Some more info about the flashlight
The Matainvoy ML18S weighs 862g empty and 1042g with batteries. To compare, the Astrolux MF01S weighs 702g with batteries and the Convoy L6 582g empty and 774g with batteries. So it is heavier when empty than each of the other two with batteries.
The weight is concentrated on the head but I don’t consider that a problem as you will hold the flashlight anyway at the head where the switch is and the long battery gives some balance. It might be too heavy to carry around for longer use. The copper spacer I have added to the head weighs 310g with the thick wires and is maybe 280g solid copper.
The thermal transfer works well. After maybe 20s on turbo you can feel the head spreading from the bottom and the top of the head where the copper contacts the aluminium body. The whole head heats up slowly and evenly especially when all the copper was cold. On the other hand it also stays warm for a few minutes after a few turbo bursts.
Towards the end of my video you will find a tailcap current measurement. The clamp meter has to adjust the scale to the next level when you turn on the Turbo with a double click. I have never seen this on any of my flashlights before! With two fully charged golden Golisi 26650 4300mAh, capable of 30-35A discharge and as mighty as a 30T, the current is 17.6A on highest ramp and 29.2A on turbo. That would be around 3A per led and if you use four 30Q’s in a MF01S with 15A discharge the leds wouldn’t get much more. Of course the runtime is reduced but after a few turbo the batteries were still at 3.9V. My estimate would be around 15 000 lumens for the ML18S.
I had both the ML18S and the MF01S together on turbo with full batteries and I can tell you that the MF01S heats up faster. When you don’t feel the heat on the ML18S the MF01S is already warm at the head. I assume that my flashlight would run a little longer on turbo while heating up the 300g copper spacer but it will step down, considering also the voltage sag on the two 26650 at 30A.
Beam and tint
The tint is a bit green at low levels but without a direct comparison you won’t notice it. The MF01S with 4000K SST20’s is slightly rosier and warmer. The tint mixing of 4000K and 5000K LH351D’s gives you around 4500K.
The beam is wide and uniform. It has a big hotspot, maybe twice as big as an MF01S as you can see in my whitewall beamshots. This big smooth hotspot almost reminds me of a zoomie and as I like zoomies I love the big, floody beam. The throw is not bad and it reaches out 150m easily. It is the floody sister of the MF01S and where the MF01S throws further with a smaller hotspot, the ML18S impresses with a huge and blindingly bright big hotspot with not bad reach.
Most challeging task: Cutting the copper and leveling the copper spacer to fit well
Easiest task: Changing the switch cover from black to transparent
Most satisfying thing: Seeing the main leds and aux leds light up for the first time
Some things I have learned: Soldering with low temp 138°C solder, using a hot plate, soldering a 300g copper spacer, connecting aux leds and maybe some more things I forgot to mention.
The Matainvoy ML18S will always be honored by me as my first OL-contest build and hope fully not the last.