Skilhunt H04 built-in problems (h04 and h04 mini) Warning!

lol

Fair!

On low mode and 3V batt. you can shine maybe for hours and every 30sec you’ll see blinks, that’s really annoying. This is soft design flaw for sure.

You do have a point for the moon level, from 3v to 2.7v can last for a few hours. As a non enthusiast brand though, I understand why they have put it there. I’ve never used a cell that low in use, only for a review. I usually charge cells at 3.4v

Sofirn had their HS05 headlamp set at 2.6v and bundle a 14500 cell with a minimum voltage of 2.75v, very dangerous if a user always over discharges it

People from Idaho be like that. :stuck_out_tongue:

He created this thread and had a moan, and then creates this thread for an extra moan lol

In the above he mentions it blinks 3 times every 60 seconds, not quite as terrible as this thread is made out to be. I do understand that at 3v using on moonlight would be irritating since it can last a couple hours, but not many would run a cell that low on a continuous basis.

Like i mentioned before, almost all modern cells according by datasheet can go down to 2.5V. Why not to use it?

It’s never ever a good idea to rely on a devices LVP. If you start discharging below 2.5v then it’s not safe. Anything below 2v and I bin them, not worth the risk when we have no idea of the internal condition.

Mooch said anything below the manufacturer’s specs and you can never tell whether they’re safe for use.

You’ll lose cycles by dropping the voltage to 2.5v continuously. HKJ said he never runs discharge tests down to 2.5 volts anymore due to damaging some cells, even though they were rated to 2.5v

Charge voltage experiments with lithium ion batteries showing how capacity varies with charge voltage and higher cycle live with lower charge voltage This experiment shows, At 3.5V you have approximately 3% of the battery’s capacity left. There’s no good reason to go below that. And by only charging to 4.1v you get 2x the life cycle. 4.0v and you get 4x the life cycles.

How far can LiIon be discharged? Pay specific attention to the conclusion.

That’s definitely better than blinking on. It seems it blinks off on higher modes based on my runtime graph below, but blinks brighter on lower modes according to OP’s findings. That’s an interesting design decision.

They key word is “ostensible”. My sample does end up shutting off. According to Richard, there is some variance in the resolution of the 7135 chips used and some of them cannot provide power down to the lowest modes of the driver. It’s worsened with low cell voltage too. My one sample will not power on in any mode below level 4/22 with a cell below 3.4V or so, if I remember correctly. Odd behavior. I happen to like it though because I prefer my lights to have LVP.

It’s worth noting that Anduril seems to behave similarly, which I like a lot. The difference is it actually does have an advertised low voltage cutoff at 2.7V. Such a great firmware.

Battery charge percent HKJ also created some charts and measurements to show remaining capacity at various voltages. The magnetic charging skilhunt should make it very easy to measure voltage drop while running. But if people are using potatoes or turnips to power their clock than their measurements cannot be trusted. Olights make it very easy to measure voltage drop while running also.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yXmnmvDl-ao :smiley:

His trying to make a huge case out of something that is inherently no big deal reeks of trolling. If I was Skilhunt I would consider this defamation of their product.

Great thread and I now have a new favorite post!xevious :slight_smile:

Good info Oli, thanks!

I have an 18350 H03 with Quadrupel Dark Horse driver and it blinks, but it's a nice blink.

Thanks to this thread I'll probably be picking one of these up, as much as I love my H03 18350 I'm really enjoying not messing with taking batteries out of lights any more. I have this giant tank desk that they'd get under if I mishandled when removing from charger and spring propelled them away.

Nice to have an easy charging option AND be able to swap in a replacement cell.

!https://imgur.com/a/US8Shx0!

!https://imgur.com/a/CWOoylk!

Sorry for not inserting photos correctly, just doesn't work for me any more and I'm too lazy to figure out what I've done wrong

You need to use Imgur's Direct Link (like you used to.)

share link, html embed, BBcode, markdown, copy link, grab link, share link on every last S&M platform, nothing works. Hopefully the links that I posted take you to a couple beautiful photos of my H03 mini and not a Rick whatshisname video “never gonna give you up”.

Yeah, given a choice between a flash and a pulse at low voltage I’d go pulse, but between us: at that voltage the end is near enough that you won’t have to suffer long unless you’ve drained it and are trying to scrape by with moonlight mode.
Excited about the programming option. Haven’t dug too deep but I’d like to set it up so no more than 300 lumens on highest. Got a little reading but almost ready to pull the trigger unless OP makes me a sweet deal and I buy used.

You don't see "Direct Link"?

I had the same problem with my H03R, I don’t buy Skilhunt lights anymore. Not useful when they start blinking away with 30% of the capacity left.

ETA: The blinks happen so fast many meters won’t pick them up or display correctly when charting the data. More like a quick strobe than a blink. I had to watch mine to capture the time it started. This isn’t the same as other drivers showing flashing due to low power - it’s a programmed strobe with a low-voltage activation.

My H03R on H1 has a nominal runtime of 200 minutes to 2.9v/80% brightness with a 3000mah 30Q. The low-battery blinks start at ~140 minutes. So that’s a full hour of unusable runtime.

It may be useful for some users, but it’s not adequately explained in the technical literature on the Skilhunt webpage, at least it wasn’t last I looked.

Once you upload an image to imgur, right click it and select “view image” or “open image” (might change depending on the browser).
For your first image you should get “https://i.imgur.com/Vmx7Lu8.jpeg”. If you put that between exclamations, the image should display correctly: