Review - Xtar H3 Warboy

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 ...

Im gonna ask this question in 3 reviews on H3, mine exluding :D!

So, the question is - does the thermal stepdown works on yours?

Seems like it doesnt on mine, it always stays on turbo even when the light becomes scorching hot!

Turning it down to high doesnt help either, the light still stays hot, hot, hot!!!

Wow , I have used the H3 quite a bit ( with headband ) , makes for an excellent work light .

But I use the lower modes ( less reflected light ) , I dont think I have run mine on high long enough for it to get hot at least not in the headband where it gets 90% of its use ...

And turbo ( or as high as it will go ) is just a little too bright , and I find I have little use for it ..

Hmmmm , I'll see if I can get it to do the thermal control thing , but even on turbo , I never noticed it getting more than lukewarm .

I guess you must be running it for extended periods ...

But regardless it should step down and step back up only when the temperature is acceptable, on mine it doesnt do that, it stays super hot when on turbo and really hot when ran only in high mode, it takes a little while for it to warm up on high, but it gets there.

The moonlight just 1lm?what the size of this light.how long you bought it?

you know its Australia when you see the hills hoist lol

I ran mine for 10 minutes , and it got very warm in the head , but it was not sizzling hot . I was quite able to pick it up and hold it .

+ After 10 minutes on turbo , my guess is the battery voltage would be such that output would be dropping ...

It never dropped into safety mode

Room temp is 23 Deg C

I just tested mine:

Turbo mode, ceiling bounce, no cooling of any kind:

0:00 - 81 lux, ambient temp
2:00 - 79
3:00 - 79 uncorfortable to hold, starts dropping slowly
4:00 - 51
5:00 - 65
6:00 - 78 back to full brightness
7:00 - 45
8:00 - 38 lowest low recorded, then raises
9:00 - 78 stays here for a couple second then drops again

After the whole body gets to an uniform temperature it ramps from 38<->78 constantly. I guess it works?

Conclusion: it will drop to approximately 50% output and then raise to highest again. This is a “dumb” regulation, a smart regulation would find the correct brightness and stay there, not jumping back and forth like this which is very noticeable if you’re in outdoors and 1,000 lumens becomes 400 in a short while.