kreisl
Flashlight Enthusiast
- Joined
- Jul 5, 2012
- Messages
- 2,248
After all those many successful Zebralight/Armytek/Olight/Nitecore years in this flashlight category the HM61R is Fenix's inaugural(?) entry in the 18650-angled headlamp/headlight market, finally 
oo:
Let's cut to the chase and list the special/outstanding positives and negatives, the summary first. If you're interested in further explanations/descriptions/details, feel free to read on, i might bump the thread with more little technical details with time moving on.
Pro's:
Con's:
Note/Know:
Summary:
That's all one needs to know about the product from my point of view. Yes there is more to say about the product, small details, technicalities, mostly irrelevant. But if you're interested and want to read more of my blah, then i'll keep on adding below, stay tuned!
Marketing / Manual.
RTFM Read the fine manual first, it summarizes features and operation better than i could describe in my own words, and it does so in 7 languages (Engrish, Geman, Russian, Chinese, Espanish, Italy, Flench). So i doht see the point of restating/rephrasing its informative content:
Also look through the marketing pages, they doht contain much BS but give an accurate picture of what the product is about. :thumbsup:
Headband w/ mount.
Unlike the confusing photo series in the manual, fortunately the headband comes fully pre-assembled (43g) OOTB out of the box, see the many unboxing videos on youtube. I did disassemble and reassemble the headband right away though, because i didn't agree how the small black plastic parts were facing and touching my scalp. Basically i reversed those plastic parts when reassembling the bands. Now the headband assembly makes more sense to me and feels more comfortable on my head.
Regarding build quality, interesting, the band is thinner and lighter than the usual fare by AT/ZL/OL/NC but it feels higher quality, better made, more functional. Only time will tell if this new/modern headband product is really(?) better built and longer lasting. I believe so. In contrast, my Olight H1 Nova headband (29g) has run its course, worn out, reached the EOL after 3.5yrs of irregular use; i won't order the replacement part any time soon because the Fenix has become my preferred headlamp. How would i replace the Fenix headband in case of loss/theft/broken? If i wanted the original part, i would ask the one and only Fenix Germany Distributor about it after browsing through his catalog. Otherwise i could downgrade, trying a generic flashlight headband incl rubber/silicone mount from a different maker (the HM61R body has a Ø22.0mm diameter, with two Ø20.5mm diameters spaced 40.0mm apart, hope this helps).
Btw AT was maybe the first with this kind of headlamp mount. A quick word on the securing rubber band of the mount, is it really needed? Imho absolutely not. The headlamp clamps so securely with a satisfactory "click" in the mount that even in a jogging environment it would be unthinkable that the light could come off. Also light shocks, hits, or similar short impacts couldn't get the light unclamped. The only realistic scenario where it'd make sense to secure the light with the rubber band is when you wear the headlamp on a helmet in a cave, industrial complex, oil rig, thick forest, and your helmet gets accidental brutal hits from protruding rocks, pipes, joists, girders, doors, tree branches. Needless to say, i removed the securing rubber band right away.
Operation / UI.
The light has 5 white light modes (mode1/mode2/mode3/mode4/mode5 = Eco/Low/Med/High/Turbo), 3 red light modes, behind-the-switch LED indicator for 4 battery levels at startup and for low voltage warning during operation, electronic lockout, mechanical lockout, physical reverse polarity protection, last mode memory (white light only, no memory for red light modes). Very easy to memorize/learn the user interface:
Personally i prefer the Olight H1 Nova UI which is the opposite, i.e. <click to turn ON/OFF, long-press to advance between modes>, but the Fenix needs the from-OFF click for the battery level indicator, which the Olight does not have. And lemme tell you, the Fenix battery level indicator is a very cool thing to have! Since the parasitic drain in the un-locked state is almost zero, the purpose of the electronic lockout is not to save battery energy but to prevent accidental activation (when you carry the light in your bag or pockets); however i'd rather twist the tailcap a quarter of a turn (mechanical lockout).
