Beam-shot comparison with other Nichia’s, 219b 4500k and E21a 4500k, showing the different beam colors. Wurkkos has truly lucked out with this batch of 219c 5000k LED. Not a hint of tint shift.
My lovely Reylight Pineapple Copper uses SMO reflector so not much disguising of tint shift (the darker yellow ring). The two Emisar D4V2’s use the same TIR clear optic, creating a beautiful beam for 219b, but not E21a. To hide the tint shift in E21a, Hank uses a frosted optic ( not pictured here since I had replaced it in my light), which unfortunately cut hotspot brightness by nearly half. It becomes a VERY dim light with the frosted optic.
The Wurkkos has a beautiful “pure” beam, very clearly more I’m-hugging-the-BBL-line-tight-as-can-be neutral than greenish. It’s interesting how the beam on my monitor shows just two shades white and grey, without any “color” except for a very slight magenta tint.
Re. the TS21’s infamous high parasitic drain: I am curious & have set aside this ill-fated Wurkkos and a few other flashlights (Wurkkos TS30S, Sofirn IF25a etc.) with lighted switch to see if I could detect a difference in voltage drop among them. For this particular “run” I am leaving the lighted switch at the HIGH setting.
Was planning to document initial battery voltage and subsequent drop of each flashlight over a few weeks sitting unused. Any drop would then presumably be from the lighted switch? I wonder if this would show a difference, if indeed Wurkkos TS21’s lighted switch draws more current than other mass-produced peers.
You can easily measure it with a multimeter. Place the light face down on the table with the tail cap removed. Place one lead on the negative side of the battery and the other lead to the end of the tube. The red lead should be plugged into the ma or ua socket of the meter. Hopefully the ua reading won’t indicate overrange. If it does you are in ma territory which is high.
“This light has a big parasitic drain, moderately high with the switch LED OFF (116 uA) or on low (180 uA), not visible in room light, and excessively, exceedingly high at 13.5 mA with the switch LED on High.”
“To measure drain, I just remove the battery tube, sit an 18650 batt+ on the batt+ brass ring, and use a DMM meter across the batt- to the ground ring: easy.”
calculating parasitic battery drain life
assume battery is 3000mAh (or use correct spec), calculate 13.5mA w switch at High Bright (times 24 hours)… the formula 3000 / (13.5 x 24) = 3000/324= 9 days till battery is drained.
low mode 180 uA = 0.18 mA, 3000/ (.18X24) = 694 days
and bear in mind there is NO LVP for single color button lights in Anduril… beware overdischarge (Do NOT use high bright button 24/7)
The little details that count. You saved me a headache for my afternoon. :+1:
Jon, thanks for the very helpful links. I found pennzy’s method a little easier since I don’t have to stick the probe deep inside to touch the negative ring.
Thanks Jon. My measurements confirm the above. At high mode TS21 has the highest drain of 12.9 mA. Higher than Sofirn IF25a (1.55 mA) and Wurkkos TS30S (1.55 mA). Interestingly enough I saw in the discussion thread this same circuit design is used in a couple other lights as well.
In medical research it’s always “bad” when they have to terminate a study mid-stream (early data already showing convincing bad result for one group). I am hereby terminating the Wurkkos TS21 Bright Switch LED study :person_facepalming: .
The dim mode in TS21 is nearly useless for me so I am going to change to “blinking” and follow the battery drain pattern.
will be curious, I predict 18 days of 24/7 (double the constant On Bright)
I dont have that model, but my aux lights on TS10 on low are very visible, on my nightstand in the dark, but essentially invisible during the day.
Tritium is totally invisible, during the day, but again, easy to see when I wake up in the dark… Glow paint and glow tape are also invisible during the day…
Aux and Button lights have become a niche unto themselves… people just want the magic show to last 24/7… research is being done, as we speak, to find the Happy Medium for Aux to be bright enough to see during the day, without draining the battery “too” fast… how fast is too fast?
FWIW, I originally thought that dim mode was nearly useless as well. Have been EDCing the light for several months now and have grown to actually appreciate it. Spends most of the time in my pocket anyway where the light is irrelevant. If I put the light on my night stand that dim little light that I used to think was useless is actually quite visible and yet not enough to disturb my sleep. Quite satisfied with it now. The only thing I really value with that light anyway is that it marks out going above regulation. It does that very clearly and I rely on it. I keep mine at one level below regulation and therefore don’t bother to lock it out in my pocket. Only occasionally does it accidentally come on while carrying. At that level there are no heat issues and even if it goes on for hours it is but a blip in the battery capacity.
Just took it off the charger for its once a month charging at it took 2500 mAh. That is all parasitic drain included with however I used it this past month. Definitely hit turbo and high a few times but again, default is below regulation and I go up from there as needed so clearly typical use is not that much for me. Mostly I use an EO2 II for walking the pooches and just swap batteries every day or two. The TS21 is only used on walks occasionally for things like keeping the foxes at bay or just for the fun of having the equivalent of my car’s high beams in my hand;-)
While I’m at it some numbers from the incredibly popular Emisar D4V2:
D4V2 Copper w/ lighted switch AND top aux lights: High 1 mA , Low 67 µA
D4V2 Aluminum with top aux lights only: High 1.9 mA, Low 116 µA
So a number of “normal” lights (Sofirn, Wurkkos TS30, Emisa) seem to be around 1-2 mA at the high setting. I really am having more fun (and more to learn) from flashlights than I’ve ever expected lol.
