Some questions about Convoy / 18650 / bright flashlights in general

LED Flashlights – General Info 18650 Flashlights
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I was here a bunch of years ago and people got me to buy some Convoy S2+ lights. GREAT lights (although yes, I don’t have any others to compare them to).

I was / still am getting 18650 batteries from trade show give away battery packs. (I am CAF).

They have worked great, are small - slip in my pocket no problem. And when I turn them on. I love the amount of light in the small packages!

That said, I want / need to buy some more lights. I bought a 3 pack of 1000lm flashlights from Costco for $20. They come with rechargable modules, that say 18650 on them (but bigger than an 18650 - the module has a built in charger) and they have an insert to allow you to run the lights with AAA batteries (don’t need that).

And with a zoom lens, it’s much bigger and longer than the S2+

So those are going back.

I learned of https://convoylight.com That’s the ‘official’ Convoy / Simon site?

And skipping a middleman (banggood, ali, etc), prices are cheaper?

I learned of the S6 - a longer reflector so the brightness is more concentrated than the s2? (so the same amount of lumens would be brighter in that small circle than spread out in the cone of an S2?)

As fanatacal as people can be with these and all the different choices in emitters, etc, I was surprised that on the convoylight site, there’s choices for different emitters. But I didn’t find ANY info on how to know which is better / why I’d choose 1 over another.

Any advice?

And I don’t see anything about lumens to expect at 100%. There’s all the info on the 12 modes (is that what was formerly called biscotti? I;ve been gone for a while now). I thought I remember in the past talk of 1000lm, or 996 or other upper numbers. But not now?

And 5A vs. 8A drivers in some cases? 8A is brighter? but shorter run time at high setting?

And the 8A gets hot… does it degrade the emitter? ie - running at high will shorten the life of the emitter? Or it won’t do max output over time due to the heat degrading the emitter?

THANKS!

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The highest brightness is not that relevant imo, cause neither the s2+ or s6 can handle heat for more than 60 seconds.

As far as the emitter Osram w1 will give you the best throw but little flood, sft 40 would be a better choice.

But like I said cause of the heat issue you’d be better off going with M1, M21a, M21b, or c8 models and sft 40 led your choice of tint

Imo

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Yes, that’s Simon’s official site.

The S2(non +) and S6 use the same 19mm deep reflector.
The S2+ uses a 12mm less deep reflector.

Yes, 12 group is basically a slightly modified version of biscotti.

There’s so many emitter(LED) options and several driver options, it would be very difficult to list the lumens for each.

In my opinion for most users even with the 5A driver the S2+ heats up really quickly.
Most of the convoy drivers have thermal regulation but they don’t step down until the driver reaches 55C and they slowly step down to 35%.

My recommendation would be to treat 35% as High and 100% as Turbo and only use it when needed.

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@dannyd555222 @INeedMoreLumens

Thanks! Damn! My head spins with all the choices : (

So what’s the difference between s2 and S6?

And even with the longer reflector, you can still eke out more throw (throw means tighter circle / light goes farther?) with different emitters!?

And yes, I don’t run the light at 100% most times - too bright. It’s more of ‘shock and awe’… at least in my mind (I’m a legend in my own mind) , and as much shock and awe can come from a $10 - $20 flashlight.

It’s the small package and the amount of light that comes out of it that I like.

A bit off topic - do you take apart the convoys every so often (months / years) and clean the threads / tighten connections? I’ve done that when the light starts flickering - locking rings are getting loose, etc.

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And I kinda want to buy several different configurations to see if I can see the difference in brightness / throw, etc.

But then I’ll have some I might not like as much as others. Or realize I’ve spent all this time overthinking something I can’t tell the difference : )

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The difference between the S2(non +) and S6 is purely ascetic.

Yeah the deeper reflector will get you a tighter hotspot and thus more throw.

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I really like both the SFT40 and W5050SQ3 with the deeper reflector.

The SFT40 is a little brighter but the round LES of the W5050SQ3 Really makes a nice beam.

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The s6 is 5/32 of an inch longer than the S2+.
The s6 with the short tube for the S2+ (rectangular threads) is 1 and 5/32 of an inch shorter than the S2+. Depending on which battery you choose the 18350 is going to be anywhere from 1/3 to 1/2 the run time of an 18650.
There is shock and awe and then there is useful shock and awe with high cri lighting. Make sure one of the ones you order comes with the SFT 40 3000K.

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Here’s a post I made comparing a W5050SQ3 to SFT40 and W1:

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@Oli

SFT 40 3000K?

I thought conventional wisdom is that eyes are more sensitive to blue / hotter light? So 6000K same lumens as 3000K ‘feels’ brighter?

yes, 6000K is more sterile / harsh, but ‘brighter’??

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I stated above.
Useful shock and awe with high cri lighting.

If you have not experienced 3000K high Cri light then do yourself a favor and try it.

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Generally correct, LEDs have advanced a lot in the last 3 years, you can still get bright high CRI LEDs.

I suspect you’ll be a bit disappointed if you’re just chasing lumens/lux in the S2/S2+ form factor, human vision is logarithmic, so it takes 4x lumens to appear 2x brighter.

You could experiment with colour temperatures- Perhaps 6500K is your favourite, perhaps something warmer (4000K) would be preferable? The nice thing about the Convoy S2+ lights is that they can be ordered in identical configurations, except for the emitter, so you can compare differences side-by-side. Obviously, you could also order different cool white (6000-6500K) LEDs to see which beam shape you prefer.

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Agreed here, but for a slightly different reason: the S2(+) is too small to dissipate heat at a sufficient rate (so cannot sustain high output), and the compatible reflector/optic too small to produce a hotspot of much intensity.

I’ve heard a lot of folks say that human vision is logarithmic, but I don’t yet understand it. If perceived brightness is log(lumens) (what base?), then wouldn’t a multiplicative increase in lumens result in an additive increase in perceived brightness, i.e., a x4 increase in lumens results in a +log(4) increase in perceived brightness?

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A “1000lm” zommie, 3 fer 20, can run offa AAAs, from Costco? Yeah… no.

Drop a zero and it’d be closer to reality.

Seriously, be happy with the Convoys unless you really neeeeeed more brightness. Twice the brightness (eg, a real-world 2000lm vs 1000lm) would only look maybe 30% brighter, visually.

If you really want more throw, get a dedicated thrower, which’ll typically need a wider/bigger reflector.

Wurkkos has some hot little tubelights that use SSTwhatevers or SFTwhutsits that are smaller chips thus more throw, so maybe someone here can remember all the differences. I generally find flooders more useful, so don’t follow what’s throwier.

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