Amutorch TC500 Flashlight Review

I’m thinking these lumens are too high especially for only 7.0 amps at the tail. We need more details on how it was measured.

That’s with a high drain 21700. It could be a high reading…. I use the fairly standard PVC tube setup, and it’s been fairly reliable in the past.

I measure the current with a bench power supply. In this case it’d be attached to the head, not tailcap. Set the bench power to 4.2V, and see where the current falls on turbo (and other modes).

May be that with a cell things are different, and more current is going to the emitter. djozz looks to have tested this emitter (at least one specific bin) up to 9A, and the output was around 2450 lumens.

Almost anywhere in that range (ie somewhere above 7A) is just about covered by the 10% “amateur equipment” asterisk.

The thing is, only a P2 SST-40 would be able to do that.

Why measure current with bench supply and not clamp meter? You measured everything else with a battery might as well do that with a battery too

The simple answer is that I don’t have a clamp meter.

Well you already know what the simple solution is then :slight_smile:

@zeroair, have you thought about building something like a 10mOhm shunt?

Not only would you be able to measure current easily(by using Ohm’s law), but you will be able to simulate the resistance of a low resistance spring.

no battery supplies 4.2V under load and i’ve never heard of anyone powering their lights with bench supplies. No need to go through even more trouble to still get something which isn’t realistic

7A isn’t realistic?

The output measurement was tested with the cell mentioned in the runtime graph.

Djozz measures a bare emitter. In a light you have lots of loss from the reflector, lens, etc… This is why the FT03 tends to measure about 1800-1900 lumen on a high drain cell with FET driver.

Also, when a battery is under load it will not be at 4.2v. It sags down some depending on the battery used. This is why we get different amp draws depending on what battery is used.

The simple answer is: it seems unlikely

Is the PWM visible with this light?

Visible on camera? I haven’t seen any but I haven’t looked for it either.

If I set it on low, will it come on low if I tap the tailcap to fire it up and not default back to high?

I believe it does have the memory function. I’ll check when I get a chance.

Thanks.

Zeroair.org has a review:

I emailed him. He doesn’t mention that detail.

I think the mode instructions show memory with tail switch.

State Action Result
Off Click Side Switch (SS) No action
Off Click Tail Switch (TS) On (Mode Memory)
On Click TS Off
On Click SS Mode Advance (LMH)
On Double Click SS Turbo
Turbo Click Previous Mode
On Triple Click SS Strobe