Olight S10 Baton (XM-L, 1xCR123A/RCR) Review: RUNTIMES, BEAMSHOTS, VIDEO and more!

[TronPlayer]

Re: Olight S10 Baton (XM-L, 1xCR123A/RCR)

Thats the price we pay for all the unnecessary bashing of PWM. I'd prefer high frequency PWM and consistent color through the different modes.

PWM makes me nauseous, literally :thumbsdow

 

[selfbuilt]

Re: Olight S10 Baton (XM-L, 1xCR123A/RCR)

Thats the price we pay for all the unnecessary bashing of PWM. I'd prefer high frequency PWM and consistent color through the different modes.

PWM makes me nauseous, literally :thumbsdow

I am personally sensitive to PWM, so agree it needs to be in a non-visible range to be practically useful to me. But as dts71 points out, it does allow for consistent color tint.

There is a slight efficiency hit as you go up to really high frequencies, but in practical terms I have never been able to visually detect >3kHz PWM. How I miss the excellent feature set and consistent tints of the Liteflux lights (and their undetectable 7.8kHz PWM).

 

[dts71]

Re: Olight S10 Baton (XM-L, 1xCR123A/RCR)

I am personally sensitive to PWM, so agree it needs to be in a non-visible range to be practically useful to me. But as dts71 points out, it does allow for consistent color tint.

There is a slight efficiency hit as you go up to really high frequencies, but in practical terms I have never been able to visually detect >3kHz PWM. How I miss the excellent feature set and consistent tints of the Liteflux lights (and their undetectable 7.8kHz PWM).

Well I agree that the early Jetbeam C-LE at 73Hz was a bit annoying :shakehead, but >1kHz and I really don't mind it in practical use.

 

[selfbuilt]

Re: Olight S10 Baton (XM-L, 1xCR123A/RCR)

Well I agree that the early Jetbeam C-LE at 73Hz was a bit annoying :shakehead, but >1kHz and I really don't mind it in practical use.

Yeah, a bit off topic, but I think the original v1.0 of the C-LE was a record low for my oscilloscope, at 73 Hz. :laughing: To be fair, later versions were at the less cringe-inducing 317Hz (although that was still pretty bad by modern standards).

More recently, I find it rare to see <1 kHz PWM (although ~500 Hz still pops up from time to time, usually limited to budget lights). That said, I can still detect ~1 kHz visually quite readily (i.e., detectable, but not overly distracting). I would probably consider this the minimum acceptable level, for modern lights. Personally, it's only once we get closer to ~3 kHz that I can no longer see it.

All this to say, I personally like the current-controlled circuits on the Baton series.

 

[dts71]

Re: Olight S10 Baton (XM-L, 1xCR123A/RCR)

All this to say, I personally like the current-controlled circuits on the Baton series.

I only have the S10, but it's really a little gem. Do you have the S15 incoming for review?

 

[selfbuilt]

Re: Olight S10 Baton (XM-L, 1xCR123A/RCR) Review: RUNTIMES, BEAMSHOTS, VIDEO and mo

I only have the S10, but it's really a little gem. Do you have the S15 incoming for review?

I will be reviewing the S15, but don't have an exact timeframe yet.

 

[Nordicflash]

I tried the runtimes on my S10 on max brightness with a RCR123 650 mh and measured it with stopwatch to only 25 mins, isnt that abit weird?
What could be wrong? Its rated for 1.5 hours.
Best Regards, NordicFlash

 

[selfbuilt]

I tried the runtimes on my S10 on max brightness with a RCR123 650 mh and measured it with stopwatch to only 25 mins, isnt that abit weird?
What could be wrong? Its rated for 1.5 hours.

It sounds like a battery issue. Is the cell old? Was it fully charged to ~4.2V before the start of the run? I would recommend trying another battery.

 

[papershredder]

I wonder if the s10 will get an update with an XM-L2 and a tint that is not green.

GoingGear has the new (not sure when) S10-L2 baton in stock.

