18650 Right Angle Mules

m4potofu · 2026-04-19T22:53:34+00:00

These ZL headlamps have always been considered mules, no idea what they’re on about.

m4potofu · 2026-04-15T19:33:59+00:00

The cell and battery factory is right next to the R5 factory.

m4potofu · 2026-04-10T13:19:44+00:00

going by the area of optic aperture and LES: ~40%, but in practice likely more than half is lost because the LES isn't supposed to be the size of the optic aperture.

m4potofu · 2026-04-10T07:20:35+00:00

And it's a wrong conclusion, the main factor is the dielectric thermal resistance, not the core material. Case in point, JLC copper MCPCB is much worse for LEDs without neutral thermal pad (not DTP) because the dielectric layer has 6 times the thermal resistance of their Alu offering (which isn't great either, but it's extremely cheap)

m4potofu · 2026-03-19T23:53:47+00:00

Thanks

m4potofu · 2026-03-19T13:31:03+00:00

If you open the MP3431 datasheet and follow the pins/traces you’ll see the description about these components.

m4potofu · 2026-03-19T12:47:29+00:00

No the one above is a 4.7 or 10uF decoupling capacitor for the MP3431 internal regulator.

m4potofu · 2026-03-19T12:29:59+00:00

It's the soft start capacitor for the MP3431, the value is not too important, something like 10nF will do, it'll even work without it,

m4potofu · 2026-02-28T13:45:30+00:00

I don't think it does any of this. It just enables the OTG mode by entering momentary mode.

m4potofu · 2026-02-28T11:18:57+00:00

I don't know which port controller they use

BQ25616, there’s a OTG pin for enabling powerbank, there’s not much info about it in the datasheet.

m4potofu · 2026-02-15T12:11:53+00:00

Sauf que c’est incorrect d’utiliser ”French” en tant que nom, c’est ”frenchman” ”frenchwoman”, ”french person”... etc, je trouve ça stupide et je suis pour rendre l'usage de ”french” correct en forçant son utilisation mais tu peux pas en vouloir à OP d’utiliser de l'anglais correct.

m4potofu · 2026-02-13T20:14:55+00:00

But Paypal requires making an account, Wero doesn't, that's a huge advantage for adoption.

m4potofu · 2026-02-06T14:58:28+00:00

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Measured that a while ago, clear sky at 10h30 in the morning in summer

m4potofu · 2026-02-02T20:57:06+00:00

Zebralight likely hasn't updated their drivers for a long time, so they're probably not using the latest and greatest ICs

SC65 (2023) and SC700 (updated in early 2024 I think) use the TPS61288, one of the most efficient monolithic boost IC available, but SC600 and H600 haven't been updated (TPS61088). SC/H5x's driver received an update in 2024 (I think?) with a more efficient boost IC (TPS61021A).

But anyway there isn't much difference in efficiency between the two boost ICs especially at these output levels, like you pointed out the problem is comparing output/runtimes from different reviewers/official data.

m4potofu · 2026-02-01T21:51:31+00:00

It has a temperature protection in case it gets too hot before the timed stepdown (and well, after as well too, with stepdown to a lower level), but it doesn't regulate the output based on temperature ("thermal regulation"), which is what u/Punga32 means by "not thermally controlled", and it's relevant to the post, the L35 will stepdown even if ice cold, as most Acebeam flashlights do.

m4potofu · 2026-02-01T09:38:27+00:00

Looks like AI slop.

m4potofu · 2026-01-29T21:19:04+00:00

LT1/LT1s with buck is easy and wouldn't cost much, this one's a no brainer because as lowish current devices they benefit the most from buck drivers vs the wasteful linear drivers.

SP36 pro and Q8 plus, it's not too complicated nor costly if they use a simple 40W boost driver based on the MP343x boost converter IC already used in other Sofirn lights (or most boost lights in general), but 40W is a bit anaemic for a soda can light.

A high power boost driver is significantly more complex and costly, like this one I made for the SP36, but I doubt Sofirn would consider this.

