Imalent DDT40 review (5180 lm,4xXM-L2+2xXP-L,4x18650)

[viperxp]

Greetings,
Today's review will be dedicated to an interesting and somewhat unique flashlight from Imalent, the DDT40.

So, What's so special about this light?

1. A real universal lighting solution. 4 XM-L2 LED's for spot light, and two XP-L's on the sides for flood light. The claimed brightness is the summary of all the light options, that's 4000 lumens for spot and 1180 for the flood side LEDs.
2. The flashlight can be controlled with the bundled remote control, from a distance of up to 10 meters. The remote controls all the flashlight functions, the flashlight has 2 sensors for the remote control operation.
3. Smooth brightness control with a lot of brightness modes.
4. Multifunctional OLED screen, that displays a lot of information, including flashlight's temperature, batteries voltage and even a compass!
5. Built in charger, with conjunction of the screen makes it somewhat like Xtar VP1/VP2/VP4.
6. Temperature-controlled step-down, and not time-based like on most lights.


Features

So, shall we begin?

The flashlight is being sold in a carton box, that can be used for convenient storage.

Nicely packed ...

There is a good quality holster in the package (like on Nitecore and JetBEAM flashlights), spare o-rings and screen protector, charger, user manual and warranty card.

The holster fits the flashlight very tight, I hope it will become a little loose after some more usage.

Here is the charger, o-rings and screen protector. 5 volts and 2A ... the manufacturer decided not to go the micro-usb path.

User manual, the remote control. The remote control is near my car keys, so you could understand the size better. By the way the chrome feels like real metal and not plastic, which is a very nice touch.
In order to use the remote control, the flashlight has to be turned on from the keys. What I mean is, when it's off you can't just turn it on with the remote, but after you turned the flashlight on you can control all the functions from the remote, including turning it on and off.
There is a button for power, two buttons for the brightness and the mode key. The mode key changes modes in the following order: throw->flood->strobe->beacon->SOS->throw.... and so on.

Here it is. The flashlight feels nice in the hand, nicely balanced. The buttons have no labels, and are hard to feel in darkness. Please note that the flashlight also has tripod hole. I have no complains for the built quality - I think it's just like Nitecore.

No problem standing in candle mode, the tail is flat.

No problems with the reflectors, the anti-reflex coating can be clearly seen.

The batteries are being connected in parallel, the flashlight can be operated with 1,2,3 batteries in case of an emergency. I am glad that there is no cassette involved.

The threads are square cut, and came richly lubricated. The number of revolutions that I had to make in order to close the flashlight complete was the largest I remember - I counted 7.5 !

Here we can see the different information on the display. The maximum temperature that I saw was 57 Celsius, after that the brightness was reduced to 2000 lumens. Right after the stepdown you can max the brightness, but the flashlight will reduce it very soon. It's very interesting to see the voltage drop under a load - fully charged batteries are dropping to 3.56 volts when the flashlight is in 4k lumens mode.

Here are the minimum modes. The setting says 5 lumens for both the flood and the spot modes, but I actually think that it is much lower (which is good in my opinion).
The red LEDs on the sides show where the brightness changing buttons ar, and are being lit when the flashlight is charging batteries or the batteries have to be charged/replaced. Also, any keypress on the remote results in the red leds light.
In flood mode both the side LEDs work, you can't control only one.

This is how it looks like in my pretty small hand.

In comparison with Olight SRmini. Note that the SRmini uses 3 18650 cells connected in series electrically.


Controls

The big black button is responsible for turning the flashlight on and off. A short press turns the flashlight on in the last mode and brightness in case of flood mode and on max in case of spot mode. Keeping the button press for a while (less than 0.5 second) turns the flashlight off.
The silver button above Imalent writing is responsible for the information on display in this order: brightness (lumens)->voltage->compass->temperature->off. Note that the display can be also operated when the flashlight is off.
The silver button above DDT40 writing changes the flashlight modes - short press changes from flood to spot, and keeping it pressed turns on the different strobe modes - strobe->sos->beacon. Note that in this flashlight the brightness setting of the strobe modes can also be changed.
Pressing both the silver keys together turns all electronic lock from accidental turning on the flashlight - it is also deactivate by pressing the two buttons together.
Two "mode" buttons above and below the screen are responsible for changing the brightness. Please note that these are "touch" keys, and in order to operate the flashlight in gloves you will have to use special gloves, like the ones you have to use with smartphone touch screens.



