It would be interesting to measure the switch resistance. Does the tailcap get hot during turbo?
Thank you for adding this tear down Tim. I am glad it went back together for you afterwards.
Not enough thermal paste under the MCPCB might be a slight problem!
The switch appears to have a removable cover over it. I’m not sure what make it is, but it sure has to pass a lot of amps!
Looks like the driver relies on direct drive for turbo and high modes, at least initially, and buck regulation for the other modes.
While using an infrared thermometer, I did not notice the tailcap get hotter than the rest of the body. The head was hottest, and it became cooler as I measured closer to the end of the tailcap.
Yeah. The lack of thermal paste is a concern. I am lucky that some LEDs did not burn themselves.
It’s worth replacing the thermal paste and spreading it around properly. The driver wires are a bit difficult to desolder and solder. I cut the wires with flush cutters at the joint, cleaned off solder from the board, added some flux and added some more solder. The solder joints need to be neat and tidy or they might touch the metal reflector and create a short.
It would have been nice to see four screws used instead of one for the MCPCB too. There are four threaded holes but I only found one screw.
This is definitely a budget torch for enthusiasts. Scary fun! 
Now you’ve done it; I like to be scared by a flashlight! 
Kidding aside this has been a fun thread to read not least because of your (and others’) experience & knowledge. I like the teardown’s discussion even though I have no experience re. DIY stuffs. But… I would like to ask an important question since we are after all in the land of “budget lights” (a really unusual name that gave my wife a chuckle the first time she saw it, as in “you, hobby, budget?!”).
What I like about the Wurkkos TS30S is, for me anyway, there is nothing like it at 60 bucks (SBT-90, 1000m throw, ~4000 lm, USB-C).
I know you chose the Chaos out of many lights to review, so it’s special. But could you (or anyone reading this) say the same about the Chaos? Is there anything like it at $120? Any flooder with this much lumen at this price? If you say no, that IMHO would narrow the focus and mean a lot to potential buyers.
I haven’t found anything else around US$100 that can hit 31k lumens.
I pushed a Sofirn Q8 Plus hard with 3x Lishen LR2170HP cells and broke it after reaching 28k lumens on Turbo. 28,987 lm at turn on. 10,544 lm at 30 seconds.
1lumen published a relevant article recently for brightest flashlights:
Nightwatch Chaos NS59v2 is about US$96 after discount so it might fit into the “Brightest flashlights below $100” category. It reaches about 31k lumens which almost enters the category of “The brightest flashlights in the world you can buy today”.
A few budget flooders come to mind:
Nightwatch NS73v2
Nightwatch NSX4
Sofirn SP36 Pro
Sofirn Q8 Pro
Sofirn Q8 Plus
Those Sofirn soda can flashlights have built-in charging and an Anduril user interface. Charging, battery type, user interface etc may be other considerations. I just wanted a cheap flooder for the thrill.
parametrek has a database of flashlights and you can search by lumens. It may not have everything (flashlights that don’t have a product page online might be omitted, e.g. Nightwatch). The price starts to go into hundreds of dollars when looking at 30k+ lumens.
Thanks Tim, the subject is definitely in focus now.
How to get that discount you mentioned pls? I only see $128 on Neal’s website.
BTW per Neal by email:
“Not in stock now, will be restock next week
It is SFQ60.3 LED”
There are two codes at the bottom of my review page. One is 25% off. You can also consider codes from 1lumen and others.
For those willing to mod these: I swapped XHP50.3 Hi’s in mine. 5000K/4000K 90cri tint mix. It has negative DUV and is incredible bright and fun. I recommend.
Thanks for taking time to write the nice summary above. That first line kinda did it for me lol; I am finding the Chaos hard to resist. :+1: BTW it seems the one code “TimMcAU” gives a bigger discount than the other, a hefty one that brings cost to below $100. Amazing price/performance ratio.
