Category: EDC

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KeySmart Pro With Tile Review

Today I have a EDC gear review of the KeySmart Pro. This is a Key holder and organizer that can fit up to 14 keys. It also features Tile integration and to help you locate your keys with your smartphone and vice versa and a small flashlight. Thanks to KeySmart for sending this to me to take a look at and tell you about. 

 

YouTube Version of this Review:

Purchase the KeySmart Pro on Amazon at the following Links:

White – https://amzn.to/2twSfuf 

Black, Red, Gray, Pink https://amzn.to/2uZb7Cs 

 

Packaging & Accessories

The KeySmart Pro comes in a nice retail box, that really emphasizes the tile functionality here. The back goes into more what the KeySmart is the accessories that are available for it.  

What comes with the standard pro here is the KeySmart Pro itself, a small microUSB cable, and a manual. Optional accessories are available as add on purchases on the KeySmart website such as a Nano Scissors, USB 3 Flash drive both that go inside, a small pocket clip, quick disconnect carabiner or a magconnect. The magconnect looks the most intriguing to me and is something I would add on myself as it would allow me to more easily disconnect my car key from other stuff which is something I frequently do in the summer or on weekends. 

 

Initial Impressions Physical

Build quality physically the KeySmart is made from a white non glossy plastic, the back piece here has some flex with it. The front side is where all the electronics are and it’s thicker. You have a micro USB port in the middle for charging the small built in flashlight and keeping the Tile going. 

Putting your keys on seems easy enough and in concept it is but in practice it was kind of finicky. The box says it will hold up to 14 keys, 7 on each side but I think that would make it quite difficult to put together. What I found helps is to put about 3 keys on each side separated with the included washers between the keys and screw one side together and then do the other. They used a flat head screw which allows you to not need a tool as you can use a coin but honestly I would have preferred a large torx bit or something that doesn’t slip out as easy. One other thing to note is that when apart you have two sides, a screw side and a collar side. The collar side for me too big on some keys, the order you put the keys is important as a result as is the straightness of the keys. If a key is bent it will bind with others. 

 

 

The bottle opener is a must to include in my book, only because it’s the loop that allows you to connect the KeySmart Pro to other stuff. My car key is too big to fit inside here so having a way to connect my KeySmart to other stuff is important and the bottle opener does that.

 

The Flashlight on the KeySmart is fairly low power, you won’t be using this for much other then to illuminate the key hold on a door and for that it works pretty well. You can click one to be on in momentary mode or double click the small button and the light will stay on for 10 seconds. 

 

Tial integration

So if you don’t know Tial is a system thats integrated into a larger and larger number of devices that allows you to in this case find your keys with your smartphone using Bluetooth. You do need to download a free app to your Android or iPhone and once paired (an easy process)  you can launch the app to find your keys via making the KeySmart play a song. You do have to be in range and from my testing that’s about 45 feet. I put them on different sides of the house and it was too far, but you could easily go room to room in your house and do the find sequence. Alternatively you can double press the Tial button on your KeySmart to find your phone even if it’s in silent mode. KeySmart says the battery will last for up to 45 days, a claim I was unable to verify. 

 

Conclusion

Everyone’s keys are a little different, I like the idea of everything being more compact and in one place but for me I miss the ability to separate and downsize easily for certain situations like formal wear or going to the gym where I just need a car and house key. I also end up having a few bulky keys and fobs that don’t really fit the KeySmart Pro without additional rings and disconnects that I don’t always want to have with me. So for me I think I will use this more in the summer when I don’t have a jacket pocket to throw keys in and want something slimmer for my shorts pockets. That said the Tile feature here is really handy and does slim and organize your keys, I think this would be especially useful if your prone to losing your keys or say had many bags or jackets you put your keys in last and needed to locate them. The little light on the end of it works surprisingly well too to find that key hole at night too. The plastic here flexes a little more then I would hope but so far it’s held up. Maybe they could sell an aluminum back plate if you wanted a little more rigidity without much more weight. 

 

So if you are interested in the KeySmart Pro or know someone it would make a perfect gift for I will have a link to where you can pick it up in the description below. Let me know if you think the KeySmart Pro would be a good fit for your EDC.

 

Purchase the KeySmart Pro on Amazon at the following Links:

White – https://amzn.to/2twSfuf 

Black, Red, Gray, Pink https://amzn.to/2uZb7Cs 

Full Image Gallery: https://imgur.com/a/ZQGyeFj

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Wurkkos FC11 Review (Samsung LH351D 5000k 90 CRI, USB-C, 18650, $30) Discount Available

Wurkkos (Pronounced Workos) is a new brand on the market. They are being produced along with the assistance of Sofirn and sharing a factory. The Wurkkos FC11 caught my eye because it was using desirable Samsung LH351D high CRI emitter at 5000k, had USB-C and is pretty affordable. Thanks to Wurkkos for sending this to me to take a look at and review. Be sure to check the description of the video for a discount available to my viewers for this light.

 

YouTube Version of this Review: 

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Packaging & Accessories

Packaging is a yellow and white cardboard box with just the company name on the outside. Inside the light came wrapped in a bubble, and accessories include 2 extra orings, generic lanyard, and a USB-A to USB-C cable. The light comes with a non deep carry pocket clip on it and a Wurkkos branded 3000mAh 18650 battery inside. I tested the battery capacity at 2854mAh on my Xtar VC4S charger. I can read the battery code as 01VCEAJ?1224?18CF0000180. 

 

 

Construction

The Wurkkos FC11 is made from aluminum and hard anodized a semi gloss black. Very similar to Thrunite or Sofirn’s lights. The tail is flat, and magnetic, strong enough to hold the light horizontally. The knurling on the tail cap is straight but with some inpercise milled flats around it, It’s not noticeable unless your really looking. Threads are shallow square cut and anodized. 

