Review - Xtar H3 Warboy

http://www.xtarlight.com/05-chanpin/p-001-1.asp?styleid=370 = Product Page ...

Lets get straight to performance :

On TURBO my light box gave me 1070 to 1100 Lumens

HIGH was 470L

MEDIUM 240L

And LOW returned 90L

Moon mode is so low my light box wont read it ..

Current Measurement :

Ok , this is simply what I was able to measure

TURBO was about 2.3A

HIGH was 0.95A

and MEDIUM 0.54A

with LOW giving 0.22A

Moon mode = To low to measure ...

H3 Warboy :

It is certainly a well made light , everything one would expect from Xtar. I simply cant find fault with the build quality .

Modes run Low , Med , High , TURBO .. ( With mode memory )

And to access Moon mode simply double click with the light on in any mode ..

To turn the light on just click once , to change modes click and hold , the light will cycle through the modes except for moon mode ( Remember , double click in any mode to access )

Now this is a 90deg light , and is designed to be used with a headband .

The headband is fully adjustable , and whilst Im not sure how big my head is , I did have to extend the head band as far as it would go . Which was actually very comfortable once opened as far as it would go . Do people have larger heads than me ? Yeah they do , so perhaps a slightly larger head band could be the way to go ( Perhaps an option to consider )

Back to the H3 , the on of / mode button is on top , battery goes in from the bottom , and its actually quite a small light for a 18650 as well as being rather light weight . Which is all good considering many will strap this light to their foreheads . And ever since receiving this light , I cant help but feel that it might make for an excellent bike light as well . A nice small trim figure 8 style handlebar mount for the H3 .

Back to the here and now :

Which ever way you look at the H3 , its a well made ( high quality ) trim and light weight light that puts out . ( Lumens that is )

Im really looking forward to it getting dark :

Beamshots !

I will see about trying for some video as well :

57

subscribed… beamshots awaiting…

What is the retail price for this headlamp and where can we buy it?

Thanks

http://www.lelong.com.my/xtar-h3-powerful-headlamp-premium-cree-xm-l2-u3-led-1000-lumens-texantel-I2276637-2007-01-Sale-I.htm

Its a little hard to find ATM ...

Check out Ebay

http://www.ebay.com.au/sch/i.html?_odkw=xtar&ul_noapp=true&_fromfsb=0&_osacat=0&_from=R40&_trksid=p2045573.m570.l1313.TR0.TRC0.H0.Xxtar+H3.TRS0&_nkw=xtar+H3&_sacat=0

Mine came yesterday (GAW on the other forum 0:) )

Only had time to play a little with it. It is a rather small light but it does not feel flimsy in any way.
Massive output for such a small light. Good mix of throw and flood. A good walking light, I guess.
There is no spring on the driver side. I think the “ring” on the driver side acts as a kind of inverse polarity protection.
Can’t confirm that this prevents flat top batteries from being used (had no charged flat top 18650’s available).

It is a good tailstander! First thing I thought off was reading in bed with my WarBoy besides me on the nightstand.
Talking about the bedroom: it has a moonlight mode that is so low you can look direct into the (LOP?) reflector.
So no fear of waking up everybody when you have the munchies :evil:

are you sure you can go over 1K lumen with just 2.3A?

What I was able to measure ..

Too many variables ...

I would expect the light output to be near enough correct , but measured current ?

There is a very small rim , that is not anodized , so how well the MM contacts ?

Cos when the tailcap goes on , it has a much larger contact surface ...

51

Video attempt , used a dashcam , didn't work out too well

Thanks for review!

Looks tempting, I have two of their smaller H2 lights on their way to me for close up work and Im looking for 18650 headlamp also!

This is, however, above my budget :D!

Oh and interesting that they dropped red emitter rom H3!

1000 lumens for 2.9 hours? No stepdown mentioned? That can’t happen. Please explain, thanks.

Obviously not , once the battery drops bellow a certain voltage level the light will drop out of regulation ...

The run time is for the mode , not the amount of light produced ..

The variable there will be the battery itself , and Im not going to get into all the battery variables that will affect run time ..

Take it as an estimation : And they didn't even mention which battery , (?)

Well, the question was not addressed to me but it made me curious and I dug up my DMM.

Based on a fresh loaded Olight 3400 mAh (4.19V):

TURBO was 2.56A
HIGH was 1.10A
MEDIUM was 0.54A
LOW was 0.21A
Moon mode = I guess less than 0.01A

Just for the record ……

edit: As I have no sphere nor a pipedream contraption I can’t give you lumens

Seems to me that to make out those 1.1klm otf should be above 3.2A…imho


Cree data sheet :

http://www.cree.com/~/media/Files/Cree/LED%20Components%20and%20Modules/XLamp/Data%20and%20Binning/XLampXML2.pdf

exactly, doing some maths, and taking some numbers i got that for u3 bin (cool white, which is the best in output lumens) I get, with 2.5A (it’s obv. lower at 2.3) considering an average of 340 lm at 700mA (between 320 25°C and 364lm 85°C) at a curve a multiplier factor of 2.8 (roughly) that gives me 952 lm at best, not considering losses, and the circuit efficiency, and these are LED lumens not OTF lumens.
But i surely will be wrong, I’ve never been that good at maths…. :frowning:

@old4570 i thank you for reviewing this headlamp, I, in no way, intended to comment the review itself, it’s the opposite, i’m glad you took some measurements, I was just thinking out loud about the xtar specs. Sorry if i offended you in some ways, i’m a n00b and i would never do that to an old(forum-member)4570

For comparing light levels , the camera does not show true output ...

