[NLD] On the Road U18

BlueSwordM · 2018-06-18T17:03:54.000Z

So thanks to Beam0, I got the On the Road U18!

For 25$US, and 21$US with a special coupon when I bought it, the U18 is absolutely fabulous in terms of bang for buck.

Now, it uses an approximately 3800k CCT XPL LED. With an OP reflector, there is a small tint shift on a white wall. However, I can’t see it outdoors. It is not a high CRI LED as I immediately noticed while shining it on fruits, especially compared to my S42’s 219C 90CRI. The light emitted is yellow with a bit of green though. Not as bad as the XPL2 or XHP70.2, but not good.

It is not a big problem however, as I am going to be replace with a Samsung LH351D 4000k R9070 90CRI. And since it uses a buck driver, and the forward voltage of the LH351D is much lower than the XPL, I will be able to get stable brightness for quite a bit longer on max.

Now, onto the light itself.

It is really a great light. Build quality is great, threads are well lubed, it comes with a nice 3500-4000k LED option as stated before, has a great UI, straight shortcut to turbo, a magnetic tailcap, and can charge via micro-USB. Good knurling too.

And comes with a great pouch and an 18650. Best range of accessories I got from a single 18650 light ever, even at the 25$ asking price, and even better at the 21$US I bought it at.

All in all, probably going to become my EDC from now on, especially when I will replace it with a Samsung LH351D. The UI is much better than the Thorfire TK15 UI, the long press is more like a medium press, and turns on very quickly, and double tap to turbo!

All in all, 8.5/10 light, and 9/10 package.

Link to it if you want to buy it:
https://www.gearbest.com/led-flashlights/pp_674251.html?wid=1433363#goodsDetail

SKV89 · 2018-06-18T17:46:00.000Z

I just gave mine away because Im not used to long press for on or off. I bought it during the big Aliexpress sale a few months ago.aa

Pete7874 · 2018-06-18T18:05:01.000Z

Can you actually make out a difference between the 900 lm high mode and 1090 lm turbo mode? That is some strange mode spacing, IMO.

BlueSwordM · 2018-06-18T20:04:16.000Z

@pete, from what I have seen, there is no 1090 lumen moden in the main mode group. But I can notice the difference in brightness when double clicking to go to turbo, but mostly in the form heat.

I think they did this to boost efficiency by making turbo separate.

What they have done is quite smart IMO.

They divided the modes in 3 categories:

- Main modes, in which there is moonlight(1 lumen, and not 2 lumens as the manual states from my shoebox lux test) which is quite pleasant due to the low 3800k CCT, low at 100 lumens, which is a big jump, but tolerable since it is warm white, 400 lumens at medium, and 920 lumens at high.

-Turbo, which is actually 1080 lumens from what I have measured at 30 seconds with a 30Q at 4,17V, and once it heats up at about 50C, it goes down to 920 lumens. When it cools back down using active cooling, it goes up to 1080 lumens.

- Strobes. Strobe at about 10Hz. Faster at 18Hz like thqe Q8 would have been perfect. Beacon at at 1Hz is perfect for bicycle riding. And SOS.

It looks like they were conservative in terms of their brightness values too.

@SKV89, the long press is more like a medium press. Compared to my TK15 and especially S42, it is very fast, and does not bother me at all.

BlueSwordM · 2018-06-19T02:26:20.000Z

It really is a good light though.

I would love one in a 3x18650 form factor with the same build.

agent80 · 2018-06-19T05:29:31.000Z

Do protected batteries fit?

BlueSwordM · 2018-06-19T13:20:26.000Z

Yes they do. It has dual springs, and so plenty of space for a protected battery.

You do not need one though, as it has low voltage protection.

pennzy · 2018-06-19T13:45:53.000Z

Thanks for the report . I think mine is at the post office as I speak. Very interested in your future emitter change . Does that led fit the board that is in it ? Let us know how you like it after the mod. I am not so concerned with tints but the added run time would be nice.

JasonWW · 2018-06-19T20:35:10.000Z

I bought the CW version of the U18 and was able to measure the output on my TA Lumen Tube. So if you were interested…

Spec’d ——: 3, 160, 350, 900, 1090

Measured : 5, 120, 280, 530, 700

Turbo amp draw was 2.3A. To have any chance of meeting it’s spec’d turbo you’d need to see a bit over 3A.

I tried out a SST40 and turbo went to 850 lumen. A nice surprise.

I don’t know what the rated levels are for the NW version of the u18 or if the level spacing is different so I can only speak for the CW version.

BlueSwordM · 2018-06-19T21:15:18.000Z

Huh? Strange. I measured much higher lumen levels than you. I will check the current draw when I get back home.

The lumen readings should be much higher on your light too. I really hope we are not playing the bin lottery with this light, or driver lottery.

So, either you are really unlucky with your light, I am really lucky, or OTR does not have any quality control in regards to driver and LED bins.