 

The body tube is ribbed which I like the look of, it’s different, not a grippy design though. The clip only attaches on one end of the tube but the tube is reversible so you could mount it at the front if desired. I do hope Wurkkos releases a deep carry pocket clip for this light as it would improve it’s EDC ability in my opinion. There is a little battery body rattle when the light is shaken violently but it’s minimal, and dual springs in the tail would improve the noise you get if you strike the light, but it didn’t ever lose contact with the battery for me. 

The head is pretty standard looking, the semi transparent button has texture on top and sits fairly flat, it has a blue bezel that kind of reminds me of Olight but looks good. The sides around the pill area have a bit of a fin shape milled in and could use a little more deburring. The USB_C charging port is opposite the button and covered with a large silicone door that fits pretty well. The lens is plain mineral glass, the reflector has a basic orange peel and the Samsung LED is nicely centered. 

 

Size & Weight

I measured the FC11 at 116mm in length. 24mm at the tail, and 25mm at the thickets part of the head. Weight with the included battery and pocket clip was 112.1g. The light is IPX 7 rated (Water upto 1 meter).

Size wise there are a lot of similar lights to the FC11. Length and diameter wise the Convoy S2+ is basically identical but my S2+ is the UV model so not a great comparison for beam shots. My Thrunite TC15 is about 7mm longer and about 1.5mm larger in diameter. 

 

 

LED | Beam Shots  | Heat

The Wurkkos FC11 is using the Samsung LH351D LED, in 5000k and is also considered high CRI at 90. This is a great LED to use, and one of the light communities favorites right now because of it’s high CRI and neutral tint. It’s also my first time getting a hold of this LED and I am a fan. Mine seems to be pretty neutral with just the slightest tint of green but I have heard of others getting a more green tinted LED. That’s how the bin lottery works unfortunately. The light uses an orange peel reflector behind a non AR glass. The beam profile here is does have a bit of a hot center, but fades nicely into spill. No undesirable rings or artifacts in the beam itself. Good for general use.

Runtime & Outputs

For my runtime graphs here I used the included Wurkkos 3000mAh battery and made sure it was fully charged each time. The driver is non regulated FET, and features a timed step down, after that output is linear to the cells voltage. I didn’t notice any slow PWM in the lower modes for this light and have equipment coming here soon so I can measure this on future lights. When it arrives I plan to update my blog post so make sure to check that out.

Turbo is listed at 1300 lumens and started to step down at about 75 seconds and was fully decreased to right about 25% relative output by 90 seconds. From here the light was a very linear decrease out to 425 minutes of runtime where LVP kicked in at 2.825V. I ran this test both from turbo and just high and got very similar outputs. You don’t see that many modern lights that have output graphs that look like this. It’s a cost cutting measure. Personally I would pay a few more dollars to have a regulated driver.

Heat was well controlled during my runtime tests. At 1 minute I measured 85F, at 5 minutes I measured 87F, and at 10 Min I masured 90F. This is actually pretty cool for a modern light.

 

Official outputs are listed as following.

  • Turbo 1300 Lumens
  • High 700 Lumens
  • Mid 300 Lumens
  • Low 50 Lumens
  • Eco 2 Lumens.

UI

The Wurkkos FC11 has 2 UI options for people to choose, a stepped (Default) or a ramping. To change UI while off, hold the button for 3 seconds and the light will flash twice to let you know it’s switched.

 

The light ships by default in stepped mode, and it’s fairly straight forward. From off, tap to turn on, and tap again to advance in mode. You have eco, low, mid and high as part of the normal modes of operation. To turn off Long press when on. Double click to go to turbo, Triple click to go to Strobe, and 4 clicks to enter and exit lockout. The light also has memory mode for the single click modes. This is all pretty standard but at first I found myself clicking and holding to advance modes as many other lights do but this light doesn’t.

 

Ramping mode Is fairly straightforward, the light starts low and ramps up quickly to it’s highest output in about 1.2 seconds, and flashes to let you know it’s at the top. If you release and then press and hold the light will decrease in output in the same amount of time flashing to let you know it’s at the bottom. You can stop at any output and then click again to reverse the direction you were going mid mode. The same shortcuts of double clicking to go to turbo, triple click to go to strobe, and 4 clicks to enter and exit lockout work here too. There is no hold from off to get to low mode like you see on some lights when in ramping. Not a deal killer for me. 

 

Recharging

Recharging here is accomplished via USB-C on the light itself. Unfortunately this requires a USB-A to C cable and USB-C to C is unsupported.  Charging of the 3000mAh battery was very linear during the 4 hour and 37 minutes it took to go from LVP at 2.825V to full at 4.13V. It almost immediately went to charge at 1A and then declined slowly and linearly creating a very linear but not the most ideal curve for a lithium battery. The lights electronic switch flashes fairly bright red while charging and then goes solid green when charged. The light will operate in low mode during charging. 

 

Pro’s

  • USB-C charging but not USB-C to C.
  • Samsung LH351D Neutral white high CRI Emitter
  • Very affordable price for a complete package
  • Magnetic Tail 
  • 2 UI options to choose from, stepped or Ramping

 

Con’s

  • I would prefer a deeper carry pocket clip option, if so this would make a decent EDC option. 
  • Some people have reported a bit of tint lottery with the LED. 
  • Non regulated drive, After initial step down the output is lower and linear based on voltage.
  • Dual springs would reduce the small amount of battery movement noise. 

 

Conclusion

I will be honest, when I first saw that Wurkkos was offering me this light, I didn’t know who they were and didn’t think much of it initially, but I am glad that I looked closer and ultimately said yes to get my hands on it. For $30 at time of filming, a neutral tint, high CRI (90 CRI) emitter, onboard USB-C charging and an included 3000mAh battery, I am impressed. This would make a great gift light to give to someone as a first real flashlight or a good way to experience the Samsung LH351D LED if you haven’t already. While the ribbing on the body isn’t revolutionary it’s nice they decided to do something different to make them stand out a little bit from the other knurled lights on the market.

