No, it just means you can see. No one likes the yellow corona of the 50.2, 70.2, XP-G3 and XP-L2. These use Crees new flip chip design which has phosphor all the way across the top of the chip. Here is a comparison of old vs new.
The performance is good, but something about the design, maybe phosphor on the sides of the led, creates the yellow corona.
Tint snobs can be really picky always swapping new leds in all their lights looking for just the perfect tint.
There can be a lot of variety in the tint of any led and it also changes based on brightness. If you see green in the hot spot it may be a sign that it’s above the BBL. I dont know what model xpl Sofirn uses for the SP40, but you can certainly swap it for a different one. Most folks prefer tints below the BBL because they are closer to red than green and that’s more pleasing to most people.
Using a U2 USB C power meter the SP33v3 charged at 5.03v / 1.3A using premium thunderbolt 3 certified 18" C cable from the meter to the USB 3.0 port on the SP33v3.A high end A to C cable was used from a recently made custom build gaming desktop PC USB 3 gen2 port to the U2 meter..The very new ShockLi 26650 5500mAh cell inside the SP33v3 was at 3.6v when the USB C port charging began.When charging completed the flashing red power button turned blue.
An SP40 using a U2 USB power meters but using an A to micro USB cable from the meter to the SP40 charged at 4.97v / 0.898A.The new Panasonic NCR18650G in the SP40 was at 3.75V when charging began.When charging completed the flashing red power button turned green.
I wonder, are those LEDs expected to be used with specific optics? I don’t see how any professional application could tolerate those inconsistent colors.
Maybe I “spoiled” my eyes by the order in which I viewed LEDs. My first “fancy-pants” flashlight was the C01S with the 4000K CRI95 SST-20 and TIR. It blew me away by how nice it looks, even though I did notice the slight greenness at low brightness. Then I got the i3E (Luxeon TX + TIR) and i1R 2 (unnamed LED + TIR) which looked worse in comparison. Then came the SP40 (XP-L + OP reflector) and SP33v3 (XHP50.2 + OP reflector) and suddenly the previous two looked like beauty queens.
I wonder if the big difference is TIR vs OP reflector, with the former presumably mixing any colors to produce a homogeneous beam that is invariably more pleasant and less distracting than bands of colors.
As a side note: the human eye and brain are strange. What looks good one moment can look terrible depending on the contrast with something else. 4000K SST-20 looks yellow compared to cold CCT lights, but then looks crisp white compared to incandescent bulbs. My brain gets so confused!
Thanks for these measurements! What are the final voltages of the cells after charging has ended?
Yes. The FT03 is offered in both SST-40 and 3v 50.2 and they use the same mcpcb. Just a matter of reflowing the led. Same package size so the reflector and centering ring are all the same. Keep in mind that output is a lot less, maybe 1800-1900lm at most due to smaller die size (2mm square and 3mm square)
Just did some testing with the SP33 v3 and EC01. Set both to about 190 on my lux meter (max stepped mode for the sofirn). My FT03 with a fully charged shockli measures 387 so 190lux is somewhere close to 1000 lumens. Both lights were at 26°C at the start of the test (room 22.5°C).
Beginning of test: about 190lux.
SP33:
13 mins (46°C head) step down to around 70-80 lux
Once it cools down a bit it starts stepping up again. The temperature management doesn’t let it become too hot to hold. I’m sure it could run near 1000 lumens without stepping down if the temp was set higher. Yesterday I tested it whilst holding it (170-180lux 900ish lumens) and it didn’t step down after 30+ mins.
EC01: temp set to 65°C
13 mins 57°C negligible drop in output, body too hot to hold
18 mins 153lux
22 mins 118lux
At the end of the test the cell was 50°C, body was about the same and the head was 59°C max.
It seems like the longer head and cooler (slightly more efficient) LED helps the SP33 dissipate heat better.
What optics might help? Has anyone used them with TIR lenses?
Maybe a diffuser film or lens would be an easy fix. As a proof of concept, shining the light through two layers of clear bubble wrap (just because I had some nearby) shows dramatic improvement: the corona is almost totally gone, and the spill is less blue. Everything looks closer to “white”.
Nice. Based on that I prefer the SP33v3’s behavior. Where did you measure temperature?
Your observations match my own with a thermocouple held on the head by the rubber charging port cover’s flap (not under the cover, just the pull tab).
On Turbo, it stayed in the low to mid 40s C range. The brightness did ramp down and up noticeably, but the changes were made sufficiently smoothly not to be annoying.