I have SP36 BLF and have found that I really don’t like soda can size. I prefer pocket-able lights hence was also looking at Nightwatch NS73v2, but I already have similar-size Wurkkos TS30S (less brightness but nearly 3x longer throw). Bottom line is I think it’s time for me to taste 30k lumens
I wrote to Neal re. improving the skimpy thermal paste; waiting to see if he’s going to tell me to go to hell.
Neal’s response: “I will let them take care (of) this batch.” Not sure any change will happen but at least it’s better than a “fat chance no”. Now that I’ve “harassed” Neal like this and got a positive response, it would not be nice of me to not buy the light, would it? :person_facepalming: As mentioned, this light is out of stock now but he says should be available next week, with the same SFQ60.3 LED as in Tim’s review.
Could someone correct me: did I read somewhere that the SFQ version has better throw than the Cree XHP version, or is this entirely my imagination?
I think I will be among the first to “click in” in case stock runs out again; I need to get it before Decmber 25. Less than 100 bucks, but 31,000 lm and 600 meter throw. This sure is gonna to be a scary Christmas.
Wasn’t my imagination, found the source. Thank you geforce73.
Yeah, the SFQ60.3 version has slightly more throw and a warmer color temperature of 6000K. The XHP50.3 version has a few more lumens, this may not be noticeable, and it has a slightly colder color temperature of 6500K.
I have some XHP50.2 and 70.2 lights. All of them have green tint shift. These SFN, SFQ LEDs look much better to my eye. I will gladly take slightly lower lumens for a better prettier beam
Tim, thanks for adding those teardown pics. I’m really curious about that pink compound. Was it more of a paste or firmer like a putty?
So used to seeing the cheap or moderate quality pastes from HY and GD (Foshan), and I always assumed our folks just bought the goop in bulk from one of those or maybe Tousen. The only place I’ve seen pink is in some cheap phones and on thermal pads. Nosing around a little the pink stuff seems to be largely silicone paste with decent transfer qualities, depending, but….silicone. I’d love to give the benefit of the doubt that they chose a proper heat sink interface material but silicone outgassing under heat can be really bad news for emitters if they use silicone domes (I think polyester domes aren’t affected by this…need to go look that up).
It was more like a paste and got everywhere when I took the MCPCB out. It was still wet rather than dried up. Similar in texture to the Noctua thermal paste that I replaced it with.
I had a Thrunite with XHP70.2 neutral white - worst green hell I’ve seen. Love the impressive output, but yeah I’m hesitant to get a Cree light until I’ve seen reviews with beamshots.
Nice. I wish there’s a vendor who would release CREE lights with high CRI LED. Is there?
Simon’s XHP70.3 is a low CRI LED with yellowish beam. From @PiercingTheDarkness: 【convoy】SFT40 5000K back in stock (sufficient) - #8700 by PiercingTheDarkness .
The problem is that the issues present with the low CRI variants do not necessarily go away on the high CRI variants, unfortunately, and sometimes they are even worse because the phosphor layer is thicker, so you can still get green tint and poor “color over angle” uniformity resulting in an objectionable beam. The actual beam characteristics matter more than the CRI, which is why some low CRI LEDs are so well received.
Very interesting discussion thanks. Re. the part I underlined above, I imagine the Luminus SST20 4000k in my Sofirn IF25a is a good example of what you are talking about? Very high Ra ~95, but that doesn’t mean the green tint (Duv ~0.0050) is gone.
Slight OT: This is something that puzzles me, that Ra and Duv seem “independent” of each other. How could a LED that has green tint like my SST20 still have high Ra? One would think that green tint would affect how the LED renders any particular color, for example red is rendered as red with a green tint.
By “beam characteristics,” you meant throw vs flood (domed vs flat)?
By beam characteristics I mean artifacts and color uniformity between hotspot, corona, and spill. The optical components in combination with the LED.
Estimate of availability November 18. Hmm might not make it in a time to be a surprise Christmas self gift.
With battery
SFQ60.3 5700k version $129 (less than 100 after Tim’s coupon)
XHP50.3 HD 6500k version $157
Definitely going for the SFQ version, not just for the LED and lower CCT, but also for the important $100 psychological barrier .