 

This is going to be my budget 18650 recommendation for people new to the hobby or want a beater light until I run across something better. This is a high value combination, good emitter, 2 solid UI choices and a complete package deal. It’s not perfect but the positives outweigh the negatives. Maybe we will see a slight revised model next year like we have seen from the likes of the WowTac A1 to A1S and they will fix a few of these minor things and stick in a regulated driver. Overall I recommend the Wurkkos FC11 and look forward to see what they do next.

 

Wurkkos has provided a discount till the end of the month to my viewers that I have in the description below this video, so if I have piqued your interest in this nice value flashlight be sure to check that out and save a few dollars while your at it. 

 

Purchase the Wurkkos FC11 on Amazon at https://amzn.to/382Eqm7 

Use the code U3E8R39N at checkout for a 17% discount

 

Full Image Gallery https://imgur.com/a/cx7CfgE

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Klarus G15 Review (4000 Lumen EDC Flood, 21700, Cree XHP 70.2)

Welcome to 2020 and for my first review of the year I have the new Klarus G15 a small form factor 21700 EDC style light capable of upto 4000 lumens on Turbo from it’s Cree XHP 70.2 LED. Thanks to Klarus for sending me this early sample for review and evaluation. 

 

Youtube Version of this Review: 

 

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Packaging and Accessories

Packaging here is a nice high quality cardboard box with a picture of the light in front being part of the model number G15. The sides list the battery, capacity, and charging speed, and a highlight of the specs, including the 5 year warranty. On the back you have a more detailed spec chart and list of features. The light is IPX 8 water rated.

Included accessories are the Light itself, Klarus Branded 5000mAh button top protected 21700 battery. It’s listed as a 15A capable battery. The battery itself is long coming in at 74.7mm. Also included is a spare oring, Klarus branded lanyard, Felt pouch, manual and MicroUSB charging cable. 

 

Construction

The light is made from aluminum and anodized a smooth fairly glossy black. The tail is flat allowing for the light to tail stand, but it’s non magnetic. The tail has been cut on the side to allow for the lanyard to attach. The body and tail are all one piece, with the long clip only attaching on the rear section. It allows for deep carry and it’s fairly stiff. The milling on the body tube to provide texture looks like the profile for an involute gear and then has 6 flats milled into the light. I like the pattern here, it’s a little different, provides good grip without being too aggressive. The flashlight only disconnects between the head and the body. The threads are raw aluminum, and beefy square cut with grease.

 

 

The head features the same button we saw on ST15R and XT21X in 2019. It’s a silicone button with an illuminated sliver of light around it that indicates battery status and goes Green/Red/Yellow. There is minimal milling on the sides for heat dissipation. Opposite the button is the flush fitting silicone port to protect the MicroUSB charging port. It’s at a standard depth and there is plenty of clearance for larger cables to fit. The head has minimal branding and labels on it, and light bronze color. The front bezel is smooth, and it looks like it will unscrew with the right tool. The lens is anti reflective coated glass, surrounded by a deep orange peel reflector with the large XHP70.2 LED at the center.

 

Size & Weight

I measured overall length of the Klarus G15 at 122mm, maximum diameter in the head at 27.5mm between the button and the charging port, and minimum diameter on the body at 23.24 between flats. Weight with the included battery and clip is 142.1g. 

Looking through my light collection I don’t have a ton of 21700 sized lights that are super comparable here. Lights that I have that are similar are most often using an 18650 or end up being larger. I settled on comparing it to the Olight M2R Pro since they use the same battery and are physically similar. The Olight is a bit longer here, and heavier and is more tactical in nature. It’s also more of a thrower where the G15 is more about flood. 

 

LED | Beamshot | Runtime

The Klarus G15 is using the Cree XHP 70.2 LED in a cool white 6500k tint. Being a 70.2 LED there is tint shift across the beam but it’s not as dramatic as I have seen from a few other lights. There is a slight increase in intensity in the center but this is more of a flood style light then a thrower. The spill is very wide and fades into nothing without a cutoff. 

Mode Spacing here as you can see in the table below is ok but could be improved. There is quite a bit of difference to the eye between medium at 500 lumens and high at 2000 lumens. An additional mode in between would be nice. That said to the eye here is a difference between high at 2000 lumens and Turbo at 4000 but it’s not nearly as much as you might think. 

 

Brightness Outputs from Klarus

Specs Turbo High Med Low Moonlight Strobe Beacon SOS
Brightness 4000

lumens

 2000

lumens

 500

lumens

 100

lumens

 1

lumens

 4000

lumens

 500

lumens

 500

lumens
Runtime 1.2

hours

 1.5

hours

 6

hours

 28

hours

 200

hours

 2

hours

 120

hours

 18

hours

My runtime’s didn’t match Klarus’s all that well. For my first runtime test I started the light on Turbo uncooled and the light steps down pretty aggressively quite quickly about 4 minutes before starting a seasaw motion as the light heated up, and them stepped down to cool off but then what was nice is that it went brighter again as thermals and battery power allowed. The average output for the first hour was somewhere around 60% relative output. The next hour was very stable at about 45% output, before the light started to step down slowly and small bumps at first before LVP kicked in at about 185 minutes of total runtime. Other major manufactures, namely Olight have started to be very honest about what their high lumen lights can do before stepdown and I believe Klarus should do this as well, it would be more honest then to suggest their lights can do 1.2 hours on turbo or 1.5 hours on high. Reality is no light can do this but it’s not obvious to non flashaholics. 

Overall heat was well managed with the active thermal controls here. At 1 minute I measured 92F, at 2 minutes at 98F, and at 10 minutes I measured 96F. LVP kicked in at 2.688v which is lower then I would like to see. 

 

UI

UI here is simple and straightforward and it has 8 total output modes. 5 of those modes are constant on, and 3 are forms of blinking. From off, long press on the button to get to moonlight mode at 1 lumen. Press again and hold to get to low, keep pressing to cycle through low, medium and high. Double click to go to turbo. Tripple click to go to the blinking modes. 

 

The light also features memory mode for modes other then turbo, moonlight, or the strobes. It also had lockout mode, but I personally just break contact with the battery as it’s easier and faster. 