However I was not using a high drain battery.
Temp was measured using a cheap infrared thermometer at the head wherever I could find the hottest spot. Tested it tailstanding indoors at max stepped setting which is about 1000 lumens with a shockli 5500. This drops as the cell voltage declines but it doesn’t seem to drop as much as the EC01. Could be cause the battery has more capacity. The EC01 will also ramp up once it cools down. This would’ve happened if I left it for longer or set the temp lower. I tested it before with temp set a bit lower at 60°C and it stablised at around 90-105lux which should be about 500 lumens. This doesn’t make sense to me cause my MH20GT could do that whilst being smaller and having a less efficient LED. Maybe it’s more than 500. I highly doubt it though cause I’m assuming the FT03 is 2000 when it’s probably a bit less…so it might actually be less than 500…makes even less sense.
If I understand you correctly, your directly associating lux with lumens? These are completely different measurements. Are you integrating all the light? You have me quite confused.
Thanks. Those voltages are right in line with what I observed too. Maybe also try the same 18650 cell in the SP33v3 for one less variable, but I’m guessing the result will be similar.
Well it already has an OP reflector. Perhaps it needed stronger OP. Blending the corona and reducing the blueness of the spill make it much much nicer.
On a side note, I’m finding I’m not the biggest fan of strong hotspots. Blended, homogeneous, wide beam profiles seem more pleasant and useful to me, certainly for shorter distances. Also, hotspots seem to give a tunnel vision effect, even (especially?) after turning off the flashlight.
Astrolux EC01 has an ever so slightly slightly stronger OP reflector than the SP33 V3.0 (identical reflector and glass, o-rings and SS bezel) just enough that you can see it in the beam pattern (bit smoother - actually the reason I've noticed it in the first place)
For high tint shift emitters like the XHP 50/70, XP-L2, XP-G3, etc. a narrower reflector with the smallest emitter hole as possible helps much more than an OP texture (and gives a cleaner, sharper beam) - the lower the angle between the base of the reflector and the emitter, the less tint shift - the higher the angle, the stronger the tint shifting in the corona.
No, I don't have a beamshot comparison, as I don't have a good way of taking such pictures. The difference is marginal and the tint between the two would be much more noticeable than the beam pattern itself. Being the same geometry reflectors, the tint shifting is also the same, just a little bit smoother beam on the EC01, but actually looking worse because of the overall cooler tint vs my SP33, thus more tint shifting into green.
I only have the version 2, but the reflector on it is just barely OP. It’s almost SMO if you look at it closely and look at how sharp the hot spot is. If they made it more OP it would definitely help the appearance.
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Thanks. Those voltages are right in line with what I observed too. Maybe also try the same 18650 cell in the SP33v3 for one less variable, but I’m guessing the result will be similar.
[quote=JasonWW]
I repeated the SP33v3 USB C charging tests this time using the Sofirn branded 26650 5500mAh battery that shipped with the flashlight plus the Sofirn 18650 3000mAh that shipped inside the SP40.
With nothing attached to the USB C cable the USB 3.0 port in my desktop PC puts out 5.08v monitored on a U2 USB power meter.
When the USB C cable is inserted into the USB C port on the SP33v3 the volts drop to 4.73v and the charging amps is 1.58A.The test began with the battery testing at 3.65v
About half way through the charging the displayed volts starts creeping upward while the displayed amps starts creeping lower.
The charging ends with the volts back at 5.08v and the last displayed amps was 0.278A.The battery tests at 4.15v at the end of charging where the power button displays blue.
The next test is with the Sofirn 3000mAh 18650 in the SP33v3 inside the plastic sleeve.Again as with the Sofirn 26650 5500mAh battery the displayed 5.08v dropped to 4.73v when the USB C cable was inserted in the SP33v3 USB C port and the charging started at 1.578A.The battery tested at 3.65v when charging began.
About half way through the charging the volts stated rising and the amps dropping.
When charging completed with the power button blue light displaying volts were back at 5.08v and the last displayed charging amps was 0.267A.The battery tested at 4.14v
Both batteries were then placed in an Xtar VC4 charger until red charging lights turned to green.
The Sofirn 5500mAh 26650 added 185mAh and tested at 4.20v
The Sofirn 3000mAh 18650 added 118mAh and tested at 4.19v
No one likes the yellow corona of the 50.2, 70.2, XP-G3 and XP-L2. These use Crees new flip chip design which has phosphor all the way across the top of the chip. Here is a comparison of old vs new.
