4Sevens Quark Series Review (unboxing, comparison shots, beamshots: inside, out)

[AardvarkSagus]

Re: Review: 4Sevens Quark Series (unboxing, comparison shots, beamshots)

Wow! That is one very comprehensive review there. I am impressed.

 

[Vox Clamatis in Deserto]

Re: Review: 4Sevens Quark Series (unboxing, comparison shots, beamshots)

its a looong link, but it's translated:twothumbs

Very readable translation, great job on the review HKJ!

 

[davidt1]

Re: Review: 4Sevens Quark Series (unboxing, comparison shots, beamshots)

Lights with clip being midway through the body is not something I would want to put in my pocket where almost 1/3 of the lights sticks out of the pocket. That would make it easy to be in the way, easy to fall out, easy for a thief to steal it, not to mention looking like Rambo with flashlights. So much for discreet carry.

 

[DHart]

Re: Review: 4Sevens Quark Series (unboxing, comparison shots, beamshots)

Lights with clip being midway through the body is not something I would want to put in my pocket where almost 1/3 of the lights sticks out of the pocket. That would make it easy to be in the way, easy to fall out, easy for a thief to steal it, not to mention looking like Rambo with flashlights. So much for discreet carry.

Remove the clip and drop it in your pocket. Or use the provided holster. Or, look elsewhere... this isn't for you.

=======

HKJ... fantastic reviews on your Danish sites... thank you for all the effort and for sharing your findings as you have done!

 

[Federal LG]

Re: Review: 4Sevens Quark Series (unboxing, comparison shots, beamshots)

... not to mention looking like Rambo with flashlights.

I remembered my friends and family (not flashaholics) who always asked me, when they saw I´m carrying a light: "Are you going to war?"

Oh... Lord, forgive them... they don´t know what they´re saying!! Sacrilege!

 

[csshih]

Re: Review: 4Sevens Quark Series (unboxing, comparison shots, beamshots)

Posted a runtime graph of the Quark123.


I talked to 47s about the discrepency between the stated runtime of 1 hour.. seems this sample has a prettyhigh Vf.. current draw came to ~ 1.7-1.8A.

 

[LightWalker]

Re: Review: 4Sevens Quark Series (unboxing, comparison shots, beamshots)

I remembered my friends and family (not flashaholics) who always asked me, when they saw I´m carrying a light: "Are you going to war?"

Oh... Lord, forgive them... they don´t know what they´re saying!! Sacrilege!

Alot of wars are silent and unseen these days.
http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,513121,00.html

 

[Federal LG]

Re: Review: 4Sevens Quark Series (unboxing, comparison shots, beamshots)

Sure...

I think they were just playing with me... just joking, you know.

 

[defloyd77]

Re: Review: 4Sevens Quark Series (unboxing, comparison shots, beamshots)

It's a Chinese conspiracy to scare us flashaholics into buying more flashlights.

Seriously though, that's f'd up.

 

[wapkil]

Re: Review: 4Sevens Quark Series (unboxing, comparison shots, beamshots)

Posted a runtime graph of the Quark123.


I talked to 47s about the discrepency between the stated runtime of 1 hour.. seems this sample has a prettyhigh Vf.. current draw came to ~ 1.7-1.8A.

Isn't the stated runtime 0.8h (so pretty close to what you got)?

I don't know how low you can run a CR123A but this is the current measured at the end of the runtime, right? I don't use CR123s but I remember from SilverFox's graphs that ~1.5V-1.0V at the battery under load isn't abnormal so I think the current up to 2A-2.5A, if the driver can handle it, could also be expected.

 

[csshih]

Re: Review: 4Sevens Quark Series (unboxing, comparison shots, beamshots)

the current draw was from a new, fresh cell.

also, the quark123 box says 1 hour on maximum.

hmm, checked the website.. the website says .8 hours, which equates to 48 minutes... haha, fine. 4sevens got me there! 😛

though he supposedly underrated.. well, regardless, it's a super bright light!

 

[wapkil]

Re: Review: 4Sevens Quark Series (unboxing, comparison shots, beamshots)

the current draw was from a new, fresh cell.

EDIT: never mind, it's too late in here - I messed up the voltages, you are using an CR123A not RCR123 - actually I think that in the Danish HKJ's review the result is similar to yours - 2A.

 

[4sevens]

Re: Review: 4Sevens Quark Series (unboxing, comparison shots, beamshots)

I don't understand it then. As far as I know, such a difference cannot be caused by the differences in the LED Vf - they are not that large. In his Danish review HKJ measured 800mA, which is quite normal for 700mA at the LED. Two times that definitely isn't... Is this result repeatable? Maybe something is wrong with the driver?

On max it should be much higher than 800ma. I just measured one with a used battery and it's 1.4A. Vf difference will multiply due to the circuit needing to multiply the V. If the V is at 3v and the LED needs 3.5v @ 700ma, then the draw would be close. But if the V is at 1v near the end of the run, the circuit needs to boost up to 3x. Which translates into 3x the current and actually even more since the more you boost, the less the efficiency. 😛 So the Vf variation even 0.1v is significant. 0.1v is at least 0.3v difference which translates to 210ma difference before efficiency losses. Anyway, 800ma is pretty low - but it depends where on the runtime graph he's at.

