Best price for Trustfire R5-A3 on KD

When someone finds out the answer to the OP's questions, let us know please!!!

  1. What about the low mode? Is it the blindingly bright "low" of the original DX version? Or is it the new reasonably low "Low" mode that some other users have reported here?
  2. Is the LED really an XP-G on this version?

The KD trustfire R5-A3 arrived today, so here is a very small review:

Same colour, size and features as the DX version.

Takes both 14500 and 1.5 volt batteries.

3 modes high, low and the unusefull strobe.

Led is a XP-G R5

Very bright with good spill on High with 14500´s.

The low is very low. You can keep looking direct into the led on low without any problems, but as I dont have the DX version I cant compare the two.

Led fastened with two screws and very well centered.

3 o-rings. The one at the lens is GID

The clicky is a little hard to press, but works all right.

I have not had it long enough to test runtime.

Am very pleased with the light which have been on my wishlist a long time, and Im glad that I was able to get it from KD at the very reasonable price of 14.70$. Shipped fast and shipping was the usual 3 weeks.

Thanks for the review Nautic. Seems like a good buy, if there isn't any known issues with the design.

How does it perform with only one 1.2V NiMH battery?

It performs well with NIMH. Slightly better I think with Eneloops, but very little!

Thanks a lot Nautic. With a screwed led and such a low low this light gets even more interesting.

Would it be possible for you to measure the current with both NiMh and LiIon, please?

You didn't happen to have a peek at the driver, did you? I'd really like to know what kind of driver (controller) it uses.

I dont know what driver it has, as I have not disassempled the light that much:

Amps with 14500: High 1.05 Low 0.1

Amps with Eneloops: High 1.19 Low 0.18

Amps with NIMH: High 1.08 Low 0.16

All measured with my cheap off the shelf dmm.

With a power supply: High 2.0 Low 0.2

isn't nimh draw on high at least 1A too low?

I have now tried several different NIMH´s and they all show in the neighborhood of 1.05 - 1.14

My dmm are not of the highest quality!

That should not be bright at all. Due the fact that those 1.3V must be boosted to around 3V and counting circuit loss on 1.1A draw at tail there is hope for max 300mA (probably way less) to the led. Which is pretty meh...

That flashlight should draw 2A+ with a fresh eneloop to be decent. At least that is the expected current and prettym uch what other 1 AA lights draw. Granted Q5 and such require 3.6V or around that... Higher current = higher led Vf usually.

First the L2m and now another R5-A3 - I just hope the wife is in a good mood when the credit card bill shows up in the mail. :D

And thanks for the update, Nautic! I appreciate it. :)

Thanks Nautic! This is good news about the low mode. So from your data we could calculate about 11 hours of runtime from the R5-A3 on an Eneloop?

I am starting to think this R5-A3 might be different from the one I got from DX in January that the low, medium, high driver mod worked on. My tailcap numbers are much higher.

Trustfire flame 14500: High 1.648 amps, Low .168 amps

Duraloop: High 2.2 amps, Low .22 amps

I have these 3 R5 lights all driven by a 14500:

Trustfire R5-A3, Ultrafire C3 R5 and Uniquefire G10

By comparing the light visualy I think that they all have nearly the same brightness. Comparing the R5-A3 with another 14500 light, the AA-S1, the latter is dimmer then the former

By looking at Don´s splendid lumens spreadsheet the R5-A3 and the C3 has around 300 lumens each, the AA-S1 has 225 lumens, the G10 is not listed, so according to this I think the Trustfire performs as I could have expected.

I dont have the means to measure lightoutput.

AKA broken driver, they should have sent you a free replacement.

You have actually put a AA into it though? It needs more than an amp to get going on AA...?

Just be aware that these leds are mounted on a fiberglass material base (PCB with lots of vias) instead of an aluminium base, so thermal conductiivity away from the base isnt as good.

I'm in the market for a good cheap EDC, so this thread caught my interest. I had some more questions about the light but then I remembered that there was a sticky review on this one. here's the link in case you wanted to refresh your memory ;) https://budgetlightforum.com/t/-/348

Thanks for the info. I've heard conflicting stories on whether this one is capable of tailstanding. Is yours able to tailstand or does the GITD clickie boot protrude too much?

Thx

-ZX

It can tailstand! The GID clickie dont protude at all. Its flush with the tailcap.

Well I got mine from DX today and I am sad to report the quality is just a bit lower than when first introduced.

The star is no longer screwed in or even glued, it just has some standard heat sink compound applied to the star and a white plastic LED centering/insulating washer fits between the star and reflector and it is all held together by the reflector assembly being tightened down on the plastic centering device. I don't think this is a real big issue as it seems to fit well and do the job but it is a step backward in my opinion. (at least they remembered heat sink compound!)

The driver has also been changed so I don't know if it is configurable anymore or if it is 14500 safe. The driver I think might be OK on 14500 if it is the one piece driver. It is the red driver without the trace which is the one that seems to work with 14500, but I'm not sure. I'm not sure if it is a one piece driver or 2 piece though since I didn't completely disassemble the pill.

The good news is that it is well driven and pretty bright although it is very cold/blue tint LED.

The low is also nice and is a true low.

On high my sample was drawing 2A from tail and low was 200mA on a slightly discharged NiMh.

Overall I am happy but I wish I had ordered from KD!!

My favorite and best tinted budget torch I own is still my SkyRay S-A1!! It is a beautiful torch!! I wish there were more out there that ran the XP-E LED. It is my favorite LED in a torch with a small reflector.

It's the same with mine (I bought it a few month ago from DX).

I wanted to make the strobe mode as described on this thread (https://budgetlightforum.com/t/-/2179), but the driver is not the same.

I really like this light so I recently bought another one (from KD). I hope, I'll be able to make the strobe and Xm-l conversion.