TK's Emisar D4V2 review

LED Flashlights – General Info 18650 Flashlights
586

I haven’t attempted to calibrate the temp sensors on mine or change the temp settings yet. I turned them on turbo and verified that output seemed to be ramping down in good order though.

Some additional impressions now that I’ve had my D4v2s for a day:

  • Both the battery tube and tailcap are interchangeable with equivalent parts from later model D4v1s. Also the grey anodizing on the v1 and v2 is close enough in color that if you swap tailcaps the v1’s tailcap looks like it was made for the v2.
  • I like the v1’s tailcap better than the v2. The v2’s tailcap is longer and heavier to make room for lanyard ring. This probably adds 2-3mm to the length of the tailcap. It’s a great feature to have … if you actually use a lanyard. But if you’re like me and do not, the lighter more compact v1’s tailcap feels better in the hand and pocket.
  • The knurling on the 18650 body tube is excellent. Very grippy. The light feels much more secure in the hand than the v1’s smooth body tube.
  • The SST-20s are pretty greenish. About as green as the tint in my D4v1 SST20 and much greener than the ones that came with my SST-20 FW3A. However, I am using a UCL lens in my FW3A and the stock lens in the D4v2. I haven’t checked, but it is possible replacing the lens in the v2 might help.
  • Stainless steel bezel looks good. Build quality is excellent with no defects noted in either light.
  • Tint on XPL HI 4000K D4v2 is much rosier than the tint on my SST-20 4000K version in all brightness modes. As expected, the XPL HI version is also considerably brighter.
587

Possible D4V2 Ti?

588

It has been rumored. However note that the picture you posted was a reddit user who just removed the anodization from their regular D4v2.

589

Yeah, u/OP_rahWinfrey. Looks like a Sand one with all anodizing removed except for on the head. Looks great.

If a D4V2Ti does come out, I’m not sure I’ll be able to resist, considering I am disappointed that I missed out last time.

590

As much as I like Titanium .. it's just not the right material for a small pocket rocket like this (IMHO).

Thermal conductivity of Aluminum: 237 vs. Titanium: ~17

591

Just received my mixed tint SST-20 unit today and took some measurements.

D4v2 SST-20 2x 3000K & 2x 4000K w/ Carclo 10623 frosted optic and glass lens
lumens at 1s: 2,509
CCT: 3347
DUV: –0.0032
CRI: 94.7
R9: 79.5
Rf: 91
Rg: 104

D4v2 SST-20 2x 3000K & 2x 4000K w/ Carclo 10623 frosted optic and glass lens at 1st blink
lumens at 1s: 75
CCT: 3381
DUV: 0.0007
CRI: 98.3
R9: 96.5
Rf: 93
Rg: 100

D4v2 SST-20 2x 3000K & 2x 4000K w/ Carclo 10623 frosted optic and UCL lens at 1st blink
lumens at 1s: not measured because couldn’t secure the UCL lens in place.
CCT: 3323
DUV: 0.0007
CRI: 98.4
R9: 97.0
Rf: 93
Rg: 100

D4v2 SST-20 2x 3000K & 2x 4000K w/ Carclo 10623 clear optic and glass lens at 1st blink
lumens at 1s: 75
CCT: 3360
DUV: 0.0023
CRI: 98.1
R9: 93.8
Rf: 93
Rg: 99

D4v2 SST-20 2x 3000K & 2x 4000K w/ Carclo 10623 frosted optic and no lens at 1st blink
lumens at 1s: 81
CCT: 3367
DUV: 0.0003
CRI: 98.3
R9: 97.8
Rf: 93
Rg: 100

D4v2 SST-20 2x 3000K & 2x 4000K w/ no optic and no lens at 1st blink
lumens at 1s: too floody to measure
CCT: 3614
DUV: –0.0052
CRI: 97.2
R9: 95.0
Rf: 93
Rg: 102

Seems like Emisar uses the same glass as the UCL lens. I tested all of Emisar lights to see negligible DUV differences between w/ glass and w/o glass. The light gets super hot much faster than the two FW3A SST-20 4000K I have. I really like this light and I think it would have been perfect if it had 8x7135 like the FW3A instead of 1x7135.

On turbo, the mixed tint appears very rosy, similar to my E21A Tiara Pro with 2x3000K and 2x4000K, but at similar outputs the E21A Tiara is noticeably rosier. Overall I really like this light and emitter configuration.

I can’t tell if the SST-20 4000K is the FD2 or FB4 tint bin since I can’t measure it without the 3000K. However, setting it to similar low output levels and comparing the emitter color with the FW3A, they look near identical. I hope someone can measure the SST-20 4000K to confirm which bin it is.

For my measurements with the FW3A, see

592

It’s not the ideal material, but that doesn’t mean it isn’t a serviceable material if you have other priorities than maximizing the sustainable output level.

Even if it wasn’t an amazingly high output light for its size, I’d still rate the D4 as well worth its price.

I think I’d really enjoy a warm white D4v2 titanium for around the house use, while for working in the yard, on my car, etc, I will continue using my aluminum D4.

