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

Im just catching up…

RMM pumps out custom mod lights like crazy, so it would be difficult for him to remember the details of each. Here’s some notes from Richards PM (copy/paste) concerning his FET driver build for my J20:
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i. I put one of the 46mm SRK drivers in mine, but it is still a bit too small so I soldered some shims on the outside ground ring. I also soldered two qlite springs together on the battery side that were then assisted by a silicone wire (in lieu of copper braid.) I also added the zener diode and off-time FW and capacitor. Usually the 46mm driver is used with an e-switch, but it doesn’t need to be.

That said, none of them are a direct drop in but any of the FETs could work if piggybacked onto the stripped stock driver. You will need it zener modded or else it will fry in very short order. For me the 46mm option was the easiest, but if I were to build a bunch of them I think I would just strip the stock driver, reflow the FET onto one of those pads, then piggyback a zener mod driver to control that FET.

ii. Yes, you do need to rewire the emitters. You need 3S4P. I also swapped the down wires to 22 AWG silicone.

iii. Copper braid everything else if possible. This light can handle the heat, no problem. Surprisingly the tail switch has been holding up to 15A+ for a while now.

If you have any more questions feel free to ask!

Richard
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As for recharging TF32650 unprotected cells, Ive been using an Xtar SP2. If you push the cells slightly off-center in the charging slots, it will allow the cell ends to make contact with the tabs and charge a pair of these cells @2A each.

From another thread: Discharge result at 10 Amps is 5797mAh. The unprotected TF32650’s are awesome and dont even break a sweat at 10A sustained discharge rates.
Trustfire TF32650 6000mAh test/review After removal of the crappy PC, compare the 10A curve (capacity and sustained voltage to any 26650, and they all lose). I have 12 of these cells that have been cycled at 7A several times. Although they are less than a year old, they discharge evenly with the same ending voltage in 3S config and havent shown any signs of deterioration yet… which is usually not the case with any of the Chinese cells. So AFAICT, no other cell of this size or smaller can match the capacity and sustained high voltage of the unprotected TF32650 @10A.

IMO, all else being equal, its not worth the L2 on copper upgrade since human eyes wont notice a large increase in apparent brightness. Different tints are a whole other ball-game. :bigsmile:

I agree that the dollar per lumen price to upgrade beyond the driver and resistance mods is huge...and not a very good value. But sometimes we do things that don't make much sense.

What’s this? Everything we do makes sense! :smiley:

Thanks Flash and RMM,

This is some great information you’ve both posted. RMM I’ll be contacting you to see when I can send you my J20 and have some of these mods done. I know you’re very busy these days, but perhaps we can schedule something. I think beyond pushing this light for a bit more power, getting rid of useless flashing modes would be great.

Also, nobody seems to have the Unprotected TF cells. I may consider purchasing the protected version and removing the protection myself. I’ll look into a good retailer and try and determine if they are at least selling real TF 32650’s.

You’re welcome. Im sure you’ll enjoy RMM’s new mods once you get your light back. I just checked my source for unprotected TF32650 and they are out of stock. I just put in a product request to fasttech so hopefully they will carry them soon. FT still offers surface shipping on lithium cells, which takes about 45 days to the US. You can request FT to carry items here: https://support.fasttech.com/tickets/RQST

Maybe RMM would like to carry these and eliminate the long wait times. What do you think Richard?

None of the suppliers I order from carry 32650s...I've checked with several of them. I might need to do a bulk order to somewhere else to try and get some.

I ordered some from Fasttech for myself back in July, and they still haven't shown up. Tracking never updated and now I might be out of luck, unless they show up sometime. I ended up getting some from a local forum member.

Would protected TF 32650 be ok in a stock J20?
Or they still suck too much for it?

No clue which way they sent them. It was Philippine Post, which was the only option at the time. As usual I opened up a ticket...they said just wait. I've given up on them now since I think it would take a miracle for them to show up after 80+ days, but it could happen.

Thanks for checking into a source for these. Did FT send them surface or air? I just received some 4k KK32650’s in about 45 days via surface shipping from FT.

Edit: I just deleted and reposted under my flashlipot account (from my flashpilot-x60 account) Sorry for any confusion.