Some numbers (lux from meter)

Flashlight/Mode	Low	Mid	High	Turbo
Imalent DDT40 Main	0	-	-	34000
Imalent DDT40 Side	0	-	-	113
Sky-Ray King	-	3600	-	13000
Olight SR mini	2100	4320	8000	13500

Not bad at all. There is a huge hotspot and a lot of sidespill. I did not notice any tint to the light, the light is a regular cold light, no blue or purple or green involved.
The minimum mode is really dim, my luxmeter can't even measure it.

Let's see it in action

Conclusion

I hope you liked the review - if there are any questions/suggestions I would be happy to assist.


I would like to thank Imalent for providing the flashlight sample for review.

 

[Derek Dean]

Howdy viperxp,
VERY nice review. Thorough and well presented. However, it's a bit difficult to get a real idea of the tint of the light, since the first beam shot of the side of the building looks like neutral colored light, while both parking lot photos seem very cyanish, I'm assuming all of those were shot in auto color balance. If possible, it would be helpful to see what the beam looks like with the color balance on your camera locked to "Daylight".

I've been more and more impressed with the offerings I am seeing from Imalent, and this one is quite intriguing. I especially like that the batteries are hooked up in parallel, removing one of my main objections for using mulit-cell lights, that cells hooked up in series have to be balanced for safe use. I'm wondering, when you use only one cell in the light, does it light up only one spot LED? 2 cells light up 2 spot LEDs? How does using one cell affect which flood LEDs come on? And finally, when using 1 cell, does it affect max brightness?

I like that there is no battery carrier too, and while I like that it has a built in charger, I'm slightly concerned to see no rubber cover over the charge port. It's also a bit weird that there seem to be control buttons on 3 sides, and I wonder if that might get a bit confusing?

By the way, when the panel displays the voltage, is that for each separate cell, or some kind of combined voltage readout?

My final concern is that the two brightness adjusting buttons are touch rather than mechanical, since those will probably be used a lot, and mostly at night, when it tends to be cooler, so many folks will be wearing gloves.

However, I think Imalent has a very good light here, and this just might be worth considering for purchase. Thanks again for the fine review.

 

[kj2]

Thanks for the review

 

[viperxp]

Thanks for the review

you are welcome.

Waiting to see yours

 

[viperxp]

Howdy viperxp,
VERY nice review. Thorough and well presented. However, it's a bit difficult to get a real idea of the tint of the light, since the first beam shot of the side of the building looks like neutral colored light, while both parking lot photos seem very cyanish, I'm assuming all of those were shot in auto color balance. If possible, it would be helpful to see what the beam looks like with the color balance on your camera locked to "Daylight".

I've been more and more impressed with the offerings I am seeing from Imalent, and this one is quite intriguing. I especially like that the batteries are hooked up in parallel, removing one of my main objections for using mulit-cell lights, that cells hooked up in series have to be balanced for safe use. I'm wondering, when you use only one cell in the light, does it light up only one spot LED? 2 cells light up 2 spot LEDs? How does using one cell affect which flood LEDs come on? And finally, when using 1 cell, does it affect max brightness?

I like that there is no battery carrier too, and while I like that it has a built in charger, I'm slightly concerned to see no rubber cover over the charge port. It's also a bit weird that there seem to be control buttons on 3 sides, and I wonder if that might get a bit confusing?

By the way, when the panel displays the voltage, is that for each separate cell, or some kind of combined voltage readout?

My final concern is that the two brightness adjusting buttons are touch rather than mechanical, since those will probably be used a lot, and mostly at night, when it tends to be cooler, so many folks will be wearing gloves.

However, I think Imalent has a very good light here, and this just might be worth considering for purchase. Thanks again for the fine review.

I am glad you liked the review, I will start answering your points.

Beamshots in Daylight settings - I will post some, no problem.
When I try to turn on the light with only one cell it turns on for a moment and shuts down. All my cells are protected, I guess that protection circuit kicks in, because the flashlight starts on maximum spot mode with 4k lumens and it's too much for one cell. I can turn on the flashlight with two cells, but at maximum level the voltage drops too deep and too fast.
About the charging port not covered - actually that's not a problem. There are other lights with uncovered plug socket that are water resistant, take JetBEAM SRA40 for an instance.
The display shows total voltage, there are no separate contacts for batteries, they are connected parallel.
Yes, the controls are a bit confusing at first, but I guess with time I will get used to them.
About the touch buttons at night - if you think that this light is for you - you can buy special gloves, for capacitive controls. I think they should work also with this light.
Yep, I actually think it's the best Imalent yet.

**** Since you are considering purchasing the light - it became available at several places online, and the price is far more attractive then I thought when I was reviewing it.

