I’m very comfortable with a soldering iron and change the firmware on lots of devices, etc. But perhaps I’ll hold off on this particular replacement for now. It was mostly a “can I get a longer life out of it” question, and perhaps more than ‘decades’ is not needed!
Than you, too, for taking the time to respond to my post. I sincerely appreciate you taking the time to share some of your experience with me! I’ll have a look at the suggested light. I am honestly overwhelmed with the number of options out there. How are there SO many companies out there?!
My gut feel says 2700K would be too warm for a general purpose flashlight, but I’ll certainly have a look at the emitters you’re mentioning. Replacing them myself Is perhaps a step beyond what I’d like to get into for now. Hank sounds like a great guy, but I’m not in the US (Dutch by origin, living in Asia) and so this may prove to be an expensive endeavor. Maybe when I next visit?!
However, the background of my question was really more of a ‘secondary function’ than the changing of the main light color. This function is basically to allow my wife and I nocturnal bathroom visits in hotels, guided by the least amount of light possible. I’d like to set up a light in the bathroom, at the lowest possible level, and leave it on throughout the night. The goal is to prevent us walking into things in an unknown environment, find the toilet, all while staying as close to being asleep as possible!
I’ll be reviewing the models you both suggested this afternoon, but I’d really like your opinion on something that I found yesterday that has me quite curious: the Sofirn IF23 (manufacturer site, BLF search).
What I like:
Both flood and throw in a single light
Built-in red lights for the hotel bathroom scenario
Good to know, and you are right, $100 is more than the average of what budget lights cost (usually about $30-$40), but it does open up some high-end lights like Hank’s. OTOH, about Hanklights specifically, I don’t see any of them fitting all your basic requirements as (AFAIK) Hank doesn’t put USB ports and powerbank functionalities in any of his lights.
This will depend a lot on the particular light, as it’s influenced by multiple factors like what LED is being used (some use much more power than others), how efficient is the driver (buck/boost drivers are most efficient, unregulated ones usually turn an appreciable part of the battery’s energy into heat), how dissipative the flashlight head/body is (besides thermal mass, there’s the matter of its shape, whether they have cooling fins, and even color – black being the most dissipative) and finally whether the light has ATR (automatic temperature regulation) and whether you can change the temperature where it starts stepping down the brightness (like you can with Anduril).
My suggestion is, check for in-depth reviews where the real pros like @tactical_grizzly, @zeroair and @1Lumen do real testing of (among many other things) sustained brightness and publish that in easy-to-read graphs; just as an eg, here’s one for the FC13: Wurkkos FC13 Flashlight Review - ZeroAir Reviews, look for a lumens vs time graph like this one and it shows all you need to know about that light in this regard.
Marketing is designed to do that but we all here in BLF will be sure to help you not fall in these kinds of traps.
This is a whole other rabbit hole, one I’ve been in for the best part of one year and still learning and doing things. But it’s a hole in the positive sense, and one I strongly recommend
I’ve seen this light a few months ago, and basically dismissed it as too gimmicky. Having a second look now, and it does look interesting for your use case.
The auto-lock is really messed up: not only it can’t be disabled as you mentioned, but it memorizes things when it shouldn’t, and fails to provide shortcuts for the most used modes. I really dislike auto-lock and disable it in all my lights and when necessary I use mechanical locking (unscrewing the head or the tail cap just a little bit to break contact), works well enough in most cases and has the added advantage of removing parasitic drain and therefore extending battery duration.
CRI on the front channel (throw) is really bad at 60 or so as you also noted. OTOH, it has very good CRI (96+) on the side (flood) channel, so this wouldn’t be a problem for the close-by use cases where flood is normally used.
Good moonlight levels at 0.5/2.5 lumens for the front/side channel. The one for the side channel is a little too bright for my taste, but not by too much. This is good for your bathroom use case.
DUV is positive for both front/side LEDs and all brightness levels, and specially for the front LED, by a relatively large amount. This will tend to make its beam look quite green, which can be disagreeable for night indoor usage.
Good LVP (so the light won’t ruin a battery by discharging it too much), good PWM (basically invisible and inaudible which is good as it tends to be annoying otherwise) and very low parasitic drain (so even if you don’t mechanically lock the light, the battery will take a very long time to be drained – over 7 years in this case). On the flop side, bad ATR aka thermal regulation (like the bad lockout, this would be really easy to fix – actually it would be fixed by default – if Sofirn had just used Anduril for this light, or at least made it possible for us to reflash it, neither would be a problem).
