Bought this, now I’ll look into my legal rights.
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I noticed the Yemao F40CU (“full copper”/brass) before, but when I spotted it today in the coins section in the AE app with 50% off, I decided to pull the trigger and order one.
UI appears to have a few ‘quirks’, but seems usable; 4 main modes, double click for turbo. Strobe, SOS and red flashing are ‘hidden’ behind a long press. The only thing which is not completely clear to me, is how ‘off’ works; it appears that you have to cycle through the 4 main modes to off, but somewhere it also mentioned that "After any mode is turned on for more than 10 seconds, clicking the switch can directly turn it off.
It supposedly has (unknown) 6000-6500K LED’s, with somewhere in the description being mentioned they are 90 CRI, but I have some doubts about that.
It comes with a (protected) 16340 battery and a diffuser, nicely packaged in what appears to be a solid box.
I’m curious to see what I will recieve! 
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Do you have any Yemaos? If so, how is the quality of their lights, please?
No, I don’t have any so far. They have a couple of ‘interesting’ looking lights, but most of those are priced higher than I would like to spend on a ‘unknown chinese brand’, just out of curiousity.
This copper/brass one, was now ~€ 9,70 after discounts, which is a price I’m willing to take a gamble on, certainly if it’s truly brass. (Based on the stated weight and a couple of reviews I read, I assume it is brass.)
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Great! Please share your impressions after you receive…I have also gotten interested in this light.
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New delivery!
Because it’s not really that cheap, but as a honorable mention with one of those chinese company names that just rolls of the tongue:
Switch feels a bit too cheap, UI is bad, LED on normal 20mm Star, 20mm Driver.
Put in a 5000K SST40 and a 5A driver.
The reflector does not work well with LHP531 or XHP50.3 Hi.
The suspiciously light cell that came with it has a USB-C port built in, but only measures 500mAh on my tester, instead of the 1000mAh stated on the cell.
And then this generic looking thing:
https://de.aliexpress.com/item/1005005568529524.html
Driver:
Pill from the back and the attempt to glue it down?
Glass package, Glass is 40mm, reflector is aluminum, but very thin
LED on 25mm copper MCPCB, didn’t check if it’s DTP, though…
SST40? Mine look different, silver on the outside.
Notice the anti-spin-pin on the bottom left! You usually don’t see that on other cheap lights.
A chonky boy! All full material!
This reflector also doesn’t work with LHP531 or XHP50.3 Hi, so I put another SST40 5000K in that one.
THe Spot is quite nice and comparable to a C8.
The UI is simple, 3 modes, hi, mid, lo - but the transition is nice, it fades from mode to mode. Makes the light seem more expensive.
Doesn’t seem to be waterproof, the two O-Rings of the battery tube don’t seem to touch the counterpart, at least it doesn’t feel like it.
Overall, I would say this is a good C8 alternative and might be a good Muggle-light because of the super simple UI.
3 Thanks
I recieved my Yemao F40CU yesterday and so far I’m positively surprised in several ways, although the UI might turn (some) people off, but more on that at the end of my short “first impressions”.
It came in a nice and sturdy box:
First visual impressions of the light itself; it has a very ‘glossy’ finish, which almost gives me a feeling it might have some sort of clear coat over it, but I’m not completely sure. It has some minor machining marks, but nothing too bad and it’s what you could expect from a “cheap” brass/copper Chinese light at this price point.
It does appear to have a ‘unique’ serial number; I did found a photo in a review on Aliexpress where the SN was visible, and it was a different one than my SN.
The included 16340 battery claims to be a 900mAh battery and if that might be true (haven’t tested it yet), it is quite a good capacity for a 16340.
The light is easy to dissasemble and the driver is held in place by a removable retaining ring. The threads on both ends appear to be bare brass/copper, so doing a manual lock out isn’t possible.
The bezel can be removed/unscrewd by hand very easily and there is no glue/threadlocker noticable. Be CAREFULL though, when unscrewing (or tightening) the bezel: the TIR has a tendency to turn with the bezel, which can rotate the hole MCPCB or when the pegs of the TIR are out of the locating holes, they can hit against the side of the LED’s. I would recommend to put downward pressure on the TIR with one finger, when removing or placing the TIR.
Unfortunately there isn’t any glass in front of the TIR though, just a rubber O-ring between it and the bezel.
