CPF Cometa review

Hey guys today i will be reviewing the CPF Cometa (comet) sounds better in Italian!

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Okay where to start? This was a group build between us (BLF members) and the enemy at (CPF Italia) :stuck_out_tongue:

As always every one worked really hard to bring us this light! So a big thank you to Cyberescudo for all the hard work!

So i am not a big fan of adjustable beam flashlight but my first high powered light was a LED lenser zoomie but since then i have had about maybe 4 or 5 adjustable lights i feel they do have their own place in peoples kits just not mine. I am more likely to carry a head lamp and a thrower when i am out fishing.

Specs wise the Cometa is meant to be a beast now when receiving my light its not quite as good as the specs would suggest. Could very easily be on my side my tail cap reading is hitting 3amp max! So throw wise it doesn’t impress me. But as a flooder it is amazing the beam is wide and it is bright enough to light up my yard i have never had a adjustable focus lens this wide.

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Specs are as follows:
XPL High Intensity, tint: 1A and 3B
Regulation of the beam: wide beam —> throw beam
Around 1300 lumens in turbo mode (1A tint)
Around 900 meters of throw (1A tint)
Noctigon Copper mcpcb
22DDdriver +1 7135 driver(FET for higher performance in direct drive, 7135 to regulate lower levels )(Wight’s driver)
“Bistro” User interface: designed by Toykeeper
Highly programmable:
Choice of 1 to 8 regular modes from low to turbo
Thermal calibration
Muggle mode / simple mode
Mode order. Low to high, or high to low
Hidden modes (Tactical / police strobe, Battery check / beacon mode, Biking flasher )
Battery decimal voltage indication
Memory can be activated or deactivated
Moon level can be activated or deactivated
Protection against over discharge
18650 or 26650 compatible
K9 Lens with double AR treatment
Laser engraving: CPF Italia, COMETA, 2016
Anodization HAIII
Double gold plated springs (performance comparable to Spring Bypass)
Lighted Tailcap

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So my Cometa is the 1A tint and is running on a 18650 with the adapter in it is using a LG HG4 cell. I just got 5.5 amps @ the Tail cap.

I can only speak for myself but my build quality is decent no scratches or dint’s or no need to cover any thing electrical on mine! So for me that is a good start the head feel fairly loose i would have liked tighter threads so the head doesn’t rattle and make the light feel really cheap also touching the tail cap threads they are a bit sharp but still work good also i do not like the thickness of the body it just feels really thin measuring the walls of the threads on the body of the tube brings up 1.5mm compared to 2mm on the convoy C8 not a big deal i guess i just don’t like the way they look.

The supplied 18650 adapter could be better also it is to big for the IMR cells and it even to big for standard protected ICR cells and the cells still rattle in the light with the supplied adapter. the cells could even move enough to short out if your positive terminal on the cell isn’t covered proper with a sleeve. For most of you this isn’t an issue seeing as you are running 26650 cells but i do not own any 26650 cells.

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The over look of the light is probably the best adjustable flashlight i have ever seen it has good proportions and the lit tail cap is amazing just tops it of gives it a more expensive look the AR glass also helps. the overall dimensions of the light makes it a compact light same height as a C8 but a little bit fatter.
Being an adjustable focus flahlight it is bound to be heavier which it is easily twice as heavy as the C8 without the battery! All the weight is in the head of the flashlight thanks to the solid brass pill it is a heavy thing. I am surprised it would be then heaviest pill i have! So it is build to handle big power with the double springs at the tail cap means it can handle more amps easier.

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Hahaha fudge me i took the photo upside down because i am in australia! :stuck_out_tongue: wow flickr can let me flaip it mad i never knew! Now this is where some of your problems stem from this driver was meant to be 22mm but as you can see it is 17mm.
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This is my retaining ring for the LED as you can see it is still intact my solder blobs look well done that could be why mine is still intact?
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Just for safety i put some electrical tape on mine…
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The LED sits on a 20mm board copper based with direct thermal path and arctic silver paste is used i did not take the LED of the pill! It is a XPL-HI V2 1A my favorite emitter.
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The lens is AR coated for extra lumen.
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Mine is making okay power @ 3.5 amps i cant complain it could be more but my meter isn’t reading it i have tried with different leads and no change!

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All the threads work fine some i would tighter and some i would like loser.
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So you can see how bif the head is.
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Good anodizing on both sides of mine.
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This is the light in pieces
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This is the light fully extended
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Okay using it for a while outside now i can see a step down on every single mode? would any one know why? It does it about every ten seconds? faulty driver? I have never seen a flashlight step down on lower modes unless the battery is going flat but i just charged my cells. Weird behavior now i will add this to my list of things to do!

All of these photos will be with the lens extended so for throw. CLICK ON PHOTO TO MAKE IT BIGGER

Mode 1 in my hand
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Mode 2
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Mode 3
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Mode 4
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Mode 5
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Mode 6 Out of focus sorry
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Mode 7 bright enough to confuse the camera i like it.
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Mode 7 @ 100 meters
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On turbo mode so mode 7 with the lens adjusted back so in flood mode
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Okay so i took the light to my usual spot where most flashlights struggle! I take back what ever i said it throw as far as the eye can see and it still has room to go further! i do not get a photo of this because at this distance its hard i will get photos at maybe 4-500 meters. All as i can say is WOW
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Okay so i will upload a video tonight so you can see the different modes being used the video format makes it a little easier and i will try and work out my step down issue. Also will add some info later on tonight about the light.

