Solarstorm T3 and T4

LED Flashlights – General Info 18650 Flashlights
152

Got my T4 from BG yesterday. 13 days after I ordered it.

Works nicely.

Nicely built and anodizing. Was not able to get the tailcap off with strap wrenches. :/ The tailcap edges are a bit sharp on my light, and if you hold the light with a good and tight grip it can feel a but uncomfortable. I find that a bit annoying. I notice it just by picking it up.

My light does not have the "off/on twist sign" below the on/off button. I like the cleaner look.

Switch. No need to take it out, but it looks like this.

T4 reflector (left) vs regular quad reflector (right) from kung, 4 XM-L SRK etc..

I like the size, not sure how I like it in real life yet, or how it compares with a kung as I have not used the light outdoors, or compared them. The beam is not round and smooth along the edges. A typical triple emitter looks much smoother and rounder.

Crappy super CW XM-L. Lots of thermal paste, and a bit of dirty looking.

Made a larger hole on the top of the driver circuit in order to get it out. After its been out the first time, its easy to get it out. Looks like its the same driver as in the T3.

Parasitic drain in standy: 143,7 Microamps (could be lower, but its not bad)

PWM high: 0.12KHz

PWM Medium: 15.45 KHz

PWM Low: 15.45 KHz

Not sure what to make of the PWM reading on high, its not noticeable on a fan or anything. In comparison. The warrior have no noticeable PWM on high either, but easily noticeable PWM on low if pointed towards a fan or something. With the 15.45 KHz PWM on the T3 and T4 Im not able to notice it, and with that frequency I doubt anyone will. Nice!

With NCR18650B @ 4,05V emitter amps (on one of them) look like this:

2,7A

1,04

0,05

The mode spacing is quite good. Better than most of the alternatives. About 35-40% on medium and 1,5-2% on low. Its not easy to say for sure, because output on high was sinking fast towards 2,6A but it started higher than 2,7A with the cells I used.

Considering that its got 4 emitters, this is "hot-rod territory" from the factory. It heats up fast.

UI is almost the same as on the Warrior, but with one switch. Others have covered the UI already. Still, I like the UI better on the warrior due to having two switches and startup in low. But this have a lower low. Would really prefer to see it start in low instead of high, and have instant on instead of the momentary stuff.

I would prefer to have a bit knurling on the body, and also see the same lanyard attachment as the Warrior (built into the side of the body). That would also make it shorter.

The "000" resistor have a little bit resistance. Shorting them with a wire can increase peak output with around 10-20%.

With shorted resistors and LG HE2 im looking at peak output of 3,6A to each emitter (sinks quickly).

Uses 55mm lens, so it can easily be swapped with common AR lens for SRK.

Have not tested behavior with low voltage yet.


Conclusion:

This is a nice and very bright hard driven light with bad tint (not bad if you like 8000K or cooler). Emitter swap is highly recommended unless you are into very CW tint.

There are several things to nitpick on, but I can nitpick on several things on all its rival alternatives too. Considering the price. Around 30$ for a well built quad light.

153

thanks for your Infos!

what dir you think is “better” since the driver is the same:
(Heat and Lumen)
t3 or t4?

154

The better light? Hard to say. I dont have the T3, nor have I compared the T4 with a typical quad. My other quad is a project light (aka not up and running). Have not used my T4 outdoors yet either.

It will mostly be a matter of preference.

A triple will generally throw better and generate less heat while doing so compared to a quad.

A quad will be a bit better close up, usually with more flood and a bit better efficiency due to having 4 emitters. Since the T4 uses quite deep reflectors, not sure how it compares to a regular quad. Either way, there is probably not that large differences.

Variety is good! :) T4 second from the right.

Ask me in a few months which is the better light. Some of the lights above needs to be modded in order for me to use them and do a proper evaluation. Currently im busy with other projects.

155

The battery tubes are interchangeable both ways between my original T3 and the second T4 that I just received today. The new T4 from FastTech also has the LEDs turn off fully when you use the power switch to turn it off, unlike my original T4. The reason I said that the original T4 had a defect due to the battery holder not being interchangeable with the T3 light is due to my 20 years experience in manufacturing QA. You normally DO NOT make parts which look totally identical and are the same dimension within a few thousandths of an inch and do not make them interchangeable if made in the same plant. To do so is asking for problems with parts getting mixed up and causing major problems in final assembly of products. The fact that the second T4 has a battery holder which does interchange with the T3 one makes me more convinced that the original T4 battery holder should be considered defective.

