I was debating posting something similar myself but was on the way out and didnt have time to plug all the numbers into my excel spreadsheet
all to often we (myself included) get caught up in numbers for lights… why? its because we want max lumens, max candela, max everything… manufacturers and the like know this and thats why we have chinese lumens and 15x t6 lights that advertise 13800 lumens
but remember the real world! just because its ONLY 360k lux doesnt mean its a lightweight! last summer i spent $350 for an olight SR90 and then another $100 getting it modded to a MA sbt90 led… i couldnt believe my eyes when i got an additional ~50% lux (over 200k lux)
now a year later we have heavy modding of the xml2 and xpg2 since they can take more current and mods are regularly cracking 300, 400, and even 500 kcd… with some extreme modding (black bullet, deftx) approaching 1Mcd.
where will be next year? in 2 years? perhaps we can crack 5Mcd with a led? well see!
haha, no i think if i bought one of those i would get divorce papers!
The sipik is an XR-E Q3 iirc and the Uinfire is an XP-E and will kill the sipik in throw. I am not sure either on will make the 300M mark but we can sure try them. Which light was voted most popular budget light?
Ah, no - that one we cant do
Would be pretty cool lighting up the forest though with one.
I did an interesting rough calculation earlier. If we turned on all 20 of the throwers we are taking and pointed them in one beam together at a target, it calculated to about 4000k. That is equal to 4 kilometers or roughly 2.5 miles. We might have to try that sometime and see just how intense it looks. Should be able to hit some clouds with a concentrated beam like that.
rdrfronty, does your lux meter have a logging capability? Could you do a run time/regulation test with the Vinh modded TN31? I am curious to see what the regulation looks like as well as the relative output with NCR18650B’s and NCR18650PD’s over time. You could have a fan blow on the head from the side if you are worried about it over heating.
Tom E, do you have the ability to do so as well with your modded TN31’s?
Looks like I’m going to be getting a Niwalker BK-FA01. I might have to have Tom E or Vinh look into modding it
Unfortunately no, my meter doesn’t have loggin capability. I could still do it manually I guess. The heat issue does have me concerned. The lights are placed partially into my lightbox, head first. And it has a foam seal around the head to keep the light in the box. Basically it would likely get pretty hot quickly that way.
I could keep it out with a fan blowing on it and then insert it in the meter ever minute or so for a reading. I do have a temp gun so I could monitor the lights heat. Not sure what temp is truely safe though. That I would need to know.
Don’t know. I could maybe make a test like that happen if it would be beneficial.
A broken one sold on e-bay the other day and I got outbid. It went for just over a hundred bucks. Full case batteries and charger. They didn’t say what was wrong with it and I didn’t know if you can get a driver for it or not.
Well, you wouldn’t need to put it in a light box. You could just put it in a dark room/closet on some type of stand and point it at the lux meter. The readings don’t have to show lumens, just the raw data from the lux meter every so often. Then we can take the data and plot it on a graph with relative lux vs time.
No, no logging ability. I got the same cheaper lux meter rdrfronty/manxbuggy1 have, but they also got a higher end Extech now. We really need to find out specifics on that NK-FA01. If the reflector is bigger than the TN31, then would be interesting, but it might be about the same, so the max you can get may be no better than the TN31. Stock, it could be just driven harder, explaining the higher #'s. The TN31 is spec'd for a 2 hr runtime on high, while the NK-FA01 is spec'd at 1 hr 54 mins, but on 4 cells, not 3.
From what I’ve seen they are very high quality. They already use copper MCPCB in the production versions so it may be possible to simply bump the current a bit. Heatsinking should be better than the TN31 too I think.
Hello
anyone in the Chicago suburbs with testing equipment . I have 3 of vinhs modded lights . A 6.5 amp dedomed tn31 one of his k40s and a overdriven dedomed tk75.
I have a BK-FA01 on the way Should be here on Wednesday, I would guess.
According to this review of the production versions of the BK-FA01 and BK-FA02 on the site of smug and moderation, they have deeper reflectors than the TN31.
I would also like to say for the record that I just put both my TN31 XM-L2 and TN30 XM-L2 in the mail yesterday to send back to Thrunite for repair/replacement because the magnetic rings on both of them have failed me. The TN31 wont turn on with mode 4 or 5 and the TN30 wont turn on with mode 5 and flickers on mode 6. I think the Niwalker BK-FA02’s magnetic ring seems to be a bit more robustly built, after owning it for a month. It just seems to be more well constructed. We will see in another few months how it holds up. I honestly think the Niwalker BK series lights seem to be better than the Thunite TN series, but we will see. Anybody up for modding the Niwalker?
It sucks that your TN30 and TN31 have had problems. Personally my TN31 has met and exceeded my expectations in terms of quality, performance and finish.
The TN30 on the other hand, feels much more different. Firstly the threads were a little rough which caused a lot of metal shavings to dirty up the lubed threads and secondly the magnetic dial seemed to not be lubed and makes a scratchy sound every time I twist it.
Performance on both are great, but the finish on the TN30 was a bit disappointing. I’ve been in contact with Thrunite however, and they have been quick to respond to my emails and are going to send out a replacement.
I would definitely like to see a modded BK-FA01. It really does look like a robust light, and robustness is a really attractive quality in torches for me.
Every TN31 I've worked on, I put a generous amount of Nyogel inside the magnetic ring, and it seems to make it nice and smooth. There's a tiny spring and a small ball bearing that sits on the spring. This ball bearing pops into holes for each level adjustment, so the area where the ball rolls over, when greased, makes it feel much smoother. Not sure on yours if it's the mechanism or intermittent contact issues with the carrier, because that's a common problem with these as well, and maybe only an issue at high amps - high modes. vinh, I noticed, sands down contact surfaces on the carrier end caps, and I've started doing the same thing. Also I've been using CRC 2-26 on these surfaces which I think helps.
For the mag ring, of course you can't get to it unless you break open the threads for the head which are usually blue LockTite sealed - another benefit of the mod, since I got the strap wrench's to open it up, and then I clean up the threads, then lube them up with Nyogel.
Awesome information here Slewflash! It really goes to show that once you really start to get into the higher range 50kcd here and there really doesn’t mean a whole lot. imho something like this and some other info charts like it should end up in a sticky for future reference sake. Very interesting to see that 250k gets you 1km range but 500 only adds another 41%. So when someone talks about 1Million cd (seems to be like breaking the sound barrier) what are we talking about for actual distance with that?
Love this forum, learning so much new information. Now I just have to try and restrain myself as I have a wedding and house/home to save up for!
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Very interesting to see that 250k gets you 1km range but 500 only adds another 41%. So when someone talks about 1Million cd (seems to be like breaking the sound barrier) what are we talking about for actual distance with that?