 

[viperxp]

Well, those are beamshots fired at a wall inside my apartment. Manual settings, different exposure times.

 

[Derek Dean]

Thanks for those beamshots, viperxp. I was wondering, when you did run it with two cells, did it turn on all 4 LEDs, or only 2 LEDs? And, I was hoping you would try this........ you said it had mode memory when you turn it off in Flood mode. How about turning it off at a low level in Flood mode, then removing all but one battery, and seeing if it will turn on back in flood mode.

Another question, if you don't mind. Do the bezels over the 4 front LEDs unscrew? I'm asking because I typically like to install color correcting filters over the LEDs to get the tint closer to neutral, and it's always helpful if those can be installed inside the glass covers rather than on the outside.

And I'm still trying to understand the flood lights. Those are two separate lights that are mounted opposite each other, on the sides of the light, not the front, is that correct? So they don't shine forward, but rather shine sideways, lighting up what is on the left and right of you as you point the light forward, correct?

Oh, and when it says the display will show the temperature and humidity, is that the outside temperature, or the temperature of the light at some point?

And finally, have you tried running it on full power for any length of time, and did you notice at what point the light throttles back, or does it remain at full power for the whole 1 hour 45 minutes? I would imagine it gets very hot?

Ok, that's for answering my questions. This is a very interesting light.

 

[viperxp]

Thanks for those beamshots, viperxp. I was wondering, when you did run it with two cells, did it turn on all 4 LEDs, or only 2 LEDs? And, I was hoping you would try this........ you said it had mode memory when you turn it off in Flood mode. How about turning it off at a low level in Flood mode, then removing all but one battery, and seeing if it will turn on back in flood mode.

Another question, if you don't mind. Do the bezels over the 4 front LEDs unscrew? I'm asking because I typically like to install color correcting filters over the LEDs to get the tint closer to neutral, and it's always helpful if those can be installed inside the glass covers rather than on the outside.

And I'm still trying to understand the flood lights. Those are two separate lights that are mounted opposite each other, on the sides of the light, not the front, is that correct? So they don't shine forward, but rather shine sideways, lighting up what is on the left and right of you as you point the light forward, correct?

Oh, and when it says the display will show the temperature and humidity, is that the outside temperature, or the temperature of the light at some point?

And finally, have you tried running it on full power for any length of time, and did you notice at what point the light throttles back, or does it remain at full power for the whole 1 hour 45 minutes? I would imagine it gets very hot?

Ok, that's for answering my questions. This is a very interesting light.

The flashlight ran with all 4 leds (or two flood) when on 2 cells. No manipulation made it start not from maximum spot mode.

I guess the bezels can be removed using special tool, that I don't have - I can't remove them by hand.
Yep, the flood lights are on the sides.
It's temperature of the light. But because the display can be operated when the light is off, it s also the outside temperature. But no humidity display, only temperature.
About throttling back - in flashlights it's called step-down, and I wrote about it in the review. When the temperature of the light reaches 55 degrees Celsius the power drops to 2000 lumens, and it cools down. You have to manually return it to full power then.
Yep, that's a very interesting light indeed.

 

[Derek Dean]

Thanks viperxp :twothumbs, but how long does it take to get to 55 degrees Celsius and step down? 30 sec? 3 minutes? Since it's temperature based it must have a great deal to do with the outside temperature, but I was just trying to get a rough idea of how long it will run in turbo before stepping down.

Just out of curiosity, what batteries are you using? Thanks again for your patience in answering my many questions.

 

[viperxp]

It takes 5-6 minutes I think, indoors without any cooling with room temperature of ~25 celsius.
I am using protected Xtar 3400 batteries (Panasonic cells).
I am happy that I can assist

 

[IMSabbel]

That light looks very cool. Ever since I first saw pics of the TM-26 I fell in love with OLED display. Just bought a Nitcore TN-36, great light but I kinda miss that functionality.

All in all, it seems Imalent was VERY inspired by the TM-26, but decided to pack lots of additional innovation in it, too. Love the idea with the compass, and the remote (useful if you mount it on a tripot for object illumination).

 

[Nyctophiliac]

Looks like a nice light and thanks for the great review.

I have a question: Can you use the tripod mount and still operate the power switch - they seem a little close for that, given the width and breadth of most tripod mounting plates?

 

[viperxp]

Looks like a nice light and thanks for the great review.

I have a question: Can you use the tripod mount and still operate the power switch - they seem a little close for that, given the width and breadth of most tripod mounting plates?

I am glad you liked it. Well, I did not try it but will do it this evening and report back with the results.

