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

[jamjam]

No flickering on mine, but I still need to interogate the specific voltages for the warning sensor.

Let me know after you test it, may be its just my sample. I had the same problem with another light (Not H51w) after exchanged it, the replacement doesn't have this problem anymore. Thanks.

 

[Badbeams3]

Looking at the run time charts, this light really has very impressive RCR regulation...very flat to the 3 volt cutoff. The Eagletac D25C beats the pants out of it at the start, but seems to suffer a heart attack soon after leaving the gate. Medium level, 70 LM RCR performance is especially superb. None of the others come close. The Sunwayman V11R (blue line) does best it...but appears to be drinking heavily along the way. Of the ones tested in the charts, the S10 appears to me to be the all around RCR performance champ.

I wish they had picked a brighter low...say 15 lumen.

 

[selfbuilt]

Looking at the run time charts, this light really has very impressive RCR regulation...very flat to the 3 volt cutoff. The Eagletac D25C beats the pants out of it at the start, but seems to suffer a heart attack soon after leaving the gate. Medium level, 70 LM RCR performance is especially superb. None of the others come close. The Sunwayman V11R (blue line) does best it...but appears to be drinking heavily along the way. Of the ones tested in the charts, the S10 appears to me to be the all around RCR performance champ.

That has to be the funniest descriptions of a runtime graph that I have ever read. :laughing:

While all quite true, the "drunken staggers" of the V11R would not be visible to the naked eye. The time course for most of these graphs is so long that you cannot see these small variations in real life.

The S10 is definitely a great performer.


Sent from my handheld device

 

[NorthernStar]

If you turn it off and back on, it comes back on at max output again. Whether it is "safe" to do so repeatedly is hard to say. It is not what the manufacturer intended. But I've certainly seen more heavily driven lights that don't step down, so hard to say what long-term effect could be. I would recommend common sense be applied - if the light is feeling really warm by hand, let it step down, or manually drop down to Med.

And yes, the clip is removable.

Thank´s for the info!

Like you say,it´s probably not good for the light to be reactivated again at the highest mode after it has automatically steped down in effect. I was just curious if it was possible to do so.

 

[selfbuilt]

As always, great review. Can you tell us a little more about the red battery warning light in the switch...does it start to blink while on? does it blink while off? Did you happen to notice at about what voltage the warning started or can you give a guess? Is it bright enough to be noticeable? Does the blink rate increase as the battery drops down?

Well, this is interesting - there doesn't actually seem to be a low voltage warning on the S10. Sorry for the confusion.

That review text was left-over from my earlier Baton series reviews - I hadn't actually tested for the sensor here. And since my runtimes are largely automated, I don't typicaly notice sensor functioning until I explicitly set out to examine it. This is what I get for posting a review while I am away travelling.

I note in the specs there is no mention of a sensor, and I found no evidence of it on either RCR or CR123A. I will confirm with Olight.

I did a runtime test on med (70lm) with a no-name brand CR123A. When the battery voltage drop to 2.0v after 6.5 hours, the light start to flicker (My Zebralight H51w did the same thing). If I switch to low mode the flickering stops, and it will continue on low for another 30 minutes and then auto shut-off at 1.9v. And it can still turn back on moon mode and last for a very long time.

I saw no sign of flickering in my initial testing, on AW RCR or Titanium Innovations CR123A. But I just tested an old Ultrafire protected RCR, and got high-speed flickering (kind of like a strobe) on Hi, <3.8V or so.

I don't see this on any of my AW cells, so I can only assume it's the circuit's response to a poor quality battery that can't reliably provide the required power.

 

[jamjam]

I saw no sign of flickering in my initial testing, on AW RCR or Titanium Innovations CR123A. But I just tested an old Ultrafire protected RCR, and got high-speed flickering (kind of like a strobe) on Hi, <3.8V or so.

I don't see this on any of my AW cells, so I can only assume it's the circuit's response to a poor quality battery that can't reliably provide the required power.

Thanks for the reply. Its probably my cheap 0.40 USD CR123A which are acting-up. But 4 hours of steady 70lm for 0.40 USD is a steal. Surefire and Panasonic CR123A are so damn expensive here, and yes, the AW 16340 cost 14 USD here in China.

