Barracuda. Search lights.

[Beckler]

Looking at this ProV2 XPL HI:

http://www.illumn.com/armytek-barracuda-pro-v2-xp-l-hi-1200-lumens-silver-bezel.html

Is 235,000cd/970m a mistake? The ones on the armytec website, (this is the closest I could find):

https://www.armytek.com/products/fl...rmytek-barracuda-v2-xp-l-hi-white-silver.html

only have 150,000/775m with the same LED.

Is the first one an older version or something?

 

[Jose Marin]

I think their measurements are all over the place. I decided to give armytek another chance and picked up the xhp35 hi barracuda. They claim 1500 lumens 160kcd 800m, i have an olight sr52ut that also claims close 1100 lumens 160kcd and 800m but with a xpl hi.

I measured both of them with my lux meter and the olight gets 145k lux at 1 meter and the barracuda gets 105k lux at 1 meter. Kind of bummed with the results, would of thought the barracuda would have more throw because of bigger head and more lumens but i guess not. Using x2 lg mj1 unprotected in the barracuda and x3 ncr18650b protected in olight, barracuda set to turbo 2. I also have a regular olight sr52 with the xml2 and that measured 95k lux at 1 meter. The beam profile and brightness visually looks close to this new at.

Anyone else have this new model and can compare with other lights?

 

[scs]

I think their measurements are all over the place. I decided to give armytek another chance and picked up the xhp35 hi barracuda. They claim 1500 lumens 160kcd 800m, i have an olight sr52ut that also claims close 1100 lumens 160kcd and 800m but with a xpl hi.

I measured both of them with my lux meter and the olight gets 145k lux at 1 meter and the barracuda gets 105k lux at 1 meter. Kind of bummed with the results, would of thought the barracuda would have more throw because of bigger head and more lumens but i guess not. Using x2 lg mj1 unprotected in the barracuda and x3 ncr18650b protected in olight, barracuda set to turbo 2. I also have a regular olight sr52 with the xml2 and that measured 95k lux at 1 meter. The beam profile and brightness visually looks close to this new at.

Anyone else have this new model and can compare with other lights?

Did you take the measurements at 1 meter, or over longer distances and converted them back to their respective equivalent at 1 meter? I think the further out you take your measurement, the more accurate your results would be.

By the way, it is difficult without knowing and doing the math to gauge how much larger a reflector needs to be to compensate for a larger emitter image, even though the lumen output is higher.

 

[Jose Marin]

I took them at 1 meter with out doing any math. After reading your reply i did measurements at 5 meters

Barracuda 5940 lux 148kcd

Sr52 ut 8000 lux 200kcd

Thanks for the tip, didn't think about meauring out farther, i thought the beam looked focused enough at 1 meter but i was wrong. The barracuda still falls short to the olight but atleast the kcd measurement is a little closer now to what at says.

 

[scs]

I took them at 1 meter with out doing any math. After reading your reply i did measurements at 5 meters

Barracuda 5940 lux 148kcd

Sr52 ut 8000 lux 200kcd

Thanks for the tip, didn't think about meauring out farther, i thought the beam looked focused enough at 1 meter but i was wrong. The barracuda still falls short to the olight but atleast the kcd measurement is a little closer now to what at says.

No problem. If you have the means and take the readings from even farther away, 10m seems to be common, your readings will probably converge a bit more.

 

[MMCosta]

Hi

I bougth in December 2 Barracudas that only opened and tested on Christmas day.

One barracuda (Warm Light) has a strange behaviour. It start losing power on the turbo mode and then power would come back. Like the Christmas lights. But this would happen by 2-3 minutes. It seems that it needed to warm up or something like that.
I even tried the other barracuda batteries but the problem continued.


But It was not a big problem to me. If I use it every day, I did not have to wait at all to fully work.
And I did not want to have the trouble of getting in contact with warranty just for that.


But after the second charge the problem is worst.
Now the flashlight will cut the power after few seconds to 1 minute in turbo mode. And will not return.
Only low mode works.


I have the batteries charged.

I wrote an email to Sandra in Armytek.

I hope their warranty work as good as they announce.
They should talk to the delivery company to pick up the malfunction item.

I will wait for the reply and post the follow up.

 

[MMCosta]

Hi

I bougth in December 2 Barracudas that only opened and tested on Christmas day.