No offence ...

1070L was the lowest reading I could get ..

It is in no way a direct relation to measured current .. Measured current is simply what I was able to measure ...

With the tail cap in place I would expect far better current flow ..

And lets not forget those terrible variables ...

The cree chart @ 2000mAh , = 776Lumen @ 85Deg C as the minimum output for this emitter .. ) Minimum (

Cree does not like to speculate about maximum because of the variables , so they bin there emitters by minimum standards ..

Now 320 @ 700mAh ( 85deg C )

364 @ 700mAh ( 25deg C )

Generally these are minimum ...

SO what happens if your emitter is above the curve ?

Remember emitters are tested and binned on making the minimum grade , so if it exceeds the standard ?

Anyhow , all I know after all these years , Is the Variables . Yes you can look at the numbers all you want , you can punch numbers into a calculator ..

But you cant factor for the variables when it comes to the emitter itself , or how well or badly it runs .

Oh for a 10 thousand dollar light sphere ...

Or even access to one , so you can calibrate your own light box or measuring tool ... ( PVC pipe or what ever )

I simply use a light of know output to calibrate my lightbox , and then measure ..

Its proven to be close over the years , very close .. ( SO I tend to trust the lightbox more than measured current )

Simply because if you reach for the calculator , current does not match output ..

Those super high current drop ins :

Years ago Manafont sold some XM-L P60 drop ins that could pull 5A or better .

Thats huge !!

Now if you got out your calculator , and started crunching numbers , you would see huge output figures :

Unfortunately reality bites hard ! Really hard !

With the emitter ice cold ( Winter ) I saw a 1300 Lumen start in my light box ..

Unfortunately heat related sag was almost instant , the output dropped in seconds to 1000 Lumen , then down to 900 Lumen and then 800 Lumen , and the longer you ran high the more the output dropped .. I saw around 400+ Lumen after a minute or so on high ..

These drop ins were crazy ! , the emitters simply could not sustain output at such high current ..

I started putting in 1.4A and 2A drivers into my XM-L builds because the emitters could sustain the output really well at these current levels .

So if I had a light that did 580Lumen , it would do it until the light fell out of regulation .

The pills drawing 5A would sag way bellow this output in the first minute , and probably damage the emitter .. ( So sure its great to brag about 5Amp )

So what was the actual point ?

And did output match current = No ...

But if you crunched the numbers , the paper output was insane , which was not really matched by reality ..

Emitters have gotten better , much better , more output at lower current ..

I have a XP-L V6, and a XP-G2 R5 , and will be building some drop ins , to test the emitters .

Both may be run with 2A drivers or 1.4A drivers ( Not sure yet )

I was thinking of dropping the Xp-L V6 into one of my Manafont P60 XM-L drop ins ( could be insane )

Quite a nice headlamp you got there, thank you old4570 for the review.

So many Variables :

If you were around for the SSC P7 , oh boy !

The big variable with this emitter was the vf ( or voltage forward ) ...

It ranged huge .. Anywhere from 3.4v to 3.8v or even over a larger range ..

Most drivers of the day were set to 3.7v to the emitter ...

If you were unlucky you got an emitter with a vf that was high ( very bad ) , and the emitter ended up being very average to be kind .

Or you may have got an emitter with a low vf , these emitters pumped hard !

Now the SSC P7 was not a cheap emitter , and to get a good one , you needed to buy a decent lot , like 5 to 10 emitters to get one or two outstanding ones , that was rather expensive .

I got about 6 or so all up , and only got one outstanding emitter .. and a lot of very average ones .

+ They were a PITA to utilize ... ( Mod with )

To cut a long story short , the XM-L buried the competition ...

And in the old days , getting a really good emitter was like winning the lottery , the XM-L changed that .

I played with almost all of them ..

SSC P4 - SSC P7 - MC-E - XR-E - Osram Diamond Dragons , and there was another one ( forgotten its name )

And they were all some what iffy , you may have got a good one , and maybe a bad one , paper numbers were ?? .

I had a diamond dragon that could do near on 300 Lumen , but it was fragile and I had to keep playing with it till I killed it ..

I had 3 Diamond Dragons and only one of them was good , the other 2 were very average .. Barely able to pump 200 Lumen ..

I recently found some Osram emitters fitted to bases , I will see if they pump or fail .. ( Dont know if they are dragons or not )

So , I dont know what more to say , except you get what you get ..

And there are just to many variables that affect out the front lumens , and one can only do the best one can .

No - just a general thing to say about trying to be as accurate as one can ...