Why am I so unlucky :(?

LED Flashlights – General Info
1

Hi,

Apologies in advance - pre-alert for some whining :(…

I haven’t gotten many new lights lately, but it seems like I am having extremely bad luck, with two of them, especially.

One was a BTU Shocker I got, supposedly with XM-L U2s, and the other was an A60.

I’ve been measuring, and re-measuring, lux with these lights, and I keep coming up short compared to measurements from others.

For the BTU Shocker, generally I’ve seen reports of lux of ~130 Klux at 1m. On mine, I can barely get 100 Klux at 1m.

For the A60, generally I’ve seen reports of lux of ~55 Klux (e.g.: 38 Flashlights Tested (lumen, lux, and real throw)). On mine, I can barely get 27-28 Klux.

It’s been suggested that my meter might be bad (already checked the batteries, both are ~1.5v), but I also have an HD2010 with EAST-092 driver (pulling ~4.3 amps tailcap) and with the same meter, at the same distance, I am consistently measuring ~48 Klux, which I think is in the right range, but maybe just a little low.

I don’t know. Maybe I’m in the wrong hemisphere or something :)….

Sigh…

2

your not

3

Hi,

I remember that thread. I posted about 2 out of 20 back then, but I guess that I didn’t consider under-performing as a defect, but I am kind of ready to re-consider that :).

4

What distance are you measuring from?
Are the lenses in the lights clean?

5

The setup I currently am using is at 39 feet (~11.887 meters).

The lens on the Shocker is clean. It was pretty ugly originally (dust and fingerprints), but as suggested earlier, I washed with water and a little bit of liquid detergent, and then use one of those air duster canisters to blow the water drops off, so it’s pretty good now.

The A60 came with clean lens (from recent BLF purchase).

Thanks,
Jim

6

Hi,

Re. the A60, I was just looking at the emitter, and noticed that it looks like of strange:

It might be hard to see, even for me, but when I look at it under a magnifying glass, it looks like there’s some clearish “gunk” around it and maybe on top of it.

Is that normal? Might that be causing the lower lux?

Edit: I didn’t re-size the image, so it’d be easier to see. I hope that this is ok?

7

That’s the dome, or what remains of it.

Not a perfect dedoming, but you might be able to dissolve it if you put the LED in gasoline.

That might be impacting the lux output.

8

That XR-E is definitely dedomed. It should be getting WAY higher than 55kcd. It should be getting close to or above 100kcd.
It is a possibility that the “gunk” is preventing it from reaching its true potential.

9

Does dedoming (if it’s complete) increase lumens, or does it decrease lumens, generally?

10

Decreases lumens, but increases throw because what lumens are left are concentrated in a smaller spot.

11

If I get the chance, I’ll try the gas thing with the existing emitter, but am also thinking of trying a different emitter.

Anyone know what the size of the star is on the A60?

Also, anyone try either an XM-L or XM-L2 or, maybe an XP-G2 in the A60? I have a bunch of the XM-L/XM-L2 and a couple of XP-G2 on Noctigon (someday - in transit).

I’m also thinking about the driver, although I’ve read that it’s a 20mm driver, so maybe just direct drive, using the existing driver as the contact board?

12

whats it reading on the tail? my a60 was pulling a miserly 1a, it lasted 10 minutes before getting direct driven.

13

Also, if it’s all your lights which read low it may not be your lights, but rather your light meter reads a little low.
I know mine reads a little high.

14

sorry about your bad luck.I know how you feel though.A couple of days ago I got my SF S2200 in, it lasted about 8min. on high before the driver burned up! :_(

15

Yes, that’s the same that I’m seeing, just about 1 amp or slightly less than 1 amp…

16

I’ve seen your thread about that. Hopefully SF will come through for you!

17

Thanks Ohaya, I’m sure they will.Jo at SF is contacting the manufacturer about getting me a new driver.If not then she said they will exchange the light for me.From your picture it looks like the dome has been badly damaged on your A60.Sucks about your BTU, I have stayed away from it due to reports of low output….and it is so damn big!

18

Funny, I always thought JO was a guy :). Never asked though :).

19

I just bought a BTU Shocker, got it yesterday, amazed by the throw and spill, from what I’ve seen so far, have not had time for real test though.
Mine had lots of gunge/grime on the underside of the glass, does NOT have mode memory, and I can’t understand the thinking behind not making the thing a slightly larger diameter body where the cells go, for 4 x 18650 or even 26650, mine didn’t tail stand correctly as the lanyard had been looped through one hole, so over the flat end, of course I used the other hole so it now sits perfectly flat.
How do you tell if it has a AR lens, has anyone ever fitted one with a acrylic lens ?
Thanks for any help,
tabs

20

Nope, pretty sure JO is a girl.When Wang went to the SF store in HK last year he thinks that is who he talked to.Of course he was more interested in the flashlights(good think too, he had his GF with him)