Well I still don’t mind the stock 3.6-3.8a range. With the XM-L2’s on copper, with UCL lens it still should in the mid 3000’s.
Not sure if you saw my BTU clip, but it was still was doing about 2500otf after almost 22min kept on turbo almost the full time. My 3400mah protected Keeppowers were reading about 3.84V after I stopped the test. So driven at stock levels, with copper sinkpads and XM-L2 U2’s and UCL or ar lens, I would expect it to stay above 3000otf on turbo until batteries are depleted. Likely, what 30-40min at that level before the batteries get too low? Anyway, good enough for me. I didn’t take buy this light to take on long hikes and such. Besides after modding even after it kicks down, it should have perhaps a 2300-2500 lumen high, and with that it should last a good hour on good cells.
Plus with this planned upgrade, it might get another 50meter throw if I’m lucky.
As far as most owners think, no. I can not detect any coating myself. And my testing without the lens increased about 120otf on weak batteries. So if its an AR lens, its a poor one. With an AR lens this light will do the full 3000otf after 30sec.
I forget what I seen when I was in there. I might have posted about it somewhere. I suspect the minor amount of sag is driver temperature related. It takes about 60 seconds or so to stabilize.
It has nothing to do with batteries; I tested it on a bench power supply.
When I get to the point of doing a mod I’ll be picking a final turbo current, and using a resistor mod that gives me that current after 60 seconds. The initial 200-300mA of extra punch while cold should not be an issue. I’ll also document it so others can know what I did and decide if it’s what they want to do. i still need to order emitters though…
^this!!
I was planning to mod my BTU, but after using it in light painting a castle I decided to keep it as stock. It's a great "brush" for light painting large objects which are far away.
But I still want to mod it with some de-domed high bin XM-L2s on copper.. So buying another starts to sound good. But then again, having two stock BTUs would be even better for some light painting situations -> do I really need three of them? ;)
Now that’s a very cool, but expensive way of thinking. I still don’t understand the negative view many have on this light. Playing with a 700m, 3000 lumen light IS impressive. If one is not impressed with that, I just don’t understand why they are in this hobby.
Anyway, another $120 BTU to keep stock, sounds sweeter by the day.
Wow! Great service from Ric/Fancyflashlights.com.
I ordered my BTU on March 1, 2013, and it arrived March 7, 2013, to California via Fed Ex! As far as I’m concerned I paid 100.00 for the light and $20.00 for expedited shipping. VERY IMPRESSIVE!
Oh, and the light is outstanding! Solid design with a nice retro feel. I didn’t have a chance to try it out last night because I need to charge my cells but I will tonight. Indoors during the day it’s still a beast!
None of my holsters fit it, unfortunately. I’ll have to find one online.
I’ll compare it with my Jetbeam DDR30 when I can.
I highly recommend it!
From a neutral viewpoint, not got one myself, but have seen one alongside a TK70 in action and they were both indeed impressive, but for me the form factor of both of them does not fit in with my present preferences.
My concern with the shocker at the time wasn’t with the performance but in closeup a light that at the time was £120 odd quid, would then be for a uker an extra £24 vat plus the iniquitous PO charging £8 to collect the vat, that would make the shocker about £8 less then I could get a TK75 over here. And I am sorry to say the build quality did not match that price. Now though the price would be around the £105 mark and that certainly moves it up the approval list.
Like most things the hate is proportional to the loving, you can’t take the tribe/team out of human beings.
changed the led to xml u3 now and am satisfied with the btu output.got no light meter but i think its way above 3000 lumens .i can see the diffrence.I think 3 u3 driven at 3.8 amps should give around 3500 lumens???? ! AND I USED A SILVER ARTIC THERMAL PASTE . now the whole light feels warm within minutes on turbo .I guess that means heat is getting transferred from the leds better then what the fujic stuff did . iused the 20mm star since it was cheaper then the 16mm for some reason
bought the u3 from fasstech https://www.fasttech.com/products/1189702
thought it would be easy breezyy . unfortunately i got into trouble early on! Now the previous star was 16mm and was stuck with fujic .I desoldered the wires first ,used a long nose to "twist" the star and the fujic glue let go . the u3 i used has 20mm star . soldered them in series . plugged them onto the reflector .i had earlier desoldered the positive/negative wires from the driver . and then spread some silver arctic thermal paste
.inserted the 2 wires in through the second hole and slowly placed reflector and the emmiters kept popping out that. so i mixed a bit of epoxy locktite e-60hp and placed tiny amouts on he edges of the star so its remains in position fitted onto the reflector as i lowered in onto its seat.it works nicely
.once it was seated i marked on the reflector and then on the head as an "alignment" point thing so that when i screw the the reflector ,it does not move side ways. i screwed the reflector real tight to make a tight contact between the emmiter star and its base then soldered on the driver .all this took me about an hour .i used my 40 watt soldering iron since its a pain to melt the solder on the star while its seated on the aluminum.
