Zebralight is going to come out with flashlights! part 2

[NonSenCe]

i am anxious to see the prototype to come thru! now that i have played with my 50w for couple hours i cant wait! i want more!

-i still wish they would atleast swap the side where the pocket clip is in the proto pic. the rubber/silicone shield (the yellow picture) sounds like a cool idea too.

(bought the sc50w last week friday/saturday..and it arrived today, friday.. one week shipping to europe from zl.com, awesome!!)

havent found anything "wrong" with it yet.

only kinda wish that the pocket clip werent chromed.. it looks little out of place in such an muted down looking light as this. it would be better anodized grey or black.. or even the same color as the body too. chrome/nickel just looks ..hmm.. too "bling-blingy" in it. (will likely paint it black myself.. or just heatshrink tube it like i did on my Ti quark.)

 

[carl]

I'd like to see the prototype asap also. at least some pics or something.

 

[edc3]

I just pulled the trigger on an SC30. This is the first light I've bought this year and I'm very anxious to receive it. The UI sounds awesome. I'm a low, low addict AND a high lumen addict and I think this light covers both ends of that spectrum nicely. Looks like a winner! :thumbsup:

 

[jason978]

Is the sc50 supposed to NOT work at all when the battery runs down. I'm using AA NimH, sanyo and eneloops. I noticed that when the battery voltage drops to about 1.05 the light won't turn on at all at any level. Is that normal?

 

[jblackwood]

I've got two. When I wear down the 14500's in them, I'll let you know. Since it's the same circuit as the H501, I wouldn't be surprised if it's supposed to blink, just like the H501. If you switch it down to a lower level, it should run for a bit, squeezing some energy out of the cell.

Other regulated lights, like the Zebralights, all cut off abruptly. The little warning is a welcome addition. Quarks, Fenixes, even Dereelights don't give you much warning before cutoff, though the Dereelight Javelin does give a much reduced output when the cells are getting low, but that can be hard to quantify.

 

[ky70]

Is the sc50 supposed to NOT work at all when the battery runs down. I'm using AA NimH, sanyo and eneloops. I noticed that when the battery voltage drops to about 1.05 the light won't turn on at all at any level. Is that normal?

Jason, I got my light today and have been toying with it for the past hour (love the UI). I threw an almost depleted Alkaline battery in the light to see if it could be cut on, and yes I did have a hard time getting the light to come on in high BUT that is to be expected as there isn't enough juice in the battery to power the light on high. I am however, able to turn the light on in medium or low without any issues...I'm even able to still cycle between the 2 levels of low and the 2 levels of medium.

I'm able to access low/medium from off by double clicking for medium and triple clicking or 1 second long clicking for low. As I type I'm still draining this old alkaline in medium as I want to see what happens when there isn't enough juice to power medium (hopefully low will still work), but I'm officially impressed with this light.

 

[Beacon of Light]

^ When you triple click from off it doesn't go High > medium > low?

 

[jason978]

mine would not light at all. not even low. completely dead. let us know what your light does.

 

[FroggyTaco]

^ When you triple click from off it doesn't go High > medium > low?

It would be less battery straining to just hold the button since that will start the light in low & then ramp up from there.

 

[ky70]

^ When you triple click from off it doesn't go High > medium > low?

Fast triple click turns on the light in low mode (as does a 1 second long click), double click turns on in medium and single click turns on in high. Holding down the clicker, cycles repeatedly through L,M,H.

mine would not light at all. not even low. completely dead. let us know what your light does.

I wish I had a battery tester to test alkalines...it's approaching 3 hours and this thing is still going with both medium and low modes working and both levels still working in each mode. There has definitely been a loss of some output though as the 2 medium levels are now very close in brightness...and the highest low (L2) is not much dimmer than the lowest medium (M1).

This is a battery I removed from a remote a few weeks ago that was no longer working in the remote and that would not come on in the light in high until I continuously cycled through the ramping until high appeared (took a couple of minutes of fidddeling for high to come on) and this high was very weak and only worked for a couple of minutes and then only medium and low was working. And for the past 3+ hours (as of right now...it's 11:17 cst...takes me forever to do a post this long on my phone) the light has been running constantly in medium except for times when I check to see if both levels are still available in both modes. I'm impressed and I'm giving up on trying to kill this battery (which is a cheap no name battery).