 

Recharging

The light recharges with a standard MicroUSB cable, this is a little frustrating given the price of the light and that it’s a new release for 2020 where USB-C should be the standard. I recharged the included 5000mAh battery from LVP at 2.825V to Full at 4.13v in 3 hours and 35 minutes with a maximum charging speed of 1.99A. As the battery capacity filled up charging slowed down as expected. I saw no problems with the built in recharging on this light. 

 

 

Pro’s

  • Compact size for a 21700, nice fit and finish
  • I enjoy the new gear tooth milling in the body
  • Easy interface
  • Active thermal controls.

 

Con’s

  • MicroUSB instead of USB-C, at least the charging speed here is fast at 2A
  • Pretty cool LED tint with some of the characteristic XPH 70.2 tint shift across the beam

 

Conclusion

If you are looking for a compact 21700 style EDC flood light with an electronic switch up front, the G15 could be a good choice for you. It was a surprise to see active thermal management here that allowed the light to get brighter again after step down after it cooled off. Not enough lights do this in my opinion. I like the new texture here on the body of the light, hopefully it’s something that stays, I think it’s just about perfect for EDC, not too much to rip up your hand or pocket but definitely better than standard diamond knurling. 4000 Lumen turbo mode here isn’t quite as impressive as the numbers suggest, it’s not significantly different from the high of 2000 lumens. That said it’s really a light that’s best run on the lower output modes anyways for a more useful runtime. Hopefully in 2020 we see Klarus switching to USB-C (That support USB-C to C) in their higher priced lights and we can be hopeful that we will see something other then cool white too for us enthusiasts like myself that prefer warmer and neutral tints. With all that said I can recommend the Klarus G15 with reservations.

 

Thanks for watching to the end of this video and continuing to support me. Without your views, comments, and likes it wouldn’t be possible for me to continue to bring videos like this to you guys. I look forward to 2020 being a fun year and I have a few ideas for giveaways and other fun events for those of you who are viewers and followers on social media of the channel.  

Full Image Gallery on this review https://imgur.com/a/9b3UVcV

 

Pickup the Klarus G15 at Battery Junction http://bit.ly/2udnN8F 

Read more about the Klarus G15 at https://www.klaruslight.com/Products/GSeries/724.html

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Thrunite TH01 Headlamp Review (1500 lumens, Cree XHP50 NW, 18350, MicroUSB Recharging)

Thrunite has a new headlamp it’s introduced with the TH01. It’s using an 18350 battery and Cree XHP50 LED (in Cool or Neutral white) and is capable of short bursts of upto 1500 lumens. Thanks to Thrunite for sending this to me to take a look at and review. I will have a link to where you can pick this up in the description below.

Here is my shameless plug about following me on social media if you haven’t already. I have a channel fan page on Facebook and Instagram page as well. I try to share stories of things I am working on or have recently received there as well as post sales/discounts when I see something worth mentioning. Make sure to follow me on those platforms if you are a user of them. 

 

Youtube Version of this Review: 

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Packaging & Accessories

The TH01 ships in a rather plain almost cubic cardboard box like other Thrunites. It’s not a retail package so it really has limited info externally. Inside there is a large piece of foam where the light is sitting and underneath is the head strap and other accessories. Included accessories is the headlamp itself, 1100mAh 18350 battery, Headstrap, microUSB charging cable with an extra long microUSB connector, an extra USB port cover and oring, and the associated paperwork.

Construction

The TH01 is made from aluminum and is anodized black. Build quality here is good but nothing over the top. Instead of being a right angle light, the lens and LED assembly is in the middle of the battery tube, making the light in this configuration short and stocky. The XPH50 is a fairly large emitter, and its surrounded by a wide and shallow orange peal reflector and topped with AR glass lens. A little closer to the body there are some bars milled in for grip to help you rotate the light in the headpiece assembly

 

Each end features knurled end caps, when on your head the left side is where you will find the single control button, which has a large raised silicone button, with LED’s underneath to give you a charge indicator during charging (Red/Green), and then the MicroUSB port for charging. One note on this USB port is that it’s recessed slightly deep. While I can use a standard cable (I tried with a Monoprice and Anker cable) the connection that resulted is poor and it’s easy to bump loose. If I used the cable Thrunite provided in the package the connection is solid. The difference is the Thrunite cable’s MicroUSB end is just a little longer. This is really an unfortunate design choice.

The right side is the side that opens to remove or replace the battery. There is a single large diameter spring in the tail cap that maintains electrical contact and keeps it from rattling around. Threads are a fine ACME cut, short and dry. Thrunite made an interesting design choice here and that the diameter of the tube is a good deal larger then needed for the 18350 battery. It has a small shelf that runs the length of the tube, and you can see they ran wires here as well as put a copper coin in here to dissipate heat. If the tube was longer here and the inside changed slightly I could see this morphing into a 21700 version of this light in the future.

 

Size & Weight & Comparison

I measured the following dimensions of the TH01. Overall Length was 67mm, diameter of the body tube only 27.5mm. Diameter of the lens 27mm and diameter of the body + lens assembly 34mm. Weight with the included battery is 78.9g. 

A headlamp that I have that’s somewhat comparable is the Olight H1R Nova. It’s a smaller right angle light running a RCR123 battery with considerably less output and battery capacity but is somewhat similar in length. Diameter of the Olight is about ½ that of the Thrunite TH01. The Olight’s weight with battery is 46.2g so almost ½ lighter.

To me these lights kind of serve different segments of the market, with the Olight being a more limited use light, less capacity and output. I personally use mine in my car in case I have a flat tire with a CR123 so that it better handles the extreme temp changes. The TH01 i see used more for camping or around the house where you want more runtime but still fairly light weight.

 

LED | Beamshot | Night Shots | Heat

The LED being used on the Thrunite TH01 is the Cree XHP50, no generation number is given. It’s a fairly large LED in physical size. Lucky Thrunite continues to offer this light in Cool or Neutral white. I have the Neutral white version and the tint here is on the warm side which I personally prefer. 