 

[amaretto]

Hi Selfbuilt, thank you for reviewing. I wonder why i measured exactly the same lumens wether (Panasonic) CR123A or RCR123 (AW). Both 323 lumens. :thinking:

 

[selfbuilt]

Hi Selfbuilt, thank you for reviewing. I wonder why i measured exactly the same lumens wether (Panasonic) CR123A or RCR123 (AW). Both 323 lumens. :thinking:

Hmmm, was the RCR freshly charged? In my case, my independent ceiling bounce, lightbox and throw measures (all done with different meters) all agree that my sample is ~20% brighter initially on RCR.

 

[dts71]

Does the low battery warning work properly with both cr123 and 16340?
How far from pitch black does it light up and has the light by then already started to dim noticeably on the higher levels?

 

[selfbuilt]

Does the low battery warning work properly with both cr123 and 16340?

I see no evidence of a low battery warning on my sample ... I will confirm with Olight.

 

[MattSPL]

I tested my S10 today on high, and it starts to flicker when the voltage reaches 2.5v

 

[jamjam]

I tested my S10 today on high, and it starts to flicker when the voltage reaches 2.5v

Thanks for confirming that the S10 do flicker when voltage is low. Are you using CR123A or RCR123?

 

[MattSPL]

Thanks for confirming that the S10 do flicker when voltage is low. Are you using CR123A or RCR123?

That was with an AW IMR16340. It ran for approximately 47 minutes before flickering.
I'm just testing an AW 3.2v LifeP04 at the moment.
Edit: The AW LifeP04 lasted 31 minutes, and the light shut off completely this time. I removed the cell, and its voltage was at 2.3v

 

[selfbuilt]

That was with an AW IMR16340. It ran for approximately 47 minutes before flickering.
I'm just testing an AW 3.2v LifeP04 at the moment.
Edit: The AW LifeP04 lasted 31 minutes, and the light shut off completely this time. I removed the cell, and its voltage was at 2.3v

Yeah, those voltages are below the typical cut-off threshold for a protected cell. That's likely why I didn't notice any flickering on any of my protected AW RCR cells - the cell's internal protection circuits were reached before the S10 could "flicker".

That said, my one old Ultrafire protected cell (which I keep around only to test the effect of old, poor quality cells) started to flicker ~3.8V. :shrug:

 

[MattSPL]

Yeah, those voltages are below the typical cut-off threshold for a protected cell. That's likely why I didn't notice any flickering on any of my protected AW RCR cells - the cell's internal protection circuits were reached before the S10 could "flicker".

That said, my one old Ultrafire protected cell (which I keep around only to test the effect of old, poor quality cells) started to flicker ~3.8V. :shrug:

Ill post here again when i have tested a Yezl RCR123. Their PCB voltage protection is 2.45v, so it will be interesting to see if the light reacts first, or the cells PCB.

 

[jamjam]

Yeah, those voltages are below the typical cut-off threshold for a protected cell. That's likely why I didn't notice any flickering on any of my protected AW RCR cells - the cell's internal protection circuits were reached before the S10 could "flicker".

That said, my one old Ultrafire protected cell (which I keep around only to test the effect of old, poor quality cells) started to flicker ~3.8V. :shrug:

So we can assume that the flickering is some kind of low voltage indications? But isn't it a bit too low for an RCR battery? But its good if using CR123A so that we could drain the battery completely.

 

[MattSPL]

Whats interesting is that i tested 2 AW IMR's, and both flickered at 2.5v which is their discharge limit.
The LifeP04 measured 2.3v when the light completely shut off, and its discharge limit is 2.2v. It's almost like the light knows exactly when the cell is completely drained, regardless of cell type, but it might also just be coincidence.
I'll try another LifeP04, and then a couple of protected cells.

 

[Badbeams3]

Sounds almost like it a reaction from the battery more than the light. But either way, I thought the light was suppose to cut out at 3 volts to protect the batt. Looks like this is not the case. Wish it did have a low battery warning light like Selfbuilt first thought...

 

[MattSPL]

It would be good if it cut at 3v, but probably couldn't due to needing to get the most out of a primary.

 

[MattSPL]

Here's my results from testing a few different cells with the Olight S10. I just tested with the light on high mode.

Ultracell 3.2v LifeP04 - 26 minutes before the light switched off - cell voltage at end was 2.4v
Aw 3.2v LifeP04 - 31 minutes before the light switched off - cell voltage at end was 2.3v
AW IMR16340 - 47 minutes before light started to flicker - cell voltage at end was 2.5v
Yezl 3.7v 16340 - 1hr 11 minutes before light started to flicker - cell voltage at end was 2.8v