Beamshot shoot-outs. Sofirn IF22a with the famous SFT40 LED is in some way a technical marvel, a light with world class throw but is small & light, and costs next to nothing. It is the minimum mark I set when I got Wurkkos SBT90.2 . Really there is no point to buy Wurkkos if being bigger and heavier doesnât bring more of âsomethingâ.
The 2 are completely different lights serving different purposes, so this is NOT a comparison to find which light is âbetter.â Itâs more about what differences there are. And what the Wurkkos brings is a very intense hotspot and a much wider field of illumination; the increased intensity over the excellent IF22a actually surprised me. The TS30S is a light capable of flooding a huge area with GREAT brightness; from near to far EVERYTHING lights up. A remarkable achievement for a 60 buck âsmallishâ light.
My wife will be somewhat upset if I go out to the trail in the middle of the night to take beamshots so these pictures of the slope around my neighborhood will have to do. All shots with Canon DSLR, RAW format, fixed WB, and fixed exposure. (I picked a middle exposure âgoodâ for all lights, and Wurkkos is too bright for it and got over-exposed.) That white streak in the Wurkkosâs beam is likely a bug flying through.
The temp calibration out of the factory is imperfect on the chips themselves - I think it was TK that pointed this out some time back. So basically if we want it to be accurate on the flashlight then it needs to be manually set at the time of product manufacture. Some do this and some do not - itâs an extra and time consuming step on the manufacturing line so by not doing it we potentially save a little cost and/or hopefully donât suffer cost cutting in some other area to make up for it. Iâve not had any that were THAT far off, but regardless itâs wise to always check the temp upon receipt of a new Anduril light, and adjust the temp ceiling if desired. Your error is so large that it makes me think someone accidentally added a click during the set procedure (if they are actually doing it). Normally theyâre only off by 2-4 degrees in my experience and many are spot on or just one degree off (usually high).
This may change if we collectively move to a new chip, as it seems may be required in the future.
Good points thanks. Yes I have 5 other Sofirn and Wurkkos (and hence an expert with clicking for temp ) & all were within just few degrees, not this much. I was afraid something was wrong with the sensor itself but so far the light behaves as it should. External surface temp using IR gun now about 45 C, similar to (non-Anduril) IF22a. During the initial out-of-the-box testing, the external temp of was in the low 30âs during a Turbo run-down.
@Loafglenn, thanks. The clip I use is the âConvoy Universal Clip Suitable for S2 S2 Plus M1 C8â â-> web link is here and yes itâs fairly sturdy and feels made for the light. Itâs a touch small so I bend the arms out a little bit to reduce scratching on the light and it still holds on very tightly. Oh and no Iâm not that reviewer on AliExpress.
The review is on the wurkkos website. And itâs the exact same clip as yours.
I want to add that clip to mine. Whatâs the light that it goes to so I can try and make and order for one. I wanted to place the convoys s2/c8 screw on clip on the tail but would need to drill another hole near the lanyard attachment so I reconsidered the customization on.
White wall shots of the 4 lights - predicting well how each light illuminates. IMHO: Spill: The 2 lights with TIR optic (Sofirn IF22a and Olight M2R) both have spill that is dimmer - hence near field & periphery illumination is not as bright. Sofirn IF22a has a very dim spill and as a result has a very narrow field of illumination as seen in the beamshot above. Wurkkos with its very bright spill lights up a wide area in front of it - everything is lit with this light.
Hotspot intensity (reflecting throw/brightness of distant object in the middle of beam) goes in this order: Wurkkos > Sofirn IF22a > Nitecore > Olight Pro Warrior. Wurkkos TS30S and Sofirn IF22a clearly a class above the other 2 lights when it comes to throw.
@Loafglenn link for the clip I use for TS30S is HERE if thatâs what you are looking for.
Thank you for the nice comment. I have done A:B comparison of Wurkkos 5000 mAh battery versus Samsung 40T 4000 mAh battery using photography. The Samsung did result in higher brightness at least on Turbo start-up as seen in the 2 shots below. (Although it may not be visually clear, the RAW software does indicate which pic is brighter, just no absolute value.) This makes sense because the very high 15 amp current draw in Turbo mode should be easily met by Samsungâs approx. 25-35 Amp rating.
OTOH, a couple things to considered: 1. The higher brightness would benefit only in Turbo mode. If you use this light the way I do - leave it on for longer than 5 minutes at a time, this higher brightness would likely result in faster step-down to lower mode, where current draw is not as high and difference would expect to be much less. OTOH, if you use it mostly in occasional short on/off period and want max brightness, then yes IMHO you should use Samsung (only $5 at 18650BatteryStore.com). 2. The Wurkkos has higher capacity (5000 vs 4000 mAh of Samsung), a benefit in a current hungry LED like this one.
I should have mentioned as well, that one of the reasons I was asking is because Wurkkos.com actually has a good deal (for me at least) on some 21700 Molicel P42Aâs.
Im trying to decide whether or not to grab one/two of those along with the light, Instead of the included cell. Or as well as the included cell lol.