The beam profile is good for this type of task headlamp. It has a very wide overall beam profile (I would guess about 170 degrees), but it has a fairly large hot center with good spill. The beam tint in my neutral white example does shift in the very center to a more white tint. Overall the tint is slightly warm and a little green. The tint in the very center does shift more to a true white which can happen with the XHP50 LED. 

Run-time

As expected a light producing upto 1500 lumens, can consume quite a bit of power. That said in the lower modes the runtimes are more reasonable. In turbo the light lasts for just over 5 minutes before stepping down to 450 lumens this then lasts for about 55 more minutes before the lights starts stepping down more aggressively ending up with an overall runtime of just over 60 minutes. This is short but the light gets much better battery life if you go with one of the lower modes. High mode outputs 450 lumens and it can sustain this for 3 hours. When the battery is low the light starts to flash to let you know to recharge the battery. Low voltage protection kicked in at 3.05V. 

Heat is well controlled on this light. I started the light out on Turbo and at 1 minute it measured 83F, at 5 minutes 108F, at 10 minutes 95F. 

 

UI

UI here is very simple and straightforward. One button to turn the light on, long press to cycle through the modes, double click to go to turbo. Long press from off turns the light on in firefly mode. Triple click to go to SOS. The light does have memory mode and will remember the mode you were last in with the exception of Turbo or firefly. 

 

Recharging

This light charges via a micro USB connector on the body of the light. Unfortunately it’s recessed slightly deeper then standard, meaning the standard cables I tried to use from Anker and Monoprice resulted in a loose connection. The ThruNite cable that was included’s male end is just slightly longer and this makes all the difference to lock in that connection. Recharging on this light is pretty conservative at 500mA, meaning it took 2 hours and 41 minutes to charge the included 1100mAh battery. I would have liked to see a bit more speed here, 750mA would be perfectly save and save 25% off the charging time. Charging stopped at 4.163V. The light will come on in Firefly mode (0.6 Lumens) while recharging.

 

Pro’s

  • Neutral and Cool White are both available! It’s great to see Thrunite still offer this while other manufacturers seem to be stopping.
  • Pretty affordable smaller headlamp with a battery

 

Con’s

  • Deeply recessed MicroUSB port means a standard cable makes a poor connection. I would prefer USB-C anyways.
  • While it doesn’t rattle, the body tube’s diameter is a good deal larger than needed.
  • Charge rate is quite conservative, and some would argue slow, since its max charge rate is 500mA, and charging takes about 3 hours. This is like 0.5C so exceedingly safe.

 

Conclusion

An 18350 headlamp I think is a little bit of a strange size here, It’s significantly more battery capacity and max sustained current then an RCR123, but at least on the TH01 it resulted in a light that is kind of fat and longer then I feel like it needs to be. It seems like this design would scale up to an 18650 battery and almost be a better size to weight ratio as a result. The diameter of the tube seems more appropriate for a 20700 then a 18xxx battery. 

 

Either way this puts out a significant amount of light on turbo and can sustain it for a reasonably long amount of time. However doing so really does consume quite a bit of power, so you would be better suited to only using the brightest mode you need in order to get the most runtime needed here. With the 3 strap design I could see this being useful for a runner or someone doing camping etc, provided they used high instead of turbo so they could see the 3 hours of runtime instead of 1 hour. Lastly, this ends up being fairly affordable for this level of output and Thrunites good customer service and 2 year warranty. I can recommend it with reservations.

 

You can purchase the Thrunite TH01 on Amazon at https://amzn.to/2S0kUlj or at http://www.thrunite.com/thrunite-th01-1500-lumen-cree-xhp50-18350-rechargeable-led-headlamp/

Thrunite is running a promotion for people who purchase this light and write a review to revive a free Ti3. Contact Customer service to take advantage of this promotion. 

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Lumintop EDC18 Review (2800 Lumens, Triple LED, Side Switch) & 11.11 Sales

The Lumintop EDC18 is Lumintop’s newest EDC style light. It borrows very heavily from the FW3A that was designed by the BudgetLightForums but built by Lumintop. It features the same light engine, similar optic and similar ideas. Lumintop however has refined some of the qwerks of the FW3A to gear it a little more two a consumer oriented EDC market. Thanks to Banggood for sending this too me to look at and review.

A quick word that if your watching this video shortly after it’s made live, Banggood is having huge 11.11 day sales on tons of things in their store including flashlights and other goodies. I will have links in the description below to where you can find the sales and the Lumintop EDC18. 

 

Pickup the Lumintop EDC18 at Bangood for $39.90 at http://bit.ly/2MXLwjR with coupon BG18

 

Banggood 11.11 Flashlight Sales (Limited Time) http://bit.ly/32tSnpO and Main Venue Sales: http://bit.ly/36jJylo 

 

YouTube Version of this Review: 

Full Image Gallery: https://imgur.com/a/jiymjZR

 

Packaging

Packaging of the Lumintop EDC18 is the brown cardboard box that the FW3A had too. The outside slipcovers are different with corresponding photos of the light and the emitter on the outside. Not much detail on the outside, which makes sense. Inside ithe light is protected in form fitting white foam. The EDC18 came with a few more nice extras. It includes a lanyard, a deep carry pocket clip, magnetic tail cap, and glow in the dark silicone diffuser. 

 

Construction

The EDC18 is made from aluminium that’s anodized in a smooth eggshell black finish. Machining was good with no problems but mine did have a slight anodizing flaw on the heatsink that you can see under good lighting and then inside where the tube makes contact with the head it looks like some masking failed during anodizing. I will fix this after my review with a little sandpaper, neither are deal breakers and easy fixes. 

Starting at the tail cap, it’s flat and contains a strong magnet that can easily hold the light of the weight up in a horizontal and vertical position. There is a small hole in the back for a lanyard. Knurling on the tail cap and body are very shallow and no aggressive. I have found this type of knurling on other Lumintops to pick up and hold dirt easily. 

