4Sevens Preon ReVo

[HKJ]

[size=+3]4Sevens Preon ReVO[/size]

The ReVO is the second single AAA light (The first was called Preon) from 4Sevens. The light has keeps nearly the same modes as the Preon, i.e. 3 brightness settings and 3 hidden flashing settings, with the same twisting user interface where the light always turn on in low mode. A fast off/on sequences is used to change to next mode, to get to the flashing modes 7 off/on must be performed at power on. The standard version of the light is made of aluminum with hard-anodized (Type 3) finish, but there were also made a series of light in stainless steel.

The light is delivered in a textured cardboard box with a window. The backside of the box is a sticker with specifications (Same sticker is used for SS and aluminum, i.e. it says aluminum even for the SS version).

The contents of the box are the light, a battery, spare o-ring, a split ring and the manual.

The light uses a XP-E led placed in the center of a small OP (Orange Peel) reflector.

The head has some groves to improve grip when twisting the light.

The actual light engine is mounted in a brass insert that also has the threads and o-ring. Using brass for threads gives a very good quality threads.

The battery connection in the head is surrounded by a black soft ring, this ring will reduce battery rattle and work as a mechanical polarity protection. This light does not use the standard ring on the circuit board for power connection and on/off, it looks like the switching is done by breaking the battery connection, both at the top and bottom.

The inside of the battery tube, it also has a soft ring. There is no spring, but the connection has some flexibility.

The outside of the battery tube has ample knurling and gives a good grip on the light.

The backend of the light is made for use on a key chain (Use the supplied split ring between the key chain and the light). On plain surfaces it is just about possible to tail stand the light.

This is the parts I could disassemble the light into without using tools.

Here I have illustrated the mode sequence, the light always start at low and when high is reached it will go back to low, only exception is when the light is turned off/on until strobe/SOS/Beacon is reached immediately after power on.



I like this light, it is just about the perfect key chain light, especially the stainless steel version.



[size=+2]Technical specification and measurements[/size]

This light is designed for 1.5 volt AAA batteries (Alkaline, NiMH, Lithium).

Measured size and weight:
Length: 72.4 mm
Diameter: 12.8 mm
Weight: Aluminium: 23.2 gram with eneloop, Stainless Steel: 35.2 gram with eneloop

The light uses a Cree XP-E R2 led.

In the above table I have used 800mAh eneloop batteries for measuring and estimating the runtime. The estimated lumen are based on the specified 82 lumen and then scaled according to measured brightness. For this light I believe that specified, measured and estimated values do match very well.
The light has two high levels, the full power level will only run for 3 minutes, then the light will reduce brightness.

The voltage scan show that the light is stabilized down to around 0.8 volt, but this stabilization has a down side, the light can use up to 2 ampere from the battery!

The runtime clearly shows the step down after 3 minutes in the high brightness setting. It also shows that alkaline has a very short runtime at high and not enough power to keep the brightness stabilized.

The light uses current control for the brightness settings, i.e. no pwm. But the regulation has some high frequency noise in it at around 66 kHz. This noise is invisible to the eyes. The above trace is from high.

The strobe is 8.9 Hz with 33% duty cycle using the high brightness setting. The regulation can also be seen here.

The SOS uses a 0.36 second pulse as dot and it takes 12.8 second for a full sos, then a 3.3 second pause before the next. The SOS uses high brightness and does not turn completely off between pulses, but stays at low.

The beacon is a short flash (0.23 second) at medium brightness with 11.4 second between. The light does not turn off between flashes, but stays at low.
When selecting beacon, the light will flash 5 dimming pulses as confirmation (Second graph).



[size=+2]Comparison to other Flashlights[/size]

Ray S20 NiMH, Ray S20 LiIon, 4Sevens Preon ReVO

4Sevens Preon, Fenix LD01, ITP A3 update

For the full comparison to other lights with graphs and beamshots see here.

 

[kdaq]

Excellent review! Tons of great info, yet very easy to read through.

Thank you!

 

[Ray_of_Light]

Hi HKJ,

compliments for your excellent review. My ReVo is in the mail, my first 47 light. I was attracted from the use of current stabilisation in such a small light. I have the entire series of ITP lights but, as you surely know, they are PWM regulated and therefore they cannot have the same long runtime on low brightness.

Anthony

EDIT: What ReVO stands for?

 

[combinatorix]

Hi HKJ,

compliments for your excellent review. My ReVo is in the mail, my first 47 light. I was attracted from the use of current stabilisation in such a small light. I have the entire series of ITP lights but, as you surely know, they are PWM regulated and therefore they cannot have the same long runtime on low brightness.

Anthony

EDIT: What ReVO stands for?

ReVOlutionary, perhaps.

 

[coyote]

HKJ - excellent review as always.

i just got my ReVO yesterday.

while impressive in so many ways, i still question some aspects. ie: head is too slippery to easily turn one-handed, threads on mine are rough (aluminum too soft?), little parts in battery holder look too easy to lose & too hard to clean if any corroded is ever present.

comments?

 

[HKJ]

while impressive in so many ways, i still question some aspects. ie: head is too slippery to easily turn one-handed, threads on mine are rough (aluminum too soft?), little parts in battery holder look too easy to lose & too hard to clean if any corroded is ever present.

comments?

I can easily use my two ReVO's with one hand, they both turn very smoothly, maybe you need some lube on the o-ring (I have not used anything on mine).

On my lights the parts in the battery holder stays put.

 

[coyote]

I can easily use my two ReVO's with one hand, they both turn very smoothly, maybe you need some lube on the o-ring (I have not used anything on mine).

