Skilhunt E2A Video Review

Good points! I am not educated enough on drivers and software of the light. i am slowly stepping into the world of custom flashlights. i come from making antennas for my ham radios so I can appreciate the detailed fine craftsmanship of soldering and electronics. The small space work of lights can be intimidating though.

I do wish there was a moonlight mode kind like the zebralights offer. Over all for the price in my opinion its one of the best lights out there for the money. If you do end up buying one there is a discount code “thefossilchannel” you can use on killzone flashlights to save 10% off.

I think I’m going to get one for my older kid to use as a bike light. I’ll try to do a runtime test using ceiling bounce if no one else has by the time I get it, and I’ll definitely inspect it to see if it looks like the emitter is accessible.

The comparatively short length versus other AA powered tailswitch lights made me wonder if Skilhunt used a single board for the driver components and LED’s like the E3A. If that were the case, it would be difficult to swap the LED without a hot air station.

However, seeing the brief shot of the inside of the head in Thefossilchannel’s video makes me think it likely has separate driver and LED PCB’s - there are no electronic components on the bottom of the visible PCB. Since the components are on the other side of the driver board, they would prevent good thermal contact with the pill on that side in the same way the E3A uses. Hopefully it’s just a matter of unscrewing the bezel to access a conventional MCPCB.

After I had a couple lights with moonlight in my collection, I realized that although I consider it a must have feature for some uses, there are actually some purposes where I prefer not to have moonlight in the mode order, so I like having some lights with it, and some lights without.

The driver appears to have 2 holes, diametrically opposted, to be unscrewed with thin twezers.
But what bothers me is that, unlike in other lights, such as the Convoy T2, Jaxman E3, Sofirn SF10 or SF14, there is no retaining ring to help on conductivity in case we replace the driver. Also, if there is a pill above, it is well hidden, and not like - let’s say - a Lumintop Tool AA.

This is what bugs me the most when looking to this light structure… But maybe I’m not seeing the “whole” picture.

The host has as similar shape to the Tool AA V1/V2, but seems larger and thicker (what is not bad in terms of impact resistance).
It is obvisouly smaller than the other lights I mentioned before, but seems bigger than the Skilhunt M150 (which is natural as the E3A has a mechanical tailswitch).

In case you can check it and report your findings, it would be nice.
I may buy it after those. If the driver is not replaceable, this eventually is not “better” than the Wuben E18 which has similar UI (with memory :zipper_mouth_face: ) and therefore I won’t do much with it.

Thanks iamlucky13, I’m on the fence so looking forward to hearing your thoughts :beer:

I would be interested in seeing your progress as I love modular items like replacing LEDs in lights and swapping optics , though i dont think you can with the e2a but still the idea is attractive. What i like about the Tool 2.0 AA (non led rubber boot version) is that they sell a kit for around 35$ with swapping tools to assemble it. It also comes in a nichia option too which is very attractive. Though the skilhunt has less modes, I’m preferring it over the lumintop Tool mostly now because of the optics and higher cri and warm tint. And as stated above I usually prefer a moonlight mode but in some lights its true for me atleast I dont need it for the tasks I am doing. I think this light would be a good intro to edc lights that have in my opinion quality tint and cri and form factor rolled into a nice price.

Zeroair has tested the E2A and verified it is regulated on NiMH, but not on 14500, and it is unfortunately not bright as advertised. Skilhunt claim on NiMH it will run at 200 lumens for a minute, then step down to 120 lumens. Runtime on the specified 2500mAh battery would work out to right at 100 lumens/Watt efficacy.

Zeroair measured 106 lumens for a minute, then a step down to about 57 lumens. I believe Zeroair does his runtime tests with a 2000mAh battery, so efficacy works out to 63 lumens/Watt.

He also found the bezel easily unscrews accessing an MCPCB, so it should not be difficult to swap emitters.

I presumed the specs were given for the cool white version. Maukka tested both the 4000K 95CRI and 6500K SST-20’s, and the former produced 70% of the output of the latter, so Zeroair’s test result is about 25% lower than the specs suggest.

I think I’m still going to buy one. The efficiency is disappointing, but I don’t need good efficiency for my intended use, I’m interested in seeing how the beam is from that textured optic, and I really like the short length.

Thanks for the information, link and opinion iamlucky13! :+1:
I missed zeroair review somehow.

Well, effiency apart, as I would not like to keep the driver, I’m starting to feel that there are some “flimsy” things there.
That “supposed” ring on the tail, the architecture of the “eventual” pill…not good enough for a mod, in my case.
Probably a good thing for other kind of use/users, but I won’t go in that boat.

The possibility to open the head through bezel is a nice thing, though. More similar to the Tool AA Ti and Cu versions.

Normally textured (pebbled) optics give a great floody beam! I modded my Enogear SS with one of those optics and I love it :wink:

Enjoy the light :beer:

Thanks for the info and links as well. Very good pool of information. Ill be referencing zeroair and a few others whenever possible in the future.

Here’s my review. E2A

I got similar performance from mine. I suspect Skilhunt is using the 6500k sst20 for their measurements, not the 4000k 95 cri.

thanks for the info ! will add it to the library of areas to research. Updated* Added your site and zero air to the video description so people will know to find more info about the E2A.

NiMH lumens on low is far too bright / too close to medium, coupled with no moon / firefly mode is really disappointing.

:wink:

Oh boy, even shorter than the Tool AA V2.0? :o
Your pics are always great maba :wink:

Excellent review and hello YouTube buddy!

Ordered one and just received it. It ticks off almost everything I want except a proper low. Even 1-2 lumens would be nice, though obviously sub-lumen would be great. It really is short, almost a little too short but the diameter evens it out in my hands. For me it would be perfect with a forward clicky, which would add some length, but honestly I think that extra cm or so would actually give it a better fit in the hand.

Today I was curious to see what driver was used in E2A and decided to take it out. It easy to be removed but PCB is glued with thermal silicone which cover most of electronics components. Sorry I didn’t make any photo with it. I just removed it and cleaned a bit the PCB.





Thanks for the driver picks. Anyone know if a resistor mod is possible to lower the overall brightness (to get a lower low)?

Only solution is to add additional resistor in series with led. They used pwm control the output. By the way E2A used the same boost converter as that Convoy driver
淘宝网 - 淘!我喜欢 Just see that “11G” marked IC. Also I think convoy used linear constant current control via 50 mohm resistor. I think it is good replacement for E2A driver.

Hey buddy! good to see you!

Thanks for the photos of the light! Appreciate the pictures!

I like the design and the mode spacing but i am concerned about stepdown at 1 minute. Is it permanent? Or if i close the flashlight and open it again after 2 minutes returns to the maximum brightness?