Solarforce L950m Review. (Pics, Beamshots(inside,out), RUNTIME, and more!)

[MrGman]

first off with my corrected and republished numbers shown above the drop that I see in the first 3 minutes of my own data is only 15%, half of which comes in the first 30 seconds, and since I have been doing this a while the reality is the biggest drop is in the first 10 seconds. I will note that I had a typo in my original notes when I went back and reviewed it and had to correct it. The Solarforce 950 from Kruppstahl was very very close to these corrected numbers for the first 3 minutes. There is no cooling fan used for these types of tests by me.



I would question the test methodology in the ability to capture that turn on peak reading before the light warms up at all to show the drop. As the batteries warm up they actually help run the light better and they compensate for the long term drop out of the light.

So how soon after actual turn on did you capture your first reading? What was the starting temperature in you "closet", what if any type of cooling or circulation were you providing to the light? You should publish the test condition set up data as part of your test reporting format. G

 

[csshih]

sorry for the delay in responding.. strange, I didn't get an email notification.

Respectfully: How are these numbers obtained? Due to our eyes adjusting it is a given that you will not see the drop in lumens, but with a calibrated lumens sphere like MrGmans the truth is revealed. Whether it drops 25% lumens after 1 hour or not, the Solarforce L950, L900, L900M lights rock. To me they throw like an R2 with the spread of a P7. The best of 2 worlds in one.

If you been debating getting this light, stop thinking about it. If there was ever a no-brainer purchase this is it. If I didn't have my M6 LED variants I would have 3 or 4 of the same light.:thumbsup:

See the quote below..
The graph is decently accurate, compare the EZAA runtime graph with selfbuilt's... you'll find them similar, but since I ran the ezaa in water, bubbles formed on the lens, and dropped the output over time.

EDIT>> After reading through the review one more time it appears that he got the numbers via this method http://www.candlepowerforums.com/vb/showthread.php?t=226769

I'll be damned. I meant to purchase this light and you just put a dampener on it again

Whether the lumens drop or not is insignificant. It's the heatsink issue which worries me. You see, I live in a country where the average daily temperature is 31 Celcius...

The numbers should be extremely accurate, cameras need to be accurate to take photos that aren't too dark or bright.

The light was actively cooled with a box fan on low in the closet.. I stated it in the review.

I apologize for being a high school student with almost no budget at all to purchase testing equipment. :shrug: If someone would provide me with some good equipment, I would be glad to give you guys the best and most accurate of graphs.

Not sure if anybody already saw this. Jetbeam M1x vs. Solarfoce L950m at the distance of 80m . I'm torn between these two.

M1X pushes the light out harder but then it's $145
L950M is just slightly behind but it's $88 .

Eh... no offense to the photographer, but those pictures look completely wrong.

first off with my corrected and republished numbers shown above the drop that I see in the first 3 minutes of my own data is only 15%, half of which comes in the first 30 seconds, and since I have been doing this a while the reality is the biggest drop is in the first 10 seconds. I will note that I had a typo in my original notes when I went back and reviewed it and had to correct it. The Solarforce 950 from Kruppstahl was very very close to these corrected numbers for the first 3 minutes. There is no cooling fan used for these types of tests by me.

I would question the test methodology in the ability to capture that turn on peak reading before the light warms up at all to show the drop. As the batteries warm up they actually help run the light better and they compensate for the long term drop out of the light.

So how soon after actual turn on did you capture your first reading? What was the starting temperature in you "closet", what if any type of cooling or circulation were you providing to the light? You should publish the test condition set up data as part of your test reporting format. G

The batteries were taken off the charger once it hit green.. they were slightly warm.

The light was actively cooled with a box fan on low.. I stated it in the review. I booted up the camera runtime script before I turned the light on.
The script is set to take measurements every minute.. not the most precise, but it takes 3 readings every minute, and averages them out.
so... the reading was taken about..10 seconds after the light first turned on.


I did not take temperature measurements, sorry.

I am going to take a 10 minute runtime test, without any cooling.

editing the script to take readings every 10 seconds
averaging 2 readings every time.

it is currently 76 Fahrenheit.. I will be back shortly.

just started the test.. now time to wait....
eh, update...
made a mistake. have to charge up batteries again. wait a while longer.

I'll post the results tomorrow.

 

[strinq]

Lol, where do we get the coupons at the solarforce website? Newbie here sorry.

 

[IUalum]

Just got mine from jake25 and his website, the L950m arrived seperately from the 18650's and tailcap I also ordered but all came on the same day.

