Ultrafire C303

LED Flashlights – General Info 18650 Flashlights
1

This will be my last light for a while - just got an unexpected (and large) bill. So here are some pictures of what arrived this morning.

Note the fine grooving - it gives a dark appearance, looking a bit like titanium. This picture has fairly accurate colours on my screen. It is quite a bit darker than the picture on Manafont's site where I bought it from.

http://www.manafont.com/product_info.php/ultrafire-c303-r5-5mode-memory-stainless-steel-led-flashlight-118650-p-5272

It is weighs less than I expected, the metal walls are quite thin. It is only 58g without a cell which is surprisingly light for an 18650 torch. It is also 40g less than Manafont say. It is also non-magnetic and too thin to be aluminium. Whatever it is made of, it is very hard, it will scratch mild steel. Wonder if they sent me a titanium one by mistake. :) The methods I know of checking involve dissolving the thing in fuming nitric acid or aqua regia neither of which are things it is all that easy to buy these days given that it they are a good starting point for making many explosives. And i don't fancy dissolving the new toy just to find out what it's made of. There probably are better ways if you happen to have access to gamma ray spectrometers and similar fun toys - but i don't know anyone who does.

This is the head end.

The interior of the tube is coated in some black stuff. The threads, as you can see, are sharp and cleanly cut.

Tailcap end

Switch end. Someone's tightening tool slipped in the factory, hence the scratch.

It certainly did not need any more tightening, though the head end had a slight rattle which went away when I tightened up the pill in the head. It wasn't loose enough to cause any problems - probably just shaken a lot in transit from HK to here. It didn't spend all that long in transit either, I just ordered the thing 12 days ago.

Head end

Yes, that's an XP-G

Beamshot - not my usual door top but in my very brightly lit office. About the same distance from the ceiling as my usual door top. As you can see, it is happy to tailstand.

The beam - pretty throwy for such a small reflector and an XP-G

It is a relatively small 18650 light.

More once I've consumed a lot of cold remedies - my colleague at work has shed a whole lot of cold virus into the office air which I appear to have collected from her.

2

You don't get titanium for that price, and the only other, commonly used, thing that looks like titanium is anodized aluminum. If the threads are a lighter color than the body, then there is the answer to that. Haven't gotten mine yet, but stainless steel is supposed to not dissolve in a sodium hydroxide solution, right?

3

Sodium hydroxide won't do it much good - but won't eat it the way it will aluminium.

Always add sodium hydroxide to water - NEVER add water to the crystals - you will not enjoy the result if you do. Alkali burns are nastier in general than acid burns. And tend to scar worse - best to avoid the possibility.

It's far too hard to be any conventional anodised aluminium - because of the fine ribbing it makes a pretty decent file. It is of comparable hardness to type 3 hard anodising - I managed to mark a Fenix E01 with it though the Fenix also managed to mark the fine ribbing. I'm positive it is no aluminium alloy I've ever come across, but I'm no metallurgist.

It is very grippy without shredding clothing. I just wet and soaped one hand then held the light in it. I was going to break the lanyard before it came out of my hand. It was knurled then finely grooved - I've not seen one like this before but it seems to work well.

With the cell in it that I'd been using to play with it at every opportunity today (i.e., not fully charged) I got these numbers on high. 278 lumens at switch on, 261 at 30 seconds and 256 at two minutes. Throw was 7810 lux at 1 metre.

Unlike the Yezl from yesterday it only gets mildly warm - so is probably better designed internally for use with low thermal conductivity materials - the Aurora SH-032 is from the same school of thermal design.


4

thanks for the review

looks like a solid light

had my own bad experience with using chemicals

5

Don which is brighter?

How amps do they both draw ?

6

The Yezl is a lot brighter. Like 50 lumens more at switch-on. Most I've seen from the Ultrafire is 1200mA on high. I'll try it with other cells and so on when I get around to a review. I really ought to add current draw to the spreadsheets.


The Yezl numbers are:

With a 14500

1380mA

620mA

190mA

With an eneloop

2380mA

1790mA

770mA

7

In your opinion which driver is more efficent?

8

Nice Don , looking forward to the review

9

Wouldn't the old fashion methode be good to analize the material? I mean, mesuring the mass of the body tube, by dunking it in a water container and then put in on a balance to get the exact weight.

10

That's a very handsome light. I'd take a 1xAA version.

11

That'd get me the density, but there are so many alloys out there I'd not be able to work out which one without chemical or spectroscopic testing. If there's any iron in it then it is an unusual looking stainless steel. It is just possible that the surface grooving that is causing the colour though it isn't that finely grooved.

12

If the density is known, I thought it would roughly give the direction to go. Steel, aluminum alloy or titanium.

titanium = 4,50 g/cm3

aluminium = 2,70 g/cm3

stainless steel = 7,80 g/cm³

13

Now you just have to work out it's volume...time to take a bath :P

14

I was thinking about mesuring its density before I made the caustic soda comment, but I first dismissed it as unfeasible. Thinking about it again, you actually only need to weigh and submerge the battery tube and not the sensitive head and clicky tail. Much better idea than using caustic chemicals! : )

One could also try testing its resistance at some flat part of its surface, aluminum oxide is a good insulator and should give an "OL" or similar read out while stainless steels should give a very low resistance reading.

15

My Yezl B6 and B2S Pulled the same kind of amps .On a 14500 that was run down to 3.71 volts on High it pulled 1.290A...med .950A low.160 A... god forbid if I charge that battery up to 4.20 but 3.7 volts is what the emitter wants anyway .

So are you saying this has super knurling ?

16

My guess is that density is a better bet. Al is a better conductor than Fe and it isn't that hard to penetrate a thin layer of anodising while trying to get a reliable contact. I'll need to go up into the loft and see if I have any measuring cylinders of appropriate size. Whatever the metal is, it has a very high magnetic permeability- which some steels do and many don't. What i mean by this is the NIB magnets I used to test were strongly attracted to the steel cased 18650 inside the light. This doesn't normally happen with Al lights though they tend to be thicker walled.

I certainly don't intend to strip out all the internals so only intend to measure the battery tube. Because of the fine grooving I'm going to have to boil it to shift any entrained air. A drop of two of a surfactant (AKA dish washing detergent) will also help here. But unless I can find a reasonably precise measuring cylinder with a large enough diameter (So the battery tube will fit in it) to measure the displaced water, there is no point in trying. Kitchen equipment will not be up to the job. Somewhere in the loft there is a 70 year old lab balance and weights for it - there may just be some volumetric equipment as well.

I'll take a look in the loft at the weekend unless anyone has access to non-destructive elemental analysis gear. I doubt anyone has such kit at home as it'd cost more than the house did.

17

It isn't really knurling - it is a fine grooving over all of it - even the knurled portions have the fine grooving on them. Here's an 80x magnification picture of a part of the head.

18

I have access to precision scales and a couple of these measuring cylinders in various sizes:

I'll test it as soon as it arrives, unless someone does it before it arrives.

I've found it to be very useful to keep some lab glassware around for everyday stuff : )

19

I don't really have anything meaningful to contribute to this discussion but I'd like to get two things off my chest. ;)

1. I just showed this thread to my wife and she thinks we're all nuts. And that's coming from someone with a medical degree.

2. I officially love this forum. :D :)

20

Love it. I spend my days with psychiatrists several of whom want to get me on medication....

Ain't happening....

Most of my patients think I need meds....