The clip is deep carry which is nice, it fits quite tightly but does rotate around the light. It does have a small shelf on it which I tend to not like but I have not found it to be a problem here. It’s reversible to either end of the light and at least on mine retention is good in the pocket but it’s not flush against the body when mounted at the rear of the light. I will make note that a deep carry clip is also available for the FW3A now too on NealsGadgets and I need to pick one up.

The head is where the largest differences are. Lumintop decided to give the EDC18 a little more mass in the head which is good for heat dissipation without much additional size. It’s got some milling to dissipate heat and add style. The only UI button is also found in the head. It’s a silicone button with a clear rabbit (Lumintop’s logo) and a green LED underneath, so when it’s got a battery installed it’s a glowing rabbit which is kind of cool. The switch underneath is an electronic switch and takes a decent amount of force to press. I didn’t have trouble with it in my pocket. 

The front of the head features a recessed lens with a polished aluminum flush bezel. Underneath is the bare carillo style optic. No glass lens is sitting on top like on the FW3A making this EDC “lens” more susceptible to scratching. This also isn’t a genuine Carillo optic, but instead a Chinese domestically made version. Performance wise they are very similar, it does look like mine has a slight flaw in it though. 

A quick note about the modality of the EDC18. The FW3A was a modders dream with no glue and built to change but this made the light a little finicky at times. The EDC18 takes a little different approach, it has retaining rings in the head and tail to keep parts aligned and a single piece body tube to make it more reliable. The bezel does unscrew so that you can swap out the optic, put a glow gasket in, or replace the opic with one with tritium etc. While the light is still moddable it’s less so then the FW3A.

 

Size & Weight

I measured length at 94mm, minimum diameter at the body tube at 25mm, and maximum diameter at the head at 27mm. Weight with included clip and my Sony VTC6 battery is 120.9g.

 

In comparison the FW3A in aluminum with the same battery and it’s clip it weights 98g. The FW3A is just a hair shorter and the head and tail are very similar in diameter. The biggest difference is the taper in the body on the FW3A. In my time carrying the light it makes a difference in how comfortable it is.  

LED/Beamshots/Runtime

My example of the EDC18 is using the Nichia 219C LED’s in about 4000k. For me this is one of my favorite LED’s and tint’s. It’s high CRI,  and just a slightly warm neutral color. That said it’s a “hot” LED and doesn’t produce as many lumens as the other LED’s being offered. The other choices available are SST20, Cree XP-L HI in Neutral White or Cool white. If your looking for all of the 2800 lumens here, go with one of the Cree emitters. For me I will happily trade a little performance for that preferred tint.

The beam here is nice and useful for EDC, it’s a fairly diffused light, not a thrower, and what we would expect from a Carclo style optic. 

Runtime on the EDC18 was very similar to the FW3A which makes since because it’s basically the same emitter engine. I did 2 runtime tests, the first being just showing the first 4 minutes in the highest output mode and as you can see this light heats up super fast and almost immediately starts to reduce it’s output. By about 4 minutes the light is stable and it runs here for well over 200 minutes. I stopped the test so the graph would be readable but let the light run and it was still at this output when I woke up the next morning. LVP kicked in about 2.87v.

 

As with the FW3A this light works best using the ramping firmware to bring it up to the level of light you need and not more, to maximize runtime and minimize heat. Thankfully that’s easy to do with Andril.

 

UI

This light is using Toykeeper’s Anduril UI. It’s currently one of my favorites available as it has a ton of options and neat little easter eggs that commercial UI’s don’t include. By default the light comes in ramping UI which is where I left it. The ramping is fast and logical. A stepped mode is available that you can configure as well if you prefer. 

The light has thermal controls, you can configure beacon mode, as well as 5 types of strobe including candle mode, party strobe, and lightning storm. You access these with 2 taps and a hold, and then two taps to change modes inside this group. Candle and lighting mode are my personal favorite. How practical these are could be a point where one could argue, but I like that they are present and it just makes things fun. Due to how you access these strobe modes I would not call the light a tactical UI or tactical light as you have to remember a series of presses and pauses to get there. 

 

For instance 4 clicks gives you lockout, and another 4 clicks unlocks the light, or you could just unscrew the head a tiny bit. If you activate momentary, the only way to clear it is to unscrew the head to do a full reset. 6 clicks from off gives you muggle mode which limits the lights output and output for a less complicated interface. 

 

Personally I find the UI to be easy to use for what you want to do most often, but a little more complex to get to those modes you don’t use very often. This is a UI where you should take a look at the manual or at least the graphical manual for the UI and spend some time playing with your light to get the most out of it.

 

Pro’s

  • Andril Firmware
  • Great extras’s are included like the deep carry clip, and diffuser
  • Magnetic Tail
  • More Reliable, less fiddly
  • Button top cells work here in addition to flat tops but no protected batteries

 

Con’s

  • Less modifiable then the FW3A, but this means more reliability
  • Larger profile makes it a little less pocket friendly.
  • Knurling is pretty smooth and minimal

 

Conclusion

My conclusion on the Lumintop EDC18 is that this version is a version of the FW3A that’s designed a more for the mainstream consumer. It trades ultimate compactness and modality for a slight increase in size, and a little more reliability. What this means is it’s less likely to have problems out of the box but your not going to be able to modify it like what people are doing with the FW3A. It would still benefit from everyone doing a thermal sensor calibration. 

 

The biggest difference is really if you want a tail or side switch because that’s the biggest difference for me. I honestly like both. I think for EDC I prefer the feel of the FW3A in my pocket because of it’s slightly tapered body (and deep carry once I get my deep carry clip) and slightly smaller size. That said there have been times I miss having a magnet in the tail, especially when at work. So for me it’s really hard to pick just one, I don’t think either are bad choices for a compact hot rod triple light. So I would if you can get the emitter you like in both, go with where you like your switch best, FW3A for tail switch, or the Lumintop EDC18 for a side switch. 

