Review: BTU Shocker (3* XM-L U2 CW, 3* 18650) - comprehensive (picture heavy).

Yeah the U2 CW version seems to have more output than the NW version, but that’s expected of course. Mine is indeed with the regulated driver, no PWM on any mode. I don’t have the DRY driver so I can’t test it. The website says the DRY driver is 4A+, but doesn’t specify how much because it’s dependent on batteries due to direct drive. I am curious about how it would perform with the DRY driver though.

135kcd is similar to other tests , very nice. I think we can confirm the lux region now.

3k lumens, big hotspot and still have 735m calculated throw. Now, that's a very respectable result.

Those 3k lumens are only at turn-on. After three minutes, you lose out 1k lumens. The question is, can you tell that you’ve lost 1k of lumens going from 3k to 2k?

Also, is there any chance to do a longer run-time test to determine how regulated the driver is, say to 50% light output? As you say though, between 3 minutes to 10 minutes, the regulation on the BTU looks great.

From my review:

It's very well regulated. Low voltage warning kicked in at about 1:22.

Awesome, thanks. Does look tempting. Always wanted something that’s over the 2k+ lumen mark and has the best of both worlds of throw and flood.

Only problem is, I’m off on my holiday this Saturday and if I were to order this light, I won’t get a chance to play with it, in say, until December 2013 or January 2014. :stuck_out_tongue:

You lose those 1k lumens because the Turbo mode steps down after 3 minutes. You can turn it back on if you want though. Also, the difference between 3k and 2k is not very big (visually), at least indoors.

Both your review and the’s seem to indicate that, even if you were to turn on Turbo again, the light is so well heatsinked, that it handles the heat quite well. If that’s the case, why only limit it to 3 minutes worth of Turbo? Well, if I have to answer my own question, it’d be more likely be for safety reasons than anything else (unless I were to read again that long’ish BTU pre-order thread, the answer might be there :laughing:.

Slewfish. Its dark outside now. What should you be doing?

I usually take my shots past midnight, because I might accidentally shine it on the road where cars pass by.

Bugger. I sleep that time of night. Tomorrow.

This is more like it. I’d agree with your figures, plus the Crelant and 85W HID Ebay (still a bit low but ok ba as it varies quite a lot)….

Just press it again for Turbo. 3 mins is plenty, I mean i play with lasers. :slight_smile: (try that with some lasers and nasty things might happen at the 5th minute mark, some less).

It has a timer so that people do not accidentally burn it up while tailstanding.

BTW, it doesn’t really lose 1k lumens after the 3rd minute. Just press again for that close to 3k lumens output.

BTW Slewflash, your lumens are OTF/Out The Front correct? :slight_smile:

Wonder if i should get one. I am keen on the Solarstorm L3.

Yes they are OTF.

Thanks very much for the review! Frontpage’d and Sticky’d.

Great review!! Thank you!!

That’s why they call it the Shocker :wink:

Another awesome review! I’m just shocked by how little the BTU heats up when on Turbo because of all that mass it has. On a side note, can one of those who own this light tell me where to place the probes to get the current reading so I can measure what the driver is putting out? I haven’t taken electronics since grade 10 or about 20 years so I’m kinda at a lost here.

Hi!

Great forum! I just had to register! And to comment on this light and your review!

New to the world of flashlights, I jumped on the pre-order on this light, hoping it would be as good/better than a TK70.
It seems that it is, and I hope we will se a comparison with the TK70 soon.

Can`t wait to get it (right now it is howering over Paris with Fedex).

Thanks everyone for the kind words, and welcome to BLF Macnus!
As for the direct comparison with a TK70, we’ll have to wait until some other members get theirs, since I don’t own one :bigsmile: