Help me choose a light

LED Flashlights – General Info
1

Hello I am looking for a very simple light but it seems simple lights are rare nowadays.
My biggest problem is that i always have battery anxiety. Im the type of person to try and remember exactly how many minutes of battery life every mode has.
Since most flashlights nowadays have like 7 modes its pretty much impossible to keep track, and dont get me started on ramping flashlights.
my ideal light would be a flashlight with 2 or 3 modes and the low mode for reading something like a map and the high mode for just walking in the dark (doesnt need to be a strong thrower)
2 flashlights that are close to perfect are the Convoy S2+ since you can program it to have low-med-high but in high mode the battery drains in about an hour and I’d like every mode to at least last 2 hours.
Another good one is the Olight i5t eos it has only 2 modes and I also love the beam patern but its not very powerful and doesnt last long enough. If they made a 18650 version of that it would be my perfect flashlight.
Anyone got any ideas of what would be my perfect light?

ps. something with a screen like the nitecore tup2 that tells you how long the battery would last would be great also but I could only find small lights with a screen unfortunatly

2

Welcome to BLF!

Seems you can accomplish this in two ways- Would you prefer lower output or a larger light?

For 18650 sized lights- My first instinct was to suggest a Convoy S2+ with 6V 2A driver (designed for the B35AM) but with a XHP50.3 Hi LED.

Group 8 is 0.1%, 1%, 10%, 50% - the highest mode would be 6V 1A (6W). With a high capacity cell (e.g Vapcell F38 c.12Wh capacity), you’d get close to 2 hours runtime (I’ve not accounted for driver electrical losses).

From this review I’d guess you’ll have around 600lm output on high. Even more guessing (and I’m happy to be corrected), the 10% mode would be c.1.2W which would be c.120lm.

That said, this is a non-standard configuration, so you’d have to ask Simon (owner of Convoy) if it’s possible for him to build you one, and you’d have to tolerate 4 modes Vs required 3.

2 Thanks
3

From the T2 page at convoylight.com.
It’s the light I want to get, and also the sub option I’d choose:
" -------------sub-option 1.5 (normal-flash 5 times) : tap the switch to select mode group 5 (1%、20%、100%)"

It’s a 14500 flashlight though, I don’t know how much juice it can have at 100%. At 1% plenty, I’d imagine!

4

Thanks for joining the party, christian1122!

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5

Thanks! 18650 is not a hard requirement
So then would the Convoy S11 with XHP50.3 HI R9050 be the best option since thats like a 26650 version of what you said?
I have no idea how those calculations work but chatgpt said that the Convoy S11 with XHP50.3 HI R9050 with a Vapcell K70 26650 7000mAh would run for 1.3 hours if it were to run for 100% continus but then it added that the XHP50.3 HI would step down to regulate thermals and because of that it would have a runtime of exactly 2 hours. no idea how acurate that is but that does sound like exactly what im looking for. it alos has a 4000k version and it has high cri which are not really requirements but very nive to have

6

This sounds like a reasonable option from your requirements. Be aware that it is a pretty big light. As you might conclude by the fact that it uses a 26650 cell. I have one. It is bigger than I would want for pants pocket carry.

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7

I have a C8 with that very emitter and mine has an ugly green tint, especially visible at low settings, indoors. 4000k. At 100% it is a bit off to me when indoors.
I can’t tell you about running times as I use it for short tasks only, a battery can last to me two three days easily (I have three Liitokala 3500mAh,35A)

8

The T4, has the suboption 6 with the same setting, and uses two 14500 cells. On its page there are available in 1500mAh each, so 3000mAh.
If the drivers are the same as other T lights, they do 1500mA at 100%, so two cells, two hours.
The T7 has instead a USB-C port, so to charge it on the go.
In general, 14500 torches are more pocketable for sure.
The C8 in my jeans is a tad annoying.

9

The simplest solution is to get a light where you can easily check the battery voltage anytime you want.
I know you think you want something simple but anduril in the simple mode or even the advanced mode really is pretty simple. Click on click off. Once it’s on you press and hold to move up or down. Three clicks from off blinks out the battery voltage anytime you want to check it. Your biggest concern goes away.

Convoy s21e
Pick your body color.
Pick your LED color temp.
Pick the anduril option.
Pick a battery.

Yes there are other lights with anduril but not with as many choices under 30 bucks.

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10

I don’t quite get that.
You turn the flashlight on and it’s too bright - you press the button to make it less bright.
You turn the flashlight on and it’s not bright enough - you press the button to make it brighter.

You don’t need to know or remember anything, just react to the reality of the brightness produced.

I would also have said Convoy S21E. Lots of colors, with reflector or TIR, lots of LEDs and drivers, big cells for cheap with the light - just a perfect flashlight really.

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I always find the idea of ramping lights good but in practice i find it annoying.
The ramping is always either too fast or too slow and since there are no stepped levels you dont know the runtimes.
I tried the anduril ui and couldn’t get used to it.
I do really like the idea of a hardware ramped light like HDS has, that gives you the option to change the output level before you turn it on and you can just turn the knob as fast or as slow as you want

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12

Been carrying a pocket flashlight since 1979. Haven’t found the perfect one yet. But, the journey has been spectacular.

