Review: UltraFire LZZ-F15

LED Flashlights – General Info 26650 Flashlights
1

Hello,

I received an UltraFire LZZ-F15 in the mail and I thought I would give a short review on it.

It will accept a 26650, an 18650 or 3xAAA batteries in it.

Reviewer's Overall Rating: ★★★1/2

Summary:

Battery: 26650/18650/3xAAA
Switch: Tail Clicky
Modes: H/M/L/Strobee/SOS
LED Type: XML-U2
Lens: Glass
Tailstands: Yes
Price Paid: Gift
From: FastTech
Date Ordered: 08-01-13
Brand UItraFire
Model LZZ-F15
Color Black
Quantity 1
Material Aluminum alloy
Emitter Brand Cree
LED Type XM-L
Emitter BIN U2
Color BIN Cool White
Number of Emitters 1
Brightness 400 lm
Working Voltage 3.6~4.2 V
Circuitry 1500 mA
Number of Modes 5
Mode Arrangement Hi > Mid > Lo > Fast strobe > SOS
Switch Type Reverse clicky
Switch Location Tailcap
Mode Memory No
Runtime 2 hours
Beam Range 100m
Lens Glass
Reflector Aluminum Smooth / SMO
Battery Configuration 1 x 18650 / 26650 or 3 x AAA (not included)
Strap Included No
Clip Included No
Other Feature Waterproof: IPX7
Packing List 1 x Flashlight
1 x 18650 battery holder
1 x AAA battery holder

Pro's: Good overall finish and fit. Fairly bright and gives a large hot spot with a little spill. Takes three different batteries.

Cons: Not bright enough. Next Mode Memory, (When will the Mfg's ever stop that?). 3xAAA carrier leads to lots of resistance. Springs on + and - is a No,No. Cheap Lanyard. Just too big for an EDC light and too small for an all round light.

Here's some photos:

145mm OAL

35mm Diameter Head

Tail Cap threads were lubed. They are ok, not too rough and not really smooth either.

30mm Lens and Reflector

Pill screws out of the lower head section.

Big old spring on the driver. Just more resistance in the path.

Aluminum Pill takes a 20mm star and a 22mm driver.

The shelf for the star is solid, which is a good thing when modding the light.

BEAM SHOTS

High on an 18650

High on 3xAAA

High on an 18650

Overall, it's fairly bright, but it is just too big for an EDC and just too small a reflector to be an all round light. I really just don't care for the form factor. I thought I would, but I don't.

Amp draw on an 18650

  • High - 2.1 amps
  • Medium - 1.1 amps
  • Low - .3 amps

2

Thanks for the review OL.

The low actually seems pretty low at 0.03A.

Driver looks to be the same as my Paisen u2/ sky eye f13/ wildfire f13

3

driver CX 5122; is same as the Ultrafire F13; is possibile remove the memory status.

4

How to remove?

5

Thanks for the review and breakdown shots. It amazes me that this light externally looks to me like the A8 but inside it is nothing like an A8.

6

relic38 wrote: Removing next mode memory is easy if you can solder small components.
You need a resistor with a value between 330k and 470 kOhms ish.
Solder that resistor right across the little brown thing (called a capacitor) next to the big black chip.
With that in place, the memory will timeout back to High about 4-6 seconds after you turn off the light.

7

Thanks for the review, I just received the light yesterday, I bought it to make a nice modded light for a friend of mine who wanted a single 26650 light. I think it is nice for that. (I know very little of these kind of drivers, the driver is underdriven, something like 2 amp-ish, is there a resistor mod that can pump it up to 4 amps?)

I found the light has a nice distinctive hotspot, and found out why: the insulation gasket around the led is blocking a lot of sideways light, so the deepest part of the reflector is not used, only the outer part that gives that nice distinctive spot. If you raplace it with a normal gasket, the hotspot is a bit less defined but with more light :-)

8

Yes, I have noticed that before. It seems it’s their way to get a “thrower” out of many different lights without having to do a lot. I guess it’s probably the cheapest approach for a Mfg.

