Not sure yet my Trustfire Flames (protected) cut out on high ( waiting for some King Kongs from Richard to arrive) I can say that on medium it out throws my Tangsfire C8 while lighting up the entire field between me and where the hotspot is.
Since this GB is going to take a while, but I’m still going to participate in it, I decided to purchase the last one the Amazon dealer had on Monday night to see how it is for myself. Holy cow! This is one sick light. All it needs is a better UI, as has been discussed here, and it would be great.
Side by side to my UniqueFire UF-T09 9x cree, the Supernight shines on the cool side of the tint, making my Uniquefire look a bit warm.
The light arrived from Amazon totally mint and flawless. I’d say it’s a steal even as it is for $59.99 with free 2 day shipping.
The following are my tailcap readings using various 3x 26650 cells.
Trustfire 5000mAh protected - 6.82 amps
MNKE IMR cells - 7.35 amps
EnerPower 4500mAh protected- 9.0 amps
KeepPower 5200mAh protected - 10.9 amps
Wow, it would take a good amount of pressure to bend that strap ring while packaged. Sorry to hear about your light arriving damaged fireblade.
I have some KeepPower 26650 IMR 5200mAh Un-protected cells arriving today. Should be interesting to see how it performs with them after a top-off charge.
As I recall earlier in the thread someone bought it and reported lower output than from the 12 LED. Also Supernight is offering multiple 12 LED lights with different appearing heads and cooling fin machining. The 15 LED light you linked to is the same fin arrangement as the 12 LED one I bought and returned as it died after less than 5 minutes of operation. Some of the 12 LED Supernights, based on photos, have the same fins as the Ultrafire light in the OPs post.
RMM bought the same light that I did from Amazon and after disassembly reported minimal contact between the driver and LED table part of the head and the rest of the head finning so poor thermal transfer away from the LEDs. Like too many budget lights from China you are never sure of what you have until someone opens it up and looks at the guts. Kind of like the ancient Roman haruspex and his divination from sacrificed animals livers. :bigsmile:
Just go down the 12 and 15 LED Supernight lights in the above linked to Amazon page and note the different fin arrangements on various ones. The direct linked to light has the same fins as the OPs light.
The 12 emitter lights seem to be the way to go. The 15T6 I got (different brand, maybe Ultrafire) had 4S cell holder (Could run on 2 cells too), emitters were wired 5S3P, and had a very whimpy boost driver.
Well, after comparing the SuperNight to my Trustfire AK-47 (KD 2nd Gen driver) , and the UniqueFire UF-T09 tonight, I decided I like the Uniquefire best due to the side switch, not to mention it really isn’t that much less bright, somehow.
I fully charged the 6 new Keeppower IMR26650 unprotected cells and tossed them in the SuperNight and the other set in the AK-47, the Uniquefire received the Enerpower protected 4500mAh cells.
Tailcap readings using the cells mentioned were as follows:
SuperNight 10.45 amps
AK-47 5.88 amps
UniqueFire 3.85 amps
The Uniquefire and AK-47 both have the exact reflector, so their beam profile is the same, but the Supernight reflector having 12 XM-L’s, the individual reflectors are only half the size and are shaped like straight tubes, whereas the other two lights have double the width reflectors and flare outwards as they should. The SuperNight uses XM-L’s that are actually cold in color, I’d say about 7500k. So unless these are changed to something warmer, I don’t think I’d participate in a GB, if only for that reason. If BLF member, ‘The’ can get the manufacturer to upgrade to XM-L2’s with a proper NW, I’d love to grab a second one for sure.
‘The’ can get the manufacturer to upgrade to XM-L2’s with a proper NW, I’d love to grab a second one for sure.
http://www.fasttech.com/products/1601/10006644/1519900 But still too Cold
The FET is a 35N03 would that be worth swapping to a 70N02 like in the SRK mods?
I’d be up for that as long as the power output is reduced. As it stands now, my +B spring has already started to darken and the annealing process has begun. I’ve only used the light a minute here and a minute there for beam shots.
Using KeepPower IMR26650 cells and 10.45 amps at the tailcap is just to much power for this light. Not to mention when using all other protected cells (if they fit), is beyond their output and will trip the protection if you try to use it on high mode.
Just something to consider.
My battery positive spring has got quite dark as well.
I have already braided the spring and changed LED wires from 22AWG to 18 AWG , I braided the switch spring as well which seems like a poor design to me , the spring won’t fit into the “cap” the copper “cap” (not sure of its name) sits mostly on top of the spring you would have thought the spring would go inside it as it is half hollow.
I’ll have to begin modding this light as you have before the springs completely fail.
I couldn’t resist taking this one apart to see what makes it tick. I sure was surprised at what I found, and it answered my question why they are able to sell these lights for what seems like a pretty fair (budget) price.
Under the reflector I found the 12 XM-L T6 Cold tint LED’s surface mounted and connected with traces. Labor to build this light must be a fraction of what it costs to build it the old way, manually soldering all those little wires. There also seems to be sufficient heat sink paste residue coming out the perimeter. It should also be noted, as Tom E mentioned, heat sinking my not be the best considering the metal under the PCB is only 1.75mm thick.
A shot of the FET driver. None of the component stock numbers have been sanded off. That was nice of them for a change of pace.
Above the driver, the only word that comes to mind is, cavernous! The wiring seems to be of sufficient diameter and is silicon coated wiring. I didn’t feel the need to upgrade it, so it’ll remain.
Am I the only one thats bothered by the extension not matching the rest of the light? Looks like it was designed for 2 cells and they grabbed an extension from a Trustfire 9x and sprayed it grey. :Sp
What? K50 issue again? LOL.
-Anyone know where to get a driver for this light?
I have had nowt but bad luck with this one (took ages to arrive , then came all banged up) and now I took batteries out for a charge (KK batteries) put them back in it went bright then dim now only 6 LED’s light up very very dim, on blinkies two more come on again very dim, bloody thing probably hasn’t worked for more than a few hours just enough to drain the KK’s on their first charge.-
Scratch that I don’t need a driver (well hopefully) the problem seems to be that 6 of the LED’s have blown (how the hell can that happen changing batteries?)
I have tested by connecting to each LED one at a time with a battery to see if it lights up 6 light up the others don’t at all.
The LED’s are on a single star I don’t know if it’s possible to reflow a star with 12 LED’s on it and I’m pretty sure I would probably make it worse if I tried.
I’m gonna guess that these star’s aren’t easy to come by like that and 12 XML2’s on Noctigon sounds expensive and would have to be cut down to fit in the space available.
I checked the wiring on the star and they are wired 4 parallel with 3 in series.
Anyone any ideas on what to do without spending the same amount of money on it that it cost in the first place?
Considering the LED Heat droop that RMM has run into and reported with multiple versions of these 12 LED monsters I wonder if you overstressed the LEDs with use and the newly charged batteries with their higher voltage pushed the LEDs over the edge. Not familiar with LED failure modes or how well regulated your driver is to know if this is possible. From what RMM wrote these monsters, particularly if hopped up at all, sound like thermal bombs waiting to happen.
One reason I bought the TR-S700 and will get the TR-J20 if I decide on a 12 LED monster flood light. Both those seem to have excellent thermal heat sinking based on reports of disassembly by BLF members. One reason they are as massive as they are. If you want to push for maximum output for more than a few seconds you really need to choose a host with the best possible thermal path basic design.