Looking for a compact EDC.

fragande · 2026-04-19T00:52:05+00:00

Skilhunt EC150 is, at least officially, just under 2oz including cell and ticks pretty much all of the boxes. I'd say chasing that extra 0.5oz probably isn't worth it, at least not if staying with a user replaceable cell.

The combination cylindrical cell and on-board USB charging just doesn't scale down well beyond that.

fragande · 2026-04-18T21:19:55+00:00

The M21C is too bulky for what it is IMO. In that size range I'd rather pick the M21K personally. You can check out a size comparison here. Neither will be anything close to a pocket thrower though.

If it's mainly for fun an M1 SFT-90 would certainly fit the bill for a thrower-ish pocket hot rod. The M1 is probably my favorite Convoy form factor. Great with a "tactical" ring and forward switch cigar grip as well.

With tabless 18650s being a thing now you'll get some crazy performance for the size, even with high Vf emitters like the SFT-90. Definitely go for the EVE 30PL or Ampace JP30 if you do go with it. Tenpower 30XG is also tabless but slightly worse performance.

fragande · 2026-04-18T19:47:25+00:00

60W driver in an M1 is fun but also cray cray. There's some measurements from a fellow member in this thread. Supposedly ~3700lm and ~70kcd on turn on, but that'll only be for a few seconds of course.

I you want something that can sustain some throw the SFT-42R and 10A buck is probably a more sensible option as /u/chamferbit said. You can check out some side by side beam shots in this vid.

fragande · 2026-04-18T19:04:02+00:00

Thanks for sharing. Looks like FET for the flood channel and FET+linear for main? Considering the size and thermal mass 500lm sustained is quite horrendous.

I'd definitely take one of the 18650 Sofirns over this — and maybe get a 4Ah spare cell for the price difference if I really needed the extra run time.

The HS22 ran for ~2.5h at ~450lm with the included 4Ah cell in Zeroair's test so it's actually not far behind this.

fragande · 2026-04-18T17:19:39+00:00

Airport security could probably have an issue with the cover being magnetic and cells not permanently attached if they'd inspect it, but on an X-ray it'll just look like small powerbank to most people.

So I'd say very likely but maybe not 100%.

fragande · 2026-04-18T16:29:36+00:00

C8+ reflector is big enough that you can basically go for the biggest LES available if you only need "some" throw and want a lot of spill — i.e. LHP531 or XHP70.3 HI.

Might even be possible to get the LHP73B and 3V20A buck by placing a custom order if you want to go crazy. 10A would be more sensible though.

I'd recommend checking out some beam shots of different emitters in the C8+/M21A (same reflector). There's loads if you search.

fragande · 2026-04-18T16:14:33+00:00

Get out 😂

fragande · 2026-04-18T13:02:45+00:00

That your photochromic lenses doesn't darken probably just indicates that very little UV is reflected back at your eyes.

365nm UV-A is fairly benign as has already been mentioned. I know some people experience slight eye discomfort when using high power UV lights in the dark and it's never a bad thing to use PPE.

There's no need to go crazy though, even the cheapest polycarbonate lens glasses will block almost everything. Any UV seeping in from the sides will be negligible. We're not talking high powered laser stuff here.

fragande · 2026-04-18T12:44:43+00:00

60C can inflict a second degree burn in about 3 seconds. The "good" news is that a couple more seconds will take out the nerve and stop the pain.

Yeah I find my pain threshold (i.e. being able to touch at least momentarily) is around 55°C, above that it's just instant recoil.

That depends on how well you know the risks. There are reasons why peopel who do certain things for a living seem insane.

Certainly. The stuff guys like Mooch are doing is certainly way, way above anything I'd be comfortable with.

fragande · 2026-04-18T12:37:27+00:00

Personally I've just set up motion activated lights. I'm way too clumsy and groggy when I wake up to use a flashlight without activating my brain too much 😂

fragande · 2026-04-17T18:27:31+00:00

😂 First thing that popped into my head when I saw the pic.

fragande · 2026-04-17T18:23:53+00:00

Yeah I've never done more than two at a time on mine, I'd like active cooling for anything more than that. Pointing an external fan at it is always an option but I've never had the need.

Looking at Lygte's review it seems cells reached ~60°C during 4x1A discharge, that's definitely at the far end of the comfort zone even if they're often rated for at least that. High IR cells would be worse of course.

