.34 produced lumens lower than claimed, my reading on turbo was 585, rated at 620. Out of the 6 brands I listed, only one I would definitely not trust is NiteCore, since their market hype is through the roof. Zebra mentions ANSI OTF, but that's not specific enough. I know I've seen manufacturer's showing off pics and reports of their very expensive integrating sphere, but somewhere there seems to be a dis-connect. There is only one ANSI/NEMA FL1 standard, not two, and if there is an industry higher lumen standard, we shouldn't sit idly by and simply accept it.

I've confronted manufacturers before, like ArmyTek, but just checked their website and I guess I didn't influence them. I thought they went out and bought an integrating sphere and were going to do it right, but I see they claim "LED light output, lm", whatever that is, and no mention of ANSI/NEMA FL1. ArmyTek is an easy one to go after: claim is high tech, top scientists and engineers, world's first technologies, and they can't afford and figure out how to use an integrating sphere, and comply with the only world-wide industry standard governing flashlights?

Every manufacturer website should have a page on measurement/testing methodology and give us an idea of what they are doing - calculated from specs, milk carton, or $10K calibrated integrating sphere, and their methodology in using the equipment.

That’s great news Tom E! Thanks for your feedback. :-)

If I find some time and if there is demand for a written manual, apart from the very comprehensible UI chart, I will try to do a manual for Andúril both in English and German. I must admit I have yet to get a flashlight that uses Andúril but this is more or less just a matter of time. ;-) So far, I really fell in love with the flexibility NarsilM, RampingIOS V3 and Andúril can offer.

Supplemental:

I posted the German translation of NarsilM here:

That is the point, it is an average. And combined with knowledge from marketing: Bigger numbers sell better.
The manufacturer round up.

Texas Ace previous numbers before calibration have a correction factor of ca. x0.68 .
That hurts! But hey, the light is still the same brightness.
It’s only a number that got smaller.

Other members have tested lights also in pro integration spheres and they match with maukkas values.

Now I’m thirsty