Latest review is up - not exactly your typical 21700-based light, but that is what the battery pack is built-on:
The light has monster output and throw, this class has certainly come a long way from my earlier reviewing days. Here’s a teaser high runtime graph (additional graphs showing a blow-up for more resolution in the first few mins are the review):
Quite a lengthy review this time, as I have a lot to say about heat and the thermal management - it’s an interesting light.
Great review.
I would buy this light in a minute however the proprietary battery makes it a pass.
Sadly it is unavoidable in such configuration, 4 cells in series definitely need some kind of BMS/protection to be safe. One of the reasons why all power tools, household appliances (vacuum cleaners and such), etc use proprietary packs.
It is a shame they are charging so much for it though, if the cost was closer to the cost of 4 cells this would be fine.
Wonder how hard would it be to repack this one/replace the cells…
Not hard if you have a spot welder as I do, so I’m fairly safe when if comes to battery packs. I purchased the DJI RSC2 gimbal with non removable battery pack, all reviews said to avoid it and buy the RS2 instead, but since I have a Spot Welder it’s not an issue for me.
The key is to charge only to 80% and discharge to 30%, then you get twice the battery life. I also always store it at 50% charge so that helps a lot too.
Yeah, assembling 4x21700 into a pack is not too difficult. A bunch of very cheap “spot welders” exist, they are horrible, but sufficient for the job.
What’s more interesting is - did they take any steps to prevent it? Some tool manufacturers do. For example if power is removed from electronics inside the pack said electronics might never function again.
Another important question is possibility of non-destructive disassembly/reassembly. Sometimes can be an issue too…