156

I got my T3 this week and I am quite impressed!
I never liked the quad emitter / quad cell can lights, just to big for my hands. This one is very comfortable to hold and fits ok in a jacket side pocket.
The original emitter tint was disgusting though. I swapped them the same day for some xm-l2. :wink:
Another big plus: probably one of the most effortless swaps I have ever done. Very easy to disassemble , lots of room in the driver and emitter compartment, but still reasonable thermal management. Might be a nice host for future mods. :slight_smile:

157

dave_;

The Solarstorm/Fandyfire Warrior and the Black Shadow/ Fandyfire Darth are almost identical in dimensions in the grip area as they are also three battery lights from the same company group as the T3. The Darth grip feels the smallest due to the three flats machined into the battery compartment. Somewhat lower output compared to the T3 but noticeably warmer LED color temperatures on both. The Darth also has a noticeably smaller reflector and front end to the light, 48mm versus 55mm. I also prefer the Darth user interface. Overall the most pocketable but also the lowest output.

Any postable photos or a write-up of your LED swap? How did you remove the glued in board?

158

Cool, I never had one of those, I should take a look at them!

I am on the train, so no photos at the moment.
The swap was no big deal though. Pop the driver out with some tweezers, unscrew reflector with center screw. Unscrew bezel, take out glass & reflector and you are at the emitters. No glue at all.
I didn’t follow the thread to closely, were other lights glued? My board was press fitted in I think, or maybe glued with very weak glue. I just put some strong and sharp tweezers in two holes in the boars and twisted it a little until it came loose.

159

BTW the T4 head is the same diameter as the SRK and SupFre M6 at 59mm so the 60mm nominal diameter Nitecore filters and diffuser fit the light fine. The filters are available in red, green and blue colors.

http://search.batteryjunction.com/mod_search/index.php?query=nitecore+60mm+filter&catalog=theshorelinemarket

160

Using a fan I checked the T3 and T4 for visible PWM in all modes and did not note anything so their PWM is apparently quite high frequency as noted in post 151. At the same time PWM effects are very visible on the Fandyfire Warrior, Solarstorm SP03 and Fandyfire Darth. However not visible on either the Black Shadow Terminator T70 or a RMM customized SupFire M6.

The T3 and T4 are definitely worth considering if you have a sensitivity to low frequency PWM as exists in many budget Chinese lights, if you can stand the very cold stock color temperature.

161

The T4 sounds awesome, accept for the tailcap being glued up tight. I'm really not sure how mush it means not being able to copper wire up the springs. They probably won't melt since the amps isn't that high with 3 cells (maybe even after 3.6A to each emitter?), but I would think the extra resistance isn't good. Not sure if you lose that power or you simply restrict the max output?

162

So it looks like the T4 is moddable in respect to the emitters and driver? Is there any other moddable soup-can light on the market?

163

Well of course the classic SupFire M6 is probably one of the most mod friendly soup cans around. Well published here how exactly to mod them, and several options of driver modding. Really like the brass retainer ring for the driver, for example. The M6's I have you can easily unscrew the tail assembly, but I heard some are glued.

164

T3 and T4 are "equally moddable". Pretty much any budget chinese soupcan light is easily moddable. Although, some are not that well made...

165

The SkyRay King and most of it’s clones are moddable as are the SupFire M6 and L1. RMM at Mountain Electronics does both the SRK and M6 as standard products and just finished modding an L1 for me which I am still waiting to get back. The Darth and Warrior are also moddable to some extent, mainly changing LEDs and sense resistors to increase output. I do not know of new drivers for them.

T4 not sure if the driver is changeable as it uses an unusual lighted switch assembly which per RMM is NOT compatible with any aftermarket driver boards. Same for the Terminator and SP03 lights. Virtually any light can have LEDs upgraded unless the heat sinking is too bad to make it worthwhile and many can have current sense resistors changed or jumpered to increase output.

166

A T4 will be my first test host for my RGBW driver running tterev3’s MELD UI, cant wait to get the parts and get it built. The end goal of the project is a EDC’able RGBW light but the T4 should be pretty bad ass for testing plus running 3x 4.35v cells should be able to stay in regulation a good amount of time.

167

RaceR86 how the heck did you get the switch out? I have the light together running MELD and an going to be using the switch indicator lights as a locator beacon but I need to change both LED’s to the same color and cant see how to get it open.

edit: got it!

168

nice!

169

If you are trying to take the tail cap off, the cap is actualy recessed. I got mine off with my fingernails… Grab a hold of 2 out of the 3 “cuts” on the bottom cap and twist. That easy.

170

Ooo. Great! Thanks for sharing.

1st try: Tailcap 1. Fingernails 0 (one of my fingernails got damaged)

2nd try. Tailcap vs some hotglue on the 3 "cuts" gave me enough leverage to easily unscrew it. (Added some brass stuff I had laying around on top of the glue)

:party:


171

I used bondo on the one I build with MELD for a customer. Been a long time since I had to bust out the bondo lol.