Full video review here

Thanks for reading.

Regards Chris

G'day everydaysurvivalgear,

It is a Brass pill, & not a Copper pill.

Looking forward to the completed review.

Best Regards,

George

Edit:

Suggest you shift this thread to the 26650 Flashlights subforum.

Thanks mate
That would explain the weight i thought i read copper some where but oh well.

Thanks for doing the review!
Brass and copper weigh about the same.
About the always step-down on all modes: I have that in several group-buy lights (X5/X6) that have the Bistro software. I’m not sure what bug it is but it was annoying me and it disappears if you disable the turbo step-down via the configure interface.

Definite configured turbo or temp step-down. Pretty sure it's timing based like djozz said, though so most likely turbo. 30 secs is ridiculous for a light like this. It should have been defaulted to 2 mins at least.

Hhmm, can't post anymore to the main Cometa thread - no quote or reply options, no new post option... Weird? Maybe SB shut it down? It was getting nuts, so maybe...

That thread has been locked Tom.

Not a Noctigon.

Another caution - not sure if noted yet. Don't over tighten the bezel. The outer edge of my lens cracked and splintered. I removed the broken chard's of glass, and it is totally hidden when assembled. I can't be sure if it came like that or I did it the first time re-assembling.

I think there's something wrong, or bad tolerances up in the inside top of the bezel, because I don't think the Z1 had this problem. There is an o-ring there, like the Z1, but this stuff is probably very sensitive to tolerances and design.

Since mine is all tweaked up, greased up the zoom threads (better but not near as good as the Z1), and really thought I could gift it or sell it, but that bezel concerns me, if all someone has to do is give it a good CW crank.

Huh? Wut do you mean? My Cometa has a Noctigon, painted white, but a Noctigon.

Bistro uses thermal regulation for step down, you have to configure it by running the light on Turbo in level 7 until it is the amount of heat you’re willing to live with, then turn it off. It will then use this reading as it’s base for stepping down (or stepping back up when it cools down)

Enter configuration mode by clicking 16 times, the light will stop responding to your clics, each level will blink softly once for the level than “stutter”. (Yes, it takes a while to wait out all the levels blinks and stutters)

At Thermal configuration (level 7) bump (short press) to enter this level…the light will then come on in a medium level. If you turn it off here step down will be disabled. Leave it on in this med mode for a couple of seconds and the light will step up to Turbo. Do this with fresh charged cell, run it till it’s as hot as you wish. Turn it off. You’ve just configured the thermal step down.

Most Bistro drivers come in with the Thermal regulation activating at virtually ambient temperatures. Set it once like above, then forget it. This will solve your step down issues.

Ah, first time that I understand this, thanks for the explanation. It does mean that thermal stepdown is happening at all levels, not just at turbo.

Hot is hot, regardless of what level causes it. If the setting is too low, then the ATTiny25 attempts to reduce power to alleviate the low temperature setting.

I guess it would take an individual setting each and every light before shipping them out to have that working properly upon arrival, so of course it’s left to the end user only they don’t mention it.

Thanks Dale, my bad, should have known that!

When you say different leads, do you mean thicker? I.e. 10 or 12 awg leads?

If you just used a different pair of thin leads that won’t aid in seeing higher numbers.

I just made my Cometa safe with 2 insulators. And I bypassed the driver spring (which was single in my light) and I changed the emitter wires to 18AWG.
Now I read 4.9 AMPERES at the tailcap on turbo! Using one of the “lightweight” BASEN 26650 from the GB.

I got 5.79A tail on a clamp meter (UNI-T 210E) with the stock 24 AWG LED wires and stock driver spring, on a BASEN cell at 4.22v.

With the tail spring bypassed, and NO-OX-ID treatments and Nyogel on the o-ring/threads in the tail, I got:

Lumens: ~1,139 @start, ~1,071 @30 secs, 146.5 kcd taken at 5m (765 meters), all on a V0 3B stock XP-L HI

Wow!
I read some 4.15 before the mod. But I’m doing Ampere measurements with the DMM using short bare wires.
Or maybe there’s some other variation! As I don’t have other 26650ies I’ll try with some high drain 18650 and report back if I get significantly different readings.

The UNI-T cheap meters have outstanding quality, believe it or not, for high amps measuring. I work with a "super tech" here who swears by them, has several all over the lab, and the amps measuring circuitry he says is as good as his high end Flukes. $15 is what I paid for mine from eBay. It's this one at FT:

https://www.fasttech.com/products/0/10002748/1483104-uni-t-ut33d-1-9-lcd-palm-size-digital-multimeter

I also bought from FT this one, because of better features like auto power savings:

https://www.fasttech.com/products/0/10002748/1204400-uni-t-ut50b-25-lcd-handheld-digital-multimeter

Of course you still have to use short heavy leads... And, a clamp meter will still read higher, more significantly at higher amps.

If the wire loop is repeated, does the ensuing readout need to be divided by the number of loops?
IE: If 3 loops are used and the readout shows 12A, would that indeed be 12A or 4A?

Thanks, thought I’d heard that but with my memory it pays to double check. :wink:

When is this practical? A light with like 2.3A and a 20A setting on the meter? Something like that? Or say a 500mA UV light?