Cool
I had high drains in both for my test - Vapcell 21700 in the XHP, AWT 75 AMP (alleged) in the 40.
But I took the XHP out with me to walk the dog, I can confirm it does get hot in a hurry.
Man, now I see the chaselight photo, and I am tempted. It seems brighter, but the photo might be lying since you can also see the sky with cloud, so the white balance? Seemed different, but if it wasn’t then it’s cheaper. Only thing is it’s using xhp50 so it might also have heat issue, despite the larger/longer body?
What about any xhp70 thrower? Anything comparable to ft03?
I may have missed it but how do the two compare with run times?
What do you mean? How long each of the 150 brightness levels can theoretically run on a particular battery? I don’t think anyone has tested that. Maybe someone has done some type of test and can link it.
The Chaselight is good for the money. It has a good throw, not as good as the S70S or L6, but way cheaper. It does not get hot. At one point I ran it all the way up and it did not step down for like 45 minutes. It is a good cheap light. That you can have in your hands tomorrow or Monday from Amazon.
I think I see the Chaselight your talking about. It has a xhp50.2 (maybe clone 50.2?). It is maybe 18 watt and 1800 lumen seems plausible. (I don’t think it will do 2300 lumen). This is much less lumens than the FT03 50.2. It should run pretty cool, but throw distance will be shorter. I would recommend reading reviews on it. It might be a junk light or it might be good. I don’t know. I’ve never heard of it. The user interface seems very crude with only 2 brightness levels. That’s old version. New version has ramping of some kind?
There are not many 70.2 throwers because it’s a big led. They are not available in 3 volt version so you either have to use 2 batteries in series or use an expensive boost driver. I have not seen anything the size of the FT03 in 70.2, but they are probably out there. If they exist, the throw will be short.
I could be wrong but I believe this has an aggressive thermal stepdown rather than thermal regulation.
So when temperature sensor goes above the set limit, it does a huge arbitrary stepdown. And never steps back up, even if the light becomes cool. Kind of like if you were to 1mph above 70mph speed limit on the highway and your car goes NOPE! and slams the brakes and instantly limits speed to 10mph.
It sounds like you want a light with thermal regulation where it tries to find an output level that keeps temps just below (or at) the set limit.
The two cell light probably does 2300 lumens. It is pretty darn good. No, it does not out throw or out light the FT03. But it does ramp down and up, has a long run time with the included batteries, and a nice focused white beam. I bought three of them, they are great utility lights to have around. Nothing fancy, just a good strong flashlight.
What I mean is one more efficient than the other I guess.
No, NarsilM has never done such a thing, at least not on a bigger light like this. You might be thinking of Anduril on a small light. Toykeeper has programmed Anduril lights like the FW3A to have a panic mode because it’s very small and very powerful so a small stepdown will allow it to get too hot.
I think NarsilM will stepdown 32% from Turbo, wait several seconds then see if it needs to step down again.
I’m sure someone here can comment on how much the 50.2 version steps down.
You are correct that NarsilM does not use PID (thermal regulation) to allow the brightness to increase after a thermal stepdown. Of course, you can manually increase the brightness if you want. I never had need for fancy “step back up” software. As long as I can set the light to stepdown at a temp I’m comfortable with, that’s all I care about.
Not if they still use the same 1.43A@12v. You typically don’t see a 500 lumen jump unless the driver is changed. It’s possible the driver is cranked up a bit higher and their pictures are just old. If this new driver can put out 1.8A or so then it would seem reasonable.
Maybe the 2 cell light is using a completely different type driver that runs at 6v?
The 50.2 version is more efficient over the same lumen range as the SST-40 simply because it’s bigger die can put out more light for the same battery amperage. Once you get past 1800 or so lumen, they are not comparable.
That’s above my pay grade. If the L6 is 3800/4300. I can see this at 2300 because I have compared them side by side. The first light I had listed is one 26650 and has a simple two step brightness UI. It is listed at 1800. This one ramps, and is listed at 2300. The UI is unlike anything I have seen mentioned here, so I don’t know what it is. But. The output is fairly impressive to a nimrod like me.
When the 50.2 stepped down after just two minutes, it was QUITE hot, and the step down was very severe. If it was 4300 to start, I would GUESS it went down to possibly 1200-1500.
The L6 is actually about 2900/3300 or pretty close. Their ratings are a bit on the high side.
Did you have both versions of the Chaselight? If the 2 cell version is brighter, then they probably did change the driver or at least bumped up the amperage.
Is the 2 cell Chaselight one click on/off? If so, I might try one just for kicks.
I have both. I was impressed with the one cell until I saw stuff like the FT03.
It is high-low-off, so two click
Hold for SOS
I did the DC Fix on one for a dedicated house light, don’t want throw when I am looking for something under the table.
I tried to do a side by side beamshot inside, but the camera just can’t get the definition. I will try to do one outside.
The 2 battery version is on-off and ramps. It is like 2X as bright side by side.
Zeroair’s review shows it doing a huge stepdown :
My S43S - albeit not a big light - also does aggressive stepdowns. If you run it on turbo it immediately does a huge stepdown, then waits a few seconds, then a does another huge stepdown…resulting in like <100 lumen.
I’m not thinking of Anduril.
I find the NarsilM method of setting stepdown temp (hold light until it’s too hot) to be very hit & miss. Much better to manually enter a temperature (eg Anduril) because at least then you can test it, go /- 1, test it, go/- 1 etc.
Ha ha, the S43S is just the small light I was thinking of that initially did a too fast step down. You might need to manually set your S43S. I did and got much nicer, smaller step downs. Astrolux S43S Stepdown after custom temp adjustment - YouTube
Just to clarify, a 32% drop is not a lumen percentage. It’s 32% of the ramp scale. The ramping has 150 steps, so it should go from step 150 (Turbo) to step 102 which is like a nice medium level.
It’s interesting that his review saw the light step down at 40°C. I think it should be closer to 55°C. That’s usually the default. He may need to manually set the stepdown temp as well. (Start with a room temp light, activate manual setting, then hold light until you think it’s hot enough and shut off. It memorizes this level.) It works great for me. If your having issues, make sure the lights internal temp is cool. I let it sit for a couple hours to fully cool down before setting the manual temp.
I don’t know if the Anduril temp setting is better or not. I haven’t really played with it much. The FW3A is the only Anduril light I have. Once I calibrated the room temp, it’s step down seemed fine. I don’t really like the delayed turn off in Anduril and a few other things about it. So I’m more a Narsil guy. You can turn off all temperature stepdowns if you want and let your hand tell you when to turn it down. That’s what I’ve done for years with my L6 that has old Narsil firmware on it. It’s all about what you prefer.
I would like to see Zeroair reset the thermal calibration or at least try it with a milder battery, not that high current 21700.
Here are some beam shots for you. The 1 cell is not currently available on Amazon. I think you can see the two cell is way brighter.
Use the captions under the pics. They do not show in the order I uploaded but the captions underneath are right