Performance.
This is a fact: the parastic drain is identical in the locked out state and the unlocked state! This means that regarding battery energy savings it doesn't matter if you do the double-click procedure to toggle the lock. Only if you fear accidental activation, which is imho less likely on a HM61R (long-press to turn ON) than on a Olight H1 Nova (short click to turn ON), could you make use of the electronic lock out; but i'd prefer the mechanical lock out instead ymmv. Yet here comes the best: the standby current is almost zero! At the tailcap i measured 0.00000448A = 0.00448mA = 4.48μA @ full 18650 battery (3.61μA @ depleted battery). It would take ~100 years to fully deplete the Fenix 3400mAh battery through parasitic drain in the flashlight, ever heard of any crazier number in recent flashlight reviews?
In the unlocked state, the white light mode ("White Mode") tailcap current readings are as follows:
The "increasing" current tendency is to stabilize the constant lumens output when the battery voltage decreases over time; if you try to reproduce these current readings, yours will be most likely a bit higher because your battery was at a lower voltage than the 4.200V of my mc3k-prepared battery. On Turbo mode, the flashlight draws up to 3.0A (on a fully charged battery) and then the current draw stays in that 2.5A+ region, depending on the battery quality, battery capacity, and the heat build-up. You might even see a timed(?) drop in output after a few minutes as the official output graph suggests. The light has thermal protection, which makes it safe to leave the flashlight running on any of the 5 modes until the battery is depleted:
Please doht make me produce my own runtime graphs lol. It suffices to say that the constant lumens output is what we are accustomed to from a Fenix flashlight performance, see for example the constant brightness discussion of my beloved PD32 2016 flashlight. And apart from the constant brightness regulation, more importantly you do get the actual lumens as advertised: a light sphere calibrated to Fenix lights produces consistent results for all Fenix lights released after 2013, while in the past lumen claims by other manufacturers (off the top of my head: Cletus, Imalent, Nietcore, also Zebralight, but not recent Olight) would fall short in the same light sphere. The company has really earned the respect and trust of the flashlight community for not exaggerating lumens output and lumens claims. So, if Fenix advertises 400 Fenix-lumens constant output on mode4, then i trust that number with my dog's life. :thumbsup:
The light itself is floody, of course, due to the plastic (polycarbonate) collimator lens and its frosted/diffusive finish. There is no cover lens made out of glass or anything else to protect against scratches. Plastic is softer than glass and also gets damaged by harsh chemicals (say acetone, alcohol, and other solvents), so one should keep that in mind! The advantage of hard plastic is that it doesn't break/crack as easily as real glass, apart from being much lighter weight. That also explains how the rated drop impact resistance of unbelievable 2.0m must have come about. While glass would be more scratch-resistant, PC plastic weighs less and is more drop impact resistant. Oh well. Btw i wasn't able to disassemble the head to inspect the collimator further. On a white wall one can make out a more or less defined hotspot (tinted greenish CW on mode1/mode2), with no corona, and with a pleasant floody coolwhite spill (tinted arctic CW on mode3/mode4/mode5); the same tint performance as one would see from a CREE led, not better, not worse. I am wondering though why Fenix chose a LUMINUS led in this new headlamp release.
Magnets / Weight.
