Very tempted by the K4 E21A. Will cooler CCTs be available?
(Now, if only Convoy could make a quad E21A S2+)
Trapper Keeper! Thats it! Wow I haven’t thought of those in 20+ years lol. These new KR4’s are AMAZING. you have a sick light coming your way!
The KRs look great, but I'm quite partial to the excellent side switch.
Are there any compact throwers, with side switch, coming up? Something like a D1/K1, but with a head the size of the KR1?
Lost my beloved D4 EDC (with 219C) recently and will replace it with a new D4v2, but I would like to get a thrower as well!
Maybe a D4v2 with SST-20s and 10621 optics would do the job? Or is that still mainly a flood light but with more throw than from Nichias?
The D4 with any currently existing LEDs won’t come anywhere close to the beam profile of a dedicated thrower, or even a compact one like a D1/KR1.
A question of my own, does anyone know if the tailcap retaining rings in recent KR4s is glued or has locktite? I wanted to remove mine to try it without the metal switch cover but cant seem to get the ring to budge. I do vaguely remember Hank saying something about the first batches of KR4 having some easily remedied connection issue that is now fixed in production though too.
I just received KR4 with E21A/5000K in black. It is a very nice light. I like it very much.
There are some questions about the AUX LED’s. This is not my first light with Anduril with AUX LED’s, so I think I am navigating through the functions OK.
Everything works fine with the high mode. All the colors are nicely defined and beautiful.
The low mode is a different story. (I mean high/low mode = the brightness.)
When any mixed color with green is on, only the green is visible. So, the colors are supposed to be sequenced from red, yellow, green, cyan, blue, violet, while, rainbow, and volts when 7H. However, with the low mode, it goes from red, green, green, green, blue violet, green, partial rainbow, and partial volts. (partial = any mixed color with green = green).
So, when the AUX LED’s are on blinking, the colors are good through the high phase but not good with the same issues through the low phase (green only for the mix).
I am using the freshly charged battery.
Do you think there is something wrong with my new KR4? By the way, the light from the main LED’s are very nice.
Thanks for the help.
It’s simply that at very low power levels those emitters have widely varying brightness depending on color. The several Emisar/Noctigon with aux lights I’ve had all had the same behavior - red is much dimmer than green and blue on the “low” setting.
If this situation is normal or common with Emisar/Noctigon with AUX lights, I am OK with it. I was just curious if my example was broken.
Probably, it can be fixed by changing the resistor for the AUX LED’s to match the forward voltage/current. I don’t think I will do it, though. They are very tiny. The wires to the AUX board are small and crowded.
I often use yellow in low mode with the other Anduril light with AUX LED’s. Maybe, I am in the minority for the preference to use low usually.
Thanks for the info.
Interested to see some “real world” beam shots of the K4 with 2200 and 2700k CCT.
For the aux LEDs, the brightness on high mode is determined by the resistors on the aux board. There is one for each color. Hank balances these to keep brightness consistent and make color combinations work.
However, the low mode’s brightness is determined by the pull-up resistor built into the attiny chip. It can’t really be changed. Really, it probably shouldn’t work at all… but it does. So it’s added as an extra feature.
It switches between high and low mode by connecting and disconnecting the attiny’s internal resistor. So there isn’t much we can do about balancing the brightness of different colors in low mode.
Thank you very much for the information. It all makes sense.
The colors are well defined and beautiful for the high mode. The low mode is still useful, just like the brightness of trit. Indeed, it is lucky to have the low mode.
Is there an ETA on some color restock?
Been eyeing the cyan D4s for a bit but been out of stock ever sinch march-ish.
Noticed the K1 is down to creamy only, which isn’t bad since it’s the one I like best but… options are always nice.
That's very unfortunate. I hope he considers doing another run of cyan at least. It seems to be the most popular color.
Thanks for this very useful information.
How do the E21A (various temps) compare with the above LEDs?
I just ordered my first D4v2 from Hank, in brass and requested it with W2 emitters. I bought a 10621 from mtn and it actually throws really well. From a visual observation it appears close to my D4sV2 throw with sst20 5000k. Obviously it is not a nice warm temp / color like a nichia, but I did it in n attempt to have a far throwing useful beam & edc, and I’m VERY happy with it! The W2’s costed extra but Hank accommodated greatly. Hank is the Best
Hi all,
I'm ready to order a Noctigon KR4 as my very first 18650 light, and first Anduril UI.
I only need to choose the LED that best answers my preferences. I lake neutral to warm colors, good CRI although I don't really require > 95, more than 85 will do.
From former messages in this thread I understand the new Nichia E21A is high CRI, the 4500K version should be fine with me colorwise. I also read that the light will get heat more than with other LEDs for the same amount of lumens.
How will the E21A compare with the other NW options:
- XPL-HI V2 4000K (CRI=???)
- SST20 4000K 95 CRI
in terms of heat, lumens, runtime, flood vs throw, and colors?
Can anybody please point me to the relevant post by Maukka?
On the other hand, are there any GITD accessories for this light, like for the FW3A (tail switch cover, front gasket, O-ring to be placed around the light body, etc)?
Thanks in advance for your advice.
My purely subjective experience with the KR4 with E21A 4500K is the tint is a nice all purpose tint. It’s great for indoor and outdoor use for close to medium distance lighting (due to the floody optic; I tried the throwy optic and it had artifacts). I can use it for all but work, as it’s too big to carry in scrubs and I prefer the smaller Reylight with the Nichia 219B for an even rosier tiny for skin examination.
In comparison with the XP-L-HI and SST20, they definitely are greener with poorer brown color rendering but still useable for daily non-clinical settings. The E21A has not generated excessive heat in my daily use; I set ramp max at 130/150 and rarely hit that max and rarely use turbo. In real life use, I haven’t found much difference in heat issues between the E21A and the other emitters.
TL;DR: You’ll likely be happy with the E21A, it’s a good with floody optics and great for all purpose use.
I have been comparing 5000 and 4500 . If you need real white and a little more vibrant color, you go to the 5000 . Otherwise the warmer tint of the 4500 helps to have a more relax sight, not being induce in focusing .
This thing is cool. Non-trit shot taken under the light of SST-20 3000k.
Anyone EDC a colorful series Emisar or Noctigon? I’m curious how durable the anodization is. I’d like to EDC this, but it looks so perfect!
Drool…. Looks even better here than on Hank’s site… I really don’t need one but… damn.