New Sofirn SP60 thrower using 2S cells

LED Flashlights – General Info 21700 Flashlights
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Noticed another new Sofirn light on their aliexpress page. Not yet shown on their website and google isn’t showing any hits for it.

SP60, which appears to be an IF22A thrower using 2x21700 cells. This may be a rushed listing as the photos show the IF22A and details are sparse (another new listing for the SC02 that ch1ir shared seems similarly rushed and maybe not correct).

Anyone heard about it? Any info?

Looks intriguing and the price isn’t bad.

https://www.aliexpress.us/item/3256805078509375.html

EDIT: updated product links:

https://www.aliexpress.us/item/3256805177831310.html

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Good find, following

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It does say that it takes 2 x 21700 cells, but honestly the photo looks like it takes only 1 x 21700 cell. :thinking:

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Yea it’s weird, I thought the link was wrong at first. Maybe they are using old IF22A pics as placeholders or something.

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I’m curious how it would charge 2 cells in series with a BMS

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Sofirn SP60 6800lm SFT40 21700 Powerful LED Flashlight Type C Rechargeable and Reverse Charging Long Throwing

How many SFT40’s has it got to get the claimed 6800lm? Convoy use three to get that same figure… Page Not Found - Aliexpress.com

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It would need at least 3

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Looks like somebody hit the wrong button or something before they were supposed to. Rushed listing.

The if22a has been discounted lately. This is probably why. New version. I bet it’ll use 2 in parallel and look nothing like this. Maybe use an sbt90

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I wouldn’t take anything as written in stone until they announce and release actual details…this page is cobbled together, which they’ve done a few times in the past. Why they make it visible is beyond me. lol.

Hopefully the 2x21700 part is accurate.

Certainly never going to hit 6800 lumens before the emitter becomes smoke but we’ll have to see what they are actually doing I guess. Good question on the charging…I can think of three options, only two of which would be good.

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I’d say they meant to say sft70 but that wouldn’t get 6800 lumens. Sbt90 would but idk at that price. Maybe it’ll have multiple sft40s. Might as well if it is big enough to use 2 21700s

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Multiple would require a new custom TIR, which based on the past seems unlikely for Sofirn to take a risk on. But a 12v emitter seems entirely possible, or 6v. Do they have another light that specs 6800lm that might explain the listing here?

We need Barry to pipe in. :slight_smile:

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Sofirn store page SP60

It’s XHP70.3. Don’t know if it’s the HD or HI. 70mm bezel.

claims 6800 lumens and 915m throw.

HD could do close to 6800lm maybe, HI could do closer to 915m though…

looks pretty sweet

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Oh, that’s very interesting! Maybe a replacement for the ill-fated SF47T, or a cross between that light and the SP70.

I wonder how they’ll handle safely charging two cells in series, though. Unless they’re loaded in some kind of cradle with a BMS, I’d be worried about overcharging one.

I also noticed in the description:

AUTOMATICAL LOCKOUT: When the flashlight turns off after 3 minutes, it will automatically enter lockout mode.

I guess Sofirn is starting to do that with their lights - some have reported the recent IF23 exhibits the same behaviour. Probably good for safety, but perhaps annoying if all their lights going forward do this.

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Ah, thanks for that! I noticed the ali link I posted died. Here’s the new ali link and it has a photo of the emitter - looks like the XHP70 HI but it’s hard to tell. No info on temp but the photo makes it look cold. OP reflector.

I noticed that autolock right away - confused as to whether it’s 1 minute or 3 minutes, but if that feature can’t be turned off it will probably be a deal killer for those who might use this light for work/professional uses.

Price on ali is a lot higher at $95/$107 (with or without cells).

https://www.aliexpress.us/item/3256805177831310.html

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I’m not at all pleased to see Sofirn making the SP70 mistakes all over again!

70.3 in a textured reflector? Oh please! Lost me, and the auto shutoff when there’s a mechanical switch ?
Bye Sofirn.

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Yea almost certain that’s the XHP70.3 HI. Makes more sense with the performance anyway. The Ali page shows a “600k-6500k” and “4700k-5300k” option so it looks like neutral white is available but might not be an option forever - they might just have a small batch of them with the neutral temp, according to ali theres only 5 in stock, but I don’t really trust those numbers.

Price just changed to ~$80/$90 on both their site and ali.

It does look neat. I would like if it had kept the tail switch from those models, though I’m probably in the minority on that. Seems the SP60 is side-switch only.