Re: flashing, this pic from the review seems to show 4 pads visible inside the head, just like in the Sofirn SC28 as I pointed in my mini-review; I asked @Barry0892 and @sofirn right there whether they could be used for reflashing the light but got no response, so I’m presuming they can’t (which is quite sad, as flashing could help us overcome any and all such UI problems like the bad autolock and bad ATR on the IF23).
The review points to some competing lights, and the Lumintop E21C looks very similar, you might want to investigate it further to see whether it has the same shortcomings pointed above. But I shoud say I like Sofirn more as a brand: Lumintop is not a bad brand (I have a Tool AA 2.0 UV from them and it’s a great little UV light) but Sofirn has presence here in BLF and interacts with us enthusiasts and this counts a great deal in my book. Anyway, here’s an in-depth review of the E21C: Lumintop E21C Flashlight Review - ZeroAir Reviews, I gave it only a cursory read but haven’t seen the author complaining about either auto-lock or ATR, so perhaps it’s an option, albeit as he points out, a more expensive one ($100 vs $32 for the IF23).
No matter what you get in your wish-list light, pick up a TS10. 4000K and orange LEDs is my perfect combo. You’ll thank me later.
I got an assload of coffee-table lights right here, and the light I go for pretty much all the time is the TS10. 14500 so limited capacity, but I’m inside and can charge it in a jiffy, so who cares? I even swapped in one of those 14430s with the built-in charging circuit, so all I need is a usb cable and not even a physical charger.
General purpose light? Go floody. Throwy is great if you’re outside looking for the USS Star Track, but for all practical indoor use, you want floody. At this point, using a “throwy” light to find something in a cupboard or in the basement is like searching with a laser-pointer.
I have no idea why people want a powerbank function in a light. You end up with a charged-up phone but a dead light. You want a powerbank, get a powerbank. Then you can have a charged-up phone and light.
And get a hydra cable which has C/micro/lightning, and you won’t have to care about converting everything you own to C from micro. In fact, you’ll be able to charge a doodad with C and a doodad with micro, at the same time from the same powrbank/adapter/etc.
Diving lights completely aside here - but if you want decent fluid IP w/o a horrible, mostly-worthless rubber plug, keep in mind that these are ‘a thing’ now. You won’t find them on the ‘cheapest’ lights, because they’re not the ‘cheapest’ connectors. They’re out there though. My newest light has one (or the equivalent thereof):
In Asia my first choice is not available. A close second that clearly doesn’t meet everything on your list is the Armytek C2 Pro Nichia.
4500k high cri.
Three different Firefly or moonlight modes to choose from. This is important for what you want.
A very wide smooth floody beam that you will immediately love.
The best clip out there.
The fact that you can also use it as a headlight is just an added bonus.
I could go on but I’ll stop there.
In the US a 3000k version is available from one retail outlet. That would be my first choice.
But I figured 'if it peaks at 2000-4000, it should be able to do ~1000 lumens sustained"
This is not an accurate assumption. Some flashlights can sustain their maximum level. Others do not have a sustainable level at all (every level has output that depends on battery voltage). Most are limited by heat, but the sustainable level is often unrelated to the maximum output. Some sustain a higher level in a cold, wet, windy environment than they would in warm, still air.
Most reviewers these days include runtime graphs that will let you see if there’s a sustainable level. I list it in the specs if there is one.
The EC300 I recommended sustains about 650 lumens, which is decent, but not breaking any records. The Acebeam E75 is an option that offers high-CRI LEDs, USB charging, and sustained output closer to 1000 lumens. It’s more rugged and the USB port is sealed better, but does not have colored LEDs or a powerbank function.
I have no idea why people want a powerbank function in a light.
I use one quite a bit. It’s useful for traveling light. Of course it does require thinking about how you’re using power, but having the option to split power between illumination and charging USB devices with non-removable batteries is useful. Bringing a couple spare 21700s is an option.
Thanks for the comment. As said, it’s really just splash resistance I am looking for. So, looking for a torch with this socket specifically may be a bit much. I assume this is not an aftermarket thing, where you pay someone to take whatever light you have and replace the socket for this one.
