K40Lvn - The Must Have Thrower

[MAD777]

Do I need to use protected batteries in the K40Lvn or should I use my IMR high drain (unprotected) batteries?

 

[vinhnguyen54]

Do I need to use protected batteries in the K40Lvn or should I use my IMR high drain (unprotected) batteries?

Any cells should be fine but I would recommend LG 3500mAh unprotected

 

[MAD777]

Any cells should be fine but I would recommend LG 3500mAh unprotected

Got 'em! 👍

 

[A.marquardt]

Re: Most Popular Thrower of 2015 ;-)

Your EDC?

+9000 hehhe

 

[Bigwilly]

Re: Most Popular Thrower of 2015 ;-)

+9000 hehhe

Awesome pic. Which light is that?

 

[MAD777]

Shipping notice received Acebeam K40Lvn

 

[Deltaoutdoorsman]

Dropped my K40Lvn last night off of the second floor of the plant I work at down onto a uneven concrete floor. I just knew it would be toast when I climbed down to get it, but amazingly it still functions perfectly.
The bezel and tailcap have some well let's just say character marks on them, but it still runs perfectly so now I can stop being careful with it. As my dad would have said. "It's broke in now"

 

[MaxBeam]

As my dad would have said. "It's broke in now"

LOL

 

[MAD777]

Received my K40Lvn yesterday! I took it out after dark and I wish could say how impressed I was with the throw, but I couldn't find a line of sight long enough to test the throw! I gotta find an OPEN field for this one!

 

[jorgemac]

Re: Most Popular Thrower of 2015 ;-)

To the owners of this light, Is really necesary the coper HS or with only thermal Pad it is sufficient to maintain this light cool?
How long it gets uncomfortable to hold in max?
Compared to TN32 which has better cooling?
Thanks.

 

[vinhnguyen54]

Re: Most Popular Thrower of 2015 ;-)

Tn32 vn has better cooling but is noticeably bigger. Copper is for led heat sinking. Thermal is for driver heat sinking.

 

[MAD777]

I look at it this way. I'm spending extra money for a special light. A few more dollars will make that special light more useful. These lights are pushed.

I guess if you're only going to flash it on momentarily to impress your friends, then maybe skip the heat management elements.

 

[vinhnguyen54]

I look at it this way. I'm spending extra money for a special light. A few more dollars will make that special light more useful. These lights are pushed.

I guess if you're only going to flash it on momentarily to impress your friends, then maybe skip the heat management elements.

Extra HS is not needed on this light as it is with hotter lights however if you do plan to run it long its good to buy all the HS options to aid the LED and driver.

 

[MAD777]

Here is the result of my runtime experiment on the K40Lvn. Take this with a grain, make that a pound of salt. I'm no selfbuilt and I put the "A" in amature. The only instruments used were my eyeballs & cell phone.

The version I have is with XPL PDT with copper heat sink and thermal pad cooling.

I ran this indoors during daylight with air-conditioning running at 76°F. (I know it's fall but it's 90° outside. Welcome to South Florida). Batteries used were 3 new high drain Keeppower IMR 18650 3200 mAh, fully charged to 4.2V. No fan was used. I just layed the flashlight on the kitchen countertop while I performed other chores.

I turned the flashlight on to it's highest setting and started my cell phone stopwatch.

And the answers is...... 31 minutes to me not being able to pick up the flashlight by the control ring. I couldn't touch it for more than a second or two. That's when I manually turned it off. I could still hold the flashlight by the handle, but it was very uncomfortably warm. Backing up to the 22 minute mark, I could hold the control ring indefinitely, although it was uncomfortably warm at that point. The handle was only mildly warm.

The light remained bright throughout the test. Perhaps there was some sort of step-down to 80% or 90% that my calibrated eyeballs could not discern in the daylight setting. But, it was definitely very bright until I switched it off.

I then put the batteries into my charger and found the voltage was at 3.92V.

Perhaps Vinh can address any step-down that would have occurred, undetected by my visual observation in daylight.

Given my result of 3.92V being left in the batteries, I would suspect this flashlight would run for hours on the lower settings.

I hope this is helpful in some way. I love this light and I think Vinh has developed an amazing thrower a a great price point. By the way, mine weighs 24.2 ounces including batteries and lanyard.

 

[ven]

Appreciate the testing MAD but just a word of caution, all vinh lights should not be left untended at any point due to heat. Tests maybe better in hand and when uncomfortable to hold,use that as a guide.
Could cause damage to light, vinh does do extreme testing before shipping specific modded lights,but of course if it fails he can sort or modify further, might say max 5 mins in turbo or run till .............etc etc as examples.

Just dont want you ruining your lights
:thumbsup:

 

[MAD777]

Thanks for the warning ven. I was picking up the light every minute to check the temperature. And, as you cautioned, I certainly won't be running my lights to this degree again. I'll be shutting them down, or off, as soon as ANY part becomes uncomfortable to hold, if not sooner.

Thanks again for good advice!

 

[ven]

:thumbsup:

 

[MAD777]

By the way, this light has a quirky lanyard attachment. Each of the twin holes on the side of the tail cap can accept the supplied lanyard, but then you can't tail stand the flashlight.

I have discovered a fix! Thread a 1/2" outer diameter split ring into the two holes. Now attach the supplied lanyard to the split ring.

 

[Bigwilly]

By the way, this light has a quirky lanyard attachment. Each of the twin holes on the side of the tail cap can accept the supplied lanyard, but then you can't tail stand the flashlight.

I have discovered a fix! Thread a 1/2" outer diameter split ring into the two holes. Now attach the supplied lanyard to the split ring.

Thanks for the runtime results. The idea of the split ring is awesome.

 

[svhunter]

I don't see this light on skylumen website. Is it available at this time? Thanks