It seems in every thread on BLF there is some complaint bout the driver in the light. It overheats, it reduces lumens too quick, its cheap, etc. So which lights have the best quality drivers? Is this a brand thing or model number? Is it based on price? Do the budget lights tend to have inferior budget drivers? Are the more expensive Nitecore’s and Fenixes any better?
So if your friend asked you: ” I want to buy a light that is the best quality and has the best driver, what brand should I be looking at?”
Lets narrow it down to 18650 and 21700 based lights.
Cheap drivers tend to be simple and easy to repair. But often don’t have reverse polarity protection (dangerous) or heat protection (also dangerous)
Complex drivers have more features, more failure points, harder and more expensive repair, etc…
Most expensive of all is usually integrated USB charging.
Some drivers have difference in efficiency, but I don’t know about that much. Usually high efficiency is more expensive, but few even use it as an advertising point
I always worry the fancy lights will wear out the memory. I don’t think much memory would be needed, so they could use something more durable than flash….but you know capitalism, designing products to fail means more profit
Overheating/throttling issue is a matter of people with unreasonable expectations: small surface area and little heatsinking material fo easy pocket carry. If it doesn’t have a fan and/or bulk, it won’t shed much heat. Typically, 18650 sizes can handle around 2w (will still get a bit hot), maybe up to 5w for 21700, popcans and large monsters probably around 8w, fan might double it up.
I don’t like cheap lights with no protection: my sister managed to blow up the Klarus Mi7 I gave her a discount on
All I read about in BLF posts is which lights have bad drivers. I have yet to hear someone say, such and such a brand uses the highest quality drivers.
Would be nice to hear a contrasting opinion on this very much covered subject.
I have read good things about Zebralight and Elzetta drivers on the forums, something about regulation, potted, etc; but I have not gotten around to getting a ZL or Elz yet, so I can't say for myself. It appears that the same applies to other higher priced edc lights, but I can't say for myself, being a mid-price range edc person.
Most of my lights have drivers I built myself (through Oshpark & BLF threads), the 12 I have done so far are FET linear drivers and very simple. Even though they are simple the BOM alone came to 4+ USD per driver, which is high if you consider the few parts and functionality. I learned a lot from BLF and those drivers, but also spent more than 50$ in parts alone (excluding tools).
Other, more complex drivers have very high costs but can also be very good. Loneoceans had a driver design I really wanted to replicate, but the costs didn’t allow it.
Any light that can take 2 CR123A or RCR123A cells has a buck driver (Nitecore, Olight, Acebeam, etc). Convoy has proven that an affordable boost and buck driver can be really efficient, as have other companies like Kaidomain and others selling rebranded Manta Ray drivers. I have a 2s-3s buck driver in a project that runs a xhp70.2 and has really good runtime and regulation. It cost about $7 shipped. The Kaidoman boost drivers are also efficient and good for 30 watts. Convoy has efficient drivers also that can be swapped into hosts or retrofitted.
However, boost/buck drivers have a limit to output based on the inductor (g99d ones go to 7-8 A) so you won’t get crazy output like with an fet or fet+1, or linear 7135 chips. I think you get what you pay for with mainstream driver designs, but any boost or buck driver is going to come at a cost premium over a simpler driver. The advantage is constant regulated output that doesn’t decrease brightness based on battery voltage, so long as the battery cam provide over 3 volts to keep the driver in regulation.
True. I use a boost driver powering a 100W flashlight, but I can’t fit it in my pocket and it weighs about 6 lbs. Maybe one day someone will design one that can handle 160 watts and fit on a 26mm pcb? The only one I know of is the taskled hyperboost, but it’s $50 and needs at minimum 2S to work.
I think most people agree that zebralight make the best drivers and flashlights. They are made in USA and the quality is there, but you have to pay extra cost for this quality. The downside of zebralight is that they do not usually use leds that people concern with tint and color will choose, and they also use a UI that is unique to them. But it seem like many people enjoy the simple UI. The only drivers I know that some manufacturer are using higher quality ones is the new Fireflies flashlights like E12R and NOV-MU with lume constant current driver and using Toykeeper’s Anduril UI, it seems that it is designed by loneoceans. Some other manufacturers like Convoy also have some high efficiency boost and buck drivers, but I think those are clicky type driver, not e-switch.
In my opinion, I would like to see more flashlights using higher efficiency driver like zebralight and lume, even better with open source firmware like Anduril!
From what I understand, olight’s modern drivers are very efficient. I can’t comment on the rest - build quality or repair-ability, etc. It’s everything else they do wrong (marketing, proprietary charging and batteries, cool white LEDs)
Love my Zebralight. I’ve been trying to replace it (higher CRI, better tint, better efficiency, not a side switch)… but everything falls short. It is still my primary travel light.
What does the SC31 Pro use? It seems like a decent driver to me but I don’t know enough. I do like the thermal regulation and being able to see the temp and the voltage! Is that even part of the driver though? Not sure I understand the difference between the driver and the UI.