On my lights the parts in the battery holder stays put.

thank you HKJ for your help/suggestions.

i tried cleaning the threads, lubing them with dielectric grease, working them for an hour to smooth them up, all to no avail. probably just got a rough one.

re: parts - in other threads about the ReVO, at least one member of CPF has apparently had this problem. here's that info in post #16 where Toohotruk says:

"... I just got the Revo I ordered a couple of days ago (thanks!), and when I took the head off to put a battery in, something fell out of the body. It took me a bit to find it, and what I found was a thin metal "washer" and a rubber "gasket." I'm guessing these were the only two things that fell out of the light, but I'm really not sure. I'm also unsure of how these pieces are supposed to go back in. I have tried a couple of different ways of putting these things back in, but I can't get the light to work properly... When I put the metal part in all by itself, the light works great, but with nothing holding that piece in, it's inevitable that it will fall out during battery changes...."

 

[HKJ]

thank you HKJ for your help/suggestions.

i tried cleaning the threads, lubing them with dielectric grease, working them for an hour to smooth them up, all to no avail. probably just got a rough one.

I just checked some other that I am planning to use as gifts, they are all smooth and nothing falls out of them either (They are the SS model).

re: parts - in other threads about the ReVO, at least one member of CPF has apparently had this problem. here's that info in post #16 where Toohotruk says:

I saw that one too, but this is definitely not a problem on my lights, maybe it is a production fault that these parts are loose?

 

[coyote]

I just checked some other that I am planning to use as gifts, they are all smooth and nothing falls out of them either (They are the SS model).

I saw that one too, but this is definitely not a problem on my lights, maybe it is a production fault that these parts are loose?

as mentioned, mine is of course aluminum (SS version is sold out). most likely i just got a rough one.

even if those parts don't fall out, i see see potential problems in trying to clean those parts (verses a simple "partless" tube that say the Arc AAA has).

all in all, its a good value and amazingly small & powerful 1xAAA multilevel light. i like it better than the maratac & iTP. and even with the rough threads in mine, its still much smoother than the two-handed IlluminaTi i once owned.

so i'm keeping my ReVo. i hope that David considers making them with knurled heads, and in titanium. i'd have to have some of those!

.

 

[IMSabbel]

Got the stainless steel one. No issues with the output or gui, but again with the mechanical design. 2 issues:

1. The case was not really deburred enough, especially at the hole for the lanyard. Edge was sharp enough to cut through nylon.

2. Threading. Its really really silk smooth, so thats a plus. But the threads are rather steep, and there is lots of play. This means that if you unscrep the head enough so it is definitifely of you can rattle off the head just by putting the light upside down and shaking it.
Moving the o-ring position a mm or 2 would have reduced this.

3. The "reverse polarity protector" creates some resistance when screwing down the head to a close. No problem, but for one thing: The head is the single part of the light that has no ridges or knurling whatsoever, so even though the threads are smooth its often hard to do that last half of a turn one handed.

Point 2 and 3 should be the other way round: I would like the head to be fixxed steadily when off, and easy to turn when around the switching point...

 

[gunga]

Can you guys describe the beam tint on these?

 

[coyote]

update: spent another hour last night working the head and body. i'd lube it, twist it a few dozen times, remove dirty lube, re-lub and do it again. finally got the threads smooth. much much better now. i'm starting to really like this little bugger.

now if the head was knurled and the whole thing was titanium... :ironic:

re: beam - mine is very natural, not cool, nor as warm as a 4sevens mini AA. and its very smooth. the flood spill isn't very wide, but is nice.

 

[HKJ]

Can you guys describe the beam tint on these?

It is a cool white tint, not anywhere near a neutral (Compare to a Q Mini neutral), but I have problems with specifying a exact tint.
Comparing to my LD01, the LD01 is a very little bit red and the ReVO a very little bit green.

In the beamshot comparison I used the neutral mini:

ReVo, Neutral Q Mini:

 

[coyote]

It is a cool white tint, not anywhere near a neutral (Compare to a Q Mini neutral), but I have problems with a specifying a exact tint.
Comparing to my LD01, the LD01 is a very little bit red and the ReVO a very little bit green.

i sure don't have the expertise of HKJ so i'll bow to his comments. i was only comparing my ReVO to a handful of lights on hand, not an encyclopedic background of hands-on knowledge and testing. :thumbsup:

 

[luceat lux vestra]

Great review
thanks for the beam-shots,

 

[HKJ]

Great review
thanks for the beam-shots,

I was missing some photos, I have reinstated them.

 

[Sharpy_swe]

Great review :goodjob:

 

[carrot]

Nice review as usual HKJ. Your insight, excellent graphs and photos, are appreciated.

The name ReVO came about when the light was to have a completely different feature set than it does now. Suffice to say, the name and feature set no longer coincide, but the ReVO is still one of the best AAA lights to come out for a long time. The best thing since the Arc-AAA, perhaps?

 

[choombak]

Nice review as usual HKJ. Your insight, excellent graphs and photos, are appreciated.

The name ReVO came about when the light was to have a completely different feature set than it does now. Suffice to say, the name and feature set no longer coincide, but the ReVO is still one of the best AAA lights to come out for a long time. The best thing since the Arc-AAA, perhaps?

[OT]
I would rather not compare my Arc AAA with *anything* under the sun. Its a light in its own league, and cannot be substituted by any new, sophisticated light.
[/OT]

Nice review as usual, and easy to read. Could you post close-up beamshots? Like on the wall?

 

[:)>]

The best thing since the Arc-AAA, perhaps?

I am in complete agreement... it is a wonderful light that will only grow in legend if it continues to perform reliably over time and prove to be tough like the Arc AAA.