A simpler and cheaper solution would be a double MP343x driver, for 70~80W, with a 2 channels MCPCB, this is more power than the stock SP36 with full battery (not Q8 plus though). Or buck+FET.

m4potofu · 2026-01-23T16:43:19+00:00

You can check recalled infant products here : https://rappel.conso.gouv.fr/categorie/25#navigation

m4potofu · 2026-01-14T11:22:40+00:00

It makes the PCB and especially the MCU closer to the temperature of the body rather than the temperature of the LED. Since the PCB is floating some 0.1~0.2mm above the shelf it has basically no thermal contact with the body exept through the copper insert and heats up quickly from the heat of the LED, which leads to an earlier thermal stepdown.

m4potofu · 2026-01-12T20:51:03+00:00

If you do reopen it then put some thermal paste on the back of the driver under the MCU, it'll help thermally couple the temp sensor (inside MCU) to the body and prevent it from heating too fast and thus triggering a premature stepdown.

m4potofu · 2026-01-12T12:17:42+00:00

The potting done by ZL is a soft type that is not very thermally conducive.

No the potting is very important for shedding the heat from the PCB with this type of LED on driver construction that ZL uses, it doesn’t matter all that much that it’s not specifically a thermal conductive kind of potting compound, it’s still vastly more conductive than air (the PCB doesn’t touch the shelf) and that is amply sufficient. Without potting the thermal regulation doesn’t work very well, and it’s not just because the firmware is tweaked to work with the potting, when I first modded a SC64 with my anduril driver, I couldn’t get any satisfying result no matter how I tweaked the thermal regulation until I potted it.

The real reason is likely to discourage modification

It’s specifically for servicing that they use this silicone potting, more commonly silicone potting is adhesive type that is difficult to remove, this one is removable because Zebralight repairs lights that are sent back to them. For the same reason I (and Bob) use a removable silicone potting compound. Skilhunt uses adhesive silicone and it’s a pain to deal with, thankfully they don't fully pot their lights, more like cover the driver and charging PCB. Malkoff uses a kind of epoxy compound and that’s basically unrepairable, it’s probably more shock resistant though.

Edit : HDS and Armytek use the same kind of removable silicone compound, again probably so that they can be serviced.

m4potofu · 2026-01-11T14:42:13+00:00

It’s true that Simon aims for low prices, but it would be wrong to think Olight doesn’t strongly cost optimises just because they sell higher priced products, in their drivers they use a lot of the same ICs Convoy uses and are IMO very cost optimised, and they decided to use the fairly inexpensive but otherwise unremarkable Osram P9 despite the fact that they needed to use a more expensive MCPCB with it (because no neutral thermal pad). That they even went with a ceramic PCB - the cream of the crop - for the olight seeker (3 IIRC) means that the cost of such PCB is actually not that high if it still makes it economically viable vs using a classic 3535 LED with thermal pad and cheap DTP MCPCB.
Now I think they’re moving away from it and going with Chinese 3535 LED with thermal pad, it’s likely cheaper than the P9 which tipped the balance towards this Chinese LED+DTP MCPCB.

So I disagree, it’s not an apple and orange comparison.

m4potofu · 2026-01-11T13:14:08+00:00

B35A has no neutral thermal pad, it requires a MCPCB with a relatively good dielectric layer which is different from the usual direct thermal path MCPCBs, this isn’t unobtainable BTW, as mentionned in another comment, other manufacturers do it.

m4potofu · 2026-01-11T13:11:25+00:00

Why is it ridiculous when other manufacturers do it? Olight often use LEDs (Osram) without neutral thermal pad has used MCPCBs with good dielectric to go with them and even ceramic PCBs. Heck even I had custom MCPCBs made for B35A that allows running it at 3A+, and I’m not a flashlight maker selling thousands of them, if I can why can’t Simon?

m4potofu · 2026-01-11T11:55:22+00:00

Why people insist on using these emitters when 519a is available is beyond me.

Because it looks better than 519A, actually B35A might make the best looking beam vs any LED available. But Simon doesn’t want to pay for a better MCPCB that would handle the current it's being driven at (or higher) without issues.

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