I checked. The light itself has two magnets. There is a third magnet inside the USB charging cable. As you know, neodymium magnets don't weigh nothing. In fact, neodymium weighs 3x as much as aluminum (mass density 7.612g/cm³ vs 2.7g/cm³). That's the only reason why this light can't be lighter weight than the Zebralight headlamp, which is neither magnetic nor reachargeable. The Fenix tailcap with its magnet weighs 11g, making up 20% of the flashlight weight of 54g. In comparison, the Olight H1 Nova tailcap has no magnet and weighs 6g only. The second magnet is cleverly located at the rear of the flashlight head and is to hold the magnetic connection to the USB charging cable. Why clever? Because it allows the user to charge any protected or unprotected 18650 battery in the light (button top or neodymium top needed because of physical reverse polarity protection!), he/she isn't restricted to a proprietary Olight 18650 battery product to make use of the recharging functionality. And because the light can stand upright freely, without an Olight docking station, on the table, or even better: on any ferrous/steel/magnetic surface, while it is being recharged! Basically, having two independent magnets, the light is more versatile, the recharging doesn't get in the way of how you want to use the light. Question: Would the head magnet be strong enough to hold the light on a steel frame, car hood, or alike? No, it's just strong enough to establish a reliable electrical connection to the USB charging cable, nothing further. Btw i always wanted to have a light with such a compact Klarus-style magnetic USB charging cable (not the Olight-style :green; if memory serves me right, 8 years ago in 2012 Klarus was the first company to release a USB rechargeable power LED flashlight series, the initial versions of RS1A/RS11/RS16, and i immediately felt attracted to their magnetic charging port no pun intended. While Armytek and Olight tried their own popular designs of a magnetic USB charging port, i still think that the Klarus design is the way to go ymmv. Tbh Fenix must have thought the same way. Afaik the Klarus charging cable does not come with an integrated status LED. The Fenix charging cable has an integrated status LED (Green - Red - Yellowish), actually two, one on either side of the magnetic port.
The weight of the headband alone, with the plastic mount of course, is 43g. The total weight is 96g (taped flashlight + headband, on my +1g kitchen scale), while the official number is "99.5g (excluding battery)", hmm.
Magnetic USB Recharging / USB lighting mode.
I can't tell if the charging electronics is built in the flashlight or in the USB cable. When disconnected, the yellowish LED light on the USB cable signals status:Disconnected. When connected, the USB cable signals status:Fully Charged with a green LED and status:Charging with a red LED, as simple as that. On my unit, the status LED turns green before a brand new battery has reached 4.174V, and it turns back red again when the battery voltage has dropped below 4.xxV, e.g. thru self-discharge plus parasitic drain. The switching between the statuses works without fail. When the battery is very much full and you don't want to wait for the charging circuitry to stop the charging automatically, one can make it stop by disconnecting and reconnecting the magnetic port, the status LED would show green then. It is a fun way to determine if the battery is full enough. Actually not! A difference between status LED's upon disconnecting and reconnecting (green instead of red, or red instead of green) is more of an indication of the charging circuitry being undecided whether to charge or not when the battery is very much full, so don't be surprised. When the battery is depleted, disconnecting and reconnecting the magnetic port will always result in a red status LED without fail.
Before, i never liked the idea of recharging a headlamp (which is why i bought the H1 Nova instead of the H1R Nova) because on the job i'd fly through a bunch of 16340's and back at home i wouldn't recharge them one after the other within the headlamp lmao. With this 18650 special headlamp it's a different game though: since the light unclips so easily from the mount, i use the HM61R as standing light and hand-held flashlight all the time, and while it is standing (and lighting or not) at the corner of my desk it is the most natural and fun thing to do to latch the magnetic USB cable to the light and give it a recharge. With 3500mAh capacity i should never run out of juice on a day's job, so it makes sense to leave the battery inside the flashlight all the time, never swap it. I love the recharging capability on this particular headlamp model! A must-have feature on any 18650-angled headlamp. Makes one wonder why Zebralight hasn't come up with a rechargeable headlamp (or flashlight for that matter) by now; for sure they didn't like the micro-USB charging ports which have been so popular among flashlight makers for years. I hate micro-USB and mini-USB ports in general, they're fragile or unreliable **** imho. If you liked the Olight magnetic docking port, you'll like the Fenix magnetic charger even better, promised.