 

Pickup the Lumintop EDC18 at Bangood for $39.90 at http://bit.ly/2MXLwjR with coupon BG18

Posted on

Soundcore Liberty 2 Pro Review (Wireless, Balanced Armature. USB-C, Qi Recharging)

Soundcore (an Anker company) has a new set of higher end truly wireless earbuds with the Soundcore LIberty Pro 2. These are an upmarket product for Soundcore, and feature a balanced armature and a dynamic driver. They feature a neat case and pretty impressive battery life in my testing. Thanks to Soundcore for sending these too me to review and tell you guys about.

 

YouTube Version of this Review:

Pickup the Soundcore Liberty 2 Pro on Amazon at https://amzn.to/2Wk2sE8

 

Packaging & Accessories

Soundcore products have always had nice packaging but the Liberty Pro 2’s is above and beyond. It’s clear to me this package was designed with retail stores in mind. It’s textured in places and has a sharp eye catching design and lots of useful information to the consumer on the outside with all the stats and big features of the headphones. It’s a magnetic latch box so the consumer can look inside as well. Accessories include 3 sizes of ear wings, to help the fit in your ear, and then 3 sizes of each ear tip with duplicates of each. You also get a USB-A to USB-C cable for recharging the storage case. 

 

 

Construction

The Soundcore case is vital to the operation of these headphones as it’s how you recharge the headphones. It’s made of a soft touch plastic and the door on the top has an addictive slide mechanism. If you like to fidget with things you will find yourself sliding this back and forth. The case itself allows the headphones to turn on and off via magnetic retention. As far as recharging the case has USB-C on the back, and is able to charge on a horizontal QI charging pad. You have 3 LED’s on the front that give you  the battery status of the case. 

Battery life of the LIberty Pro 2’s is good, Anker rates it at 8 hours and at least in my testing that’s pretty accurate. I recently took these on a business trip this week and wore them for hours at a time through airports and never had them get close to 50% and even if they do get low a 10 minute recharge in the case gives you an impressive 2 hours of additional playback time. Overall the 500mAh battery in the case is good for 32 hours of playback time. Size wise the case is a little on the large size for me. In my front jeans pocket it worked but if I was in shorts or had smaller pockets I could see it being a little too big. Other brands have more compact solutions if that’s an important factor for you.

Sound Quality Comfort & Software

Soundcore has developed their own set of drivers for the Liberty Pro 2’s called the Astria Coaxial Acoustic Architecture.. For the mid’s and high they a customly developed Knowles (Well known in the audio industry) balanced armature combined with an 11mm dynamic driver for the lows. These are placed inside each other allowing for the sound to not have to be routed within the body of the headphones so that you have the best possible sound quality. This is a somewhat unique design that your not seeing on a ton of true wireless ear buds right not. 

Soundcore has then teamed up with 10 “Grammy Award Winning” audio producers to further tune and refine the sound profile of these headphones. Combine this with the soundcore app on your Android or Apple device and you have a choice of several audio profiles for your specific type of music. The app also has a customized hearing test where it analyzes each of your ears ability to hear a range of frequencies and builds a profile for you. See the video for how this works. 

 

So what’s my experience with these? Well as with any in ear headphone fit is key to sound quality, and I took my time here to find what works best for me, a balance of comfort, sound quality, and retention. I settled with medium sized ear wings, and small ear tips. Comfort was pretty good with this combo and fatigue after 5 hours straight was minimal. Retention was great, and I had no problem at the gym working on AMT’s and other machines, and I would feel comfortable running with these as well. 

 

Sound quality was impressive for a wireless headphone. Your music source is very important here, heavily compressed music, such as most streaming services you might not notice a difference, but I had some lossless files on my phone and on these I could tell the larger sound stage, clarity and accuracy. Bass was pretty good as well, with it being almost too powerful on some of the presets. So if you like Rap or EDM these should work pretty well for you at this price point. These do feature Bluetooth 5 asd aptX which both improve sound quality.

 

One disappointing thing is at this price point there is no audio passthrough which means for conversations you have to pause your audio and take out an ear bud to talk to someone. This proved a little frustrating in an airport until I reprogrammed the button on the top of the headphone to allow me to pause my audio.

 

These do feature Qualcomm’s cVc 8.0 noise reduction technology when making calls, combine that with a total of 4 microphones and at least in my experience call quality was surprisingly good. I have read some other reviews that not everyone had the same experience I had. This is a feature I rarely use because who makes calls anyways.

 

Pro’s

  • Great Sound Quality
  • Long Battery Life
  • USB-C and Wireless recharging
  • Built in Sound profiles are good and make a difference in audio quality.

 

Con’s

  • The earbuds themselves are a little big but retention is good for me
  • Case is on the larger side
  • IPX4 Water rated, while enough for sweat
  • No passthrough audio for conversations and you must use both earbuds at the same time.

 

Conclusion

For me these are by far my best pair of wireless headphones, especially earbud style ones. Sound quality wise they live up to their price point for me. Bass was impressive, while still maintaining crisp mids and highs. Music quality matters here more than most normal headphones. You might not notice the difference on your average streaming service. I was impressed with the battery life here as well, of the headphones themselves and the case. Not many people are going to be listening for 8 continuous hours, and even if you are 10 minutes in the case gives the headphones 2 hours of use. In my travels this week I never came close to needing to recharge. 

 

These only have minor disappointments, for me the lack of passthrough audio was unfortunate at this price point as well as these are just a little big. They are not something I want to lay down with if you are laying on your side. 

 

All this said these get a solid recommend from me if you’re looking for a more high end sound, and a premium wireless ear bud for most situations to work with all your devices. 

 

Full image gallery at: https://imgur.com/a/7pH27eM

Pickup the Soundcore Liberty 2 Pro on Amazon at https://amzn.to/2Wk2sE8

Posted on

Olight Seeker 2 Review and Comparison (3000 Lumens, 21700, 3x Osram LED)

Today I am taking a look at the Olight Seeker 2. Now a few months ago I looked at the Pro version of this light, the one I am looking at today is similar but has a few differences to it. If you have not seen that review I will link to it and recommend you check it out as this is going to do a lot of comparisons and contrasts rather then a full review. Thanks to Skyben trading for sending this to me to take a look at. 

