Review: UniqueFire R5

Oh man......guess im going to have to wait for that review when the drop-in comes in. So what do you have in mind to replace that sucky drop-in.

I'll probably just get a new driver and swap it in. Probably something that makes it 18650 only. That is likely to be a more efficient driver since it has a narrower range of voltages to deal with. Not sure of the current spec for the XP-G LEDs but probably of the order of an amp or so. The DX spec says 1,000mA to the LED so if I get a 2.7-4.2V 1A driver that will fit in the dropin, a spot of soldering and tidying up can be done at the same time. The actual reflector and pill are pretty nice - it is a solid metal reflector that screws onto the pill which is pretty nice even if the soldering was clearly done by a blind person with a stick - just like my soldering in fact....

Till I do, I have a nice bright single mode light. The peak lux reading appears to be the same for throw at a pretty good figure >11,000lux at 1 metre. Not many of my lights can beat that. Actually if it works well as a single mode I'm not too bothered about missing two flashing modes I'll never use and if I need less light there are the various small and tiny lights that are almost always on my person.

Why is it that on the site its says that you can use cr123's and rcr's but the input voltage is maxed out at 4.2volts.....i dont get it. With that specs it seems to me that using two rcr's at 3.7volts each will overdrive the led.

Battery Configurations: 1 x 18650 / 2 x 16340 rechargeable batteries
Voltage Input: 2.6~4.2V, 4.2V max

Which explains the fried driver.... It had been run for about 25 minutes on high with RCR123s.

I would send DX an email.......for a person that doesnt take a look at the input voltage they will more then likely use two rcr's and burn the driver out.....more misleading if you know what i mean.

Very nice! You made the frontpage with this one. Hope to see some runtime info when you get around to it. Thanks!

I'm pretty sure they said up to 8.4V for the 5 mode when I ordered it. I usually check that once I've received the light before i test it. It now says up to 4.2V and it appears they mean it. I now have a single mode that will run for over an hour on an 18650 at the same brightness as before on high - it is probably now a direct drive device. The PC I use for runtimes isn't reliable just now, it keeps shutting itself down - time to clean some heatsinks and replace some fans I think. I didn't get current measurements on the other modes before the driver died, but as a single mode, it pulls around 1.5A from an 18650 so 90-100 minutes on high. The spec still says 2xRCR are OK unless you look below and see that it also says max input voltage 4.2V. I fear i didn't read far enough.

I see we got another spammer as I typed this.

4 new ones this morning

Make that 5

6

Can we request Mr Admin to remove spam from this forum?

Well... We'll need to implement some other system here against spam. Let me think about it for a little while, and sorry for the unpleasant experience.

No mode memory, always comes on in high - certainly after it's been left for a few seconds. This may not be accurate as my memory may be wrong though - it is pretty common for 5-mode drivers to work that way.

The test range is rather more reflective than usual and it is kinda cold out there. Apparently we are getting snow on and off for up to two weeks. This is pretty unusual for here, while I'm way north of Moscow, the weather is kept in check by the seas all around us.

As you can see by the doggy footprints, Fizz likes it for a bit - gets herself coated in snow then tries to climb into my lap.

Beautiful snow... You would miss it if you moved elsewhere, the weather is quite boring when it doesn't snow.

But not so pretty when it takes 20 minutes to get out of my street (As it did this morning) and most of an hour to get to work which is less than 3km away. My car hates snow even more than I do. Boring weather is good. I lived on the edge of the Kalahari Desert from '84-'86. The daily weather forecasts used to amuse me. "Cold" was below 35C (95F) - "Hot" started at 40C (104F) and in October it did hit 50C with 100% humidity. But the cold season from June-Aug/Sep was great. The rest of the year, not so good. But predictable is a very good thing when it comes to weather. Even when it does mean 50C and 100% humidity. You knew to stay in bed those days.

When I looked out the window this morning to see the white stuff, all I wanted to do was go back to bed and pul the dog over my head. I tried but a 47kg dog does not make a good scarf

In between customers yesterday, took it apart and took some poor pictures. Sadly my colleague who owns a much better camera wan't in then.

Here's the dropin with its cockeyed spring that can't be persuaded to be straight. Note the exquisite soldering. I could do better while blind drunk with a stick. And I'm a messy solderer.

The reflector is nice. Solid metal and screws into the pill. Light Orange-Peel (LOP) finish.

Body - When screwed together, it is airtight. the body is very high quality.

It has a constriction at the throat so that batteries can't fall out of the front. This is a very good thing and is almost unique in P60 host bodies.

With an 18650. the perspective here is really messed up. This pic makes it look about the length of 9 18650's. It isn't - it is about 5mm longer than two 18650s

Head and tailcap

The parts.

Beamshots when the white stuff goes away.

I would not mind getting this light at all if the specs were right and the dropin performed as it should.

As long as you run it at 4.2V it ought to be fine. 8.4V it can't cope with. And the body is one of the best. Personally, I'm not keen on the styling, but it is very, very well made. I suspect the Seraph comes out of the same factory. One of Nailbender's dropins will work just fine. Irather fncy his 2xXP-G R5 and it isn't that expensive.

No idea if it's Surefire compatible as I'm not crazy enough to spend that sort of money on parts. It quite probably is. Certainly any P60 dropin will work. Will probably keep the (now single mode) dropin in it as it is still pretty bright - just single mode.

Well let us know how the new dropin works out....might just get it for the body.

Thanks, I see the spam is gone.....

But manual removal is going to be a pain for our administrator. I'd be willing to help since I seem to be awake at different times. The folkd.com spam seems to appear mostly 7-11am UK time.