The included pocket clip is from steel, as can be seen in the photo below, sticking to the tailcap magnet. It matches extremely close in color/finish to the flashlight body though!
It is a chunky/heavy flashlight though; I compared it to my brass TS10, both without batteries, but the TS10 with a pocket clip on and the F40CU “wins” easily with a good 33 grams more over the brass TS10. The F40CU pocketclip (which I weight afterwards), would ad another 3,60 to it.
In length, they’re almost identical, with the TS10 even being ~2mm longer, but (ofcourse) way less bulky. I’ve added a photo below, to show the size comparison.
The manual, which can be seen below, is basicly useless; no description of the UI or other usefull information. (More on the UI later.)
Things I noticed:
-The white LED’s are pretty cool white, I guess at least 6500K, and at first glance nowhere close to ‘high CRI’. They appear to be regular 3535 LED’s, so they could be swapped out for something better.
-It has a very big/wide (soft) hotspot with very little spill around it.
-The mode spacing (4 main levels and turbo) seems decent, but on all levels I feel it falls (way) below the stated lumen outputs on the listing. Still usefull for use in and around the house, but when you’re planning to take it outside, be aware of that. (I will try one of my own 16340 batteries to see if that makes a change, but I haven’t got high hopes.)
-I haven’t tested it yet with my LM4, but visually I couldn’t notice any PWM, even on the lowest mode. (I’m normally sensitive enough to pick up on it.)
There is one thing with the UI though, that might turn some/a lot of people off; It has a different way to turn it off: you have to cycle through all 4 main modes to turn it off OR when it is in 1 mode for 10 seconds or more, 1 click turns it off immediately.
This does also mean that when you’re in a specific mode for 10 seconds and want to switch to another mode, you first have to turn it off with one click and then turn it on again to select another mode. (Although you can still enter Turbo or the flash modes.)
So basicly the UI is:
1 click to turn on.
1 click (from on) to cycle “moon”-low-medium-high-off
→ when in one of the modes >10s, 1 click = off
2 clicks (from on) gives Turbo, 1 click turns flashlight off.
1 long press (from off or on) gives you Strobe, 1 click cycles through the other modes, (SOS and red flash) to off. (long press is about 3 seconds.)
The upside of this UI is that the flash modes are ‘hidden’ and that double click gives you turbo. It also has ‘one-click-for-off’, but only after 10 seconds and without being able to switch modes.
Only other downside so far noticed, (in the little time I’ve used the light so far), is that the included silicone diffuser is very loose (or maybe too lose), which makes it very difficult (or almost impossible) to get it to stay in place propperly.
My final thoughts:
*I think it’s a flashlight which has done several things pretty well and offers the potential for some (easy) mods, like swapping the main white LED’s out for some better ones. Also the fact that I didn’t notice any PWM, although it was only a quick visual test, makes it worth putting in the effort of swapping LED’s. The biggest downside is the unusual UI though, which does some things right, but the choice for how to turn the light off (in 2 different ways) and the consequences it has for other parts of the UI, might turn a lot of people off. With a small change to the UI, 1 click on/off, press and hold to cycle modes and putting the flash modes under a 3-click action (instead of ‘long press’), would have made this a perfectly fine light!
If you can get it with a good discount like the ~€ 9,50, then it might (still) be worth to give it a try. I’ve also recently seen it pop up as an ‘early bird deal’ for 11,99 (appearently with a second 16340), which might also still be worth it. For the regular price of between 19 and 20 euros, it really depends if you think you can life with the UI.
All in all: a flashlight with enough potential but in need of some UI changes to make it a great buy (for the current ‘normal price’).*
6 Thanks
This is a different store than where I ordered it from, but it currently lists the brass/copper F40CU, with 2 batteries (instead of 1), for € 11,99.
(Quite possibly you could get another $2,-/€1,77 off with one of the coupon codes ‘floating around’ here on BLF.)
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I have this Yemao: YEMAO F81X 2000LM 8-LED-Taschenlampe – wiederaufladbare Taschenlampe aus Aluminiumlegierung mit magnetischem Schwanz für Camping und Notfall - AliExpress 39
One of the LEDs didn’t work and the 2500mAh Battery only has 1200mAh. Got like half of the money back, now it’s an OK price.
Paid $17.31 and got a $7.34 refund (I asked for this amount).