On a depleted battery the Fenix charging circuit draws up to "1.17A" from the USB hub (lemme put all USB current measurements in quotation marks because i doht trust the readings on my XTAR EU4 display).
charge termination current: 0.12A doc (xtar only to 0.20A)
with magnetic port connected:
benchmark data
THIS REVIEW POST IS UNDER CONSTRUCTION THANKS COROONA
Battery level indicator.
An electronic circuit cannot know how full a battery is (in % or mAh), it can only directly measure voltage. Knowing a battery voltage, one can estimate the charge level.
anyway the cheapest offer i could find was 56.92usd shipped thru China Post Registered Air Mail from a fishily new AliX seller 0 feedback.
oo:Let's cut to the chase and list the special/outstanding positives and negatives, the summary first. If you're interested in further explanations/descriptions/details, feel free to read on, i might bump the thread with more little technical details with time moving on.
Pro's:
- any protected or unprotected 18650 battery (≤ 70.7mm) can be used AND recharged in the light! because of the physical reverse polarity protection the battery should have a protruding defined button top. i use a generic protected NCR18650B, which has a wide top, with a neodymium magnet as a defined button top for a total of 70.5mm length
- light can be used without restrictions while the battery is being recharged. only very few rechargeable flashlights have this extraordinary "light during recharge"-feature! it is even documented in the manual.
- light can be powered by USB cable alone, with no battery inside, with 1 restriction only: Turbo-mode would drop to High-mode after a few seconds. this "usb light"-feature is unheard of and not documented in the manual.
- the pocket clip doesn't need to be removed before you clamp the light on the plasticky holder at the headband
- the headband is super light-weight, comfortable, easy to clean, has nicely tight elasticity which doesn't seem to wear down or wear out. i expect this modern material to outlast the functionality of the more cloth/fabric-like materials employed for years by the competition.
- wearing the handband, a blindman can clamp the light on and off single-handedly, with ease after some practice. since it's so easy (hence fun), i do the clamping-unclamping all the time. the securing rubber band is not needed; only in an extreme incident could the lamp get clamped off from the holder.
- practically zero standby current drain. uneffingbelievable.
- fenix high-efficiency electrical circuitry with constant brightness regulation mas thermal regulation, Fenix-Lumens at competitive runtimes. current driven, PWM-free.
- most new premium flashlights (incl Fenix) are rated for 1.0m, few for "illegal" 1.5m drop impact resistance. this one's got a surprising 2.0m rating , a typo?
- last but not least, literally. this light is rechargeable and still ranks among the shortest, compactest, light-weightest 18650 headlamp on the entire market, with or without headband! i absolutely enjoy the small size and agreeable looks of the product mmwuah.:kiss:
Con's:
- none. imho this product ticks all the boxes indeed, gets my Strong Buy recommendation. however there are two things to note/know to save the buyer from possible disappointment in that area.
Note/Know:
- the hotspot at mode1/mode2/mode3 looks tinted greenish, especially in the lowest two modes; i've seen much worse though, even in my cherry-picked light collection. mode4/mode5 have a bright white hotspot, all good here. mode3 has a creamish-tinted hotspot, not bright white. i doht like greenish CW tints (i rather prefer arctic CW tints and their purplish spills) but since the Pro's really outweigh the poor hotspot tints of mode1/mode2 and we have come to accept the natural tintshift phenomena in current-driven power LED lights, i don't feel bad about the tint performance on the lowest 2 modes. personally, i use the light mostly on mode3 and mode4 and i am not bothered about what the light does on the lower modes. there's so much else to enjoy about the product! btw, for the Czech market Fenix released the HM61R AMBER version which should have a NW-tinted hotspot; i was once interested in getting my hands on that version but honestly don't care anymore. I am a happy satisfied HM61R user, no matter the version!!