9

Thanks a lot for the review! Frontpage’d and Sticky’d.

10

Do any of you that have this also have the Defiant Super Thrower? I'm curious if the body will thread into the DST head.

11

I have been working a bit on this light to make it into a gift for a friend of mine, nothing like a OL make-over, but I'll share some findings:

stock current: 2 amps, I used a freshly charged CGR18650CH Panasonic IMR battery for all current measurements.

there are 8 x 1.5 ohm resistors on the driver, I paralleled another 5 x 1 ohm resisitors, the current went up to 2.5 amps

I put copper braid through the tail spring and contact board spring. the current went up to 3.0 amps

I decided now to just skip the current limiting resistors, that is easy done by moving the led-plus wire to the convenient blob (also labelled out +) that is to the bottom right of the original connection (I guess they made that one especially for me):

the current went up to 3.5 amps. (I'm beginning to like this simple driver, am I the only one?)

The led board started smoking at this point, because of the isolation gasket melting (no thermal paste, led board not really squeezed down because the reflector is just not touching it when srewed tight ).

Then I changed the led board to a Sinkpad with a XM-L2 3C, Arctic silver 5 in between, pill not completely screwed down (just half a milimeter) because then the reflector does indeed squeeze the led-board tight against the pill. (I changed the melted isolation gasket for a new one).Current went down to 3 amps (perhaps because of the higher Vf of XM-L2, and/or lower working temp?), but the light can easily handle a continuous high now.

Last thing I did is soldering a 330 kOhm resistor over the light-brownish capacitor (as suggested by Relic38 somewhere else) and got rid of the next mode memory, it always starts on high now.

I has become a very nice light and I just gave it to my friend, he has no idea what happened to it, but he is very happy :-)

Bottomline for me is that, although generally it is considered cheap and ready to swap to a better one, I quite like the driver (it is in a variety of lights by the way, as already stated above in this thread), it is simple enough for me (I am no electronics guru), with a very simple move of the +wire in this light it is getting 3 amps to the led (same current with a Trustfire 26650 I just found out), and the next mode memory is easily removed with a resistor on top of the capacitor. Oh, and I could not see the PWM on low,when waving the light before my eyes, so that must be pretty high for a change.

12

I like the look of this light, good to know it can be made to perform well with some basic TLC. :wink:

13

Djozz, did you measure any lumens output?

I heard that even at 3A the driver/led combo didnt really put out too much lumens, in another thread, on another light, but with the same driver.

14

I did not do lumens because as far as I can understand it is a straightforward direct drive driver, the tail current goes through the led (can someone correct me if I am wrong here?). At 3 amps I expect around 850 lumens OTF, and it looks bright enough for that.I gave it away already, so I can't not do the lumen measurement anymore.

I heatsinked the led as well as can be, but the output in the stock light could suffer from high temperature though.

15

Thanks for answering.. I was wondering if the white gasket also blocked some light...??

16

it does, see my post somewhere above, it was the first thing I swapped in the light. You can even see it in the Fasttech picture , the middle section of the reflector does not receive any light:

17

So the answer is Yes..thanks

did you read your PM Djozz?

18

now I did :-) . Answered.

19

When I took out the white gasket, the beam looked really bad.. (in a Paisen Z6 U2).
Not sure if a normal gasket would help.. I can still try, or I can try to sand it down.

(pm replied)

20

The gasket does lift up the reflector a bit relative to the led, you miss that if you remove the gasket, I suggest to replace the gasket by one that does not have that high rim. Also, don't be fooled by the looks of the beam, it may look worse, but the hotspot will be brigher without the stock gasket. That is because the outer part of a reflector images the light much better into a nice hotspot than the inner part. But the inner part does still contribute to the hotspot so if you simply remove that light the spot will be perhaps nicer looking, but dimmer. (I did a simple experiment somewhere last year that shows the separate contributions from the outer an the inner part of a reflector to the hotspot)