single 18650 + XHP70: nitecore TM03

i also have the p20, and the p20’s strobe is brighter than the tmo3’s strobe.
although my p20 is slightly modified, doing about 1300 lumens, but even if it looks to be the same brightness as the tm03, thats only 1300 lumens when turbo is 3000 lumens?

well i also compared it with an imalent DDT40 that’s putting out constant 3000+ strobe.
Again, the TM03 puts out lower lumens on high frequency. But occasionally when it hits low frequency, it’s comparable with the DDT40

What’s the purpose of strobe, in the first place? The definition might also define the answer to this query…

I would venture a wild guess that strobe is typically used as an attention getter. Car is down, strobe is being used to alert oncoming traffic of a situation where caution must be used to proceed. In this case, time is critical, having a cell die on you could put you at great risk, so having a lower powered strobe that does the job and allows run time only makes sense. Yes?

Strobe works well in running the racoons off from my porch stealing the cat foot and from my neighbors rabbits. But ya I think its mostly as a signal/attention getter. A 1000+ lumen strobe will blind any person and give time to run away. Is there really a need for 3000 lumen strobe?

That’s what I’ve always seen the strobe use to be. If I somehow get lost or hurt in the forest I just might be able to strobe a search aircraft.

The TV advert’s where it’s used as a weapon is pure BS unless the perp is subject to grand mal seizures.

Exactly Brian, even the red/blue/white police or military strobe is just not gonna stop someone, especially someone running away. (my luck they’d be shooting at it!) Any bright light in the eyes of a dark-adjusted perp is going to gain you some time to make plans, but it won’t be long and plans better be executed quick cause now they’re mad at ya as well!

A good Chow will have fun with the Racoons…

+1

I never understood what tactics people had in mind after using a strobe for ‘self-defense’.

Even if you engage with an element of surprise, your ability to react thereafter is past what a flashlight can do.

And if the strobe blinks more than 10x in California or NY without recharging it would be illegal.

What’s the rate of the strobe on that law Brian? Could a guy dump a 14 round magazine with double taps fast enough for the strobe effect to get him in trouble? :stuck_out_tongue:

ROTFLMAO!

14 rounds period will get you in trouble unless you can do the last 4 silently, as in hellywood silent. (and then bribe the coroner examiner to not see the holes that were seen)

I saw some shooters in July that maybe, just maybe, could beat the strobe. Seeing is as close as I get to that performance. But I think after scorekeeping for them, and shooting an all classifier match, I moved from a D class shooter to a C class shooter just by figuring out what was important and how the formula was weighted. But it’ll take time for USPSA to figure it out and send me a new card. That’s if it happened, but I think it did. It may have happened for others as well if I saw it correctly.

BTW, Max Michel is just a machine. I saw some fantastic times on “my” stage, and he just blew them away. All timing, PERFECT timing. :person_facepalming: Not me. I DQ’ed the match after just 8 rounds. Totally my fault and when I did it I just stopped. I caught myself red handed and made my gun safe. I stayed to score the squad as we were undermanned, of course I scored the event and we were undermanned there as well. But I learned that this old fart can either shoot or score but not both.

For those scratching their heads I gave plenty of clues for an internet search.

+1

That was funny!

for the most part yes, attention getter. but it also act as a self defense tool for me. and since this light has a secondary switch for easy access for instant strobe, i see this as a good self defense light.
i train in the full contact combat art called krav maga, and they teach us how to fight with a flashlight.
and the strobe actually helps a bit. at first, we thought just a blast on turbo mode would do the exact same thing, but no, strobe was more effective. its more disorienting that a constant bright light.

I got my Tiny Monster today. Really like the overall look, something about a mega deep reflector just works for me. :slight_smile:

No pocket clip, no lanyard. The picture on the box shows a pocket clip on the light, oh well. No papers either, which is odd, as I know for a fact that Nitecore puts a brochure of their line-up in the package and has a warranty card as well as a User Manual. I know this because I just got the Nitecore MH20GT yesterday. :wink:

At any rate, really like the light, got the cell charging, will look into opening it up and defeating the proprietary measures after I’ve gotten some readings from it in box stock form. Looks like the battery tube/head is all one piece, so the access will have to come from up top through the bezel.

Will let ya know how all that goes…

Freshly charged TM03 cell, lightbox says this…

55.65 Lumens
662.4
1593.9
3091.2

Now to solder the proprietary top cap onto an Efest 3500mAh cell. :wink: (this proprietary bit taken off the Panasonic PF I bought before the light got here.)

Thanks for the measurements. Assuming the reflector/lens is 83% efficient, that is 3724 LED lumens. Estimating from djozz’s graph, that is about 5A through the emitter. Is this the most powerful 6V boost circuit in a stock flashlight?

Ever once in a while, a leading manufacturer gets it. They listen. Sometimes they even do it without a bunch of hoopla or fanfare. Nitecore is one of those companies. They have been quietly listening in the background and then they put it to work.

And when I see this, inside a light, I get it. And I put it back together and leave it alone. :smiley:

Cree XHP-70 on a proprietary strip of copper, soldered to a thick copper threaded heat sink and powered by 14ga wires. WoooooHoooo! :smiley: The copper sink looks to be about a quarter inch thick. Love it!

My Efest 3500 18650 is a success, 3129.15 lumens with as much run time as can be had from a single 18650 cell. Booya!

nice

can you explain your cell mod?

+1 I’m interested in your cell mod too please!!!

I bought a Nitecore TM03 proprietary cell while waiting for the TM03 to arrive. With all the speculation I just had to unwrap it and see what they did to make it proprietary. There is a circuit board they put on top of the cell, a Panasonic PF, that has a ground ring around the button top. The ground ring has two copper strips running the length of the cell and welded to the bottom of the cell. Then there is a metal disc with yet another copper strip on top of an insulation disc (cardboard) at the end of the cell covering the previous two copper strips. This last ground strip comes back up to the circuit board on top, soldered to the board independent of the main ground leads.

Removing all this from the PF cell I soldered it onto a new Efest 3500mAh dark purple cell that is rated as 10A continuous, 20A pulse, or essentially slightly better current capability than the PF cell and some 600mAh more capacity (PF is 2900mAh) Then I rewrapped the combination with covers given with cell purchases from IMRbatteries.com in Houston. Works just like the factory cell but with a better cell inside. :slight_smile:

(I’ll use the PF cell elsewhere.)

I intended to see what could be done about bypassing this proprietary set-up and allowing use of a normal cell, but when I saw how well made the light was inside I simply put it back together. Probably later I’ll remove the insides and figure out what to do to use normal cells. I don’t really worry about having the protection circuit and that’s mainly all that circuit board adds.

Is the code still available please?