Since I wanted to change the emitters anyway, the dead emitter wasn’t a big deal, but the battery kinda is.
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If I have time tomorrow, which is not a guarantee, I’ll try to do a quick discharge test at 0.3A or 0.5A on my Opus. It is not as accurate as my electronic load (Atorch DL24), but it will give a first impression.
I just grabbed one of the 2 16340’s I already had, a Vapcell T8, which is 850mAh, so close to the stated 900mAh of the Yemao battery and I weighed both. Weight is not a super accurate way to determine capacity, but in general: the higher the capacity, the higher the weight.
The 850mAh Vapcell weighs 18,94 grams, the “900mAh” Yemao weighs 16,93 gram. So my first impression is that the Yemao battery might not reach its stated capacity, but no idea wether that is correct and by how much it is lower. The weight difference isn’t shockingly big, so I still hope for around 700mAh, which would still be an acceptable capacity for a 16340, I think.
But only 1 way to know for sure and that is testing!
I did a quick (discharge) capacity test with my Opus BT-C3100, which isn’t the most accurate in that, partially because it stops discharging at a slightly too high voltage (3(+) volt), but it at least gives an indication of what capacity to expect.
The battery was discharged at 0,5A/500mA, what resulted in a capacity of 767mAh, which is obviously quite a bit lower than the stated 900mAh, but for a 16340 it is still a solid capacity. It might even be slightly higher if I would test it on my electronic load, down to 2,7/2,8V.
Yes, a shame that it doesn’t reaches the 900mAh, but I’m happy that it at least managed to reach the 750mAh.
Here we go - LHP73B 4000K
Despite all expectations nothing has exploded (but I haven’t run long time tests).
Tail current:
| Mode | SBT90 clone, stock battery (28 mOhm) | SBT90 clone, Sofirn 21700 (8.6 mOhm) | LHP73B, stock battery (28 mOhm) | LHP73B, Sofirn 21700 (8.6 mOhm) |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Low | 0.27 A | 0.37 A | ||
| Mid | 2.67 A | 3.66 A | ||
| High | 8.26 A | 12.5 A | ||
| Turbo | 10.5 A | 13.6 A | 13.7 A | 23.0 A |
Throw at turbo with stock battery (measured with a phone luxmeter app at 6 meters):
SBT90 clone: 208800 cd
LHP73B: 94680 cd
This is at turn on. Then brightness goes down due to battery’s voltage drop.
For comparison, Convoy M21E (8 amp driver):
SFT40 3000K SMO: 140400 cd
LHP531 4000K SMO: 73800 cd
LHP531 4000K OP: 61560 cd
Tint is the same as LHP531.
Hotspot is tighter than the one of Convoy M21E with LHP531 OP and less light goes to spill.
Hotspot has some peculiar pattern, which is not noticeable beyond threeish meters. What is noticeable is a dark dot at the center of hotspot.
EDIT: Ceiling bounce emitter comparison.
The flashlight doesn’t get hot at all, maybe 40°C, so I suppose the stepdown is timed.
EDIT2: I’m not sure but it seems like the flashlight doesn’t have a thermal protection (or does it ?)
In its defence I can say that with all that high and turbo reactivations surface temperature hardly reached 54°C.
5 Thanks
Thanks for all that info. I may do the same thing with mine. Does the LHP73B appear to have more output than the stock led?
I’ve added the ceiling bounce test results.
I don’t have runtime logs of other modes with the stock (L90 ?) emitter.
In both tests battery used was Sofirn’s 26650 from SP33s, which has surprisingly high IR (45 mOhm) but I’ve got very close to the stock battery tail currents in all modes with it.
I received mine today.
tbh it looks like those gold plated plastic items from a dollar store.
It is made from brass and I hope it will get some patina over time
OK for me
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They indeed look (almost) too shiny and given that the stainless steel clip almost has a perfect matching coating/plating, I wonder if the flashlight itself also has been coated/plated with that same material/process. If it’s not plated, I at least expect it has some sort of clear coating over it.
But given that you can’t do a manual lockout with the tailcap, the threads don’t seem to be coated and those clearly look like brass, as does the weight of the light indicate that.
For now I doubt that it will develop patina anytime soon, but I might polish it with some metal compound, so see if I can get to the ‘raw metal’.
Your capacity tests are in line with my quick test. Obviously a bit of a shame that they don’t come close to the stated 900mAh, but the 700+ mAh is still decent within the generally available 16340 capacities from what I can tell.
