Great review JM! I too would miss a low mode in the one lumen range. Otherwise, these look great.
One thing that I am not sure about. Those green âMCPCBâs that the emitters are mounted on look a lot like a standard PCB in the photos. I could be wrong though, they could just be green MCPCBs.
This would not necessarily be a bad thing. Cree actually recommend using PCBs and to place lots of vias under the heat pad area. When reflowing, use enough solder paste to fill the vias, and you have a direct-bonded PCB that uses the relatively OK properties of lead-free solder (99% tin). I would expect this to perform much batter than a standard aluminum star.
Illumination Supply hinted at getting some more ArmyTek lights last week. Last I heard was just Wizard Pro headlamps, but I would be surprised if they did not get the complete new line of products.
The thermal pad is widened across the board to transport the heat directly to the rest of the board (indicative of a dielectric layer) and a par is exposed and gol plated.
What CREE recommends with a lot of vias is done on normal FR4 boards.
Thanks for the kind words, everyone! I've fixed the broken images at the bottom of the review. Sorry about that. I was in bed and checking the review from my phone when I saw they were broken. Waited until morning to fire up the laptop and repair it. All good now. ;)
As the owner of a first generation Predator, I have been following these new Armytek developments pretty closely. In fact, I've just ordered the Wizard Pro.
When I last checked the Partner specs on the website (June 24) only primaries were listed under supported battery types. Now they have ammended this to include Li-Ions.
However it's curious that the downloadable manual here seems to contradict that.
The PDF still states a voltage range to 1.5V for the A1 and 3.5V for the C1. There is also a specific warning about not using Li-Ion cells for more than 30 mins without active cooling, citing disturbing words like heat, damage, combustion and explosion.
When I read this I decided to wait for the upcoming "Smart" series instead.
Judging by your runtime graphs, the output on Li-Ions is dropping fairly steadily anyway. Do you think this is due to heat issues or simply voltage drop in the cells?
What is listed in the paper copy of the manuals supplied with your lights Johnny? Are they still warning about extended use of Li-Ions? If so, it might be prudent to mention this disclaimer in your review.
That is a very good point and I will check when I get home later today. Personally I think itâs due to voltage, not heat. The output flattens out at a consistent lumen output level so I believe it is voltage causing the initial drop until regulation kicks in and stabilizes it.
JohnnyMac, just check carefully, that does not look like a copper PCB, looks like aluminum oxide, since the substrate is white. That gold part is simple a gold plated copper circuit trace.
Point taken, Hikelite. Thanks for pointing that out to me. I know I read somewhere that the MCPCB was copper and seeing the large copper traces on the surface I didnât give it much further thought aside from âCoolâ. Now I canât find where I read it and Iâd have to agree with you. Ive removed all references of a copper MCPCB fro the review. Thanks again for straightening me out.
Looking again at the graphs, it appears that the output doesn't flatten out until well into the test and then only a relatively short time (well under 10 mins) before the dropoff. This seems pretty well in line with what would be expected of an unregulated light running direct drive. Whether this will have any long-term effect on life remains to be seen.
The potted electronics and general quality of construction/heatsinking probably make these lights a little more durable than some other brands but it certainly seems to me that they were not designed with the higher voltages in mind for everyday use. The "Partner" series don't appear to have the buck/boost S-Tek driver technology used in some of their other models. AFAIK, that was supposed to be the mission of the more expensive and yet to be released "Smart" series.
Likewise, I found the low mode too high. Fortunately the driver comes right out and is easily replaced. The narrow shelf is a bit too large for our beloved 17mm drivers. I fashioned a ring from 14 gauge wire which worked OK, but then I found these adaptor rings from Kaidomain which work perfectly. I used a single sided Nanjg . Iâm betting that a double sided driver will cause battery fitment problems.
I liked the result so much I bought a few more from illumâs firesale. As of this moment there is one C1 left for $20.
FWIW, replacing the emitters isnât too much work either. I like the TIR well enough, but this reflector does a nice job with XP-L, XP-G and Nichia emitters. I canât remember it sits down over an XM-L â I can check.