593

Seems like very few ordered the Nichia option. My impressions of the Nichia 219CT are positive. There is an ever so slight green tint - but it's really subtle. When I first pointed the light at the ceiling, I thought I had gotten a pretty white output. Only when compared to my snow-white reference light (Nitecore TIP), could I see it. But it's not something you would notice, without really looking for it.

594

My D4v2 does not have yellow and white aux lights. Is that standard or is mine not working correctly because Emisar’s website says aux lights are R, Y, G, C, B, V, W, Rainbow

595

Try setting the AUX output to high and then click through the different color choices. I noticed with mine, set to low output, the yellow doesn’t come through all that clearly, but when set to high, I see it.

I don’t really see clear/white on either output level, when it auto scrolls through the colors, but yellow is definitely there on high AUX output.

Chris

596

Wrong pic.

This is Nichia 219B R9080 SW45 vs SST-20 4000k 95CRI:

Let’s not forget the SST-20 is 4000k vs the Nichia 219B is 4500k, so the difference isn’t as large as the camera says.

And the 219B is known to be extremely rosy. To the point of having the same kind of tint shift we don’t like.

TLDR: I don’t like the 219B.

597

I see, it is actually a greenish yellow. They achieve the colors by mixing aux leds.

598

On the left is the XP-G 4000K. On the right is the SST-20 4000K

599

Contrary to other lights with aux leds we’ve seen so far, the D4V2 has RGB aux leds rather then monochrome leds. The different colors are obtained by turning on and off the R, G or B components of each RGB led. That’s 8 combinations - including black (all off) and white (all on). Note that without some sort of calibration, the white is rarely pure. It is often tinted one way or another.

600

Thanks, as that makes total sense.

Chris

601

Got distracted for a couple days… sorry for the long post:

If you want, you can just disable thermal regulation entirely. I don’t recommend it, but you can. The guys at Illumn did it once for testing purposes, and they managed to melt the optic.

So if that’s a thing which appeals to you, get the light hot then go into thermal config mode. Set the calibration to 1 click, and set the limit to 40 clicks. This should effectively disable thermal regulation, by raising the temperature limit to like 100 C or hotter.

Again though, I don’t recommend this. It can easily cause burns or damage.

I’ve never actually seen a SST-20 6500K. I don’t have a good answer.

I hope so. I sent Hank new firmware twice since the D4 V2 was released, including just yesterday.

The default ramp settings are in the first post of this thread, and the default temperature limit is 45 C.

Occasionally some of the changes aren’t improvements though. I found a brand new bug yesterday. More on that in another post though.

Yes. Muggle mode uses the same temperature limit as the regular mode.

Nope. At least, not without modifying the firmware. That’s the power-on self test (POST), which confirms that power is connected and main LEDs work.

Yeah, the idea is that you should hold the button until it gets to the color you want, and then let go.

… having a bad day?

Indeed. There can be pretty significant differences in tint and lumens, and it’s totally random.

:+1: on this too. Different people are different. And that’s okay.

It’s hard for me to not see green tints as green, regardless of what the light is shining at. My eyes don’t adapt to it. They seem to have one setting, and that setting is below the BBL.

I would if I could, BabyDoc.




3A and 3D have the same amount of rosy tint, but different color temperatures.

602

The wording in the diagram is a very deliberate decision, for the purpose of avoiding ambiguity.

It may not be immediately intuitive, because the numbering system starts at zero… but doing it this way ensures there is enough information to figure out the meaning with a bit of thought. Starting it at zero removes any question about whether “Click, Click, Hold” involves pressing the button two times or three times, but starting the counting system at one leaves it unclear. It’s much the same as why “twentieth century” refers to the 1900s.

Basically, starting with “click & hold” makes it ambiguous whether that means “press and don’t let go” or “press, release, then press and don’t let go”. So it starts with just “hold” to make it clear that there is absolutely not a press-and-release beforehand.

603

So I found a bug. Hank is probably pretty unhappy with me for not finding it sooner, but it’s pretty easy to miss. It requires a few independent moving parts to activate:

  • It seems that adding LVP in sleep mode made it do temperature measurements too, and thermal events. Like, in sleep mode. That’s not a problem by itself though; should be harmless.
  • It also seems that, after 15 minutes, if the cell is partially drained, temperature measurements while asleep are suddenly waaaay off. But again, that shouldn’t be a problem by itself, since the “off” and “lockout” and “momentary” modes all ignore thermal events.
  • However, muggle mode wasn’t ignoring thermal events while it was off.

So muggle mode has some really weird and not-good behavior. After being off for 15 minutes, on a cell which isn’t full, it gets spurious overheat warnings and tries to step down… but stepping down from 0 causes it to wrap around and turn on again, and then it goes back to sleep, then gets another warning, then goes back to sleep, etc. This makes it blink while off, but only in muggle mode, and only after being off for more than 15 minutes.

I sent Hank an update which fixes this, but it’s something to be aware of for the D4v2 lights which have already been shipped. With these early units, I wouldn’t recommend relying on muggle mode.

No other lights are affected.

If anyone has a pogo pin adapter for firmware updates, a fixed version is available.

604

Time to get one of those nifty USB programming thingies I guess. ;-)

Where can I buy one of the needle electrode dongles that fits the Emisar's flashing vias?

605

+1 :+1: