AKOray K-109 review (3 vs 5 mode) *UPDATED* w beamshots, added AK-16, pic heavy!!!

[gcbryan]

Hi,
I have a 106 AA and enjoy it so I bought another one and received it today. It won't light up straight out of the package. I unscrewed the pill and noticed some ugly soldering on the one that does not work. (left in the pic) Could that be the cause and what do you suggest I do to make this work?

A larger picture would help. Have you done the usual, try several different batteries, clean the threads, take the end cap of and connect the battery and body to see if it lights?

 

[kwalker]

I'm not real hard-core with tearing down lights ar anything, but I traded the body out (switch) with the non-working one and it didn't work - the other body/switch worked fine on the first one (working one). I'm suspicious the about the head and the solder bleeding over to the inner circle. Am I right to assume the inner circle is the positive contact and the section outside is the negative contact? Ideas?
I've tried several different good batteries. I don't want to go for a 14500 since you can't go back to a 1.5v cell.
Thanks

 

[gcbryan]

I'm not real hard-core with tearing down lights ar anything, but I traded the body out (switch) with the non-working one and it didn't work - the other body/switch worked fine on the first one (working one). I'm suspicious the about the head and the solder bleeding over to the inner circle. Am I right to assume the inner circle is the positive contact and the section outside is the negative contact? Ideas?
I've tried several different good batteries. I don't want to go for a 14500 since you can't go back to a 1.5v cell.
Thanks

I tried blowing up your picture. That blob may be a problem. I'm sure someone will be along with a more definitive answer.

My light is the K-109 and looks a little different. I know from other lights that the very center is the + contact and while sloppy it doesn't look like the blob extends out that far.

It does cross the red circle. I'm not sure if that is a problem or not.

Since it sounds like you have isolated the problem to the head it's likely the blob is the problem. Either that or you just have a bad led.

If you or a friend knows how to solder/desolder you could easily try removing (with desolder ribbon) that excess blob.

 

[RepProdigious]

Hi,
I have a 106 AA and enjoy it so I bought another one and received it today. It won't light up straight out of the package. I unscrewed the pill and noticed some ugly soldering on the one that does not work. (left in the pic) Could that be the cause and what do you suggest I do to make this work?

I also tried blowing up your picture ( 😉 ), and from what i can tell from that is that there probably isn't a short in there (that would be nasty is you used a li-ion cell in there, one of those could go ). I have to admit the soldering on that specific light isnt pretty.....

I do have a feeling there's some form of quality control on these lights, it just isn't very good. My guess is that they apply a control voltage to the pill base and check if it works that way, so without the use of an actual battery or a completed flashlight.

It could very well be that the blob on the picture on the middle circle is so thick that it pushes back on say the shoulder of the battery, just enough so the positive pole of you cell doesn't reach the connector. Try to desolder that blob, or if you dont have the means to do so just try to shave/cut the blob down till its as flat as you can get.

This is how one of those ends looks on my 109:

 

[RepProdigious]

Ugly doughnuts in all the beamshots, just like with my first and last AKOray, the AK-12.

For a sub $20 programmable light, I like donuts

Those are pretty mild donuts. They also aren't a factor once you use the light for something other than shining on the walls in your house.

MFM, I think maybe budget lights aren't for you. 🙂

Why would i shine my light at walls? Thats one of the least interesting things i can think of to shine at..... Like gcbryan said, actually using this outside (or inside for that matter) for seeing in the dark these lights all rock!

 

[ky70]

MFM, I think maybe budget lights aren't for you. 🙂

It seems that mfm likes to hit and run a bit in threads, so we're not likely to see a reply (though this jab might encourage one). 😀

 

[compasillo]

I would suggest everybody resizes their posted pics to 800x600 according to the rules
so the horizontal scrolling won't be neccessary. 😗

 

[RepProdigious]

I would suggest everybody resizes their posted pics to 800x600 according to the rules
so the horizontal scrolling won't be neccessary. 😗

I dont have to scroll or whatever, you running old hardware there mate?

But i honestly didnt know about that rule, i will smallify the pics! Thanks for pointing it out.

[edit] And done! Apologies for the troubles![/edit]

 

[kwalker]

No problem with the pic sizes on my PC....

 

[compasillo]

I dont have to scroll or whatever, you running old hardware there mate?

But i honestly didnt know about that rule, i will smallify the pics! Thanks for pointing it out.

[edit] And done! Apologies for the troubles![/edit]

Thanks for such a quick and polite response.

FYI, take a look here, part 3 - images

http://www.candlepowerforums.com/Rules.html

 

[RepProdigious]

Thanks for such a quick and polite response.

FYI, take a look here, part 3 - images

http://www.candlepowerforums.com/Rules.html

No problem, ill try to behave in the future 😳

Its just that im a member of so many boards that its impossible to remember which rules belong to every single board (many boards auto-resize pics on low res/view). So thanks for pointing me in the right direction!

And now back on topic!

I ordered some spare GITD rubber clicky buttons about 2 months ago and they finally arrived, and like i already knew they dont really fit the lights that good..... But if you fiddle em in there and trim the rubber pin on the inside just right it makes for a very very easy to use and responsive light! A bit too responsive for my book but my lady loves it so i only modded hers. Here's a pic:

As you can see the button protrudes out of the body quite significantly so you completely lose the ability to tailstand. Also, turning the light on/off wont really happen all that fast on accident (you still need to push it 'with aim', even tho is 100x more easy now that with the original button) but if you even look at the light it will change modes now. This can be a good thing or bad depending no what you want...... I use that tail only on my 3-mode when i want to re-program it, its just SOO responsive!!!

I do really like that chunky look......

