Review: ThruNite Saber 1A (updated T10)

despite all of the ‘issues’ with TN and the BLF 1A, I have to say that my copy (from fleabay, $25 bo) has been great! On 14500 it is a great little light… keeps moonlight mode as well…

Hope those who are having issues get the details sorted…

i assume that is easily fixed

I tried a couple of NiMH cells. They would not fit in the tube. Tube is 14.3mm ID. NoMem 2500 mAh cell is 14.3 mm, goes in half way. Imedion 2200 mAh is 14.28 mm, goes in about 3/4 way and then seems like air pressure is keeping it from going in the rest of the way. I’m not going to force the issue…

I got around to testing my Fasttech Spirit light ($20). It did 115/12/.06 lumens… actually more than advertised and more than the Thrunite Saber.

Then I put a Nichia ’219 in it. It gives the same output as the stock XPG R5 (and around 15% more than the mod’ed Thrunite Saber).

Does the spirit support a 14500? and for how long on high

It should, it is identical to the Thrunite (down to tooling marks on the LED centering ring). Nowhere does either say that it supports lithium rechargeables, but people say they do.

Hadn’t seen the spirit until now, it looks indeed identical.
Here a link if someone else want to take a look http://www.fasttech.com/products/1601/10003046/1227900

The spirit appears to come with a lithium battery. Does that mean the circuit officially supports lithium?

Appears with a primary lithium battery (Lithium NICE), only 1.8V (soon drops to 1.5-1.6V)

It’s an alkaline battery…

Sorry, I think it’s much better than an alkaline

I checked it again, and it does say Lithium on it. Somewhere I did receive a Nice AA alkaline in a light. Looks the same.

Hi,
I just bought Saber 1A, but frankly I’m not impressed with the performance.
I find 169 lumens on High is hardly believable because it looks so much dimmer compared to my old mini torch, Ultrafire single mode at 200 lumens (factory claim). It uses XPG Q5 & CR123A. I bought it for $9 on sale.
It’s exactly like here:
http://dx.com/p/ultrafire-w610-cree-xp-g-q5-200lm-white-flashlight-black-1-x-16430-186192

Sure at 200 lm, the Ultrafire is supposed to be brighter, but the brightness difference between the 2 flashlight is too massive for 31 lm difference. The Ultrafire looks like almost twice brighter (at 200 lm) vs Saber 1A (169 lm).
When doing wall test from 9 meters away, the Ultrafire is still showing a bright hotspot with spill. The Saber fail to show any hotspot at this distance. It’s just a reasonably bright spill.

Is Saber 1A lumens inflated too much ?
I know some people use 14500 in this torch. Does the drive actually support 14500 ? Will it blow the led or something ?

Comparing a 3 volt light to a 1.2-1.5 volt light, I wouldn’t be surprised if the 3 volt light is brighter because it should be.

The Saber 1A is also a floody light so it doesn’t have a tight hotspot, that may be one reason why your “200 lumen” light appears a lot brighter.

I have no way to measure the actual lumens but it is rated at 169 ANSI lumens which means it really should be 169 lumens, where the UltraFire don’t use ANSI lumens so its anyones guess how many lumens its putting out. Not often but sometimes they put out more than factory lumen specs but usually they over rate it.

The voltages and a reflector that looks huge on the UltraFire pretty much make them uncomparable. It seems to me like flood vs throw and twice the voltage so its not surprising that the UltraFire is appears a lot brighter and has a brighter hotspot.

Which battery have you used? Have you tried a eneloop?
14500 make a huge differents in brightness, with a AA it is to dim for me too.
But with a lion you will have the hassle with thickness…

I have the T10, which is the previous model. A 14500 works in it but only works for moonlight and high—it flickers on medium. But it won’t fry anything. I’m usually pretty daring about trying an li-ion in all my lights … in the name of science of course :wink:

Hi,
I tested with a lightly used alkaline (I think 75-80% capacity left).
Insert a new alkaline, and it is much brighter than before. I could believe it was 169 lms by now. Just almost as bright as my 200 lms Ultrafire….good impression.
But after 15 min, my good impression gone. I started to detect the brightness dropped quite a bit.

My perceived brightness with Sanyo alkaline (high):
0-15 min - 160 lms
15 min - 120-130 lms
20 min - 100 lms
30 min - 60 - 80 lms
40 min - 30 lms
45 min - 10 lms
50 min - 5 lms
55 min ——-> dead, but reinserted battery, the led lighted back up brighter like 10 lms, but fastly decreasing to 3-5 lms.
60 min - 135 min - 1-3 lms seemingly stable for long time but became dimmer in the last 10 min & died, but got resurrected by itself after 1 min, very dimmed like 1 lumens
135 - 150 min —> very dimmed like 1-2 lms (brighter than firefly)……I stopped the test though.

Does this flashlight have regulation with alkaline ???

Perceived brightness with Sony 2100 mah NIMH :
0-40 min - seemingly more stable in brightness. If any drop, I couldn’t see it clearly.
41 - 50 min - a little drop in brightness, not sure how much.
50 - 55 min - decreased brightness, maybe 80-100 lms. I didn’t realize when it began.
65 min - like 20 lumens
———-> dead, but reinserted the battery, the led lit up again like 10 lms
70 min - like 10 lumens
75 min - like 1-3 lumens
80 min - less than firefly
83 min - dead

At least I can see some regulation with NIMH battery, but not with alkaline.
I also wonder why the light was dead when voltage is low, but reinserted the battery did the trick to make it work again for quite some time.

Well at least the performance is not as bad as I thought with Nimh battery. Not happy, but not disappointed either when I paired with Nimh.

Actually after this experience, I became more appreciative to my old Ultrafire mini torch (which I thought cheapy product , so I treat it with no respect at all) :bigsmile:
With 16337 650 mah, I don’t see any drop in brightness for 30 min, until suddenly it dropped to 10-20 lms flashlight for the next 3 min before it dies.
With CR123a 1400 mah, the brightness is constant for 65 min, then again dropped to 10-20 lms for the last 5 min……dead.
I think I owe an apology to my Ultrafire for being so rough & insulting all this time. 0:)

You could try Energizer ultimate lithium or the Nice lithium batteries from FastTech, they are a improvement over alkalines and NiMH but they are expensive if you use them often.

I have a Thrunite T10; I run Eneloops in it, and I absolutely Love it; it’s small enough to use on a keyring, but on high it’s plenty bright, and on the 9-lumen mode(which is Plenty bright in actual Darkness) the runtime is fantastic. Twisty action is as Smooth as Butter. Also, I got it for less than $20 on Amazon. Highly Recommend.

Has anyone baked this flashlight yet?