I’m sure it can produce 550 LED lumens for a couple moments on a freshly charged eneloop.
The way its advertised is intended to deceive to get sales IMO.
+1000
Did anyone else notice the enormous PRICE of this bit of Luminaire Legerdemain? For that fat wad of cake they should provide their own Integrating Sphere and have an independent, TRUSTED person verify it.
This is exactly why I build my own!!!
Companies will claim they need to lie fudge specs a bit to compete. "Everyone does it."
They could make a point to advertise that they only use true lumens as opposed to their competitors.
300 true Lumens Actual OTF (out the front) lumens
Liked to a page on how competitors fudge their numbers to try to look better. Of course if you dare to mention your competitors name they will threaten you. So much for the truth.
Hell ava AA battery they were using, where can I get One LOL.
I don't have an IS, but perhaps they will contract an independent lab to test their output claims. It could and probably is an over sight on their end between an AA and a CR123. I like Armytek lights, but hope they can get it straight, and eliminate all the confusion.
I have tested recently some AA and 2xAA flaslights (like Olight ST25), I think wow 2xaa 550 lumens.
This is the graph, (they say X lumens, an then in the first minute down more than 700 lux (1200 down in 5 min)…. The companys do not lie alot but they play with the values….) Armytek are not talking about ANSI FL-1 values…. They tell us values that need not mean anything, but they are not lying.
Primary Lithium is not best than NiMH in supported great amperages. And the” great” eneloops, if you see the more powerful 1xaa flashlights you can see the curves (down fast…)
Good Info .
Thanks Trevi.
I avoid alkalines and use Eneloops or Lithium Primaries exclusively in my AA only lights.
Per an FL-1 test their numbers would be alot lower than claimed.
The bigger problem that drawing 4-6A from a NiMH battery is going to be building a boost driver that can supply the necessary current to the emitter. Simply put, such a driver doesn’t exist. And I somehow doubt that Armytek has found the ‘secret’. I’m going to say that those are Chinese Lumens.
The bigger problem that drawing 4-6A from a NiMH battery is going to be building a boost driver that can supply the necessary current to the emitter. Simply put, such a driver doesn’t exist. And I somehow doubt that Armytek has found the ‘secret’. I’m going to say that those are Chinese Lumens.
It says full flat regulation!!
or something like that.
i don’t think the problem is it can’t exist, i think companies don’t see a value in making such a product because battery life would be pathetic thus lacking mass market appeal. And most chinese lights use off the shelf drivers, unique drivers are not very common probably a dozen or two dozen drivers power most lights (am i wrong, someone with hundreds of lights can you confirm this)
I hope if armytek did develop such a driver to get 550 lumens from 1AA that it is constant brightness, i still think its possible but its hard to envision them spending the money on R&D for such a niche product.
What do you mean constant brightness? 550 lumens for more then a few moments? AA battery can’t maintain the amps required for very long.
They can get away with bad runtime quotes because ANSI/NEMA defined the specs that way. The spec calls for runtime quotes down to 10%, so, you could design a light that drops down to 12% at 31 seconds and meet the runtime specs. Of course since the manufacturers were given this leeway, they will take advantage of it. Until you get someone like selfbuilt to review the light and chart the output plots, you can't tell WTH you are buying. It looks like many of the name brand manufacturers are doing this now.
"regulation" can mean a lot of things - Yes, they may have a driver that regulates at 4A for 31 secs, then regulates at 400 mA after that.
I’m pretty sure eneloops can, the current just keeps having to go up to maintain wattage but a properly designed boost driver should be able to pull it off (mind you i don’t know of any out there that are designed to do this hence my skepticism that armytek spent the money to develop one).
They can get away with bad runtime quotes because ANSI/NEMA defined the specs that way. The spec calls for runtime quotes down to 10, so, you could design a light that drops down to 12 at 31 seconds and meet the runtime specs. Of course since the manufacturers were given this leeway, they will take advantage of it. Until you get someone like selfbuilt to review the light and chart the output plots, you can’t tell WTH you are buying. It looks like many of the name brand manufacturers are doing this now.
“regulation” can mean a lot of things - Yes, they may have a driver that regulates at 4A for 31 secs, then regulates at 400 mA after that.
I agree, i always look for that output vs time graph because i hate unpleasant surprises when i buy a light
interesting reading especially now that I need some info on AA behavior under load
First a quick rundown on advertised outputs versus Selfbuilt’s measurements:
Predator V1 (XP-G): “500 Lumen”, 370 w/ flat regulation (74% of claimed output)
Predator V2.5 (XP-G2): “670 LED Lumen”, 560 w/ multiple timed stepdowns (84% of claimed)
Predator Pro V2.5 (XP-G2): “670 LED Lumen”, 500 w/ flat regulation (75% of claimed)
Viking 2.5 (XM-L2): “1010 LED Lumen”, 770 w/ multiple timed stepdowns (76% of claimed)
Viking Pro 2.5 (XM-L2): “870 LED Lumen”, 670 w/ flat regulation (77% of claimed)
Barracuda (XM-L2): “1450 LED Lumen”, 1050 (est.) w/ flat regulation (72% of claimed)
—> SB’s outputs are 76% of advertised by Armytek on average.
—————————————————————————————————————————————————————
A U2 bin XM-L2 does 580L at 1.5A and ~3.05V for 4.6W @ 85°C (eyeballing datasheet). If the driver is 80% efficient at Vbat = 1.1V (fairly generous given I^2R losses and the tight dimensions involved) it would draw 5.2A for 5.75W.
HKJ measured Eneloop Pros to contain a little over 2.5Wh of energy (at constant 5A draw; would vary with a truly regulated flashlight driver).
Thus I’m guessing Armytek’s “550 Lumen/0:30 runtime on 1xNiMH” claim probably boils down to 0.76*550 = 420 initial OTF with stepdowns at certain voltage and/or heat thresholds.
Armytek announced the Tiara line last spring. Hope they’ve been slaving on circuit design because it’d be awesome to see a 1xAA light designed to take advantage of NiMH cells’ current capability.
Armytek partner A1 XM-L 260 LED Lumens (perhaps 190-210 lumens OTF) with mini runtime. And now XM-L2 with a new super …. 550 LED lumens with… (I am 100% sure that no)
![](https://budgetlightforum.com/user_avatar/budgetlightforum.com/trevi_lux/48/646_2.png)
Armytek partner A1 XM-L 260 LED Lumens (perhaps 190-210 lumens OTF) with mini runtime. And now XM-L2 with a new super …. 550 LED lumens with…
(I am 100% sure that no)
I omitted that one above because it was tested by Selfbuilt to virtually match the advertised output. He tested the XM-L Partner A1 to do constant 250 OTF for ~0:50 with greater efficiency than the Zebra SC52 XM-L’s highest mode. EDIT: all that being said, I definitely find the “550 LED Lumen with constant output” claim extremely dubious.
EDIT2: I’m excited about this light regardless of Armytek’s flamboyant marketing. I like my Wizard Neutral a lot but rarely use Max, so the Tiara should be a nice EDC.
First, I think that the value OTF of selfbuilt are a little oversized. Really values offereds by Zebralight are little oversized
this from UPz in Forolinternas is more realistic
I think value for Armytek A1 really around 200-210 lumens.
I’ve read that SB’s lumens tend to be a tad inflated.
In any case, these lights by armytek seems very interesting . I will wait for review and graphs of some flashaholic.