Highest Sustained Output Tube Light?

LED Flashlights – General Info 18650 Flashlights
1

I’m on the hunt for a budget tube light (18650 or 21700) that has good sustained/regulated output. I prefer High CRI but I know I can’t have it all.

Im having a hard time trying to find something that beats my Sofirn SP31 V2.0 with LH351D that can hold a flat 600 high-CRI lumens for over 2 hours from a slim 18650 host per gchart’s test Sofirn SP31 V2.0 - Now with LH351D (+discount codes)

To do much better, I assume I’ll either have to choose a bigger host (21700) and/or a low cri emitter such as sst40 or XHP.

A few I’m considering include: convoy S21A B35am, s21B xhp50.2, and pioneman K21 xhp70.2. I know thrunite has some tube lights with good output, though on the greener side unfortunately.

Any recommendations? Thanks in advance.

2

Well, to get the highest sustained output possible, you need:

1. A high efficiency regulated driver to dump less heat in the host(so a buck or boost converter is basically needed).
2. Low VF LED setup(less power at the same current).
3. Efficient optic setup(not a problem with most lights now coming with high efficiency lenses).
4. Efficient LED setup(triple/quad LED or large LED in general).

That means anything with an XHP70.2, XHP50.2, Nichia B35AX, and triple/quad LED setups with good drivers are on the table :slight_smile:

Something like the KR4 with the new boost driver would be pretty good in that regard.

3

a tube light - usually the brightest ones have gigantic heads with heat sinks and 4 or more LEDs, is that ok?

and it may use 4 cells, so to me it would not be much different from a soda can style
except longer, instead of fatter

4

Technically not a tube light, the Zerbalight SC700d is a good example of what an efficient LED and efficient driver are capable of.

Zero Air review has great runtime charts.

It can sustain 945 lumens (90 CRI !!!) for 2 hours! It can also sustain higher modes for less time.

The new Armytek Prime C2 Pro is a tube light that would use a very similar driver and probably achieve similar results using the XHP50 LED. Its also very easy to open and mod incase you want to swap out the XHP50 to something else of your liking.

5

There are basically two ways to achieve high sustained output:

1, Good heat dissipation (unibody) and efficient everything. Like Zebralight SC700d.

2, Brute-force it with crazy thermal config and insane emitter amount. Like Emisar DT8.

6

Ah, yes. I should have specified a pants-pocketable tube light that runs on 1x18650 or 1x21700. At this point I’m leaning toward an S21b with xhp50.2. I haven’t seen any output tests for that particular combination but I imagine it’s performance is very similar to the S21A/b with sst40? But with more flood. It’s probably the best I can get without spending three times as much.

Thanks for all the tips and recommendations.

7

The XHP50.2 S21B should be great in that regard.

Actually, because it uses a boost driver and is a more efficient, it should be able to sustain higher output for longer.