You should be fine. If you decide to mod your light in the future, you can remove the protection circuits yourself. Id like to find a source for the unprotected versions so I dont have to cut up the cool looking TF wrapper. :smiley:

Thanks mate :slight_smile:

Any time :beer:

I got in on the pre-order for the Enova ALL-80 8x Li-Ion + NiMH Charger, Richard is presently offering at Mountain Electronics. I can always use an 8-bay charger for all these 18650 and 26650 cells I have. Since it also handles the 32650’s, I’m now commited to getting my hands on some high end 32650 cells since the Trustfire J20 can use them.

Needless to say, anyone comes up with a good supplier, please post back here or start a new thread.

Mountain Electronics

Hi folks,

Since the Trustfire 32650 cell seem to be the best cell of this size, I’ve opted to go through Trustfire directly to purchase some, but without the protection circuit. The price I was given by my Rep was $7.55 each. But this does not include shipping. Depending on shipping costs, I’m going to purchase 3 or 6 of them. When I get the total cost, I’ll be sure to post.

I’ll be on the lookout as well. Im might need more cells if I join in on 18sixfifty’s TR-J20 GB.

I just unscrewed the head pieces to check out a mod Ive been considering. There appears to be plenty of room for active cooling inside. A moderate sized cpu heat sink and fan could be modded and attached to the underside of the floor plate and a 2 chamber plenum fabbed out of thin aluminum sheet to efficiently channel the air. With a good drill press to bore the vent holes, it would be possible to make it look pretty close to stock. Things that make you go, “hmmm…”. :bigsmile:

Hi FlashPilot,

Purchasing the Trustfire 32650 Unprotected cells directly from Trustfire doesn’t save any money. But you do get top service from them and don’t have to worry about buying fake items. They also only ship Li-ions with proper labeling on the box and use approved shippers, so you likely won’t have to worry about customs finding them and sending them back to where they came from due to improper shipping labels.

Also, unlike normal online retailers that offer free shipping for a flashlight or batteries because shipping costs are built into the price shown, Trustfire doesn’t do this, so shipping is always added to the order.

So the 32650 cells actually cost $7.55 each and shipping is $44.63 for up to 1kg of weight. So it isn’t cost effective to purchase, say only 3 cells, so I opted for 6 of them and the shipping is the same. But it puts the total cost per cells at nearly $15.00 each, which isn’t to far off the price of other retailers, at least for the protected version. From my research, at this time, it seems the only place to get the unprotected Trustfire cells is directly from Trustfire.

They have an order in right now to replenish their stock of the unprotected version, so the ones I get will be as fresh as can be. So there will be a slight delay for me to get them which is about 2 weeks, but I’m fine with it.

Richie;

Who is your TrustFire contact and their email address please, and with current post office battery shipping limitations is the shipping price you listed via DHL or UPS or some other non-postal air shipping company? PM the email address if you prefer. From what you say of shipping costs the price for FastTech to ship my TR-S700 must have been a bit steep. Maybe why the price with shipping was just under $120 with the BLF discount. At the same time the J20 is under $100 from the same source. Not sure of the logic as both are massive lights and with the added LEDs I would think the J20 would have higher material costs.

BTW your link does not work for Firefox. I think that you need to remove the ending close bracket.

Hi Rich, the shipping price quote was for UPS. I’ll PM you the information.

Thanks for the update and your thoughts. Your delivered price seems reasonable from TF, considering that the cells should be of recent production, properly packaged for transit and authentic (although I doubt this cell would be counterfeited when considering its limited market). I wonder how many could be shipped @1kg weight. Any idea? The more the merrier. :bigsmile:

It will be interesting to see how well the TF32650’s hold up after 2-3 years. So far, mine have easily beaten every Chinese made cell Ive come across (in terms of their resistance to deterioration). I was seriously considering having a 9 or 12 x 18650 tube machined for the J20, but Ive been amazingly happy with the TF cells so far and will probably stick with them.

I’ll follow up again with Fasttech and see if they reply to my request for the unprotected TF32650. You guys might want to put in your requests as well. If they do finally stock them, they will also likely be of recent production and low price

Please let us know how your TF transaction goes. Ive heard nothing but positive remarks from others who dealt with TF direct.

Its still hard to believe this light carries the TF name…

Thanks for the close up pics. The ano actually looks pretty decent to me in the pics.

I have a habit of gauging ano by looking at its sheen. The more dull it is the high quality! lol At least thats what my hypothalamus transmits to me.

Can anyone verify the relationship between the types of ano and their respective sheen?