Review: TrustFire TR-J20 - 12 x XM-L (3 x 32650) Chunky Monkey!

Well, in my experience a good 18650 or 26650 will do around 15A into 3 XM-L2s, probably about 18 into 4 XM-L2s due to the voltage sag (32650 will probably be better here, and may see 20A+.) Since it is 3S4P and we have 3 26650s (or 32650s) on the input, I'll bet you see around 4-5A per emitter. Probably best to get some direct thermal path MCPCBs in there!

Jesus. Potentially the brightest budget modded light on the forum.

I'll bet with some copper MCPCBs and XM-L2s you can hit 15,000 OTF. I don't see any reason why you couldn't. Oh crap, forgot that this is a mechanical clicky. It may need to be converted to an e-switch to handle those kind of amps. That's doable.

On my J18, love hearing the "crack" sound of power when contacting the DMM lead to the battery tube for a tailcap measurement . Mine does close to 9,000 lumens, so 15,000 for 12 emitters isn't a stretch.

Yeah, they do that! The boost drivers do it much more though, I think there is a huge momentary draw as the inductor/capacitors get filled initially.

I couldn't resist. Finally ordered one...will be putting an FET driver in there and we'll see how it goes!

It’ll be a beast with a FET driver. I just might need to buy one from you. The best mark I can give this light is in its great heat sinking and sold thick floor plate. Makes a fantastic skull basher too! Please let me know how you like it.

Very nice review Flash. Thank you.

FlashPilot, what is the inner thread diameter of the battery tube? I have no love for Chinese batteries. However triboring for Sanyo 16650 would give a higher quality option with similar capacity. Really looks tight going the 18650 route. This light is really tempting; factory, FET driver or a slight resistor mod.

Great review. Thanks. I have almost bought this light a few times. Still not sure if I’ll pull the trigger or not. But this will help me decide eventually if I want to buy one or not.

There seems to be enough data and users of the Trustfire 32650’s to prove their consistency and high amp/mAh performance. What we dont know yet is how they will perform as they age over time. I probably have around 10 discharge cycles through my set of 4… so far so good, but Im not counting on them to last several years; as I would a good set of name brand cells.

@texas shooter - Im on vacation for another week and will get you an ID for the tube when I get back. At first glance, it appeared that tri-boring might be possible if the beginning thread on the battery tube were strategically placed in-between two of the bores. As I mentioned, it would likely wind up with a castellated male thread on the battery tube after boring, but the threads look to be course enough to provide positive engagement when carefully twisted together. Removing the wrappers on a set of unprotected cells would yield even more clearance. Having said that, if I can get a year or two out of the TF cells, counter-boring would only be advantageous for a few more mAh or high drain IMR type cells. My thoughts now are that the light will run a continuous high-mode discharge cycle and not overheat if carried outside in free air. It has that kind of mass and heat sinking to do it reliably. I’ll probably try the resistor mod first to see how I like it.

Wow…the warhammer of light :smiley:

Gotta love those solid shelf heatsink heads

I would think a mod of 10mm copper sinkpads ( or turned down 16mm) and XM-L2’s and a driver boost (of course tail cap clicky upgrade…alot of amps running thru that switch) and that thing would become a MEGA beast…already alot there but would definitely make it that much more powerful flashlight

And in case of zombies…well it’s not the “chunky monkey” its the “skull crushah!” :smiley:

I went and pulled the trigger two days ago on this beast. After finding the 26650 KeepPower 5200mAh IMR26650 High Discharge, the 32650’s became a mote point. I plan on a simple mod with one ohm one watt resistor add. #$%* this is the biggest light so far, the head looks like an off road light. Now wouldn’t that be cool, six heads on a roll bar.

Thanks for the hard work
.

Ran the “Chunky Monkey” on three fully charged Keeppower 26650’s 5200 mah. It drew 3.04 amps off of full batteries and climbed to 4.54 amps when it shut down at 9.6 volts.

Thanks for the report! It looks like the driver is doing a great job of boosting the amps as the voltage drops. I hope is continues to offer that kind of boost performance after the resistor mod.

nice review :slight_smile:
These big battle-club lights are intriguing, i just wish some manufacturer could build one that produced a real-measured minimum 5000 or more Lumens, have a 3 plus hour run time on high, and a good heat dissipation to sustain it.

Thanks! :bigsmile: This light seems to be at the top of its 12X game in terms of handling sustained high mode use, both in terms of cell capacity and no V-sag while using the excellent 6500 mah TF 32650’s and in properly designed heat sinking. Id like to see something driven harder with active cooling, but many well designed lights do quite well as long as they are used as intended. ie: walking with them in the cooler night air… where air is actively moving past the cooling surfaces to exchange heat. This is one of them.

Im looking forward to texas shooter’s results after his resistor mod.

I think I’ve almost talked myself into getting one of these. I’m just a little backed up with mods at the moment.

For the resistor mod I’ve got a few on hand and a few coming; 0.9, 0.75, 0.62, 0.47. A little worried that at the lower voltages while charting out the amps raising, something will go poof. Tail switch? driver? I think I’ll set 7 amps at the tail the limit. I’m also putting heat sink fins on those 4 little black square thingies that we don’t know what they are, cause Trustfire scraps of the id #. Anyway those 4 Mosfets get very warm when the driver is near cut off at 9.6volts.