One barracuda (Warm Light) has a strange behaviour. It start losing power on the turbo mode and then power would come back. Like the Christmas lights. But this would happen by 2-3 minutes. It seems that it needed to warm up or something like that.
I even tried the other barracuda batteries but the problem continued.


But It was not a big problem to me. If I use it every day, I did not have to wait at all to fully work.
And I did not want to have the trouble of getting in contact with warranty just for that.


But after the second charge the problem is worst.
Now the flashlight will cut the power after few seconds to 1 minute in turbo mode. And will not return.
Only low mode works.


I have the batteries charged.

I wrote an email to Sandra in Armytek.

I hope their warranty work as good as they announce.
They should talk to the delivery company to pick up the malfunction item.

I will wait for the reply and post the follow up.

So... they sent me last week an email asking for a video comparing a working flashlight with a non working one, but with the same batteries.
Done it today. Sent it today.
Waiting for feedback.

 

[CelticCross74]

my goodness! I just read through this thread and am glad I did not pick up the new XHP Cuda! AT's website is still all over the place which is really disappointing. I hate to say it but their site is just sloppy and unprofessional. I have 14 AT's and love them all but its been a journey of trying to find correct manuals, the right batteries to use etc. A journey that I or any other AT buyer should not have to take. I will be watching this thread....

 

[MMCosta]

So... they sent me last week an email asking for a video comparing a working flashlight with a non working one, but with the same batteries.
Done it today. Sent it today.
Waiting for feedback.

News:
I did send the defective barracuda to China. I've always had follow the process by sending mails to Armytek.
They always answered me. So I've waited and then they sent me the new barracuda because the defective one was discontinued.

This entire process since 1st mail complainning about defective barracuda until I receive took about 3 months. And I even negotiated with them, so they do not have to pay me the refund of the return costs to China by sending me the new item from Canada because it was faster.

Related to the quality control of the items, I have to say it's far to be good. The first time I bought the barracudas, I could say instantly that it had issues.
So, I can have 2 ideas about my purchase:
1- Very bad quality control or
2- Because the second flashlight was free when buying 2 flashlights. They sent on purpose the defective flashlight in the hope that the customer does not have the trouble to complain about it.

I don't know which.
I read on some forums that is a risk buiying armytek because you can have a defective light, but some other brands are the same from what I read.

Now that I have a new barracuda and working, I'm very happy with it. It's a good flashlight.

I'll hope my 2 cents will help someday someone to decide on what to buy.

 

[Lumencrazy]

my goodness! I just read through this thread and am glad I did not pick up the new XHP Cuda! AT's website is still all over the place which is really disappointing. I hate to say it but their site is just sloppy and unprofessional. I have 14 AT's and love them all but its been a journey of trying to find correct manuals, the right batteries to use etc. A journey that I or any other AT buyer should not have to take. I will be watching this thread....

Trouble finding " right batteries to use" ????

 

[xpusostomos]

Barracuda single cell

What do people think of the Barracuda single cell XHP35 performance? I can see the posts above where some people lament the performance is less with one cell, which is to be expected, but what is the performance like? How does it compare to other single cell throwers like say the Nitecore P30?

 

[oeL]

Re: Barracuda single cell

What do people think of the Barracuda single cell XHP35 performance? I can see the posts above where some people lament the performance is less with one cell, which is to be expected, but what is the performance like? How does it compare to other single cell throwers like say the Nitecore P30?

When using Barracuda or Predator pro with one cell and selecting max (turbo), you will not have this "constant brightness over the whole runtime". That's the only thing, and it's more a disleading part of the specs (mostly for predator) than a practical drawback. In practice, you will get at least 20 minutes before a human eye is even capable of remarking that it starts to dim. Given that you are using a cell with a high voltage curve at high load. An unprotected Sony Konyon VTC6 seems to be the best cell at the moment.

I don't know the P30, but after all I would call the brightness of the Barracuda (XPH35 HI) just "impressive", even with one cell. And if you should later decide that you prefer a longer runtime at turbo, you still have the 2-cell-tube. Remember that you should use protected cells then.

 

[xpusostomos]

Re: Barracuda single cell

Hi thanks. I ended up buying one, and the single cell performance is amazing. It blows away other high end single cell lights I have.