- the electronic switch on the first production batch to hit the market was a bit finicky, not too reliable at registering clicks. when early adopters pressed the button not decidedly or not in the center, they'd hear the clicking sound but not see any effect. Misfired buttons. i also heard that Fenix looked into the matter QA in the meantime. so i can't say where my unit falls into. if i put efforts into making the button misfire, it misfires, yes. but under normal or even casual operation the button is responsive and doesn't misfire. in numbers, i'd say in 95% of my button presses, the switch works as expected, in other words, the switch is a no-brainer on my recent production unit. only mechanical switches can guarantee a 0% misfire rate!
- okay a third thing. the holder at the headband is made out of hard plastic. since it is not made out of rubber/silicone, one must take care of where/how the headband is handled/carried/stored/etc because the plastic material could crack/break/get crushed in an accident: you step on it, pretty sure it'll be toast yumm. handle with care, and not challenge its fragility. the lens is also made out of plastic and should not be resistant against scratching and harsh chemicals. again, handle with care.
Summary:
Even though this is my first and only 18650 headlamp, after all my research i can't imagine any superior angled-18650 headlamp product on the 2020 market. Allrounder, versatility, likability, this is the one for me! I've studied all the Olites, Nietcores, Armytecs, Zebras, rechargeables and non-rechargeables, and none of their models beats this Fenix initial release summa summarum imho ymmv. While it is of course similar in many ways to other angled-18650 lights, the few differences make the difference in the end. At the desk, workbench, in the house, around the premises, the HM61R has become my most often used personal lighting solution (standing light, handheld flashlight, or headlamp), and by now i also prefer wearing this nicely fitting headband to my worn out Olight headband. Picky and critical as i am, i am glad that i hadn't bitten before, namely many years ago when the countless Armytec Wizards made a splash and i was never willing to try on such a monstruous form factor. Finally time has come, and I am a Fenis fan, look no further.
That's all one needs to know about the product from my point of view. Yes there is more to say about the product, small details, technicalities, mostly irrelevant. But if you're interested and want to read more of my blah, then i'll keep on adding below, stay tuned!
Marketing / Manual.
RTFM Read the fine manual first, it summarizes features and operation better than i could describe in my own words, and it does so in 7 languages (Engrish, Geman, Russian, Chinese, Espanish, Italy, Flench). So i doht see the point of restating/rephrasing its informative content:
Also look through the marketing pages, they doht contain much BS but give an accurate picture of what the product is about. :thumbsup:
Headband w/ mount.
Unlike the confusing photo series in the manual, fortunately the headband comes fully pre-assembled (43g) OOTB out of the box, see the many unboxing videos on youtube. I did disassemble and reassemble the headband right away though, because i didn't agree how the small black plastic parts were facing and touching my scalp. Basically i reversed those plastic parts when reassembling the bands. Now the headband assembly makes more sense to me and feels more comfortable on my head.
Regarding build quality, interesting, the band is thinner and lighter than the usual fare by AT/ZL/OL/NC but it feels higher quality, better made, more functional. Only time will tell if this new/modern headband product is really(?) better built and longer lasting. I believe so. In contrast, my Olight H1 Nova headband (29g) has run its course, worn out, reached the EOL after 3.5yrs of irregular use; i won't order the replacement part any time soon because the Fenix has become my preferred headlamp. How would i replace the Fenix headband in case of loss/theft/broken? If i wanted the original part, i would ask the one and only Fenix Germany Distributor about it after browsing through his catalog. Otherwise i could downgrade, trying a generic flashlight headband incl rubber/silicone mount from a different maker (the HM61R body has a Ø22.0mm diameter, with two Ø20.5mm diameters spaced 40.0mm apart, hope this helps).
