Texas_Ace BLF Calibrated Lumen tube / Sphere No math skills needed - Several spheres still available

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Before order
We know in advance that this is just a toy.

but

This is an amazing toy.

:beer:

Indeed, I would be happy to work with him to figure this out if he would work with us instead of against us.

I have never said the sphere is fool proof or perfect, it is not perfect.

It is a $100 version of a $10,000 device, it will of course have to give something up to be that much cheaper. Perfection is just the first thing on that list.

I am thus far quite impressed with how well it has done given the price point though.

It’s a pity if we kill this thread simply because of this. I can see many folks here will post great information/data in the months or years to come that can greatly benefit the community. I’m sure once we get Maukka’s light, there will be some new constructive activity on this thread. Also posting in this thread is the best way to obtain product support.

Yea i am very happy with the TA tube… the best $200 i have ever spent. I tested flood and even the extreme thrower lights and they all seem to give great results.

No more ceiling bounce test for me… lol.

I know you would & I honestly hope it will come go that. Where whatever the discrepancy may be can be addressed & resolved.
That would be the best case scenario by far.

That said… I am extremely happy with the results I am getting from my tube.

I have learned a lot reading this thread also…… keep it open. :wink:

Thread closed until tempers cool.

Cool.just in time. Calibrated lights are arriving and this pub is serving pints o knowledge again!

Looking forward to results being posted. My lights have not arrived yet, but they will probably be here any day. :slight_smile: Looking forward to using them…. :+1:

Another shout out to makkua for selling these lights!
He did us all a great service…… :beer:

Did you add the extra discs to get it to automatically reduce it 32%? Then you shouldn’t need to use any correction factors.

I am probably doing something wrong. I am rereading the thread.

Your tube should already have the discs installed and thus not need any additional correction factors.

The diffusers are installed. I thought my readings were too low and I must have misunderstood part of the thread. I guess I was just shocked by how low my lumen ratings were and was trying anyway to get some readings closer to what I thought that they would be. I started dividing by the correction factor and now I realize my error. My Convoy L6 modded with a mountain electronics FET driver and xhp 70.2 is reading 3200 lumens without any math adjustments. Using fully charged orbtronic IMR hybrid cells that have rested for 1 hour. Thrunite V6 catapult reading 1300 lumens in turbo with the stock battery fully charged and rested. Thrunite TN36 limited NW reading 6500 lumens.

Hmm, the L6 is reading low, although an FET driver is not the best thing to compare. I did a search for those cells, they came up with 5700ma cells? I don’t know those cells myself but they would seem to not be high drain cells which will cause lower readings. I get around ~5k lumens on my own L6 with high drain cells.

Do you have any more “standard” lights to compare?

I tested all these spheres with my test light here to make sure they were reading good before packing them.

I should have clarified that I used 18650 batteries with a tube on my Convoy L6. Orbtronic batteries my Trustfire 5000mah protected 26650 actually read lower 2900 lumens and my LittoKala 26650 Lii-50A 5000mah reads 3250 lumen. My Emisar D4 nichia 219c reads 1300 lumen. Thrunite tc20 NW reads 2500 lumen. Don’t really have any ”standard” lights.

I replaced the batteries in my lux meter and no change. Checked fitment and it is in there tight.

Thrunite v6 should be around 1900 lumen and tc20 should be around 3500 lumen…

Maybe try switching the correction discs ??

That is strangely low, I would pull the end of the tube off any make sure no packing material or something like that got stuck inside or anything else that could cause the readings to be low.

If it still reads low you can ship it back to me and I will check it with my standard light again and ship it back to you for free.

You have the centering discs setup with the foil side down correct?

Can you get a picture of how you are using it?

Yes, all of his readings are strangely low like there is something inside blocking the light or the discs are the wrong way. Not sure but they are all lower then expected.

Worst case he can send it back and I will check the calibration and figure it out since he is in the USA.

Texas_Ace offered to pay for me to ship it back. I am going to wait until I receive a set of lights from Makkua, I am trying to refine my testing process. I am going to do some readings from the tailcaps and emitters where possible. I do have the foil side down. Going to check some voltage readings with my oscilloscope because I don’t really trust my cheap multimeter and maybe my battery charger is crap. I use a LiitoKala Lii-402 battery charger and maybe it isn’t fully charging my batteries. My multimeter I check voltage with is really old and abused (with a new 9v battery). I will take an xhp 70.2 emitter out and connect it to my bench power supply tomorrow and take a few more readings, some of my batteries are really old. No reason to be upset yet.

After reflowing my tail cap springs using desoldering braid and some flux and non-lead solder wire on my V6 Catapult I am reading 1700 lumens. I will take that reading! Bought some solder paste to see if maybe I had some added resistance on my L6 emitter reflow. Still getting a low reading on my TN36 limited. I found my Emisar D4 had a partial dedome from heat, I was messing with the default thermal throttling setting. One of the emitters looks really blue, so I ordered another set of emitters. It is looking as if I just suck at modding flashlights, more results tomorrow.