Short Review of Sofirn SP33 v2 with XHP50.2

I am not sure if this is the same thing but I know that below 3.7 volts , the top mode can’t be accessed.

That might be the case.

Although it’s quite annoying that you can’t use high mode normally and need to go “turbo” when that happens.

Agreed. As far as the beam is concerned, I sliced mine and added DC Fix. Looks better.

You just need to clean the battery tube ends and contacts. If there is extra resistance in the circuit it fools the driver into thinking the battery voltage is low. This happens every now and then. I clean the contacts and it’s back to normal. This is common on all boost style drivers.

This is how the driver/UI on this light works.

@3.7V you lose turbo and high becomes your new turbo, taking high out of the rotating 3 modes.

@3.4V the same thing happens to high.

This might be a little confusing but when resting Voltage is bellow 3.7 Volts it’s a good time (IMO) to recharge the battery anyway.

The beam profile is far from perfect.
But considering an XHP50.2 is producing it, not bad at all.

Me, I really like the SP33 and cool white is not my thing.

For a better understanding, how the SP33 boost driver works and how modes will automatically be reduced as the battery's voltage decreases...

Those modes that are surrounded by a dotted line can only by accessed with a double click.

Ok, that’s clear now. Thanks :wink:

Dang, didn't see this til now. I got these CK drivers and 2 SP33's to mod with them.

Looks like a 3 channel driver, not 2 channel - FET+bank+1. Std 3 chan NarsilM should work. Need a few mins to trace it out. I've used these drivers in a 2 chan config as well, just didn't populate the bank. I modded NarsilM more recently to work on a 3 chan as a 2 chan.

Let me confirm the driver layout by tracing it out....


Yes, confirmed - it's a standard triple channel config, not the 2 channels Ramping IOS was designed for.

Triple channel is a std NarsilM config setting, probably in Anduril as well. Not sure if Ramping IOS supports it -- would have to check...

Ok, nope, I don't see it, though I only looked at my orig (buggy??) Ramping IOS version... Doubt TK would have a reason to add 3 channel support though.

Has anybody tried a Nichia 144am LED in this light? Looks like it can indeed make a good host for that LED.
I’ve got a Nichia 144am and looking for find a good compact 26650 light for it.

I recently picked up a Sofirn SP33 and I love many things about it with the exception of the doughnut ring. it’s actually quite disappointing. I see that some have fixed this buy modding the LED emitter itself or even replacing it. I’m definitely not doing that, I got this light to take with me camping but is there any way to just adjust the placement of the emitter and help eliminate this? Is this so common that if I sent the light back to Amazon and requested an exchange the new light would be the exact same with the darker center?

I put diffuser film on mine . Much nicer.

I don’t even notice this and I use my light daily at work.

Maybe they changed the centering ring height?

If possible, can you take a picture of the centering ring thickness?

Does your reflector have a little bit of orange peel or is it smooth?

I would simply try adding some shims under the centering ring to raise the reflector. Something 1 or 2 pieces of paper thin to start with and see if that helps.

On my L6 with SMO and 70.2 I experimented a lot to get the max distance, but that also created a faint donut hole. I decided to stop chasing throw numbers and just adjust it to what looks best. It was the best choice.

Maybe someone managed to find a suitable TIR optics for SP33?

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I’m having an issue with my sp33v2. It won’t turn off completely unless I loosen the tailcap about half a turn. When I press the power button, the light goes out except for a faint glow. I can look directly at the led and see it. The best way to describe it is like a pie cut in 4 equal slices. One of the slices will stay lit until I loosen or remove the tailcap. Like I said, it is very faint.

My first concern is forgetting this extra step and finding a dead battery when I need to use it. My other concern is that this is a sign that my light is defective and failure is imminent.

I bought it in June from sofirn on amazon for about $38 with 26650 and charger. I contacted the seller and got a prompt reply from Zoe. The “engineers” said not to worry, it won’t drain my battery and I can use it “normal”. Zoe said if this wasn’t acceptable, they can send me a new sp33 without battery when they get more in stock.

Has anyone else had this problem? What should I do? It’s a great flashlight. I use it alot and it seems to run forever on a charge. If it won’t drain the battery and continues to function normaly, I can live with the issue. I’m just a casual user, not a collector.

Thanks

This happens from time to time with other lights using the xhp50.2 and 70.2. It may or may not be a problem. If you have a DMM you can check the parasitic drain. If it’s low, it’s no big deal, if it’s high it might drain the battery quicker than normal.

Do you know how to measure it? You set your test leads to the amperage or current posts, then set your meter to mA or uA then remove tail cap. Put one probe on battery negative and other on the bare aluminum threads or end of battery tube. Wait 5 seconds just to make sure the mcu is sleeping (depends on model of flashlight) and tell us the reading.

My readings for this light: Parasitic drain is 121 microamps/0.12 milliamps which is about 4.7 years to drain a 5000mah cell. If your readings are under one milliamp you should be pretty good. 1mA is a bit high, but should still last 208 days. I bet yours is way under 1mA. I’ve seen other lights have a glowing die and the drain was almost stock. Crazy, but true.

A good rule of thumb is if your not gonna be using the light for a few days/weeks, etc… just give the tail cap a quarter turn to cut the battery connection.

Thank you for the info. Good to hear this isn’t uncommon. Also good to know the seller was honest and still willing to replace my light if I wasn’t satisfied.

I have a cheapo harbor freght multimeter. Not sure how accurate it is is or if I have it set correctly. It’s a Centech 92020. First result from google has the manual. I set the dial to the top right position. I have the black lead in bottom (com) jack. Red lead in the center (mA) jack. Black lead touching battery negative. Red lead touching bare metal end of the tube. The reading is 00.1 each time I touch and 00.0 when not. So am I doing this right?

Sounds correct. Try the switch position on the 200u or 2000u position. This should give better accuracy.

I tried the 200µ and 2000µ positions, but my miltimeter doesn’t give a reading. Just shows 000.

Hmm, seems strange, but it might just be due to the meters quality. IDK.

Anyway, it seems to show 0.1mA so that would be from 0.121 (stock drain) up to 0.199. So if it’s accurate, your drain is still close to stock. At about 0.2mA you would get roughly 2.85 years with a fully charged 5,000mah battery. You should be fine.

You could use the glowing die to see if the tail cap is locked out or not.

Anyone else experiencing UI gremlins with this light? Mine sometimes loses turbo when the battery voltage reads above 4 volts. Other times it won’t cycle between levels until the tail cap is unscrewed and retightened .