High is out of the question. Dim works for some people, but too dim for me. I am testing blinking - it blinks every 3 seconds, BUT… the duration of the blink is less than a second, so it’s going to be reduced more than 75% I hope (fingers crossed).
As posted in the first post of this thread, the following 2 steps solve the TS21’s problems: 1. Thermal calibration and increase max stepdown temp. 2. Re-set switch’s light to dim or blinking.
So still highly recommended for Nichia collectors looking for a PERFECT neutral-tint LED (mine lands right on the BBL) at 5000K CCT, with NOT a hint of tint shift (perfect white to grey transition on beam shot). And of course CRI is highest rating possible, R9080. :+1:
I have some good news for TS21 owners . I am running a quick test wherein I set aux lights of a couple Wurkkos (TS21, TS30), a Sofirn (IF25a), and a Convoy S21D at different brightness levels and compare battery voltage drop over days. Preliminary 1st run (will do more trials to confirm) is that the blink mode in our beloved but infamous Wurkkos TS21 drops voltage less than high mode in Sofirn IF25a, which drains 1.55 mA, a number seemingly “typical” of the lights I have.
For example: Sofirn 4.15 to 4.12 v in 3 days, vs Wurkkos 4.09 to 4.08. The battery voltage drops have a fairly consistent pattern, so far. But this is first trial so please take with a small grain of salt. And anyone with multiple lights could do same test to compare with my result.
What does this mean? The blink mode is good and safe in TS21. Next I will compare voltage drop of blink mode in TS21 vs low brightness in Sofirn IF25a, which drains 81-352 µA (it jumps up every few seconds for some strange reason). Since no one “should” be using high mode anyway (too much drain even in normal functioning lights such as Sofirn IF25a and Emisar D4V20), this “finding” also means our Wurkkos TS21’s parasitic drain is for all practical purposes a non issue.
More good news from the Anduril thread, especially for “blinkers” : there is Low Voltage Protection specifically for the aux and button LED. LVP means at 2.8 V the aux/button LED should turn off.
Note that for lights with single-color aux LED like this Wurkkos TS21, the protection is for blinking mode only, NOT dim mode (strange isn’t it?).
I don’t have a chance to test yet, but if you have any battery that dips to 2.8 v level please check to see if it works.
Haha I am “sorry” to have caused anyone to spend $. Still by far among the least costly of all hobbies though.
And… the fun is more than worth it.
IMHO, this is a light one buys for the “reference” LED that somehow Wurkkos lucks into (just kidding). The beam is on the cold side but still a must-have for collectors because of CCT (5000k) and Duv (on-BBL neutral). The +prototype “daylight neutral tint+”. R9080, NO tint shift.
Have fun and please share your experience. Sound like you are experienced with flashing firmware, something that I know nothing about, but I’m sure other readers would appreciate.
I guess that explains why the silver 219C is way more expensive than the first ones that came out. It’s more than just a new color or new stocks but rather a surprising upgrade.
(More good news for TS21 owners who use blinking button mode.) Because it’s not possible to know exactly the parasitic drain of the blinking mode, I left 3 Anduril lights alone for 3 weeks and measure voltage drop. The 3 lights are 2 Sofirn IF25a’s (High and Dim mode) and the Wurkkos TS21 (Blink mode).
Anduril Dim Button (~100 µA drain measured): 0.079 volt
Anduril Blink Button (unknown): 0.112 (so it seems blink mode is about between dim and bright Anduril mode)
Anduril Bright Button (~1.5 mA drain measured): 0.164
Convoy S21D Blue Metal Button (4.1v: 9.4 mA , at 3v: 2.74 mA): 0.067
Before you cry bloody murder, yes I am aware relationship between voltage drop and consumption varies among batteries, but this is best I could do as an amateur to test the blinking mode. (It didn’t help my cause that I forgot to use the same battery brand for the tested lights .) So please take this as a rough GUESSTIMATE. And if you have time do the same test so I could confirm my result.
Exemplary Convoy number but doesn’t make sense if you compare it against specs from Simon. I am sure of my result though because I have made measurements at intervals in between and it has matched Anduril Dim step by step. Nevertheless I’d like to repeat test; is it one more reason to love Convoy?
than greenish. It’s interesting how the beam on my monitor shows just two shades white and grey, without any “color” except for a very slight magenta tint.
and a few other flashlights (Wurkkos TS30S, Sofirn IF25a etc.) with lighted switch to see if I could detect a difference in voltage drop among them. For this particular “run” I am leaving the lighted switch at the HIGH setting.
.) So please take this as a rough GUESSTIMATE. And if you have time do the same test so I could confirm my result.