 

YouTube version of this Review:

Pickup the Olight Seeker 2 from Skyben on Amazon https://amzn.to/2nZR2sC 

 

Packaging & Accessories

I will quickly touch on packaging. It’s on par with the Seeker 2 Pro, same white box with a nice photo of the light with lumen and throw specs up front. On the back you have a runtime chart and some details about the light. 

Accessories with the Seeker 2 were less then the Seeker 2 Pro. You get the light itself, the same proprietary 5000mAh Olight 21700 battery (ORB-217C50), a standard Olight Lanyard with the helpful threading needle, and then a MCCA1 charger with the standard length cable. The Pro version of the light came with everything before and the L Dock, much longer charging cable, and a holster. 

 

Construction

The construction of these two aluminum lights are very similar. Here are the major differences that I see.

  • The anodizing is different on the Seeker 2 Standard. Rather then being the hard slick finish that most aluminum lights are the Seeker 2 Standard uses a mat almost chalky anodizing. It’s very similar to what you find on Armytek lights. It marks up fairly easily but usually rubs or washes off pretty easily.
  • The Seeker 2 doesn’t have the molded silicone grips that the Seeker 2 Pro has. This isn’t a huge deal to me, at least with dry hands the different anodizing kind of makes up for it. 
  • The front side switch is different between the two. On the Seeker 2 Standard the switch is more like recent Olights, it’s a more plasticy slicker feeling. It has a hole in the center for an LED for battery status indicator. The Seeker 2 Pro has nicer feeling rubber/silicon button as well as 4 LED’s on each side for battery power indicator and brightness status indicator. While these are really nice features I have no trouble with the standard button. 

Size & Weight Comparison

Length of the Seeker 2 came in at 126mm vs the Pro’s 128mm. Diameters of the head were identical at 35.4mm, the body tube at 27mm. Both lights roll around very easily when on their sides

I was a little surprised at the weight difference between the two lights. The Seeker 2 Pro weight in with battery at 197g while the Seeker 2 standard came in at 186.5g. 

 

LED | Beamshots | Heat

The Seeker 2 Standard is using a triple configuration of Osram LED instead of the Cree XP-L HD’s used Seeker 2 Pro. Olight doesn’t give us the model of Osram used in the light unfortunately according to official literature. Tint wise the Seeker 2 Standard has a tint that’s a bit whiter especially at lower power where as the Seeker 2 Pro is a little warmer/rosy tint. Beam pattern on the Seeker standard has a more defined hotspot and appears to be more focused. 

Seeker 2 on the left

Seeker 2 tint

Seeker 2 on left, Seeker 2 on Right

 

Runtimes on the Seeker 2 are also longer due to the different LED. Total runtime was more then 250 minutes for the Seeker 2 Standard. Turbo seemed to last slightly longer as well. The Seeker standard ran in high for just past 100 minutes, very similar to the Pro, but then it saw 2 pretty major decreases in the next 50 minutes but then ran on low power that was usable for over that 250 minutes mark. The slight differences in output are not that noticeable and I will trade it for more runtime. LVP kicked in at 2.958V

 

Outputs are listed as the same for all modes except turbo with the differences being only 200 lumens.

Moonlight  – 5 Lumens

Low – 50 Lumens

Medium 300 Lumens

High 1200 Lumens then 600

Turbo 3000 Lumens then 600

 

UI

UI on the Seeker 2 Standard is is very similar to other Olights and the same as the Seeker 2 Pro, and that’s great because it’s a simple UI that I like. From off if you long press on the button the light comes on in moonlight, which on this light is a little bright for my liking. When the light is on it starts in low, and then you can hold the button and it will cycle from lowest to brightest, just stop on where you want to be. The light does have memory mode for low through high. For tubo just double click and for strobe just tipple click. The light also features a lockout mode and timer that’s available.

 

Recharging

Recharging is pretty much the exact same as the Seeker 2 Pro. The Seeker 2 Standard is using Olights MCC1AL magnetic charging system..  observed maximum charging speed of .9A which resulted in a total overall charge time of 6.5 hours for the 5000mAh 21700 battery. This is a pretty slow, very conservative charging speed for such a large cell. Good for the overall lifespan of the cell if you can wait but Olight’s competitors lights that are using the same battery are generally charging at 2A which is plenty safe for this battery. The battery stopped charging at 4.135v.

 

Pro’s

  • More affordable without much sacrifice of features.
  • Increase in runtime and throw with the Osram LED
  • Relatively small sized light for a 21700 battery
  • Triple LED lights continue to go mainstream in 2019

 

Con’s 

  • 1A charging is pretty slow on a 5000mAh battery. 2A is still under 1C charging speed for this battery and what this lights competition is all doing.
  • No Change in the magnet, it’s still relatively weak only really sufficient for charging or holding the light perfectly horizontal.
  • No official word on exactly which LED is being used here, just the manufacturer is given.

 

Conclusion

The Seeker 2 is extremely similar to it’s Twin brother the Seeker 2 Pro. The 200 lumens difference in peak performance on turbo isn’t significantly different to the eye. The other physical differences are fairly minor or not deal breakers for me. 

 

Olights proprietary batteries like other manufactures branded cells tend to be pretty expensive and while I love the 21700 format, it’s proprietary nature and cost ends up being a negative for me. Luckily you should be able to use a standard button top 21700 and a small magnet if you want a less expensive second battery option and are ok with charging on an external charger. 

 

Personally my recommendation would be to go with the standard Seeker 2 here, and save the roughly $30 difference. While I like the rubber grip and battery and power level indicators I don’t think those two things are significant enough to warrant the price, thus making the Seeker 2 the better overall buy. With that $30 you could easily buy another battery for the light. Overall the Seeker 2 is a pretty good light and a better value then the Seeker 2 Pro in my opinion. 

 

Full Image Gallery: https://imgur.com/a/g1BXxQn

Pickup the Olight Seeker 2 from Skyben on Amazon https://amzn.to/2nZR2sC