Right you are! The TR-J20 is probably superior in every possible measurable way. Its a proven light, well crafted and has 12 x CREE XM-L sitting on a thick heavy floor plate with excellent heavy heat sinking. Its also a modders dream for future upgrades. A resistor mod or one of Richards FET drivers makes it a brutal 10-12,000 lumen skull basher.
While Im not familiar with the particular light in the OP, others have reported that FeiLong has long been notorious for producing large overly expensive lights with multitudes of problems (poor heat sinking, horrible customer service, drivers that easily blow out, poorly machined threads, poor fit and finish, under driven, etc). IMO, stay well away from this company, including their 32650 cells. The Trustfire TF32650 has greater capacity and higher sustained discharge rates.
BTW, the TR-J20 that I just got from Fasttech had XM-L*2*s in it. Saves me a bundle upgrading! Mine had a QC date of late August, so I assume recent manufacture.
Now I just need to be able to mod it, too bad FT dorked up my order - sent the wrong resistors, no silicone grease and no fujik. :weary:
I had missed this thread, but as some of you know, I brought up the prices on this Feilong light months back after remembering it from a few years ago, and WOW was it overpriced. One version was around $680—for a single Luminus LED model which I doubt they could drive to even 1/2 LED spec.
Yes, those who have held a J20 in their hand know that there is likely no host in existence which can beat its heat-sinking. To this day. I went through every medium to large host on the market reviewing their construction, cutaways, user photos, and finally purchases. The J20 hit the requirements 10/10 for my specific needs of capacity and high-cooling ability.
I have an Italian 50cc Bizeta (BZM) billet-crankcase 2-stroke reed-valve air-cooled engine that makes a whopping 15HP, for a 1/5 scale Baja race truck. The engine is also used in mini-motocross bikes and pocketbike racing for its high power. I also happen to have ordinary “garage-device engines” in weed whackers, chainsaws, and some ~30cc engines. The J20 head is closer to the mass and cooling fin sizes of the 50cc engine head than it is to the rest of them.
While I am moving toward release of a version of this host for throw that’s highly modified from stock form, I will be releasing a budget version of the J20 that is going to utilize the 12-emitter design. It will use much excess cooling added inside the head and will be in the hot-rod category of lights, built for maximum lumen output, instead of maximum throw. It will be available in other color options besides factory black that should look quite nice. If it’s lumens you seek, get ready for it.
Note that, it doesn’t take the infamous XHP70 to make a lot of light and still get a decent amount of throw, when you have 12 emitters to mix and match in a good host configuration. I’m a proponent of large amounts of copper to help with that task, so your hands don’t burn.
Just remember if you do not have a good size lathe, or a mill with either a rotary table or boring-bar setup (or of course a CNC mill), there’s a hefty aluminum LED sink plate about 25mm in under the bezel glass on the J20 that blocks out the interior cavity. You won’t be able to use an XHP70+reflector, single LED+lens, etc, with that plate there. Which is why I remove them for that single LED model. Here is a photo of it below.
The other model just may look something like this, I dunno…
Of course, the stock driver won’t cut it, on the left side. The one on the right was just “passing by” for the moment.
P.S., While the Feilong 32650s may not be the best choice above all cells, I can almost say with certainty they will offer 5,500-5,700mAH on a 7-10A constant draw, which is to say they do outperform the majority of cells for a balance of amp-draw and capacity. Unless my Powerlab 8 battery workstation just doesn’t know how to do math. (Of course battery batches will always differ somewhat. The good thing is, it isn’t limited to 32650 cells. There will be updates on the cell types which will work.)