FireFox IV we have lift off (Pic heavy)

LED Flashlights – General Info
1

Well it’s arrived! Thanks to Judy at flashlight-torch.com and DHL.

Firstly sorry but main camera bat expired other camera works so duff pics at the moment, anyway bright sun here…

First impressions, Very well made, great finish and no blemishes. a nice black in colour. It is head heavy but not overly.

Threads smooth.

For those interested Panasonic protected NCR-A-B won’t fit (will upload the photos later). Unprotected Bs fit fine and work OK so far.

The manual is all Chinese, so no help.

The tail switch is smooth in operation, once operated you are in standby, wish there were some form of indication that you are in standby, (revision for FF5?) I will add a LED at some time in the future.

Rightttt press side switch……. Ohhh smooth… oooo light…ramps nicely from cold (not checked with watch) but a few seconds later and hmm better get the sunglasses on. Press side switch again and the mode changes to low. From cold it takes about 5 seconds to get to SRK clone level. Not really have the hang of things yet, but after it warms up a long press gets it to turbo. Once warm switching on is quick just enough time for your eyes to adjust.

Going to be interesting when it’s dark.

more impressions later

Bit more! Afraid I’m a DH there is an indicator when it is on standby….the tail cap button glows, in my defence not that bright (good) but in sunny daylight at least I can’t see it….

Talking about the tailcap there are two good sized holes which should not interfere with tailstanding for a lanyard (not supplied). Also still not able to get turbo with 100% certainty (wish the manual had English) could be a rather large consumption of Guinness and Magners did not help matters as well.

Camera still not working so no beamshots tonight sorry.

Impressions of the beam are that it is more focused on throw than the FF3 Brighter than a TM26 on high and owns it on Turbo throw.

A few numbers, not definitive only as a comparison, ceiling bounce test

………………………………… Low…….High…………Turbo

SRK clone 2xl2t61lt6……………16………144

TM26 ……………………………………….143………….279……………………………….

FF4………………………………………….337………….500

More to follow

Answer to some questions as to the cells…. they are in series

Some pics most were a disaster will have to find a place with little veg in the foreground.

Not quite dark but the 4 on high trees right at the back 300yds+

Tm26

Control just before the FF4

FF4 turbo

Did some testing, some figures seems to fit well while there seems to be an almighty anomaly sitting there…

Ok here goes (I believe my meter under reads between 4-5% checked against a known meter).

control TM26 (@ 10mtrs) 41.1kcd

FF4 ,40w,(@10mtrs) 221kcd

FF4 turbo……(@10mtrs) 327kcd

Ok an attempt of lumens measurement. Firstly again using the TM26 as a control the 40w measurement came out with a figure near 4900, 400 lumens more than I expected but the turbo figure was ridiculous at over 7300 lumens, so I am going to have to check things very carefully to see where I have gone wrong….

Also It’s only had a total of around an hour of use.

2

BEAMSHOTS

BEAMSHOTS

BEAM SHOTSSSS

Looks great! thanks for the photos.

I’m going to hopefully grab the first one that goes up sale used.

3

sucks about the battery carrier for protected cells and BEAM shots now….haha.

4

Very cool, nice looking beast right there. :slight_smile:

5

Am I seeing correctly from the photos that even with if the spring were removed the those protected 18650 cells still aren’t going to fit?

6

I would say that battery carrier setup is a design flaw, why on earth did they not make room for protected batteries?

7

Battery rack

  1. The battery rack with indicators shows the status of the over current, short circuit, over discharging, reverse polarity protection.
  2. Over-discharging protection is for the total voltage detection, a good conformity of batteries is required.
  3. When the battery level is less than 10%, system will cut off the power and get into protection mode.
  4. When electric current is large or frequent switching on/off in a short period, system will cut off the power and get into protection mode.
  5. When flashlight is in protection mode, just turn it off to relief the mode.
  6. While in cryogenic environment, switching on flashlight may trigger the protection mode. Just restart it to relief the mode.
  7. If the rack is loaded with batteries, do switch it off while sliding it into the flashlight.

Battery

  1. The battery rack consists of four nonprotected 18650 lithium batteries.
  2. Please use good quality battery with capacity more than 2,400 mAh, and internal resistance less than 100 mΩ. Even better they are of the same type and of the same batch lot. Sanyo 2600 mAh or the Panasonic 2900 mAh are recommended. Please avoid the usage of dismantled batteries.
  3. Use good quality charger to ensure battery’s balance and lengthen its life span.
  4. When fitting batteries into the rack, connect the negative pole (flat surface with no hole) to the spring.
  5. Make sure the capacity of each battery is of the same level because over-discharging damage is easily occurred on batteries. Avoid situations like: a certain battery is consumed alone or some batteries are forgotten to recharge.
  6. Four Sanyo 2600mAh batteries will normally last 45 - 75 minutes(Overheating auto reduce power, depending on the use).
8

Protected Pans you would have to take the spring back to nothing even then doubt it. With Shorter protected, like the FF3 you would have to cut the springs, but not sure protected would work anyway.

Why? the torch was designed for unprotected cells, the current draw even demands a select few unprotected cells, The carrier is designed and made for unprotected cells.

Oh yes :bigsmile: it looks better in the flesh and it goes even better than that J)

9

it looks like im going to be springing for some unprotected PD cells by the looks of that carrier

no biggie

im waiting for batch #2 of these lights… mostly because i dont have the $ now and to make sure all bugs are worked out :slight_smile:

10

Awesome! Thanks for the info!

I too will make a cup of tea and read this very carefully. :slight_smile:

11

Here we go again…

The light does not monitor individual cell voltages. Protected cells would be safer. There are protected cells capable of the current draw of the FF4. If you use unprotected cells that aren’t very well matched you could end up with a cell that’s over discharged.

12

Stereodude, the cells appear to be in parallel (springs all on one end). This can be verified buy loading up the holder and measuring the ‘pack’ voltage.
If it is in parallel, then it probably does monitor the voltages, all at once. At the very least, there’s no risk of reverse charging.

13

I thought the same thing when I saw the battery carrier, but xmint stated that it’s in series at the bottom of his first post.

I would also have liked a parallel setup.

14

My bank account is hating you right now…

15

Then that is one complicated carrier. It must use the posts to route between the cells. Would have been easier to just reverse two of the cells.
But then again, I am not a flashlight designer… what do I know. :smiley:

16

It is DESIGNED for UNPROTECTED cells If anyone does not like that or/and feels it unsafe, they should consider another HID light say a PH50.

It’s not brain surgery to use quality cells and keep track of their relative states.

17

Just to make sure I have just stuck the dmm probes on the contacts… 14.6volts so unless something very fancy is going on it’s in series, fair bit of space for the circuitry between the springs and the contact plate,

Also not sure if you could get a HID to work on 4v

18

I can’t wait for you to test your light at night. I want to see its beam shots.

19

[quote=xmint]

I figured that they would not go for a complicated boost system to get the right voltage, but one can only hope for it. Most of these lights go for a battery pack, so the cells used remain properly managed.
This light doesn’t target the casual flashlight owner, so I’m guessing they expect their owners to understand the battery issues.
I wonder what is inside that carrier… could cell monitor circuitry be in there??? I think it’s possible that under-voltage circuitry could be right in the carrier. There is a a lot of extra space in that negative end. Hmm…

20

very cool. lucky guy you