Skilhunt E3A (AAA twisty) - First Look

LED Flashlights – General Info 1 x AAA Flashlights
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I bought the Skilhunt E3A in Slate Blue, Neutral from AliExpress as soon as it was announced. But while I’m waiting for that to arrive, I noticed some are being sold on Amazon (US) so I picked up a Carmine Red one to check it out. I just got it today, so I haven’t done a full teardown, output check, or runtime test so I’ll revisit once those are done.

What I received from Amazon was the cool white version - unfortunate, but means that I’ll probably be tearing this down to (1) see whats inside, and (2) see if the LED is replaceable. Everything looks and feels great. The anodizing is great. The TIR is lightly pebbled and quite floody.

AAA battery, AA battery, Skilhunt E3A, Olight i3E, Lumintop EDC01, Jetbeam Jet-u, Astrolux A01, Sofirn C01S

Skilhunt E3A, Olight i3E, Lumintop EDC01, Jetbeam Jet-u, Astrolux A01, Sofirn C01S

Skilhunt E3A, Olight i3E, Lumintop EDC01

Skilhunt E3A, Olight i3E, Lumintop EDC01

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Thank you for great pictures I’m a big sucker for smaller lights. This E3A looks great as it is on the same size as Olight i3E. Beam pattern seems floody and nice spill.

Only thing I wish they would include a pocket clip. It looks like there are 2 positrons for the reversible clip.

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I couldn’t resist the urge. Had to get a glance at what’s inside.

Looks like a single board with the LED mounted on it. Board is glued to an aluminum pill. Real easy to take apart, the pill isn’t glued in.

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Well, we’re certainly not reinventing the wheel here. The TIR seems nice, and having more options for AAA twisties is probably not a bad thing.

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Can the bracket of the polarity protection be pulled out of the pill? Or will it break?

I have not realized that this light is as small as the i3E, if not smaller! Should get one.

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I’ll try again today. Didn’t have much time to play with it last night.

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Dammit, I hoped for a real thermal path.
Thanks for the pics gchart!

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Ok guys… another quick teardown. As it turns out, there is NO GLUE. What I saw as glue was actually thermal paste between the board and the pill. The white clip can carefully be removed. After doing so, the board comes right off. That entire area that is covered in silkscreen is a big thermal area. So while this isn’t a MCPCB, it has a big thermal path right to the pill and is covered in thermal paste. For 100 lumens, that seems sufficient. LED swaps would be difficult though… perhaps with hot air reflow.

EDIT: looks like the IC is the tried and true PAM2803
The resistor says 043 (underlined). If I understand correctly, that would mean R043 = 0.043 Ohms. But for a PAM2803, that would mean a LED current of 2.2A which certainly isn’t right. If it were a 0.43 Ohm resistor, that would make sense… translating to an LED current of 220 mA.

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Thanks for the “deconstruction” gchart! Seems like the original setup is made to “stay as it is” ! And with a nice led, I guess it is not bad at all :wink:
Nice light! :+1:

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Thanks a lot!

The i3E could be placed in the pan right on the contact pad to reflow the LED. I’d try the same here.

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You could probably kapton tape the components on either side of the positive contact button too.


On a side note, the “Red” in the above pictures doesn’t look anything like the promotional pictures.

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Hey gchart, is that the real color Red? Look more like tan/brown to me. The color does not look like Red on their Amazon listing or website.
Anw nice color options though.

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Sorry, I messed with my camera settings in my initial images and I’m colorblind so I have no idea how accurate the colors are.

Here’s one I just took. Outdoors (obviously) under a direct noon sun sitting next to some ripe tomatoes. Default image settings on my Pixel 3. How’s this look?

I hope I never lose this one in the grass because I’ll never be able to find it :weary:

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:person_facepalming: :smiling_imp: :smiling_imp: :smiling_imp: :+1:

Hmm…. Hats off for your skills. I have no words. Such a sexy photo. Hahaha

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much better, initial pictures were favoring a burnt orange color

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You will. If you own a C01R.

@contactcr, I need to get this tape anyway :+1:

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Interesting… the deep red light of the C01R would help a colorblind person distinguish between red and green?

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Thanks for the interesting teardown.

Just curious, do you think that boost converter could be used with a UV-C LED with ~6V Vf? I could not find a Vout max in the datasheet.

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The grass won’t reflect much light as opposed to the flashlight. No color vision needed.

Edit: Tried it. The theory was good at least :smiley: :person_facepalming:

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Good question. It looks like the ratings top out at 6V. As long as you don’t go over 6V it might work.

The posts at this link seem to think the same: led driver - Driving two leds with PAM2803 - Electrical Engineering Stack Exchange