What battery are you using? I have not mentionned it in my OP, but I am using a salvaged almost new 2470mAh tested LG HE4 with my light.

Are you using the stock cell?

JasonWW · 2018-06-19T22:05:04.000Z

I measured the U18 with a fully charged 30Q.

I’ve also got two of the U16’s in CW. I used the stock fully charged 16340. Both of those did 650 lumen. I suspect the difference is due to the smaller battery.

Both U16 drew 2.23A, the U18 drew 2.30A with a clamp meter.

My M3 also drew 2.23A, but uses an xm-L2 instead of xpl and it put out 860 lumen.

I think it’s just a matter of them rating their lights too high. Same as a lot of other companies.

What are you measuring your lumens with?

BlueSwordM · 2018-06-19T22:17:26.000Z

I’m using a shoebox with a lux meter.

Every time I measure the light it has been accurate to other’ trusted readings and my pwn, unless I have done something wrong this time.

When I’ll measure the current, I’ll update the post and remeasure the light output.

It is kind of strange they would overrate it by this much though.

At 2.3A, the XPL V6 gets about 1000 lumens. So even subtracting 15% losses from the lens and reflector, it should be doing 850 lumens, not 700 lumens.

They must also not be saying the truth about using an XPL V6, but a lower bin perhaps.

I’ll measure the current draw, and replace the light 3800k XPL with a 4000k 90CRI LH351D. If this gets more output than your 700lm CW XPL U18, then this will mean that they are using a lower binned LED than advertised.

JasonWW · 2018-06-19T23:03:10.000Z

The U18 on my JoshK sphere reads 680 lumen.
The U16’s read 635 lumen.

Basically my JoshK sphere reads a couple percent less than my TA Tube.

You might need to subtract a little more for reflector and lens loss, plus a little for driver loss. I was looking at Koef3’s V5 xpl chart and you can see that at 2.3A there is no way the U18 can achieve 1090 lumen. Impossible. It’s still a good little light, though. I don’t think the average person really cares if it’s 700 or 1100 lumen, it’s still plenty bright.

These new TA Tubes are reading noticably lower than other lumen tubes like the ones built by Manxbuggy1 and many other home made ones which were typically calibrated using several factory lights rated specs.

The TA Tube is calibrated by some reference lights Texas_Ace sent to Maukka over in Finland to measure in his professional integrating sphere. He’s got a certified reference light source which is why we trust his measurements. Here are some of his pictures if your interested. Maukka’s Sphere

He’s got a $10k setup in his living room. Lol

d_t_a · 2018-06-20T09:37:46.000Z

I don’t have a way of measuring lumens, although I checked the tailcap current of my OTR U18 (warm-white version):

Moon: 0.017A
Low: 0.30A
Med: 0.70A
High: 2.02A
Turbo: 2.62A (with freshly charged VTC5A)

(the visual observed difference between High and Turbo is not that significant…)

pennzy · 2018-06-20T12:36:34.000Z

Mine came yesterday . Some quick observations: good looking, compact, fairly well spaced modes except h-turbo, nice tint in mine (ww), UI with semi long press on-off will take a little practice. The only negatives so far : the usb port cover came off the first time I removed the charge cable. I didn’t know it was missing at first and was lucky to find it on the floor. Must have gotten snagged. Also, I suspect the lumen output is not as high as listed. Only a guess. One more thing, the lanyard hole is so small, I could not get the lanyard through it and the fishing line core became exposed trying. No biggie . I and going to gift it to my non flashaholic son for his birthday. Just hope the LVP works properly. The instructions are vague about it but it has been reported it works. Grade: B+

JasonWW · 2018-06-20T13:55:40.000Z

d_t_a:

I don’t have a way of measuring lumens, although I checked the tailcap current of my OTR U18 (warm-white version):

Moon: 0.017A
Low: 0.30A
Med: 0.70A
High: 2.02A
Turbo: 2.62A (with freshly charged VTC5A)

I might have used the OTR battery back when I tested my tail cap currents, I can’t remember for sure.

Moon: 0.03A
Low: 0.30A
Med: 0.70A
High: 1.50A
Turbo: 2.30A

Low and med are exactly the same. Moon is tricky to measure so it might not be exact. Then my high and turbo are a bit lower. I wonder if that is battery related or emitter related?

dthrckt · 2021-08-26T16:44:04.000Z

Did you mod this light. Curious about disassembly.

pennzy · 2021-08-26T16:54:29.000Z

dthrckt:

Did you mod this light. Curious about disassembly.

Me too. The head doesn’t budge. I didn’t try any heat or straps though.

pennzy · 2021-08-26T17:47:49.000Z

Good advice. The diagram of it looks like it’s unibody. I would end up damaging it probably .

dthrckt · 2021-08-26T17:48:13.000Z

User here says it does and its easy, and they included this photo.

r/flashlight - [NLD] On the Road U18

7 votes and 5 comments so far on Reddit