I know with 2 cells in series the XHP70.3 HI can put out some serious power. The Lumintop PK21 with 70.3 HI and 2x 21700s put out ~8000 lumens and 1300m throw at startup, out of a 65mm bezel. So the performance claims seem quite plausible at startup, or even at 30s - hopefully it has better sustain than the Lumintop.

Automatic lockout

This does seem super annoying and unnecessary, potentially a dealbreaker. I hope it’s something that can be turned off.

Putting 70.3 HI (and HD) in an OP reflector is very common, to smooth out artifacts and prevent a donut-hole in the hotspot. The PK21 I mentioned uses one along with many others. It’s fair not to like OP reflectors but it’s a valid design choice for them to have made. I don’t think it’s a dealbreaker feature for most.

Also, like I mentioned, looks like the SP60 is side-switch only, so no worries for you on that front.

Though I will say I do pass on most Sofirn models because of the cheap drivers they use (and generally low-ish build quality but it’s fine/forgivable for the price point). I have no idea why the FET-driven IF22A is so popular when there are similarly priced lights with far better drivers available. It’s not a huge deal on a flooder that won’t be used at max output very often, but why would you want a thrower that loses throw the more you use it, and/or steps down sooner from heat? Of course as just a mostly-toy and with light use it’s probably fine.

Anyway…bringing that off-topic rant back to relevance, I wonder how good of a driver the SP60 will have. With 2S there must be some kind of buck channel, but the max output can still fall with battery voltage. edit: forgot it’s 6v/12v. I do hope the max regulated output is close to high/turbo. Otherwise, the Convoy M21G at $44/$55 seems like the better buy to me. The regulation on that seems very good though the brightness is only ~4500lm and 657m throw due to the much smaller 55mm bezel, so maybe they’re not quite directly comparable.

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Are there really though? At that price? That perform better? Like what?

I mean doesn’t everything lose throw the more you use it?

Funny I use my lights the complete other way around. The floods are much more often at max. I actually don’t think I’ve ever used the if22a on high long enough to notice it stepdown. But that’s just my usage. Floods are worklights, often used indoors, often left on for hours. Throwers are for walking the dog at night or messing around with. I never have a throw on max long enough for thermal stepdown to ever matter.

But that’s just my usage.

Doubt it. It’s 2S. Why would there be?

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Given the IF22A is in the ~$30-40 range:

Convoy S16, M21B, M21C, and L21B with CULPM1 or SFT-40 use buck drivers. Also C8+ and M21A, not buck but still better than FET regulation. Also the Z1. Probably a couple others I’m forgetting.

Noctigon DM11 uses a CC driver so heat-wise it’s similar but it will achieve a higher output on lower battery. Also the Noctigon KR1 and Emisar D1.

The Sofirn C8L throws a little less but is brighter and has great regulation with the boost driver.

The Amutorch XT45 and XT35 Are like $43 if you can swing the extra couple bucks.

And of course if you can stretch an extra ~$10-15, or keep an eye out for sales, there’s more, better options that I’d argue offer better value, but that’s not your original question.

Not talking about thermal stepdown, yea, every light does step down from heat eventually.

What I mean by that is a boost, buck, or CC driver can achieve a higher output on a lower battery than a FET driver. As an example, you can see here the Noctigon KR1 with SFT-40 and CC driver achieves very close to max output when the battery is at 3.8v, whereas with the IF22A, max output tracks downward linearly with cell voltage.

That is interesting. People use lights all kind of different ways! The way you describe your IF22A usage, I can see the regulation not being a huge deal - and you’re likely not the only one with that use case. In fact I often use throwers similarly to you, but I personally think having the max output/throw available even if I’ve been using the light for a while or don’t have a full battery is an extremely valuable feature, especially on something like a pocket thrower. Others don’t seem to care about that as much - to each their own.

Oops, you’re right, I brain farted and was thinking about 3v LEDs.

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Oh they’ve totally copied the PK21. That one has Anduril though and a lot better output. I really did get 8000+ Lumens and over 1200 M throw (on start). Mayne this one has a better driver? Probably not though for $100! Waiting for someone to test it.

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Easiest way for regulation, efficiency and high output in this case range could probably be achieved with boost driver. Boost 6V-8.4V to 12V for XHP70. Could be done quite easily by tweaking their existing boost driver a bit. That way output numbers like 12V and 7A are achievable and it should be enough for good output for whole battery range.