Btw AT was maybe the first with this kind of headlamp mount. A quick word on the securing rubber band of the mount, is it really needed? Imho absolutely not. The headlamp clamps so securely with a satisfactory "click" in the mount that even in a jogging environment it would be unthinkable that the light could come off. Also light shocks, hits, or similar short impacts couldn't get the light unclamped. The only realistic scenario where it'd make sense to secure the light with the rubber band is when you wear the headlamp on a helmet in a cave, industrial complex, oil rig, thick forest, and your helmet gets accidental brutal hits from protruding rocks, pipes, joists, girders, doors, tree branches. Needless to say, i removed the securing rubber band right away.
Operation / UI.
The light has 5 white light modes (mode1/mode2/mode3/mode4/mode5 = Eco/Low/Med/High/Turbo), 3 red light modes, behind-the-switch LED indicator for 4 battery levels at startup and for low voltage warning during operation, electronic lockout, mechanical lockout, physical reverse polarity protection, last mode memory (white light only, no memory for red light modes). Very easy to memorize/learn the user interface:
- Long-press toggles between light ON and OFF.
- Short-press advances between the modes.
- Very long-press activates the red light, no matter if the white light is ON or OFF.
- From OFF, a click activates the battery level indicator.
- From OFF, a double-click activates or deactivates the electronic lockout.
Personally i prefer the Olight H1 Nova UI which is the opposite, i.e. <click to turn ON/OFF, long-press to advance between modes>, but the Fenix needs the from-OFF click for the battery level indicator, which the Olight does not have. And lemme tell you, the Fenix battery level indicator is a very cool
thing to have! Since the parasitic drain in the un-locked state is almost zero, the purpose of the electronic lockout is not to save battery energy but to prevent accidental activation (when you carry the light in your bag or pockets); however i'd rather twist the tailcap a quarter of a turn (mechanical lockout).Performance.
This is a fact: the parastic drain is identical in the locked out state and the unlocked state! This means that regarding battery energy savings it doesn't matter if you do the double-click procedure to toggle the lock. Only if you fear accidental activation, which is imho less likely on a HM61R (long-press to turn ON) than on a Olight H1 Nova (short click to turn ON), could you make use of the electronic lock out; but i'd prefer the mechanical lock out instead ymmv. Yet here comes the best: the standby current is almost zero! At the tailcap i measured 0.00000448A = 0.00448mA = 4.48μA @ full 18650 battery (3.61μA @ depleted battery). It would take ~100 years to fully deplete the Fenix 3400mAh battery through parasitic drain in the flashlight, ever heard of any crazier number in recent flashlight reviews?
In the unlocked state, the white light mode ("White Mode") tailcap current readings are as follows:
| mode# | mode name | tailcap current | at battery voltage | current tendency |
| mode1 | Eco | 0.009 A | 4.2 V | increasing |
| mode2 | Low | 0.081 A | 4.2 V | increasing |
| mode3 | Med | 0.258 A | 4.2 V | increasing |
| mode4 | High | 0.775 A | 4.2 V | increasing |
| mode5 | Turbo | 3.000 A | 4.2 V | decreasing |
The "increasing" current tendency is to stabilize the constant lumens output when the battery voltage decreases over time; if you try to reproduce these current readings, yours will be most likely a bit higher because your battery was at a lower voltage than the 4.200V of my mc3k-prepared battery. On Turbo mode, the flashlight draws up to 3.0A (on a fully charged battery) and then the current draw stays in that 2.5A+ region, depending on the battery quality, battery capacity, and the heat build-up. You might even see a timed(?) drop in output after a few minutes as the official output graph suggests. The light has thermal protection, which makes it safe to leave the flashlight running on any of the 5 modes until the battery is depleted:
