CPF Cometa review

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?

Yeah, uh, NO. I just added up my expenditures at 3 stores and figure I’ve spent my coffin money on flashlights. :confounded:

(there has to be a joke or pun here somewhere)

My wife would kill me and scatter my ashes in the beams of my lights if she saw the totals on what I’ve spent in the last couple of years.

Noctigon Copy. Shaped like a Nocti but look at the cut outs for the leads, 2 lead holes, 2 narrow hold down holes. My 20mm Noctigons measure 20.5mm this copy measure’s 19.8mm. Probably why you have a bigger clearance around the Cometa pill mcpcb pocket, board can move around more?

Ahhh, you know I didn't look close, but not surprising! Thought the X6/X5 threads said they were painted over. Maybe that was in the early phases? Hhmm - ok, good to know... So does that mean the X6/X5's were these same copies?

Thanx KB1428!

Yep, your welcome Tom! I used a real Noctigon and the emitter is centered and less chance of clipping the emitter pad corner when you put the cover on, probably help with the leads touching the cover too, since you won’t have all that slop!! :wink: Check out the driver pocket 18mm O.D. 16mm I.D. not the same as my JAX X6 pill, probably the X6 pill is the same as the Z1 ? Not the cometa pill when it comes to driver component clearance?? :open_mouth:

Take a look at the solder pads on the Noctigon compared to the BLF Kronos? See a difference? Look at the difference in the DTP pads too???

Oh boy, gotta take a better look for sure now. Your pics really tell the story of basic differences - another case of apparent cloning. Dunno, must have missed this if it was discussed and noted before. Sooo many risks I'd think with a new MCPCB, different manufacturer, but really, Hank's were not so perfect and consistent over time - it's been detailed here on BLF, and emailing with Hank, he's had some stories of bad batch's, and bad pieces, etc.. But I always liked Hank's own QC with his knowledge and concerns, and good designs.

I'm gonna swap out the LED anyways, probably de-domed XP-L V6, so yep - go with a true Noctigon then to get it well centered, like you said. Could really reflow the noctigon in there, specially if it's a snug nice fit, then screw the cover (not screw actually) if I want to, black it all out.

The one that Melted Down, I direct solder bonded a 20mm Noctigon XP board to the pill, and reflowed a 5700k HI at the same time. Surface tension keeps it lined up to the pill holes for the leads, but I still use the round tooth pics to keep it located. Same if I ever want to reflow another emitter? :wink: I’ll do the same to the other (Cometa ) one if it gives me any trouble!! :smiley: But so far the Kapton Tap is holding the emitter board in place, and I had it apart a couple times so far?? :innocent:

I've often screwed down MCPCB's in zoomies, like this ZeusRay:

or this UF-T20:

Normally I don't care much about artifacts - they really aren't typically very bright anyways, but if you are fussy bout the beam, then blacking out the top surface area helps.

Tom while your in there, check for the High spot on the pill…. Ha! :smiley: Theres my Cometa driver pocket and driver Measurements /dimensions!! :smiley:

Thanks for the feed back guys i tried to fix the temp problems but i couldn’t lol clicked her so many times! I added a video with beam shots!

Does your battery check work? A few people with the BLF X6/X5 reported their batter check showed 2.5 even with a fully charged battery and it made the light step down in every mode.

What if we change the brass to a copper pill?

I "fixed" mine last night. So, to disable temperature monitoring and kick-down:

  • 1/2 click like a maniac til modes stop changing (>=15 times)
  • now you are in configuration mode, you will see blinks followed by a stuttering output
  • count until you are up to 7 blinks (again, each set of blinks is followed by stuttered/short strobe output)
  • after the 7 blinks, 1/2 click during the stutter/strobe, light should go on in roughly medium mode
  • 1/2 click while it's in this medium mode --- that should do it!!
  • turn light OFF for a couple secs, then get it back to turbo/max and verify the kick-down is no longer happening

Liking the beam shots & video. This actually looks like a nice performing light, throw sounds good & I like the ‘wall of light’ type flood zoomies give, this one looks like the flood actually throws a little bit as well, lower powered lights are usually very short ranged I find.

I just hope they sort the problems out for the EU batch and I might still consider picking one up after deciding to give it a miss when all the problems erupted.

It would be nice to not have to start stripping the thing down to fix problems before using it, especially when the issues aren’t caused by hot rodding a light to death as some use as an excuse, its just basic mechanical fitting type issues rather than advanced electronics!