StefanFS
Flashlight Enthusiast
I have had my Dereelight DBS V2 for a while now. It came with a 3 stage digital (3SD) light engine/pill with an CREE R2 WH emitter installed in it.
Here on ultralow with one of my custom made pills. More on the custom pills later on.
It's good looking and well built. Finish and fit is very good. Anodizing is a rougher type, which improve grip. Tailcap threads are anodized so it's possible to lock it out by unscrewing the tailcap slightly.
Anodizing is even and rough, it is very nicely done.
Here with my Spear and Tiablo A9.
Front ends, DBS, Tiablo A9 and Raidfire Spear.
Size. Here with some household objects.
For more pics on details and parts I recommend the review done by WadeF:
http://www.candlepowerforums.com/vb/showthread.php?t=189222
And for more data see selfbuilts review:
http://www.candlepowerforums.com/vb/showthread.php?t=188039
I have done some runtime testing with the 3SD module/pill/light engine. On high with one AW 2200 mAh 18650 LiION cell. Runtime is a good solid 90 minutes, what can be expected with a high binned CREE and one 18650 cell. After the initial drop regulation is good.
Other findings
Throw output @ 1 meter and spill readings @ 1 meter.
3SD module. Spot/spill. Spill is measured outside the corona etc. In Lux.
High: 25 500/200 Lux.
Medium: 9300/70 Lux.
Low: 1800/13 Lux.
Battery draw with the 3SD module is 1.32 A on high, 410 mA on medium and 80 mA on low.
The 3SD module/pill doesn't change level reliably every time, sometimes it's only high-high-high. The driver doesn't seem to maximize the output, it can't use the magnificent reflector to it's fullest extent. The low and medium levels have obvious PWM flicker, less than 100 Hz would be my guess. It also emits a low humming sound on low & medium
Weight is 194 gram empty and 240 gram with one 18650 cell.
The reflector is 46 mm deep! Inner diameter of the reflector is 38.8 mm. The massive lens have AR coating, it is visible as a blueish sheen. The lens is 3 mm thick.
For comparison the Raidfire Spear reflector has an inner diameter of 36 mm and the depth is 38 mm. The Tiablo A9 has a 36 mm deep reflector and the LumaPower MRV a 32 mm deep reflector. This means that the DBS has a considerably more narrow hotspot than the competitors.
Beam distribution on a white wall at half a meter. The WH tint of the DBS module is more yellowish than the WC of the Tiablo and the Spear.
Spill size is smaller than the Tiablo but equal to the Spear. The hotspot from the DBS is more intense than the Spears since it's more tightly focussed.
Underexposed.
Custom modules/pills
Even before my DBS arrived I started to build some pills of my own:
Custom pill number 1 (1st pic in the composite below) is with a FluPIC driver and an CREE Q5 WG, it's driven at 1.2 A. I use the 'tactical' interface since I use strobe.
Custom pill number 2 (3rd pic in the composite below) uses an 1.2 A AMC7135 based driver with different UI choices available, one is ultralow-low-medium-high-strobe-sos which I like.
Both of these drivers have similar discharge curves, they reach 50% after about 2.5 hours, and they go on for 2-3 hours after that, not perfect regulation but they are good for long runtimes. The FluPIC pill in the DBS produce ~29 500 Lux in throw @ 1 meter. The AMC7135 based driver produce ~ 25 500 Lux in throw @ 1 meter in the DBS.
Link to AMC7135 driver:
http://www.kaidomain.com/WEBUI/ProductDetail.aspx?TranID=3256
Custom pill number 3: This is my favourite pill. It's possible to set the output voltage on this driver. It has a nice set of different UI choices, one UI is strictly low-med-high. This one has an CREE Q5 WG emitter in it. It's possible to achieve throw values exceeding 40 000 Lux in the DBS using this, it won't last long before it overheats though (and it will be unstable at such an absurd voltage & current level). I have it tuned to a level that gives me a solid 31 000 Lux in throw and 260 Lux in spill @ one meter.
This pill gives me 97 minutes of perfect regulation when tuned to 31 000 Lux in throw, battery draw is ~1.25A on high.
This is the driver:
http://www.cpfmarketplace.com/mp/showthread.php?t=169324
Beamshots 95 and 220 meters
The DBS is a throw light. Period. It does have very useful spill but it's built for throw. It does have a tighter spot than the other lights, but it's hard to distinguish differences between these lights in real life. I really like them all, and use all three lights. The DBS beamshots with the custom pill is the third pill mentioned above, my favourite. All pics are 8 second, f/2.8, ISO 100, WB set on daylight. It's very windy so some shots are a bit out of focus, it also rains and there is some fog in the second set.
Lights used for the beamshots, in the order they appear:
Setting 1.
Setting 2.
Some additional info might be added, but the conclusion is that this is a nice light of high quality. Minor issues would be the PWM flicker and humming of the low & medium levels. Otherwise it's highly recommended.
Stefan
Here on ultralow with one of my custom made pills. More on the custom pills later on.
It's good looking and well built. Finish and fit is very good. Anodizing is a rougher type, which improve grip. Tailcap threads are anodized so it's possible to lock it out by unscrewing the tailcap slightly.
Anodizing is even and rough, it is very nicely done.
Here with my Spear and Tiablo A9.
Front ends, DBS, Tiablo A9 and Raidfire Spear.