Edit/sidebar: interesting disparity between the actual time and last edited time stamp...I'm typing these comments at 11:23 CST

 

[ZebraLight]

I've got two. When I wear down the 14500's in them, I'll let you know. Since it's the same circuit as the H501, I wouldn't be surprised if it's supposed to blink, just like the H501. If you switch it down to a lower level, it should run for a bit, squeezing some energy out of the cell.

Other regulated lights, like the Zebralights, all cut off abruptly. The little warning is a welcome addition. Quarks, Fenixes, even Dereelights don't give you much warning before cutoff, though the Dereelight Javelin does give a much reduced output when the cells are getting low, but that can be hard to quantify.

Unlike the H501, the circuit in the SC50 is a full blown buck-boost converter (actually, two independent converters that can fully support 14500's while still maintaining extremely high efficiency in the boost mode).

 

[davidt1]

Anybody has both the SC50 and Quark Mini AA? Can you post a side-by-side picture please? Thanks.

 

[jason978]

Unlike the H501, the circuit in the SC50 is a full blown buck-boost converter (actually, two independent converters that can fully support 14500's while still maintaining extremely high efficiency in the boost mode).

Hi Zebra,

I have the sc50 running on AA NiMH batts. when the bats get low, say around 1.05V the light will not come one. Not even in low. Is this normal? thx

 

[uplite]

Anybody has both the SC50 and Quark Mini AA? Can you post a side-by-side picture please? Thanks.

I don't have a Mini AA...but according to 4sevens specs it is the almost exactly the same diameter as the thinnest part of the SC50 (0.70" vs 0.71") and it is 0.15" shorter (3.0" vs 3.15").

So imagine an SC50 with the head and tail shaved to the same diameter as the body, and two stacked US nickels of width shaved off one end. That's the size of a Mini AA.

Of course the Mini also shaves off the switch, buck/boost driver, heatsinking, clip attachment, etc.

-Jeff

 

[FroggyTaco]

Anybody has both the SC50 and Quark Mini AA? Can you post a side-by-side picture please? Thanks.

How about a SC30 & Q Mini 123?

https://www.candlepowerforums.com/posts/3319072&postcount=10

 

[ky70]

...Of course the Mini also shaves off the switch, buck/boost driver, heatsinking, clip attachment, etc.

-Jeff

Very good point.

 

[tubored]

If the sc50 has a buck-boost converter, why do you get higher lumen output with the 14500 cells compared to NiMH/Alkaline? Does the micro measure the cell voltage, see it > 2v and use higher current and voltage cut-off settings? Otherwise you should be able to drive the same currents through the diode regardless of cell chemistry, but I guess you'd want to cut off lithium ion cells at a much higher voltage than the other chemistries. What is the reasoning between using different drive currents though?

I'm really interested in the sc50w, it sounds like a great little light. I was just hoping for more output without investing in new cells.

 

[mxrider32]

Anybody has both the SC50 and Quark Mini AA? Can you post a side-by-side picture please? Thanks.

 

[uplite]

If the sc50 has a buck-boost converter, why do you get higher lumen output with the 14500 cells compared to NiMH/Alkaline? Does the micro measure the cell voltage, see it > 2v and use higher current and voltage cut-off settings? Otherwise you should be able to drive the same currents through the diode regardless of cell chemistry, but I guess you'd want to cut off lithium ion cells at a much higher voltage than the other chemistries. What is the reasoning between using different drive currents though?

Great question. :thumbsup:

Doing the math...193 lumen max output of the SC50 requires 3-4 watts of power from the cell.

Looking at the different cell chemistries...

-- Alkaline AA cannot deliver 3-4 watts, sorry.

-- Lithium AA can deliver a brief burst of 3 watts, e.g. for a camera flash, but not continuous.

-- NiMH AAs can deliver 3-4 watts continuous, albeit with a shortened runtime.

-- Lithium-ion 14500s can also deliver 3-4 watts continuous.


Unfortunately the electronics cannot tell if you are using alkaline, lithium. or nimh cells. The voltage is about the same for all of these chemistries. So apparently zebralight set a max boost-mode output that would work with all of these chemistries.

It would be sweet if there was some secret-handshake clicky sequence to enable the max output mode for NiMH cells. Zebralight?

-Jeff

 

[uplite]

Oops double post...um...err...

Hey mxrider32, nice picture!

Hot photo tip: Install Picasa and use the "fill light" slider to improve the "exposure" of a point & shoot.

Here is a copy of that same picture with fill light around 75%, and color temperature around 30%:

I love picasa.

-Jeff