My view … I typically travel in places where I can just charge from a wall socket or in a pinch use my wife’s power bank or even my iPad to charge my phone. But having yet another layer of redundancy doesn’t hurt.
If it would have drastically reduce my options, I would indeed have let this requirement go. But as it turns out, there are plenty of options even including it. So … why not!?
I had not even considered the headband lights until now. For my use case, the bands themselves add little value but I could see how the bright, color-accurate light is appealing. Thanks for sharing!
Thanks for the suggestion. With all the replies on this forum and my (way too much) time spent researching, I’ve gone with thinking “well maybe I should also…” too many times! I’ll buy the general purpose one described in my original post first, and see how much I use it and what scenarios frustrate me. But yeah, I could see myself buying some additional ones in the future
Thanks for taking the time to write such a long comment, again.
Am I right to interpret this as ‘a high CRI is more important for flood lights than it is for throw’ or would that not be correct? (also: look at me throwing around the lingo as if I know what I’m talking about! )
I really wish the color channel had a brightness control, so I could use red color at low brightness for even lower ‘wake up factor’ in those bathroom scenarios!
I’ve searched for but have not found a ‘diffusion dome’ for this light, as I’d like to see how that sort of thing might end up being useful. I imagine they reduce the light output quite a bit, depending on quality.
Yeah, I spotted the photo you linked to as well and wondered the same thing. It’s disappointing @Sofirn isn’t responding to any comments. If this was a possibility, I’d have ordered this one by now. A lot of the problems could be figured in software, as you pointed out.
I had found the E21C too. It comes across as a higher quality hardware product that does not suffer from most of the software shortcomings of the IF23. But it also lacks the color LEDs, which add some interesting … well, potential, at the very least. I really like this form factor though and have been making a list of options. I’ll probably add a new post for this form factor specifically.
Thanks very much. Your comments are super helpful and insightful and are genuinely appreciated!
I never thought about it that way – just in terms of distance. But as throw is usually used for longer distances and flood for shorter ones, yes: I think you’re right. Interesting way to put it, BTW.
(also: look at me throwing around the lingo as if I know what I’m talking about! )
Better throwing the lingo than flooding it, I guess!
This is another of the “easily fixable in firmware” things, it would be just a matter of using PWM.
A diffusion dome (aka diffuser) for the side LEDs? Or for the main LED? If the latter, I think it would not be too difficult to find one with about the right diameter, and @spicy3d does produce quite a few, possibly even one at (or near) the right size.
Your appreciation is much appreciated and if you have any further questions, me and our brothers and sisters here in BLF stand ready to assist, just let us know!
Hahaaaa … didn’t even do that on purpose, but nice pickup there!
I’m very comfortable with following guides to hack electronics and replace firmware and such. But for flashlights that would be a whole new area. And I am for sure not the person to reverse engineer things and actually write the guide. Very sad. This light has so much potential!
Specifically to my use case though (I’m hoping that thread remains a bit more general), Turns out ZeroAir has a review for both the IF23 and the E21C (which you already linked to). Comparing the two, my observations:
Comparable output levels on the throw light, Sofirn wins for the sidelight
Lumintop has sensible firmware
Sofirn has the colors
Sofirn has a strong tailcap magnet, but Lumintop adds the tailcap hook
Lumintop has a very stable output, with Sofirn wildly fluctuating
I can’t judge those color charts, so I don’t know if Lumintop is any better
Since I am in Asia, Amazon is not a great source. AliExpress sells the Sofin for $30 for me with the Lumintop for $55. While I’d be happy to spend the $55, I’m not sure the differences justify nearly doubling the cost.
Hoping more options will be posted in the new thread, but between these two … somewhat begrudgingly, I think I’d choose the IF23 despite all its high blood pressure inducing firmware shortcomings. @Sofirn please let us reprogram this light!!!
Although I have serious concerns about the firmware, auto-lock feature, output swings, lack of features for the color LEDs, etc. and am slightly miffed at the lack of response by @Sofirn despite their reported involvement in this community … I could not find a different light that is as diverse. So, like the one for my wife, we bought the IF23 to help understand our own requirements better and hopefully something will come along that addresses those concerns (or takes away the need for the feature!).
Thanks to everyone for the warm welcome to this forum and the very helpful comments! Had it not been for that, I may just have picked up a cheap gas station light somewhere and call it a day. Thank you!