 

[Nyctophiliac]

Hey viperxp - did you try the tripod?

 

[viperxp]

Hey viperxp - did you try the tripod?

Hi, very sorry, forgot about it but did a quick check today. You were right, it seems like the only way to operate the light on a tripod is with the remote control, otherwise there is no way to reach the on/off button when the flashlight is mounted. I've added some pictures of the flashlight, hey - it almost looks like weapon on a tripod

 

[Nyctophiliac]

Oh? So you can still use the remote when on a tripod? That's perfect. Ideal when using the light as a remotely operated photo lightsource, and never returning to the light until repositioning/set up.

Thanks again for taking some more of your great pictures. It does look a bit formidable.

Now, if only I had a remote control tripod...

 

[kreisl]

I checked, there are lots of DDT40 review threads on CPF. But this one is the 'biggest one' (no. of replies*views), so i am posting here

I got my purchase unit early this year (GB by BG or GB). I hardly used it. Yesterday i wanted to demo it to friends but the remote control wouldn't work. I knew it wasn't broken, so i opened the RC to check what's inside, de battery.

Was a mini cylindrical battery. Labeled "12V" wth. I checked the voltage with a 3€ battery tester (showed totally empty!), then with a DMM (showed 5.0V)

If the batt is supposed to be a 12V batt and i measure 5V, then i guess the batt is empty. :thinking:

The RC must have some serious drain!

1) Is it just my RC with the serious drain? ( i don't think so )
2) Where do we buy a replacement battery? I wasn't aware that 12V mini round cells exist.

EDIT: i learned that 12V Alkaline batteries have 8 button cells in series inside. So the average voltage per button cell must have been 5/8=0.62V. So low, really?? That sounds nothing but a bad battery or a few button cells in series gone bad, cheap quality China made battery, can't blame the electronic circuit of the RC!

 

[kreisl]

1) Is it just my RC with the serious drain? ( i don't think so )
2) Where do we buy a replacement battery? I wasn't aware that 12V mini round cells exist.

The replacement battery is cheap enough on ebay. Interestingly the DDT40 2016 model does not come with RC functionality anymore. And it was the function which i like most about my 2015 model!

I also found out that when the display goes from 2.87V to 2.86V under load, the flashlight automatically shuts down operation and can't be activated anymore unless you break the closed circuit with a 'tailcap lockout'. Basically you will never see "2.86V" displayed. The light will not overdischarge unprotected batteries!

There are cool flashlights with bluetooth and crass Smartphone apps like Manker Godmes but the reach of bluetooth is limited afaik. The DDT40 RC has some practical reach making it a sensible valuable feature which really appreciate.

Last but not least i found a very acceptable method for attaching a lanyard or wrist strap:

It's the screw from my Fotopro tripod. Camera people know this kind of screw very well, e.g. from their own tripods.

And how does it hang? Lol

Luv it.

 

[kreisl]

The RC must have some serious drain!

1) Is it just my RC with the serious drain? ( i don't think so )
2) Where do we buy a replacement battery? I wasn't aware that 12V mini round cells exist.

I bought replacement batteries, GOLD PEAK brand, super cheap omg. Out of the box 12.306V, nice. I've never seen cylindrical Alkaline cells with such high voltage before. Since i was curious about standby current drain in the remote control, i tried to measure that "leakage current" in the RC with my DMM.

No matter how hard i tried, i always got the same reading, 4.53uA (=0.00000453A) or 0.00453mA, kinda small value! This is a reading. It doesn't mean that the actual leakage current is ~4uA. Maybe my measurement method was wrong or my DMM setup had high resistance. But i use the same setup for measuring standby current drain in Zebralight flashlight and my method&setup seems okay.

If the actual leakage current is ~4uA, then this would not explain why my original battery went dead after half a year. The fast self-degradation of a super cheap poor battery could explain it. The original battery is labeled "27A 12V SUPER FRIENDSHIP, Alkaline Battery, Replaces:V27GA, L828, Pb-Hg, Made in P.R.C."

We'll see when i need to replace the battery again. Maybe not before long, assuming that the GP branded batteries are higher quality and the leakage current indeed only ~4uA.

Anyway, the remote control works great and i wouldn't want to miss it. Really cool stuff.

