Review: Balder SE-2 [ better regulated version ] XM-L 1x18650

I'm also waiting for the reply............

Good question , how to make sure you get the revised version ?

Id be contacting Balder , to see who they recommend .

As for regulated run time , if you stuff in 2600 Sanyo , the light pulls 3A and slowly drops to around 2.8A or a little lower , then you not going to get an hour out of it on high .

Maybe in the neighbourhood of 45minutes , dont forget , everything from the first review remains true for this light except for the regulation .

The CLIP !

Its good , not great , but functional , if you plan on heavy duty stuff , then maybe not the best ..

As long as it remains on the light , it should not break ..

I would like to see Balder do away with this clip , for something with no room for problems ..

I could see where , if this light were worn on a belt or something , problems could arise if the going got rough [ Held in place by the clip ]

Think of the clip , as , for light duty .

I think Solarforce got it right with there clip design ( 2nd time around )

My favorable EDC is SE-1 & I would like to have a brighter SE-2 revised version as well!

Great photography here Old! Thanks for the great review. Frontpage'd and Sticky'd.

Dear Old4570. I had own a Balder SE-2 by myself at the moment. How can i realize it is old version or the new ?? I have no any tool to test the lumen, just my eyes

And thank you for the review. That is some sweet pitures you're taking. Looks like a real sweet light.

Can you say a few word about the beam compared to a P60 format XML light. I'm not thinking so much about perceived brightness but rather its ability to throw and do it with a nice beam profile.

Being OP reflector I do realize that throw is not its main purpose but I do like a bit of throw in my lights and for example I really dont use P60 XML lights for anything, thats how bad it is for me. XR-E or XP-G are my favorites in this size light.

So does it have a defined hotspot without the dreaded (by me) donut like appearance that XML lights are so good at making?

Once again TY for the review.

Can somebody tell me where I can get the new version?

Solarforce L2T with 1.4A driver = 7300lux @ 1 meter

Solarforce L2 with SF XM-L = 8300Lux @ 1 meter

Solarforce L2 with Manafont drop in = 12300Lux @ 1 meter

Balder SE-2 = 16600 @ 1 meter

It was brought to my attention :

There is a slight blip or flash in low mode , every 7 seconds or so there is a slight pulse or flash , I used three different multimeters to see if I could read a current change and no go , I could detect none . Hmm , interesting , wow . I havent really used low mode much at all , as the light starts on high , I usually drop into medium , sorry about that guys .

A slight flaw in what is otherwise a very polished product .

I have the new version in stock.

Ah, as I suspected, this is really a BD-2 budget version! Old, I believe what you have there is the hidden mode access point. When you put it in Low and it blinks, click off and then on again to access the second set of modes: Strobe and SOS in addition to L-M-H. When you return to Low and it flashes again, turn off and then on again to return to the 3-mode version.

The first shipments of BD-2 made no mention of this in the manual. It was discovered and updated in later versions.

There seem to be no hidden modes , perhaps they were there but got removed , but the trigger point was left behind ???

Could you pm me the price as well as shipping to CA? Thanks!

Please check my website (link in sig). It will calculate shipping for you.

Backordered!

I just checked the stock status there are only 2 CW, and 1 NW left in stock. Are you trying to buy more than 1 NW version perhaps? I can't imagine why you'd get a backordered message otherwise... Anyways, I don't want to detract from the review thread, if you have any questions or problems please send me a PM or email through the site thanks.

Ok , after a few requests I have just completed a runtime test to see how long the light remains in regulation :

Apparently there was some question of how long the light remains in regulation : = 50 Minutes on a Sanyo 2600

Now if you look close enough at the pictures you will see the light is sitting in Water [ yes - water cooling ]

How ever all is not a bed of roses unfortunately .

After some 18minutes , the light strobe'd and continued to do so once every minute for another 32minutes of fully regulated output ...

After 50 minutes the output dropped very quickly and the light was doing 200 @ 51minutes and about 100 15 seconds latter . Batt voltage was 3.5v when I removed the battery .

I dare say , the SE-2 may need some more work ...

So it would seem some were doing run time tests and the light began to strobe [ once every minute for me ] and they thought the light was no longer in regulation ..

What it could be is the voltage warning level , as the light pulls about 3A on high , there will be a lot of voltage sag under such current draw .

So even though the battery has plenty of juice , the voltage sag kicks in the warning strobe ...

Im just wondering at what voltage the warning strobe is set for ? [ maybe 3.5v or 3.6v ? ] With such high current draw , perhaps a much lower setting is needed ..

This is what I have to read AFTER I order the light?

Wow... I'm going to do a full datalogging runtime test tomorrow on one of my lights in stock with the new driver. I've not run it for more than a few minutes at a time, but never noticed any strange behavior like what you are describing. Hopefully not all lights are like that. I'll post my results tomorrow hopefully...

Can you describe the voltage warning flashes in a little more detail? Also, any chance you'll see how it behaves on RCR123 cells? Last question: what's the size of the driver cavity? This seems like a sweet light for the dough.