 

[wapkil]

Re: Review: 4Sevens Quark Series (unboxing, comparison shots, beamshots)

On max it should be much higher than 800ma. I just measured one with a used battery and it's 1.4A. Vf difference will multiply due to the circuit needing to multiply the V. If the V is at 3v and the LED needs 3.5v @ 700ma, then the draw would be close. But if the V is at 1v near the end of the run, the circuit needs to boost up to 3x. Which translates into 3x the current and actually even more since the more you boost, the less the efficiency. 😛 So the Vf variation even 0.1v is significant. 0.1v is at least 0.3v difference which translates to 210ma difference before efficiency losses. Anyway, 800ma is pretty low - but it depends where on the runtime graph he's at.

I'm sorry for the confusion. I edited my post, to which you responded, immediately after submitting it - I thought no one will see it 🙁

As I wrote in my edit, HKJ's result was 2A (if I understood correctly - it's in Danish). It's consistent with Craig's result but not with yours. I understood that this measurement is at the beginning of the runtime. It is also surprising because it would mean the driver efficiency in this case is less than 50% for 3.0V (while it is ~80%-90% for 3.7V). Unless I'm wrong again 😕

 

[4sevens]

Re: Review: 4Sevens Quark Series (unboxing, comparison shots, beamshots)

I'm sorry for the confusion. I edited my post, to which you responded, immediately after submitting it - I thought no one will see it 🙁

As I wrote in my edit, HKJ's result was 2A (if I understood correctly - it's in Danish). It's consistent with Craig's result but not with yours. I understood that this measurement is at the beginning of the runtime. It is also surprising because it would mean the driver efficiency in this case is less than 50% for 3.0V (while it is ~80%-90% for 3.7V). Unless I'm wrong again 😕

Again it depends on the Vf and not only so, the current which also affects the Vf. Lots of variables. You will have to measure all the points to scientifically get all the details. V at the battery underload, V at led at each mode. Thats a good start. Then at the end of the day you'll see variation from unit to unit, not only variations from the LED but also from the boost chip, the inductor, the capacitor, basically every component. I'm not justifying anything, just saying that this is not rocket science. There is good reason why I underrated everything so we don't have to deal with complaints 😀

 

[wapkil]

Re: Review: 4Sevens Quark Series (unboxing, comparison shots, beamshots)

Again it depends on the Vf and not only so, the current which also affects the Vf. Lots of variables. You will have to measure all the points to scientifically get all the details. V at the battery underload, V at led at each mode. Thats a good start. Then at the end of the day you'll see variation from unit to unit, not only variations from the LED but also from the boost chip, the inductor, the capacitor, basically every component. I'm not justifying anything, just saying that this is not rocket science. There is good reason why I underrated everything so we don't have to deal with complaints 😀

Thank you for the explanation. I guess I'm just not accustomed to situations where the differences can be so high. If they can make one light in a batch run 1.5 times longer than another, the interpretation based on the results from a single review becomes really difficult. I should be somehow immune to this but if I see numbers I still have a natural tendency to treat them more like constants than high variance variables. The more I know, the more I appreciate your decision to underrate the specification of these lights.

 

[4sevens]

Re: Review: 4Sevens Quark Series (unboxing, comparison shots, beamshots)

Thank you for the explanation. I guess I'm just not accustomed to situations where the differences can be so high. If they can make one light in a batch run 1.5 times longer than another, the interpretation based on the results from a single review becomes really difficult. I should be somehow immune to this but if I see numbers I still have a natural tendency to treat them more like constants than high variance variables. The more I know, the more I appreciate your decision to underrate the specification of these lights.

Well if you take out all component variation, a which point in the runtime (V at battery underload) will vary greatly. Supplying the circuit with 2.0V versus 3.0v has a huge difference. At 3.0v it's probably at it's lowest current draw. At 2.0v, the boost circuit is working much harder to ensure the same amount of current is going to the LED therefore current at the battery under load can be huge. 🙂

 

[wapkil]

Re: Review: 4Sevens Quark Series (unboxing, comparison shots, beamshots)

Well if you take out all component variation, a which point in the runtime (V at battery underload) will vary greatly. Supplying the circuit with 2.0V versus 3.0v has a huge difference.

Yeah, I know it, I even used it in my first post in this thread🙂 What I was referring to is the situation where two different lights can consume substantially different current at the same battery voltage, or in effect one of them can run 40 minutes to 50% while another more than 60 minutes. I kind of like it when the specification states minimum runtimes and if I'm lucky, I can get much better. It's definitely more fair than the other way round.

 

[csshih]

Re: Review: 4Sevens Quark Series (unboxing, comparison shots, beamshots)

ok.. finished a runtime graph for the QuarkAA on max.. this one is very close to stated runtime!

 

[Bullzeyebill]

Re: Review: 4Sevens Quark Series (unboxing, comparison shots, beamshots)

If Cree would bin for vf we might see more consistancy across the board. Manufactures of flashlights could do the binning themselves, but it would be time consuming and expensive. Small shop modders could check for vf, and maybe design their circuits, or modify circuits to compensate for variations in vf.

Bill