 

[blackFFM]

GoingGear has the new (not sure when) S10-L2 baton in stock.

I know. My S10 already has a XM-L2 and the tint is still bad. As long as they only changed the LED there is not much hope that the tint will get any better.

 

[Badbeams3]

I know. My S10 already has a XM-L2 and the tint is still bad. As long as they only changed the LED there is not much hope that the tint will get any better.

I hope Olight took the upgrade as an opportunity to improve the tint as well...really like the S line of lights...no reason there needs to be so many green tinted ones.

 

[AngryDaddyBird]

Re: Olight S10 Baton (XM-L, 1xCR123A/RCR) Review: RUNTIMES, BEAMSHOTS, VIDEO and mo

I will be reviewing the S15, but don't have an exact timeframe yet.

I will be looking forward to that one! I like mine but wonder how the runtimes differ with each extention?love your reviews!

 

[jeffsf]

First off, thanks for all the time and effort in the reviews here! You've made the nearly impossible task of moving from a c. 1980 Maglight into the 21st century merely daunting.

A couple questions related to the use of Li-Ion rechargables, if someone has time.

From what I gather from posts on this thread, the 18350 cells won't fit, but the "RCR123A" or 16340 ones will. When I look at AW's threads, the RCR123As have a 2C limit on discharge current, or 1.5 A for AW's "black" RCR123As. Is the current draw for the S10-L2 low enough that this isn't an issue? I was concerned as http://lygte-info.dk/review/batteries2012/Common18650BatterySelection UK.html suggests "a XM-L led will need 3A."

For those interested, http://olightworld.com has PDFs of the instruction sheets for the S10-L2 and S2-L2 up that clearly describe the new mode-switch functionality, as well as the new soft-lock-out feature. From what I can gather from those sheets, apparently neither of the models has a low-battery indicator in the -L2 incarnation.

For anyone that has tried both the S10 and the S10-L2, is there a significant difference between the two?

Again, thanks for all the great information!

 

[selfbuilt]

From what I gather from posts on this thread, the 18350 cells won't fit, but the "RCR123A" or 16340 ones will. When I look at AW's threads, the RCR123As have a 2C limit on discharge current, or 1.5 A for AW's "black" RCR123As. Is the current draw for the S10-L2 low enough that this isn't an issue? I was concerned as http://lygte-info.dk/review/batteries2012/Common18650BatterySelection UK.html suggests "a XM-L led will need 3A."

Not to worry, the S10 is not driven that hard on max. Regular AW cells are fine. I believe HKJ was referring to the typical max current draw on larger 1x18650 lights in that link.

From what I can gather from those sheets, apparently neither of the models has a low-battery indicator in the -L2 incarnation.

No, the S20 XM-L2 still has the low voltage indicator. But the S10 XM-L2 does not. I'm working on that review right now, should be up by the end of the week.

And :welcome:

 

[fedcas]

i made this when i was in doubt between s10 and s1 i've merged two different photos, but the result should be quite accurate in size

 

[radiopej]

I like my S10 for the features, but I really hate the greenish tint it puts out.

 

[selfbuilt]

FYI, this model has been replaced by the S10 2013 (aka the S10 L2). See my full review of it here.

 

[BDD]

Bought mine last year. Hope it's the 2013 and not the 2912 if there is this green tint.

 

[Swedpat]

I recently bought this light, grabbed it at 50% sale. I like the S15 and S10 is very nice as well. S10 is not as good in the hand as S15 because of the shorter length. I think this is the latest S10 version, it has a recessed switch probably intended to avoid accidental activation(it may be to protect the switch also). The switch can be a bit tricky to use compared to the blue protruding switch of my a few years old S15.
The tint is whiter than my S15 which is slightly greenish(though not at all annoying greenish)
Mode spacing is good and the hidden ultralow mode is very good to have, perfect in darkness with dark adapted eyes. I consider these Batons to be very good EDC lights. And the magnets is a good feature. One advantage with S10 compared to S15 is that it holds more secure on an iron surface because of the shorter body(shorter leverage).