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13

Nitecore EDC23, EDC29 and EDC37 all have what you need.

  • They’re all fairly powerful for their size.
  • They all have displays that tell you the remaining run time in hours and minutes based on whatever mode you happen to be in.
14

Not that it matters in the context of this thread, but Anduril can be set to use the stepped mode…
Plus you can set the number of steps that you want to use.

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15

Tldr:

*Bigger battery = longer runtime and/or brighter output.

*To calculate hypothetical runtime for the Convoy drivers that list the output:

Multiply Volts × Current to get LED power in watts, then divide the Wh rating of the battery by this number to get hours runtime.

Be careful to match driver voltage with LED voltage- the XHP50.3 comes in 3V or 6V variants.

My calculations are all very hypothetical and approximate, I can’t guarantee you’d definitely get 2 hours at >500lm from 18650 cell in that setup, but it would be closeish.

You’re correct that 26650 capacities are higher.

Vapcell K70 is one of the highest capacity I’ve seen, it advertises 7000mah. (7000mah * 3.6V = 24Wh).

Hypothetically, a 6V 2A driver at 50% mode, same as the S2+ I suggested, would be supplying the LED 6V, 1A (6*1= 6W), so you’d very approximately get (24Wh/6W = 4h) at 500ish lumens, assuming no thermal or other step downs in output.

With the larger cell, you could try the 100% mode (4A) but this is again borderline whether it reaches 2h runtime. (6v*2A= 12W LED power. 24Wh battery capacity/12W power = less than 2 hours runtime accounting for losses in the circuitry).

Importantly, however: the S11 takes 22mm driver and the S2+ a 17mm driver. The options on the S11 page list the following are available:

3V 6A linear for SST40 - meh linear, lower efficiency.

3V 8A buck for KW CULPM1.TG , SFT40 - buck is good. But 8A a little too much current for 2h endurance, even at 50% (3V * 4A = 12W LED power, let’s assume driver is 10% efficient, you need input of 12W * 10% = 13.2W. 24Wh battery/13.2W = 1.8 hours (108 mins or 1hr 48 min).

6V 2.4A boost for B35AM - this seems to be a slightly more powerful version of the 6V 2A S2+ driver I previously reccomended (I suggest XHP50.3 as it’s got higher efficacy then B35AM) - calcs below:

6V * 2.4A: 14.4W LED power. 24Wh capacity / 14.4W = 1.66 hours (1hr 39min). At 50% setting, 6*1.2= 7.2W; 3.33 hours (3hr 19min).

6V 3A boost for XHP50.3 HI - default XHP50.3 driver option, also calcs below:

6*3: 18W; 24wh/18= 1.33 hours (1hr 19min). At 50%= 24Wh/9W = 2.66W (2h 39 min).

The XHP50.3 is an efficient emitter. The stock S11 driver for the XHP50.3 is the 6V 3A, the 1.3 hours chatgpt suggested correlates well with basic calculations. Whether (pun intended) the climatic conditions you use the light are warm enough to make thermal throttling reduce the output to reach endurance of 2hr would be a challenge to calculate.

If your priority is runtime, I’d keep the 4000 CCT but drop the high Cri, the loss of lumens may be unacceptable to you and you cannot “afford” to compensate by increasing the amps else you’ll not reach desired runtime!

This is also a good choice, I do understand that some people just don’t like Anduril though.

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What about a Streamlight ProTac 2L-X? It’s a little brighter, but I think the issue you will have is a lot of lights tend to run around 1-1.5h or so on high. So big battery lights just make more power on the highest level. This particular ProTac is only 500 lumens. More than the i5t, but not that much for an 18650 light. It has the ten-tap programming so it can be set to just low and high. Though the low won’t be all that low.

Some of the most efficient lights tend to use Anduril, which you mentioned not liking. But you can set the ceiling to a lower level, and set the number of steps so there are just two or three levels.

Zebralights could also be programmed to only have a couple of levels, and the high level doesn’t have to be very high. It’s a bit tedious to set up at first.

Something with a Dr. Jones UI would let you pick how many levels and what they are (from about 20 values). You could set the high to be only a couple hundred lumens for a long runtime. They are usually/always a linear driver (or linear + FET) so it’s not the most efficient for runtimes. But at a lower level you can still get a long runtime from an 18650. There aren’t a ton of lights with this though.

17

Battery anxiety? No problem :wink:

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18

Acebeam Pokomon 2AA.

2 mode, always starts in low, quick blip kicks it into high. Low is “moonlight plus”, or good for close-up stuff like right in front of you. High is decent but not blinding.

Takes 2 AAs in a pinch, but comes with a 141000, basically a single double-length Li cell. Like 2 14500s but a single cell.

The cell has its own USB charging board built in.

Never measured actual runtime, but I rarely have to charge it.

Worried about running out of juice, just carry a pair of AAs in a plastic bag or fancier package. Doubtful your ever need to use them, though.

Oh, beautiful buttery smooth beam, too.

19

Go crazy…

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20

Okay if you can’t handle anduril then get the convoy S21E that doesn’t have anduril and switch it to the 4 mode group. Then you have to click it 5 times to get the battery voltage. Don’t ever use the 100% mode and now you have a 3 mode flashlight and all your problems go away.