Please doht make me produce my own runtime graphs lol. It suffices to say that the constant lumens output is what we are accustomed to from a Fenix flashlight performance, see for example the constant brightness discussion of my beloved PD32 2016 flashlight. And apart from the constant brightness regulation, more importantly you do get the actual lumens as advertised: a light sphere calibrated to Fenix lights produces consistent results for all Fenix lights released after 2013, while in the past lumen claims by other manufacturers (off the top of my head: Cletus, Imalent, Nietcore, also Zebralight, but not recent Olight) would fall short in the same light sphere. The company has really earned the respect and trust of the flashlight community for not exaggerating lumens output and lumens claims. So, if Fenix advertises 400 Fenix-lumens constant output on mode4, then i trust that number with my dog's life. :thumbsup:
The light itself is floody, of course, due to the plastic (polycarbonate) collimator lens and its frosted/diffusive finish. There is no cover lens made out of glass or anything else to protect against scratches. Plastic is softer than glass and also gets damaged by harsh chemicals (say acetone, alcohol, and other solvents), so one should keep that in mind! The advantage of hard plastic is that it doesn't break/crack as easily as real glass, apart from being much lighter weight. That also explains how the rated drop impact resistance of unbelievable 2.0m must have come about. While glass would be more scratch-resistant, PC plastic weighs less and is more drop impact resistant. Oh well. Btw i wasn't able to disassemble the head to inspect the collimator further. On a white wall one can make out a more or less defined hotspot (tinted greenish CW on mode1/mode2), with no corona, and with a pleasant floody coolwhite spill (tinted arctic CW on mode3/mode4/mode5); the same tint performance as one would see from a CREE led, not better, not worse. I am wondering though why Fenix chose a LUMINUS led in this new headlamp release.
Magnets / Weight.
I checked. The light itself has two magnets. There is a third magnet inside the USB charging cable. As you know, neodymium magnets don't weigh nothing. In fact, neodymium weighs 3x as much as aluminum (mass density 7.612g/cm³ vs 2.7g/cm³). That's the only reason why this light can't be lighter weight than the Zebralight headlamp, which is neither magnetic nor reachargeable. The Fenix tailcap with its magnet weighs 11g, making up 20% of the flashlight weight of 54g. In comparison, the Olight H1 Nova tailcap has no magnet and weighs 6g only. The second magnet is cleverly located at the rear of the flashlight head and is to hold the magnetic connection to the USB charging cable. Why clever? Because it allows the user to charge any protected or unprotected 18650 battery in the light (button top or neodymium top needed because of physical reverse polarity protection!), he/she isn't restricted to a proprietary Olight 18650 battery product to make use of the recharging functionality. And because the light can stand upright freely, without an Olight docking station, on the table, or even better: on any ferrous/steel/magnetic surface, while it is being recharged! Basically, having two independent magnets, the light is more versatile, the recharging doesn't get in the way of how you want to use the light. Question: Would the head magnet be strong enough to hold the light on a steel frame, car hood, or alike? No, it's just strong enough to establish a reliable electrical connection to the USB charging cable, nothing further. Btw i always wanted to have a light with such a compact Klarus-style magnetic USB charging cable (not the Olight-style :green
; if memory serves me right, 8 years ago in 2012 Klarus was the first company to release a USB rechargeable power LED flashlight series, the initial versions of RS1A/RS11/RS16, and i immediately felt attracted to their magnetic charging port no pun intended. While Armytek and Olight tried their own popular designs of a magnetic USB charging port, i still think that the Klarus design is the way to go ymmv. Tbh Fenix must have thought the same way. Afaik the Klarus charging cable does not come with an integrated status LED. The Fenix charging cable has an integrated status LED (Green - Red - Yellowish), actually two, one on either side of the magnetic port.The weight of the headband alone, with the plastic mount of course, is 43g. The total weight is 96g (taped flashlight + headband, on my +1g kitchen scale), while the official number is "99.5g (excluding battery)", hmm.
Magnetic USB Recharging / USB lighting mode.