For the ~€ 10,- I’ve paid for it, I would also consider it ‘OK for me’, but with it’s few shortcomings, I would not buy it for a higher price.
A lot of you will have seen the “Philips” branded lights on AE. Out of curiosity and because the price was lowered, I bought one, the “SFL6252”
Price then: $19.10
The bezel is glued on lightly, I 3d printed myself a tool to open it. There is no gasket.
Interesting layout
At least some thermal paste, but not on the contact ring to the case
And here it ends, I couldn’t remove the driver without destroying something. The rubber of the switch seems to be too tight in it, I didn’t want to risk damage.
Pretty much bang on. Even though 3Ah is quite low for a 21700, at least you get a cell.
The UI is good.
First mode is Flood (8 LEDs outside), and it’s very floody, second is throw (one LED in the middle), third is both combined.
In all modes, you can hold the switch to ramp up and down, it blinks twice at each top/bottom, then continues to ramp up/down again.
Double click from off or on goes to strobe, double click again goes to SOS. One click at any time goes to off.
I really like this light. I already changed the 5050 LED in the center to a FFL505A 6500K 95CRI one from Firefly and ordered 8 Nichia 219 5700K for the outside emitters.
4 Thanks
OK, here are pics from the driver of the Philips light.
Changed the 3535 LEDs today and fried the driver Mosfet. Luckily not the main chip, so I can probably repair it.
THe two springy-things on the side are the negative-contact to the body.
The failure occured because the optics spun while I fastened the bezel, so the wires spun and ripped, as you can see. Probably made contact somewhere.
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Received it today.
Cell is still on the charger, claims to be 4800mAh (Edit: Has 3400mAh but has very high internal resistance, so I will trash it)
UI unfortunately is the classic High - Mid - Low - Strobe - SOS
No Memory, If in one mode the light goes to off when clicked again. At least something.
One of those names that just roll of the tongue…
If you say the “wicsr” part in german, it’s “Wanker” in english… and “Clo” sounds like “Klo” which is toilet in english, so it’s a flashlight by “toilet wanker”
A little burr, other than that the finish is nice
Non-AR Glass, 21x1.5mm (KD has one with AR: 21mm x 1_5mm Multi-Layer AR Coated Lens)
NoName?? 5050 LED
Then I realised my new phone has a Macro Mode…
Normal threads that need lubrification. No O-Ring, the whole thing is not made for water contact.
This means something on the line of “Stay out, you will destroy it”
But I ignored it, true to the motto “I’m a sign, not a cop”
This plastic part is just screwed in, normal thread.
THen it begins to look like usual
The acrylic pin can be pushed out from the inside
The LED again, on a 16mm copper MCPCB with a protection ring so that the reflector doesn’t touch the traces
Reflector is 21x15mm, 7mm hole
Quite a lot of material under the LED!
At least some thermal paste.
Beamshots:
Left: Sofirn IF22A
Left: Convoy M2 SFT-25R 5000K
The light is like a mid-distance thrower with decent output.
So overall, If it wasn’t for the rubbish UI, this would be a very nice light.
5 Thanks
Thanks for buying and testing/taking it apart!
Interesting/fascinating flashlight, since it seems to do several things well, while unfortunately other things are typical ‘Chinese flashlight stuff’.
Unfortunately there was a big chance that this would be the case and that makes it instantly a way less interesting flashlight. The only way to solve this issue, would be a driver swap, but it’s often very difficult to find a fitting driver to fit into it.
Good to see that the driver is accessible in a somewhat normal way. Do you have any idea what the driver diameter is?
I would be perfectly fine with sacrificing the onboard charging, as long as I manage to find a driver (with a side switch) that could be able to make work in this light.
By the looks of it a aluminum/aluminium reflector? (It happens too often that I find ‘plastic’ reflectors in those random Chinese lights…)
Nice, that the shelve has a lot of mass; should help a lot with heat dissipation!
All in all it has several possitive points that could make it an interesting host, but that all depends if you could source a fitting replacement driver.
Also, the price is also an important factor to determine if it’s worth using it as a host. What did you pay for it in the end? The links I’ve posted earlier are dead now and I could only find one other shop on AE that still offers it, but that asks € 33,- which it makes it a bit expensive for ‘just a host’.