looks like the $50 coupon is gone…just waited a bit too long. Price on the other website is down to $120, I think. Unlike others, emailed queries to Rick were never answered…no sale ensued. Disappointed some.
I likened torchlight buying to a hunt in the woods. Firstly I take stock of what is available and then zero in on the target I am after. Then I will observe its habits and characteristics, before taking down the prey.
Stocking the prey:
I’m liking the direction the BTU is taking.
1st, the U3 mod and the extra lumens, then the AR lens, and later the copper sinkpads + whatever.
Then I wait to pounce:
That will be equivalent to a predetermined price drop that I set.
What’s really good about the BTU now?
Firstly the heft (heat sinking capabilities) - allows for continuous 2000+ lumens without having to step down and without undue overheating. Not many lights can do this. It is my main requirement.
Then the 700m throw and the 3000+ turbo lumens after modding put this into the super torch category.
Putting the lights together - a left, right combination:
- Two BTUs - one on each hand - alternating on turbo - when 1 steps down, the other steps up. Minimising the heat issue with 5000+ lumens of light play.
2. BTU and one flood light combo (TM26 / TN30 / S6330 / TK75 / whatever) - this is my way of lighting up the night in one fall sweep.
I am so used to having 2 multi emitters on at one time while ‘woodstalking’ that it has become something to look forward to.
So the hunting game is on and I am stalking some of these lights.
zt you are karzeeeeeeee
Oh damn…. $120 is so tempting. If it was $100 I would definitely pull the trigger but for $120 I’m on the fence. Going to have to think about this one. I already have a Skyray STL-V2 and a modded 55W HID Thor… but this would be a great balance light in terms of portability and power between them.
Anyone know how does Ric declare the package when he ships it? Does he declare the real value ?
Well it weighs half a Ton.Customs gets real facinated by it. No matter what he declares
Declared $35 on mine. It came FedEx; no duty, just HST (tax) for me. FedEx charged a $10 brokerage, which I’m calling them on. If they wanted me to pay that, they should not have delivered the package first… 
That $10 fee is fucking BS. Its supposed to be free shipping. Screw fedex.
Thats fine… the issue is just what will they charge. I mean if he declares is like $35 as relic says they can’t charge much. If however he puts down $120… then get ready for any deal to be destroyed by border fees.
Send him an email right after ordering. Someone else did that (FlashPilot maybe?) and had their shipping changed to avoid FedEx charges. I’m sure you can check the value he declares as well.
I talked to Ric and he said that if you use registered mail there won’t be any extra charges but it will take longer than FedEx which is fine with me.
I sent him my money about 6 hours ago but he still hasn’t responded (when before he was responding within 20 mins to every email I sent). Getting a bit nervous.
the, I am using your line of thinking to try and swing my first BTU, you are working/thinking on a third?! Sweet!
Do you mind if I show my wife your post? This way I can come off as a model of moderation…?! After missing out on the coupon deal, I bought a BS Terminator which I am quite taken with…but still the BTU is lurking large on my ‘need’ radar…
By, the way, the light painting, do more, please! There is a small valley in CA, that would look very nice w some of your efforts at night. And you wouldn’t have to worry about sneaking around after hours either. There would be a few climbers and bears you’d have to be careful to step over, though.
Hey guys, Ric is trustworthy right? Hes not going to take my money and run is he? He told me to send the money to the paypal account hkrs0512@gmail.com yesterday. I hope he will contact me today because before I sent him the payment he was responding to my emails quite fast.
I’ve dealt with him several times now. I would trust doing what you just did for sure.
And if not, paypal has your back for 45 days.