 

[kreisl]

After using the charger adapter 3 or 4 times i noticed that the mains cable was loose and the green LED had vanished to the inside of the adapter byebye :wave:
There was also some rattling of the PCB. Not a good feeling. I was curious about safety, since the adapter itself, the material/construction felt drop dead cheap, one could crush it between 2 hands. So i opened it. Not surprisingly, there was nothing inside which one could legitimately call 'a construction', i mean the construction of the casing: it's just an empty primitive shell without any constructional support to fix the position of the PCB. And with all the play and such, no wonder that the PCB rattles inside. Cheap stuff, i luv it. lol

After opening the case we're seeing how the 230V AC pins are soldered to thin wires, here the one pin:

Aha. And here the second pin. That looks very robust and confidence-building:

The safety distance between the (+) and (-) is a petty 2mm. Wondering what hkj would think about that:

Can you see how the PCB is held in place? No you can't. Because there is no constructional support in the shell. Engineering at its best:

So i fixed the green LED and the cable junction with bad *** cheap V6430 hot glue. Modding as its best, haha:

Happy camper now, no more rattling or loose parts. Needless to say it is still the cheapest feeling adapter in my drawer. It is so light-weight that it won't break by a 1m drop but the shell would crack if someone stepped on it. Or my chair.

See also my photos of the Nitecore handle on the Imalent

EDIT:
It makes sense to test how long it takes to recharge the flashlight with this adapter and what the termination voltage is:
Started charging 4xNCR18650GA from 3.115V (ut61e, offline) to apparent(?) charging end.

The LCD display turns off automatically during the charging period and the power adapter shows a green LED all the time, which i find stupid since this is not very helpful to determine where the charging is at or when the charging has finished! :shakehead
One needs to press the small silver button on the right to turn on the LCD display during the charging to see the LCD animation and voltage information. I've timed it, the animated LCD display turns off automatically after exactly 180sec of user inactivity. And when the charging has completed, the LCD display would not let you know automatically; one needs to check manually by pressing the little silver button and see if the charging animation has stopped.

4.159V after 9h30min ( a manual check at this time by unplugging&replugging the charging adapter let me witness how the LCD display stopped the animation during the 180sec, at which time i took out the batteries and measured their voltage offline; that's the termination voltage, my DDT40 unit does not charge 18650's higher than 4.159V!! )

Also not so cool, when the DDT40 stops charging, it freezes the 5 bars/"4.20V" on the display, even though the voltage is dropping. It is okay when a liion charger stops charging and does not recharge on its own at some point (RESTART VOLT = N/A@DDT40) but i don't like the frozen "4.20V" on the display .. because that value is plain wrong once the charger has stopped charging. One can see that after unplugging and replugging the charging adapter; then the voltage reading is live, unfrozen.

Anyway, the voltage reading is pretty off. LCD shows "4.20V", but my multimeter measures 4.159V offline or less!

EDIT: too many similarly built chargers which did not pass EUROPEAN COMMISSION directives:
http://ec.europa.eu/consumers/consu...050/15&exclude_search_term=0&search_year=2015
http://ec.europa.eu/consumers/consu...093/15&exclude_search_term=0&search_year=2015
http://ec.europa.eu/consumers/consu...524/15&exclude_search_term=0&search_year=2015
http://ec.europa.eu/consumers/consu...734/15&exclude_search_term=0&search_year=2015
http://ec.europa.eu/consumers/consu...022/15&exclude_search_term=0&search_year=2015
http://ec.europa.eu/consumers/consu...615/15&exclude_search_term=0&search_year=2015
http://ec.europa.eu/consumers/consu...090/14&exclude_search_term=0&search_year=2014
http://ec.europa.eu/consumers/consu...076/14&exclude_search_term=0&search_year=2014
http://ec.europa.eu/consumers/consu...444/14&exclude_search_term=0&search_year=2014
http://ec.europa.eu/consumers/consu...447/14&exclude_search_term=0&search_year=2014
http://ec.europa.eu/consumers/consu...553/14&exclude_search_term=0&search_year=2014
http://ec.europa.eu/consumers/consu...583/14&exclude_search_term=0&search_year=2014
http://ec.europa.eu/consumers/consu...627/16&exclude_search_term=0&search_year=2016
http://ec.europa.eu/consumers/consu...742/16&exclude_search_term=0&search_year=2016
http://ec.europa.eu/consumers/consu...913/16&exclude_search_term=0&search_year=2016
http://ec.europa.eu/consumers/consu...914/16&exclude_search_term=0&search_year=2016
http://ec.europa.eu/consumers/consu...008/16&exclude_search_term=0&search_year=2016
http://ec.europa.eu/consumers/consu...045/16&exclude_search_term=0&search_year=2016
http://ec.europa.eu/consumers/consu...131/16&exclude_search_term=0&search_year=2016

end of story: i am NOT going to use this cheap charger adapter anymore!