I reckon that you have not purchased a dedicated luxmeter, but no problem. Do you have a phone with ambient light photo sensor? Quite a number have nowadays. Just DL any of those luxmeter apps and use it, itâd tell ya if your phone does not have one, then read the lux figures from a ceiling bounce, try to keep things between runs standard, for eg the temperature of the flashlight. (use a small stream of running water to cool it down faster between the runs). The cell should be ok if the runs are short like less than 5 seconds and you have a > 1 minute rest time after that for the sag to recover, no biggie. If you really want it to be 100% scientific and you have the time to spare, charge up the light again for a minute or 2, let the cell and light rest for 10 mins and start off from the same voltage accurate to 0.001 volts.
This is more convenient and âaccurateâ than just reading off the histogram or something, and youâd also have absolute figures before vs after mod and calculate things like percentages gain. In fact then youâd also be able to know how much are you sagging at 3 seconds, 10 seconds, 20 seconds, 30 seconds, 1 min etc, and things to know if that initial gain is worth it or not etc. Depends on how you use the light as well, as youâve mentioned.
You might also try to do a spring bypass, the luxmeter with ceiling bounce is still a very good method to gauge these before/after mod thingys, no need for any lumen pipe or box just that those are more optimal.
Also, for your use, you are just after that percentage % gain increase number on the same light after mod, so ceiling bounce is more than sufficient.
Some lights benefit from this bypass, others donâtâŠi always do lux readout from a ceiling bounce before and after, really depends on a few factors.
I can see the Samsung 40T hotspot being brighter visually alreadyâŠâŠ do try to get a lightmeter reading as per my earlier post, itâd be telling.
1lumen did report 20A and 22A input between the Wurkkos 5000mAh and 40T, 5 amps more than zeroair, difficult to say which is more accurate. But ultimately getting a lux reading when comparing A vs B be it different cell or different mods is key and preferred, you see light output but you donât detect electrical amps flowing in the light and that energy needs to be translated into output. Ceiling bounce with marked out spots for the meter and tailstanded light is better and easier, you can also do hotspot lux readings but that tend to vary a bit more than ceiling bounce depending on how you position the meter on the hotspot.
Thanks - I like the info of your detailed posts. You got it - Iâm using the RAW programâs histogram to check relative brightness. I still like it because I am lazy to have to do one more measurement, but I just downloaded Light Meter and Lux Meter and will give your ceiling bounce method a try. This will have to do until the Opple Pro is available. I appreciate your careful method; yeah I waited 1 hour between battery tests, just had breakfast in between .
Good catch on the 1lumen articleâs battery discussion. Did he measure 20A from the 5000 mAh battery? I thought capacity comes at the expense of drain, and 5000 mAh 21700 batteries generally have 10-15 Amp max discharge?
Some battery âpuzzle.â I have two Wurkkos 5000 mAh batteries:
The one that comes with my TS21 has 5000 mAh capacity and a triangular top plate like Sofirn 5000 mAh, rated at 10 A max discharge. Test/review of Sofirn 21700 5000mAh (Black)
The one that comes with TS30S also has 5000 mAh capacity, but a round top plate similar to Sofirnâs 4000 mAh battery. Test/review of Shockli 21700 4000mAh (Black) 2018
I guess they are re-wrapped Lishen or Shockli, but interesting that they might be different batteries?
Not too sure about the 20A reading on the Wurkkos 5000mAh, thatâs why i earlier said itâs difficult to say which is more accurate.
But for the SBT 90.2, decent gains can be had by going from 15A to 20A. Subtract a bit for driver inefficiencies, a high drain cell and bypass is preferable.
BTW if you donât have access to soldering, just use some rolled up aluminum foil, insert one end into the âholeâ of the spring at the top part and route the other end to touch the bottom gap of the spring, tuck it in with a screwdriver, snip off any excess and you are done. No safety issue with the TS30Sâ tail spring design. Just be a bit more careful if doing this way for series type battery carriers.
With rolled up aluminum foil, itâs very easy to do A-B comparisons since it doesnât take more than 2-3 minutes to install/uninstall it. (i suck at soldering and take 30 mins for each spring, imagine doing that for multiple 3-4 cells soda can lights).
Not sure, it really depends. On 1 particular light, i did not get any improvement even though it has a single spring. Sometimes you can get some differences, sometimes not. Youâll never know. So just try it out with a simple wrapped up foil and measure it with the light sensor.
Heh hehâŠâŠalways measure the output of your lights, that is the key takeaway.
For eg, once i forgot to clean the contacts of the Q8 style of soda can lights, ie both the aluminum tube carrier contact ring and also outer metal ring of the driver disc, and this resulted in like 30% drop in optical output.
This is esp so if one is a rather heavy user and always frequently takes out the cell for charging on a dedicated charger instead of using the USB-C (various reasons eg the light does not support QC/PD and only regular 5V 2A).
So in a way, say if the lightâs electrical contacts are dirty, you are not really gonna see that small 3-5% improvement coz that is relatively small in comparison. On some lights with lousier springs you might see 10% or so. There are other factors like driver, driver to emitter wiresâŠbut usually those we just presume to be ok and eat the losses esp on lights that you cannot really screw out the driver easily. âEat the lossesâ is also because seriously speaking, that +5% or even +10-15% isnât gonna matter in real world (unless if itâs an instant A-B comparison on an identical target), just a feel-good numbers game to us flashaholics. lol.
Take for eg the above â30% drop in output, i did not detect it at all in real life usage. lol