I can't tell if the charging electronics is built in the flashlight or in the USB cable. When disconnected, the yellowish LED light on the USB cable signals status:Disconnected. When connected, the USB cable signals status:Fully Charged with a green LED and status:Charging with a red LED, as simple as that. On my unit, the status LED turns green before a brand new battery has reached 4.174V, and it turns back red again when the battery voltage has dropped below 4.xxV, e.g. thru self-discharge plus parasitic drain. The switching between the statuses works without fail. When the battery is very much full and you don't want to wait for the charging circuitry to stop the charging automatically, one can make it stop by disconnecting and reconnecting the magnetic port, the status LED would show green then. It is a fun way to determine if the battery is full enough. Actually not! A difference between status LED's upon disconnecting and reconnecting (green instead of red, or red instead of green) is more of an indication of the charging circuitry being undecided whether to charge or not when the battery is very much full, so don't be surprised. When the battery is depleted, disconnecting and reconnecting the magnetic port will always result in a red status LED without fail.
Before, i never liked the idea of recharging a headlamp (which is why i bought the H1 Nova instead of the H1R Nova) because on the job i'd fly through a bunch of 16340's and back at home i wouldn't recharge them one after the other within the headlamp lmao. With this 18650 special headlamp it's a different game though: since the light unclips so easily from the mount, i use the HM61R as standing light and hand-held flashlight all the time, and while it is standing (and lighting or not) at the corner of my desk it is the most natural and fun thing to do to latch the magnetic USB cable to the light and give it a recharge. With 3500mAh capacity i should never run out of juice on a day's job, so it makes sense to leave the battery inside the flashlight all the time, never swap it. I love the recharging capability on this particular headlamp model! A must-have feature on any 18650-angled headlamp. Makes one wonder why Zebralight hasn't come up with a rechargeable headlamp (or flashlight for that matter) by now; for sure they didn't like the micro-USB charging ports which have been so popular among flashlight makers for years. I hate micro-USB and mini-USB ports in general, they're fragile or unreliable **** imho. If you liked the Olight magnetic docking port, you'll like the Fenix magnetic charger even better, promised.
On a depleted battery the Fenix charging circuit draws up to "1.17A" from the USB hub (lemme put all USB current measurements in quotation marks because i doht trust the readings on my XTAR EU4 display).
charge termination current: 0.12A doc (xtar only to 0.20A)
with magnetic port connected:
| battery status | mode# | mode name | "USB doctor" | tailcap current | notes |
| no battery | OFF | Light Off | "0.00A" | 0.00A | zero |
| no battery | 1 | Eco | "0.00A" | 0.00A | zero |
| no battery | 2 | Low | "0.06…0.07A" | 0.00A | zero |
| no battery | 3 | Med | "0.22…0.28A" | 0.00A | zero |
| no battery | 4 | High | "0.65…0.67A" | 0.00A | zero |
| no battery | 5** | Turbo** | "1.07…1.15A" | 0.00A | zero |
| depleted | OFF | Light Off | ≤≥ | ||
| depleted | 1 | Eco | "0.82A" | 0.91A | |
| depleted | 2 | Low | ~"0.7A" | ~0.7A | |
| depleted | 3 | Med | "0.75A" | 0.6A | |
| depleted | 4 | High | "1.23A" | 0.57A | |
| depleted | 5 | Turbo | "1.16A" | 1.12A | |
| full | OFF | Light Off | "0.00A" | ||
| full | 1 | Eco | "0.40…0.20A" dec. | ||
| full | 2 | Low | "0.42…0.22A" dec. | ||
| full | 3 | Med | "0.48…0.29A" dec. | ||
| full | 4 | High | ≥ "0.46…0.49A" inc. | "0.67A" stationary | |
| full | 5 | Turbo | "1.20A" |
benchmark data
THIS REVIEW POST IS UNDER CONSTRUCTION THANKS COROONA
Battery level indicator.
An electronic circuit cannot know how full a battery is (in % or mAh), it can only directly measure voltage. Knowing a battery voltage, one can estimate the charge level.
anyway the cheapest offer i could find was 56.92usd shipped thru China Post Registered Air Mail from a fishily new AliX seller 0 feedback.
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