TK's Emisar D4V2 review

thats probably what I like about it , I like to be the one that turns the brightness down when it’s getting too hot to handle rather than the torch panicking & turning it down in 10-15 seconds & having a dim light when I need a bright light , I can run turbo on my D4 for around a minute before I need to start turning it down but after a minute I don’t usually need it on anymore so it gets turned off & can cool down at its leisure ,it really annoyed me using the fw3a & only having 10 seconds of bright light before it over rules you ,it’s because of that ,that I see it as a useless edc torch , but I can see why it does it because the fw3a isn’t really man enough to handle a bit of heat. My d18 is awesome with its floody optics & glorious xplhi 6500k leds but is let down by the firmware using that agressive thermal throttling, that and the shiny bezel are the only 2 things that lets it down.

For that, take the number you want for its limit, subtract 30, and then click that many times at the second menu prompt.

In other words, if you want a limit of 45 C, click 15 times. For 50 C, click 20 times. For 55 C, click 25 times.

It allows anything from 31 C to 70 C (88 F to 158 F).

The default is usually 45 C, which is a bit conservative. But it’s usually good for defaults to err on the side of safety.

Might have to take down that Chippendale photo. :stuck_out_tongue:



so, if I am understanding this correctly, default is 45C (which is 113F). Does that mean when the light reaches 113F it steps down? That seems hot to me, and that is conservative? If I’m wrong, appreciate cluing me in, thanks.

I think your quite safe because when mine worked I set it to maximum 70* & it still stepped down at 45* from cold & about 55* when warm

45 at a sensor on the driver, not the body tube. Also, if its rising too fast it will try not to overshoot.

Yes it was from the sensor because I got it to blink out the temperature at step down.

Yep, trying to help saypat understand 45 degrees for internal temp is pretty tame, as you also said.

45C is also pretty tame even for the body temperature of the light. 50C is getting uncomfortable. 55C is too hot for me, but that probably requires an internal temperature of at least 60C.

I turn off temperature controls on my Astrolux S43, because Narsil is awful at temperature control. It’s usually blinking out an internal temperature of about 70C, when I shut it off due to it getting way too hot. I’m shutting it off with my fingertips at that point.

With copper heads, it feels way hotter at a given temperature. Probably because copper conducts heat out of the interior and into your fingers far better than aluminum.

I'm curious what happens if temp is programmed to 31C (88F), about the lowest it can be programmed.

I would think the output couldn't go much higher than about 120 lumens??

By coincidence, the new Convoy S21A is programmed to 55C max (not user adjustable). And yes, I noted it was too hot to comfortably to hold in my review.

You’ll probly get turbo for about 1second , the torch is shipped with it set to about 45* & you get turbo for about 3-4 seconds.
When I first got mine I thought it was faulty & unable to do turbo.

The problem is that will be MUCH more expensive and time consuming for Hank, that’s a huge increase in different models you need to build and stock if all emitters are offered for both models… even worse if you have more than one body color, optional alternate UI, etc. for both models.

He already has the option of saving money by allowing the light to be bought without the pocket clip, with aluminum bezel instead of SS and using cheaper emitters than the XPL HI.

What’s wrong with 18th-century English furniture fashion? Got a thing against rococo ornamentation?

Ish.

If the temperature is changing very slowly, it doesn’t respond until it passes the threshold. But if temperature is changing quickly, it reacts before it hits that point. So it may actually start stepping down at like 35 C, in an attempt to avoid overshooting the target temperature. Similarly, if it’s at 60 C but the temperature is dropping quickly, it may actually increase the output. It tries to predict where it will be in the near future, and make adjustments based on that.

It doesn’t always adjust quite how it should though. Sometimes it still overshoots or undershoots, particularly on the D4. Lights with a lower power-to-mass ratio tend to behave better. And lights with a FET+N+1 design tend to behave better than FET-only or FET+1 lights. The extra mid-ramp resolution seems to help the regulation algorithm.

It would probably think it’s overheating most of the time, especially when hand-held since humans are hotter than 31 C. And then it would stick to the lowest level allowed by the regulation algorithm. On the D4, that’s at the 1x7135 level, or about 130 lumens.

However, turbo would still last for a few seconds. It has a minimum time period before any adjustments are allowed, to make sure the higher levels can always be used as a burst mode. Basically, the thermal warning events are rate-limited to make sure they won’t fire off nonstop. This also guarantees at least a few seconds worth of turbo, even if the light is very hot.

IIRC, Zebralights are set to ramp down at 55C, though that’s adjustable +/- 5C. I’m not sure if they really get that hot, because they don’t feel that bad to me. Yes, they’re getting uncomfortable, but are still very holdable.

I just narrowly avoided snorting hot coffee out of my nose.

—Bob Q

TK, as you know I’ve been away for a while. I did order this new D4 V2 when I learned it was for sale and I forgot about the implementation to safeguard the LEDs when using the Nichia 219. A friend advised me to change my order but that wasn’t possible. Is it still true that total output is limited via firmware for this emitter? Probably obvious that I didn’t buy this for absolute power but favoring the rainbow aux display… the light will probably still get hot even given the limitations, right?

Hard to keep up anymore, too much going on outside the realm of lights. Sorry to be asking such elementary questions…

I think the sensor in them might actually hit that temp but that single-piece body pulls the heat away so fast the head doesn’t have concentrated heat like on many other lights. If you leave a ZL on the highest mode without any fan or your hand to cool it the whole body heats up to that temp for sure but it takes a while.

Assuming they are using the 80% firmware for the 219C version:

It will absolutely get hot fast still because that’s still a ton of wattage for such a small light, and the 219C 90CRI are less efficient than other options like the XPL HI so they will produce more heat.

The loss in perceived brightness from the throttled firmware version isn’t really that much though.

I’m English, and I feel like I have missed a joke I should have understood…

You missed a joke about furniture from the 1700s, shame on you.

If you don’t want a light with aux LEDs and all the bells and whistles of the Anduril firmware, then I think you’re in the wrong thread! It’s an enthusiast light from a manufacturer who aims their products at folks who love to tinker and are happy to accept fun yet-superfluous features. If you want a solidly-made light with a simple UI and minimal extraneous functionality, buy a Fenix or Olight.

I’m also confused at how you can hate Anduril yet be happy with NarsilM - they’re very similar!