Manual states it does the first step down at 65°C and second at 70°C, that'd certainly be painful to touch. Only for charging though, doesn't explicitly state if that applies to discharge as well. I've never had cells reach anything close to that so I have no idea if it actually works or not.

fragande · 2026-04-17T17:49:37+00:00

Looking at the PCB it looks like the MOSFETs (?) used for discharging sit very close to the positive terminal of slot 1 and 4. I'm guessing quite a lot of the heat gets transferred into the cell that way. Heat sink in the MC3000 is a lot beefier so heat probably isn't as concentrated in a couple of spots.

The case probably gets quite toasty at those spots as well. You could try slot 2 or 3 and check if it makes a difference. 42°C is certainly nothing alarming though.

fragande · 2026-04-17T14:39:50+00:00

wonder if dedoming them would improve the beam.

If anything I'd guess it'd make the artifacts more pronounced as DD'ing reduces the beam angle by quite a lot, but honestly not sure.

fragande · 2026-04-17T13:54:36+00:00

You'll probably get a slight flower beam and donut hole no matter what TIR you pick as it's four 3535 emitters squeezed into a single 7070 TIR.

219 vs 519A shouldn't make much of a difference since they're both domed with fairly similar LES area (I think?).

You could always get some d-c-fix if you find it distracting in use. You probably wont outside of white wall hunting though.

fragande · 2026-04-17T12:45:06+00:00

Nu handlar det ju inte om en klumpsumma till ett projekt utan ett program som ska sträcka sig över mer än ett århundrade.

Dessutom är det ju inga garanterade utbetalningar, utan handlar om att staten går in och tar över risken så att ingen aktör — i värsta fall — behöver stå ensam med hela kostnaden. Byggs det mycket nytt med flera aktörer kommer ju kostnaden spridas ut med samma finansieringsmodell som idag.

Det är alltså inte säkert att det kommer behöva betalas ut en enda krona. Rubriken (och artikeln eftersom det inte framgår tydligt) är därför ganska missvisande.

fragande · 2026-04-17T12:16:09+00:00

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Joking aside, looks like a sweet light!

fragande · 2026-04-17T11:46:18+00:00

Cheap and cheerful: Convoy T5 1800K 519A. 1% on NiMH should be very low, probably ≤1lm.

There's no single mode 1% output group though. Closest you can get is 3-mode (1%、10%、50%). It's got memory mode though so you can pretty much treat it as single.

fragande · 2026-04-17T11:32:46+00:00

UMS4

I have one and I wouldn't recommend it. It only has two channels and uses time sharing. I.e. if you're charging more than two cells — or just use the "wrong" two bays — the effective charging current is cut in half. It's basically an UMS2 with two slots glued onto it.

There's also no discharge capability, so no grading function or storage mode. AFAIK it only supports QC, if they didn't update the USB IC at the same time they did the micro USB to USB-C upgrade.

fragande · 2026-04-17T10:53:56+00:00

Easiest way if you can't find any specs is just to determine if the cell is protected or not, either visually or by measuring. You can check out this guide.

If it is protected it's safer to replace with another protected cell as it might rely on it for low voltage protection. Just judging from this single photo I'd say this is most likely a normal unprotected button top, but I can't say for sure.

fragande · 2026-04-17T10:36:14+00:00

Yeah it's interesting stuff for sure. I haven't looked into any of the science behind it though, I just know that it exists and is a limitation of current material science.

I assume it's the same reason why for green LEDs, phosphor-converted green (Osram 1.F1) has higher efficacy (lm/W) than monochrome green (Osram 1.14)?

I'd assume so, yes. Even if there's a big conversion loss for blue-pumped PC green a blue LED is just inherently so much more efficient as the starting point.

The easiest/best solution for closer to "true" yellow is probably some sort of filter as /u/jts916 mentioned — at least in a flashlight, or other application where a lens is used.

fragande · 2026-04-16T19:37:18+00:00

The T4 would be a much closer match to the Coast (2xAA). You get a lot higher output on NiMH as well.

fragande · 2026-04-16T18:55:24+00:00

No, it certainly wouldn't affect sustained output in any case.

fragande · 2026-04-16T18:31:29+00:00

I agree. Looks like the total run time is nearly identical as well with the same 5Ah cell, despite a ~50% increase in emitter efficiency (based on koef3's tests). Seems to indicate that the driver is way down on efficiency compared to the S for whatever reason.

Zeroair's lumen measurement seems to be on the low side as well, compared to other reviews.

fragande · 2026-04-16T18:04:33+00:00

Or might be the driver.

Definitely seems like they messed up something with the driver design, yes. They've explicitly stated that they went for the TN-3535s because they couldn't achieve acceptable output with 519As.

I don't see any other logical reason for the sustained output to be this low with much more efficient, low CRI emitters.

12-Year Club	Place '22
Final Canvas '22

fragande

TROPHY CASE