Especially with something like this light. It’s super-bright on turbo, and it seems like the UI is optimized for getting muggles to blind themselves.
Because this happens… a lot:
Click. Light comes on in moon. It’s daytime.
“Is this thing on?”
Click.
Turn light around to point at face.
Click. Light comes on in turbo.
“OW!!! WTF?”
Personally, I like having quick access to turbo from off… but the particular timing involved seems to line up pretty consistently with the time it takes first-time users to click, turn the light around, and click again.
Incidentally, this is one of several reasons why bistro’s “muggle mode” has no moon, no reversing, and no turbo.
I received my example today (ordered 5/20, coughed up the extra $1.50 for express shipping). Upon unboxing and popping in a fresh 18350, to my horror, everything worked fine. After taking it apart I’m not so impressed.
The head is now recessed to clear the screw heads but there are no washers underneath. The solder job is awful as was expected which I will replace with some 20ga and some real solder when I get it. The pocket clip is satisfactory at best, I’ll tap the holes in the tail cap and fashion something myself. The o-ring on the tail is a bit loose and squirts out a bit when fully tightened. And this little sucker gets hot and eats up some cells in a hurry.
For the $36 and change for my Nichia version from the presale I’m absolutely happy with it. Would I cough up $50 for one? Heck no!… Will be fun to tinker with though, best of luck everyone.
Edit: You crazy people putting XPL HI LEDs in these things are either blacksmiths or are using tongs to hold them… Lol.
Re edit: Forgot to report. No glue anywhere on mine. I have no plans to pull the star until I get the new wires but judging by how hot it gets the thermal transfer is adequate.
Hey everyone I just bought a Bistro Clicky Firmware (attiny25) in 17mm and 20mm. What size driver does this take? The driver should just drop in right?
If, by “drop in”, you mean (un-/re-)soldering a few parts, then yes. The 17mm one should fit. If it’s a thin board, it may also need a bit of extra solder added to its ground ring to make good contact with the driver retaining ring.
Thanks toykeeper I bought them from mtn electrics. Wasn’t sure which one it was so bought both sizes, their going to also have wires and spring bypassed installed.
Received my S41 yesterday and some xpl-hi emitters today. Now I have a 18.4 amps capable edc light!!! The idea was to use only 3B tint xpl-hi emitters, but by mistake I reflowed 3x 3B and 1x 1A. In the end, I liked the result. Used a MTN/Richard FET driver with Guppydrv 2 firmware and a Vishay SIR800DP FET, with a 20 second turbo setting. Reflowed the mcpcb to the pill eliminating the screws. Thanks for all BLF members for the ideas to mod this light.
Yes, I really like mixing emitter tints in this light. Using two 5000K and two 4000K. Result looks great!
I think my H17F isn’t working quite right though. I don’t think the 8x7135 FET channel is working. Result is there’s a pretty huge gap between medium and MEGATURBO.
Just got a question back from banggood about my s41 order. (am sorry for the long lack of stock for this flashlight.The supplier offered some stocks but now I can not confirm if your order could be shipped this time.Maybe I can confirm with you tomorrow.) This really sucks!!!
Yep, I just got mine today (from the second batch), and the bezel is going to need some serious torque to come off on mine. Definitely some glue/loc-tite in there.
Looking through the optic, I can see that both screws are intact, and there are relief cuts in the sides of the pill for clearance. The 18350 tube was tight on mine as well, but I did manage to get that off by hand. No glue on mine there either, but the threads and o-ring on the head-end were dry as a bone. Strangely, the tail-cap end was well lubed.
I also had to replace the switch boot immediately as well, as the original was torn at the base upon arrival. Luckily it comes with a replacement, so it wasn’t a huge deal.
I also ordered the Nichia 219B version, and that was my first thought/observation as well. Maybe they are 219C’s then? The bezel on mine is going to require tools to come off, so if/when you manage to get the optic off on yours, please do post your findings!
Sharpie, you mention lack of hotspot brightness as a disappointment with the S41, which is a bit unfair, complaining that my 50mm reflector thrower does not light up the whole area but just a tiny bit of it, is just as unfair. Triples and quads are about widespread light output and much of that, not about throw.
I started with wanting as much hotspot brightness as I could get, even for EDC-lights, but at the moment I appreciate the wide but still defined illumination of multi-emitter TIR lights better, for most uses of my EDC I find it the best beam.
‘lower modes are underpowered’ Isn’t that the point of lower modes, and if you’re not happy with that you switch to a higher mode?
‘ordinary unmodified A6/S1’ LOL, so that fast goes devaluation on BLF, a few months ago the BLF A6 was the coolest light on the planet, with 50% more output than any other 18650 light and its unprecedented BLF-developed user interface.
About the high CRI leds: with Nichia’s, I found that I can distinguish the 90+ CRI ones (not just the colour temperature) already by looking at the colour of the die: they have a more orange/brown tint while the lower CRI ones have a quite yellow tint.