 

[gcbryan]

I have some green ones coming for my P60 host with XP-G as well.

Hopefully, Akoray will come out with a XP-G version of this light (programmable). That would be the perfect EDC for me...bigger beam pattern and brighter

 

[RepProdigious]

I have some green ones coming for my P60 host with XP-G as well.

Hopefully, Akoray will come out with a XP-G version of this light (programmable). That would be the perfect EDC for me...bigger beam pattern and brighter

I dont really need any brighter LED, simply because the power consumption would increase as well and with the LED it has right now it has runtimes between 40 and 50 minutes on full and any shorter than that would be pretty useless for me! Remember, this light only uses a tiny little cr123a sized cell, with current technology you'll get 600 to 700mAh MAX (and way less when going for protected cells or actually using the light on high setting).

 

[gcbryan]

I dont really need any brighter LED, simply because the power consumption would increase as well and with the LED it has right now it has runtimes between 40 and 50 minutes on full and any shorter than that would be pretty useless for me! Remember, this light only uses a tiny little cr123a sized cell, with current technology you'll get 600 to 700mAh MAX (and way less when going for protected cells or actually using the light on high setting).

However the XP-G is the most efficient emitter out there right now (as far as I know) so it's kind of like arguing that I don't need a car with better gas mileage. :twothumbs

 

[RepProdigious]

However the XP-G is the most efficient emitter out there right now (as far as I know) so it's kind of like arguing that I don't need a car with better gas mileage. :twothumbs

My mistake then, i seem to remember those LEDS need up to 1.5A and with losses and all that would mean almost three times the current draw from the cell.... but that must have been another LED then.

How much brighter would one of those XP-G leds be at comparable current (about 600mA)? Would be interesting to see if a swap would be possible.....

 

[gcbryan]

My mistake then, i seem to remember those LEDS need up to 1.5A and with losses and all that would mean almost three times the current draw from the cell.... but that must have been another LED then.

How much brighter would one of those XP-G leds be at comparable current (about 600mA)? Would be interesting to see if a swap would be possible.....

The vf is lower and the max spec was 1A but recently was raised to 1.5A but at that point it would be outputting 460 lumens.

The XP-G R5 produces about 87 lumens per watt and the XR-E R2 produces about 68 lumens per watt...so about 21% more output for the same wattage.

The difference is that the brightness as measured in lux (at a particular spot) is slightly reduced but brightness as measured in lumens and in the size of the hotspot is substantially increased so it doesn't throw as far but for close-up and middle distances the light is more useful.

Instead of shining your light at your subject and getting that small hotspot you now get a more useful hotspot.

It's perfect for a K-109 sized light because you aren't going to buy a light of that size if you're interested in extreme throw in the first place.

 

[RepProdigious]

Instead of shining your light at your subject and getting that small hotspot you now get a more useful hotspot.

So, the beam actually isn't produced by the reflector? Looks like I still have a lot to learn....

 

[gcbryan]

So, the beam actually isn't produced by the reflector? Looks like I still have a lot to learn....

It's the reflector and the emitter. The emitting surface of an XP-G is larger than that of a XR-E. The reflector shapes the hotspot as well.

The XR-E's output is 90 degrees while the XP-G's is 125 degrees so more of the XR-E's light misses the reflector by going straight out. Therefore more of the light from the XP-G does hit the reflector.

The end result is a larger hotspot (albeit not quite as bright as measured in lux at any one spot but the spot is larger).

To me the XR-E always looked a little odd when used up close since it had a tiny hotspot and an overly large spill.

Now, with the XP-G, the hotspot and spill look more in proportion (to me anyway).

 

[ToneBeamer]

It seems everyone who reads the programming instructions doesn't have a problem entering into program mode.
Well I am having difficulty entering into program mode.

The problem comes in that the half-press is also used to change modes.
No matter how many times or how fast I half-press I end up changing modes and not entering into program mode.
The half-press method doesn't work for me.

I have entered into program mode, but by very quickly turning the K109 flashlight on & off 6+ times.
Can anyone enlighten me on how to program the flashlight with the half-press method without having to turn the flashight on & off?
(This is a new K109 that I just got on Friday)

Onto another problem I'm having.
After finally programming the flashlight I tried it out a few times and it worked very well.
But then the flashlight died.

I took out the battery and it measured 0.00volts.
Now this is very strange because it's a new protected 16340 battery I ordered with the K109.
The battery came with a 3.6volt charge and I topped it off to 3.88volts.
I only used the battery for about the half-hour it took to program the K109 flashlight.

I did order two batteries, so I then put in the second battery and programmed the flashlight and it died again.
The second battery also read 0.00volts, and also is a protected battery!!

I bought the K109 flahlight & batteries from KD.
The batteries are labeled as "KD Protected 3.7V 16340 RCR123A Batteries."

Anyone want to venture a guess what's gong on with the two batteries?
Is quickly turning the flashlight on & off doing something to the batteries protected circuits?

 

[gcbryan]

I can't tell you why the batteries are losing their charge so quickly but the reason they read 0 V is because the protection circuit has tripped. You'll have to recharge them to untrip the circuit.

As far as the programming mode goes I didn't have any problems once I found the instructions on here. Maybe you just have a finicky unit.

I just click to turn it on and then quickly "pump" the button (1/2 click or less) until it goes dark and you see the first programming flash.

Not that it should make any difference but I'm using a CR123 primary rather than the RCR123.

If you have a CR123 primary try using it just to see if you get longer runtimes (just in case something is wrong with your unit and it's shorting out the battery or something). You can also see if it makes any difference in programming.

If you are using your light on max I wouldn't expect the batteries to last must longer than 40 minutes or so anyway. Primaries should last just a little longer.