Size. Here with some household objects.
For more pics on details and parts I recommend the review done by WadeF:
http://www.candlepowerforums.com/vb/showthread.php?t=189222
And for more data see selfbuilts review:
http://www.candlepowerforums.com/vb/showthread.php?t=188039
I have done some runtime testing with the 3SD module/pill/light engine. On high with one AW 2200 mAh 18650 LiION cell. Runtime is a good solid 90 minutes, what can be expected with a high binned CREE and one 18650 cell. After the initial drop regulation is good.
Other findings
Throw output @ 1 meter and spill readings @ 1 meter.
3SD module. Spot/spill. Spill is measured outside the corona etc. In Lux.
High: 25 500/200 Lux.
Medium: 9300/70 Lux.
Low: 1800/13 Lux.
Battery draw with the 3SD module is 1.32 A on high, 410 mA on medium and 80 mA on low.
The 3SD module/pill doesn't change level reliably every time, sometimes it's only high-high-high. The driver doesn't seem to maximize the output, it can't use the magnificent reflector to it's fullest extent. The low and medium levels have obvious PWM flicker, less than 100 Hz would be my guess. It also emits a low humming sound on low & medium
Weight is 194 gram empty and 240 gram with one 18650 cell.
The reflector is 46 mm deep! Inner diameter of the reflector is 38.8 mm. The massive lens have AR coating, it is visible as a blueish sheen. The lens is 3 mm thick.
For comparison the Raidfire Spear reflector has an inner diameter of 36 mm and the depth is 38 mm. The Tiablo A9 has a 36 mm deep reflector and the LumaPower MRV a 32 mm deep reflector. This means that the DBS has a considerably more narrow hotspot than the competitors.
Beam distribution on a white wall at half a meter. The WH tint of the DBS module is more yellowish than the WC of the Tiablo and the Spear.
Spill size is smaller than the Tiablo but equal to the Spear. The hotspot from the DBS is more intense than the Spears since it's more tightly focussed.
Underexposed.
Custom modules/pills
Even before my DBS arrived I started to build some pills of my own:
Custom pill number 1 (1st pic in the composite below) is with a FluPIC driver and an CREE Q5 WG, it's driven at 1.2 A. I use the 'tactical' interface since I use strobe.
Custom pill number 2 (3rd pic in the composite below) uses an 1.2 A AMC7135 based driver with different UI choices available, one is ultralow-low-medium-high-strobe-sos which I like.
Both of these drivers have similar discharge curves, they reach 50% after about 2.5 hours, and they go on for 2-3 hours after that, not perfect regulation but they are good for long runtimes. The FluPIC pill in the DBS produce ~29 500 Lux in throw @ 1 meter. The AMC7135 based driver produce ~ 25 500 Lux in throw @ 1 meter in the DBS.
Link to AMC7135 driver:
http://www.kaidomain.com/WEBUI/ProductDetail.aspx?TranID=3256
Custom pill number 3: This is my favourite pill. It's possible to set the output voltage on this driver. It has a nice set of different UI choices, one UI is strictly low-med-high. This one has an CREE Q5 WG emitter in it. It's possible to achieve throw values exceeding 40 000 Lux in the DBS using this, it won't last long before it overheats though (and it will be unstable at such an absurd voltage & current level). I have it tuned to a level that gives me a solid 31 000 Lux in throw and 260 Lux in spill @ one meter.
This pill gives me 97 minutes of perfect regulation when tuned to 31 000 Lux in throw, battery draw is ~1.25A on high.
This is the driver:
http://www.cpfmarketplace.com/mp/showthread.php?t=169324
Beamshots 95 and 220 meters
The DBS is a throw light. Period. It does have very useful spill but it's built for throw. It does have a tighter spot than the other lights, but it's hard to distinguish differences between these lights in real life. I really like them all, and use all three lights. The DBS beamshots with the custom pill is the third pill mentioned above, my favourite. All pics are 8 second, f/2.8, ISO 100, WB set on daylight. It's very windy so some shots are a bit out of focus, it also rains and there is some fog in the second set.
Lights used for the beamshots, in the order they appear:
- Dereelight DBS with 3SD pill & CREE R2 WH. 25 500 Lux in throw one meter.
- Dereelight DBS with custom pill & CREE Q5 WG. 31 000 Lux in throw one meter.
- RaidFire Spear. CREE Q5 WC. 24 600 Lux in throw at one meter on high. one AW 18650 LiION cell.
- Tiablo A9 stock version CREE Q5 WC. 21 700 Lux in throw at one meter with two AW RCR123 LiION cells.
Setting 1.
Setting 2.
Some additional info might be added, but the conclusion is that this is a nice light of high quality. Minor issues would be the PWM flicker and humming of the low & medium levels. Otherwise it's highly recommended.
Stefan
Last edited:
. I fully agree with yours, of course. Similarly, the only issue for me is the low PWM freq and electronic whine of the low modes of some of the more recent pills (my "old" Q4 3SD is much better in both regards). But that's a separate issue from the actual light, and the V2 is definite improvement over the original. Quite a fine light.
. Problem is that 'CP' has a rather negative meaning in Sweden , it's short for Cerebral Pares. That is an umbrella diagnosis for a number of cerebral damages or conditions, paralysis and/or intellectual impairments. It's also widely used as an invective, especially among children.
