I’ve got a Sipik SK 68 which I think is great but if I was to say what I’d like to improve it’d be a “rounder” spot when zoomed right in and the biggest part is a longer battery life, I’m currently using 14500’s but it doesn’t last that long with them.
I also have it’s bigger brother - SK 98 - that takes 18650’s but is that much bigger and the focus doesn’t go down quite so tight but does last quite a lot longer with the bigger batteries.
In an ideal world I’d like a bit of a cross between the 2 with the tighter focus of the smaller one (ideally rounder as well but they may all be square??? ) but with the better battery life of the other but also without getting too much larger …… does anyone have any “perfect suggestions”.
I’m guessing I could run the smaller one on AA’s rather than 14500’s to get much better run time but at a loss of brightness, is there anything else that takes AA’s to give extended time but maybe is a bit brighter to start with so would be comparable to the SK 68 but last a bit longer maybe ??
I know this is me being really picky but if I could find something that ticks all the boxes I’d be one very happy bunny
Quick Edit: … What’s the difference between Q2 and Q5, I#m guessing one is better / brighter than the other but I wouldn’t have a clue which way round that is???
Regardless of optic or reflector type if you want absolute maximum throw from a light, projecting an image of the emitter die is unavoidable. Since the emitter is square, you get a square beam.
The only way to prevent having a square beam is to use a round emitter (not available for high performance lights) or stop the mechanism before the image of the emitter comes into focus.
Since the most LED chips are square, if you zoom into them, you get a spot in the shape of the chip.
Difference Q2 and Q5… well, years ago, these were bins from the Cree XR-E - Q5 were brighter than Q2 - and since then, Q5 is a very common description or name for no-brand and very cheap flashlights which has nothing to do with the light itself or the LED in it.
If you want a small spot, you have to go with a XP-E / XP-E2 or XP-G / XP-G2 / XP-G3 flashlight - the smaller the chip, the smaller the spot.
Viewing angle also matters significantly for zoomies. Old school XR-Es are still available, though no idea about how much you can push up the amps on these.
And what about those XT-Es? Viewing angle is wider of course, yet they’re supposed to be able to withstand more amps (rated up to 1’5A on the data sheet).
I purchased an absolutely tiny 16340 zoomie last week. It was a Nebo Redline. Entire light is about half the size of a Sipik 68 and much smaller than the two zoomies you linked.
I immediately replaced the crappy emitter with a Nichia 219C and the driver with a FET driver. Unfortunately, the driver seems to be defective and isn’t switching modes properly. However, at full power it’s quite bright and gets burning hot really fast (not much aluminum and no pill).
Put an Ahorton lens in a AA minimag with 2 x 14500 and an AX2002 1A buck driver from FastTech or 2 x AA eneloops and a 1A boost driver. I’m assuming when you say AA you mean eneloop rather than alkaline since at any current above practically none an alkaline cell loses all that extra capacity and also becomes more prone to leaking. A better choice for primary cells is 1.5V lithium but in the long run either nimh or liion rechargables are way cheaper. Even lithium primaries are only good for a few hundred mA before capacity drops.
Pretty throwy it should be in such a case, ideal for a tiny torch. I have an EZ-900 lying around but, of course no DTP. I may convert it to alu-DTP in the future, in case a friend of mine is interested, as he has some SK68 hosts with good moddable drivers.
The substrate and contacts on the XR’s are large enough to solder to directly. Direct drive is easy as you can ground both the die pad and led~~. Grind led+ off the bottom, and apply JB weld or other solder temp stable insulation there and reflow onto a piece of copper. Solder led+ wire to the top of the substrate. If the copper has good ground then no need for an led~~ wire.
I tried switching the 14500 for a AA rechargeable in my SK 68 last night thinking that may be the solution to a longer run time but there was a bigger difference in brightness than I expected.
search on “#3 zoomie” here for a smaller handful
look at mtnelectronics.com for the “SK68” driver
then you can use low brightness to extend cell life and still have high when you need it
This is a very fine light: https://www.fasttech.com/products/0/10000890/1075603-pop-lite-t22-cree-xr-e-q5-100lm-3-mode-zoom-white. The POP lite / LED Lenser two zone zoom optics puts more of the LED’s light in the throw. There is a newer version called the LED Lenser P5.2, and a stainless steel version called the POP lite P22, but they are both more expensive and hard to find. Coast flashlights are also variations of these, but they tend to have one zone spread out a bit while the other is in focus.
FastTech used to have the P5.2 for a budget price.
I have one of the Coast HP1’s as well … great little torch but I don’t like the 2 differing zones you mention, I#d much rather it if it just went down to the one narrower beam!
The one you linked to I’m guessing that’s just a clone of the Lenser P5.2? I wonder how that compares both in the amount of light and narrowness of beam both to a proper P 5.2 and also to the Coast HP1.
I don’t think you can put 14500 batteries in the Lenser ones either in case you fancy the extra brightness so again wonder how the one you linked to would compare.
