Thanks……I saw that but when I looked at the 219c specs it says the same max current of 1.8A and the graphs don’t look all that different to me. I’m sure the info is there but I’m just overlooking it.
Irregardless of the specs of the led. The Folomov 18650s flashlight is a lemon flavored pile of beans.
Peace.
Yes that certainly seems so. I was ready to pull the trigger on the light until I read about the issues with it. Too bad because it seems like a nice light.
You can click through the on line return procces. You will reach a page that says paraphrasing it now “Amazon will not accept any lithium ion battery returns or any powered devices by lithium ion batteries” blah blah blah. Please call customer service. Basically you are at the mercy of the worker doing the return on site. If he or she decides oh lithium ion powered flashlight. Not accepting return. And sending lithium ion batteries via ups costs more than the cost of the flashlight itself. I completely understand some people will return the flashlight to Amazon with no problems at all. I decided it was not worth the risk or hassle.
After swapping LH351D into the flashlight, I don’t have any issues with the thermal management. It steps down from turbo nicely and at that point flashlight head is barely warm.
I applied the heat on the back side of MCPCB, around positive pole.
Adding my experiences to that of otheres and sharing one flaw (or feature depending on your perspective.)
1. My 18650s worked on all levels including Turbo as expected using the Folomov battery as received. However, on full charge (measured as 4.20V), I also experienced LED “bluing.” Mine may not be as severe as others but there was noticeable bluing (a sign that the LED was overdriven) in the hotspot on Turbo even though it remained relatively bright. Reflowing with a Hi-CRI LH351D @4000K solved the bluing on Turbo problem.
2. As mentioned by several others, the anodizing is important to ensure that the battery +pos. of the MCPCB does not short against the body which connects to the battery -neg.
However, it should also be mentioned that there are tiny o-ring that go around the MCPCB mounting screws inside the screw holes. They’re probably there to prevent the screws from shorting against the MCPCB. These o-rings are small and easily overlooked/lost during screw removal.
3. Moonlight mode (from Off, hold>0.5sec) and the Click-from-Moonlight to Last-Memorized-Level features are documented. However the possible flaw I noticed which is not in the instructions can also serve as a semi-direct access to Turbo from Off (in this way it’s a feature?).
The Folomov 18650s changes brightness in a wave-like pattern (L>M>H>Turbo>H>M>L…) rather than the more common cyclical pattern (L>M>H>Turbo>L>M>H…). If the 18650s is turned Off anywhere in the increasing portion of the wave pattern, a Click-from-Moonlight will return to Last-Memory-Mode. If however the light is turned Off anywhere in the decreasing brightness portion of the wave pattern, a Click-from-Moonlight will go direct to Turbo instead of the Last-Memorized-Level. As illustrated in the diagram below.
Thus if one intentionally turns-Off the light at any level in the decreasing portion of the pattern, direct access to Turbo can always be activated by a “Click>0.5S & Click”.
If on the other hand you prefer the Click-from-Moonlight to be Last-Memorized-Level, the light must be turned-Off at a brightness level within the increasing portion of the pattern. Do note though that anytime this Click-from-Moonlight to Last-Memorized-Level feature is used, the 18650s reverts to the “decreasing brightness” portion of the pattern and subsequent Click-from-Moonlight will result in Turbo, unless you manually cycle back to the “increasing brightness” portion again.
Personally I think the Folomov 18650s is a little rough around the edges and could go for some refinement in a v2.
Agreed.
However, I do like where they are going with this light. It’s not there yet, but further refinement to the UI and a different emitter could make this a fantastic light. This is one design that I think is well-worth updating to a v2.
We have 2 ways of doing e-switch in the tail:
- like 18650s, driver in the tail and no data path
- like FW3A, a separate tube carries the signal
Frankly, I still have only basic understanding of the former…but anyway:
Could anyone summarize advantages and disadvantages of each construction?
Well 264, looks like you got the flashlight pulled from Amazon.
At least they listen to problem feedback.
Glad I got my second one delivered last Saturday.
Hopefully they will be back sometime with improvements.
Later,
Keith
Wow. I thought I would just get banned from posting reviews. I knew anyone with experience with 18650 powered lights would do fine with it. As we all know the average Joe could get hurt with such a light. Thanks for the update.
[quote=264]
I’m glad they pulled it, because blue-shifting and dimming when using the battery and charger that came with the light is clearly a defect that needed to be fixed.
Folomov did a lot of clever things with this design and they should be proud of it. Best to get the defect corrected and an updated version released.
I also hope they fix the UI to be a bit more user-friendly. The UI is what I would call “average”. It’s not the worst I’ve seen, but it’s also far from the best. A light with this much potential deserves to have the best UI.
[quote=Firelight2]
I think it was pulled cause it was too similar to your username :confounded:
Guess they got a lot of returns, I should have dipped it into a raw egg and see if it cooked, definently a major fire hazard for me, had to return it.
[quote=Blackbeard]
When I registered on BLF and used 264 I did not release “264” was a designation for a rifle bullet size. If I had known I would not have used it.
Interesting, I was quoting Firelight2 though, didn’t mean to confuse the issue with multiple people in the quote
Hmm…no answers…maybe I’ll start with what I found about each construction (note: this is not about particular lights, only about driving style).
Please correct me if anything is wrong.
18650s:
- simpler
- slightly more compact in both length and diameter
- slightly cheaper
- no way to do real thermal regulation
[quote=Blackbeard]
Interestingly, mine never got really hot like yours did.
Sure mine got hot. But not really too hot to touch. The head of a D4 got hotter. I didn’t really test it on turbo for an extended period of time though.
Though the 18650S design is pretty unique it's not the first to do this. I pointed this out before a few days back, forget where, but the UltraFire U-F10 is pretty much the same design: e-switch w/driver in tail using a resistor at the batt+ end for providing batt+ power back to the driver. I got no clue what advantages/disadvantages there are - that's sure why I didn't answer. I could speculate the FW3A is more our classic design, while the 18650s takes in batt- from the spring, and batt+ from the ground ring, which of course is not a ground ring any longer. Dunno, maybe the 18650S loses some power the FW3A doesn't but it might be so low, it's insignificant.
U-F10 driver:
U-F10 top board by the LED with possible mystery chip(s) under the seal:
Even the UF10 isn’t the first to do this.
I have a generic brand LED light from Costco that’s probably 8-years old. It’s powered by 3xAAA and has an XPE emitter. It has a tailcap mounted e-switch driver with 3 modes (high-low-strobe). The tailcap even has a lighted low-battery indicator that causes the clear rubber tailcap boot to flash when low.
This was a pretty common product for Costco. They sold lights like this with tailcap drivers and e-switches for many years long before the UF10 came to market.
Thank you guys.