Review: UltraFire K10 (1 mode and 6 mode)

LED Flashlights – General Info 1 x AA / 1 x 14500 Flashlights
21

Well I got my K10 today and put in a new fresh charged 2300mah Energizer Ni-Mh and got maybe 3 minutes of use before the driver crapped out.

It wasn't nearly as bright as I expected it to be but maybe it was because of the faulty driver. I disassembled the light and removed the driver and as I figured it is the same one as my C3SS from LT and the same as a Trustfire F20 so as Fran and many others have pointed out this light definitely is not 3.7V tolerant!

I could see on the driver a small crack/split spot on the DC-DC boost converter so I knew that was the faulty component so I figured I would put her back together and give her a shot with A 3.7V battery. I didn't have any 14500's so I wired in a 18650 to the light and she fired right up. Much nicer output with the 3.7V battery as expected.

I have repaired the boost circuit on a few lights by replacing the DC-DC converter chip which I think is a cheap version/copy of the PAM2803 from this...cheap $2.19 fix for ppl with a fried boost circuit that uses the 6 pin PAM2803 DC-DC Converter.

http://www.dealextreme.com/details.dx/sku.25505

I posted a video for DX and filed an RMA. I will fix this myself if they will give me store credit for the replacement part.

22

But hard to make it happen, because you have to scrifice some money off the flashlight budget for that. Right?

23

@ bluebeam

Some things:

1- My two K10´s continue working with both AA and 14500

2- The driver board of them is not the same as the one in the F20 (the one with the red path)

3- I have to update the review and point that some units are being destroyed with 14500, to warn the users

4- Maybe I have been lucky, or maybe the problem is again the Vf of the LEDs

24

Amazing how things change so fast!! I ordered mine on Dec. 12th 2010.

My K10 driver is exactly the same as the F20(it has the red path)

Maybe the boost circuit on this driver dosn't like the XP-G LED?????????

25

no, I think that "the driver doesn like XPG" is not the problem. Maybe, the problem is the same as with XRE, low Vf

26

What? I didnt read that... It stopped working after a few minutes with NiMh!!!! Not with 14500... with NiMh!!! Incredible... the most normal is to stop working with 14500, not with Nimh. I dont understand

27

That is correct...fried with Ni-MH!! Turned it off and on changed modes and just played with it a few minutes then no more light!! Checked all connections and switch and all checked fine so I disassembled the driver and could see on the boost chip where it had burnt up. I could also smell that it had fried.

The light was much dimmer than I thought it should be too so i'm thinking it was just faulty from the begining.

The light works well with 3.7v and light output is more like I expected.

28

Well I finally received my parts from China to repair my K10. I replaced the DC-DC converter IC on my driver and put in a larger Schottky diode and got it fixed. I also used a bleeder resistor like I wrote about in this thread...

http://budgetlightforum.cz.cc/node/823 to fix mode memory while I had it apart.

It's not a bad light, but the tint is cooler than I prefer but it's OK. I am pretty sure this isn't a R5 because I have other R5 torches and they are much greener in tint than this one. The tint on this light is alot more purple which most people are saying the R4 is purple tint and the R5 is greener tint and from what I can tell about my confirmed R5 light which is much greener I would say this is true but no big deal it is an XP-G. I know you can't judge a LED bin by color but I do think there is some merit to the R4 being more purple and R5 being greener.

By the way my 6-mode K10 draws 2 amps at the tail on high with NiMh

I do not regret this purchase but I do think the 6-mode K10 torch is overpriced by at least 2 bucks.

I am really beginning to love the XP-G and XP-E torches with smooth reflectors!

29

Thanks for the follow-up. I'm glad you were able to get it working.

The tints shouldn't have anything to do with the brightness bins. The tint is binned independently, so you can have a 1B (cool white) R4, R5, or S2. The neutral and warms are not available in the highest flux bins, but that's another issue.

30

I guess this light is still hanging around 3 years later. I picked up one of these from Fasttech for $13.47 with free shipping. I had originally purchased from them a Trustfire F20 that fried itself after running a 14500 for about 5 minutes. I had that light for about two weeks. Didn’t really want that light again so looked around their site and saw the K10. Saw that it had the brighter R5 so decided that I wanted to try it. The F20 was still under warranty so they agreed to send me (after I sent them back the damaged one) the K10 after paying the difference since the K10 was about $2 more. Pretty cool of them to do that. Anyway on to the light. The F20 was a bit underwhelming and I found myself constantly having to fiddle with the modes cause if you didn’t flick it really fast each time, it would go to next mode. I found it seeming to never be on the mode I wanted. Besides the K10 having a brighter LED, there also was the option to get a one mode version. I went, “hell yeah”, single mode is much better for me. When I use a light, I want it to fire up full brightness and don’t have much use for modes. I’m just a simple dude I guess, no muss no fuss, turn the damn thing on and off, that’s all I want. That one mode had my name on it. Got the light and couldn’t be happier with it. It outshines the F20, has a really nice beam and have no more useless (to me) modes to fiddle with. Might pick up a couple more. Nice damn light!

Oh and I won’t be running a 14500 in this one any time soon. Learned my lesson on cheap drivers. My Eneloops will be good enough for this one.