Love this light and service from jake25 was great, the "tactical" tailcap definitely can double as a weapon, kind of sharp on the edges but I like it.

 

[csshih]

no coupons as of now.. the prices are already discounted apparently 🙂

 

[jake25]

Just got mine from jake25 and his website, the L950m arrived seperately from the 18650's and tailcap I also ordered but all came on the same day.

Love this light and service from jake25 was great, the "tactical" tailcap definitely can double as a weapon, kind of sharp on the edges but I like it.

I'm glad you enjoy the light:thumbsup:

 

[csshih]

since I have been doing this a while the reality is the biggest drop is in the first 10 seconds.

seems my camera cannot take readings that fast.

so, according to MrGman, the light drops in output very quickly, I am apparently unable to start the measurements from peak.. add a few percentage of drop in light output from the start.

I took a 15 minute reading without any cooling.
The light was rather hot right after the test, not hot that I wasn't able to hold it, but hot enough that I would not want to leave the light running on high for extended periods of time without any cooling (by hand, fan, etc, If you're holding the light, your blood dissipates the heat effectively)

and here would be the graph.

 

[chanjyj]

seems my camera cannot take readings that fast.

so, according to MrGman, the light drops in output very quickly, I am apparently unable to start the measurements from peak.. add a few percentage of drop in light output from the start.

I took a 15 minute reading without any cooling.
The light was rather hot right after the test, not hot that I wasn't able to hold it, but hot enough that I would not want to leave the light running on high for extended periods of time without any cooling (by hand, fan, etc, If you're holding the light, your blood dissipates the heat effectively)

and here would be the graph.

This looks bad. real bad.. I was hoping for something more flat. Will I be correct to say that if it drops to 90% in 17mins it will drop to 50% in 80+mins? Oh well.

Too bad I already ordered my Solarforce L950m 😳

 

[csshih]

This looks bad. real bad.. I was hoping for something more flat. Oh well.

Too bad I already ordered my Solarforce L950m 😳

oh?

most lights will drop in output if just leave them running without even holding it.... the heat is bad for the LED.

I hope you won't run the light for 80 minutes without even touching. most people would agree that's a bad idea.

example: I have a tiablo ACE-G.. 170$ light, and that one will get hot if you leave it alone.

but, if you run the 950 in medium mode.. it runs pretty cool... if you're going to go for long periods.. I recommend that.

don't worry.. you won't regret the purchase.
it's a very nice light.

 

[chanjyj]

oh?

most lights will drop in output if just leave them running without even holding it.

I hope you won't run the light for 80 minutes without even touching. most people would agree that's a bad idea.

I have a tiablo ACE-G.. 170$ light, and that one will get hot if you leave it alone.

but, if you run the 950 in medium mode.. it runs pretty cool.


don't worry.. you won't regret the purchase.

Yeah, but a drop of 10% so quickly seems rather drastic (at least, to me).
Furthurmore, I live in a country where the freaking daily average temperature is 31 celcius (87.8F), so heat issues become even more of a problem.

To compound the issue even further, the only reason I bought the light was to run it only on high - my TK10 would take care of everything else.



Anyway thanks for your great review. :thumbsup:

 

[MrGman]

Yeah, but a drop of 10% so quickly seems rather drastic (at least, to me).
Furthurmore, I live in a country where the freaking daily average temperature is 31 celcius (87.8F), so heat issues become even more of a problem.

To compound the issue even further, the only reason I bought the light was to run it only on high - my TK10 would take care of everything else.



Anyway thanks for your great review. :thumbsup:

First I commend your excellent and I will say proper use of the word freaking in a sentence.

Next, what is the actually daily average "nightly" temperature of your country where you would be using this megalight? I hope its cooler than that? G

 

[jake25]

It gets pretty hot in Hong Kong during summer nights, it's a combination of the heat and the humidity. it can get real hot.

 

[chanjyj]

First I commend your excellent and I will say proper use of the word freaking in a sentence.

Next, what is the actually daily average "nightly" temperature of your country where you would be using this megalight? I hope its cooler than that? G

It gets pretty hot in Hong Kong during summer nights, it's a combination of the heat and the humidity. it can get real hot.

I live in Singapore where...
The average temperature (day) is 31 celcius (87.8F).
The average nightly temperature, is 29 celcius (84.2F).
Humidity never drops below 80%.

Singapore sits only slightly above the equator. Temperature variations are zilch.

Yeah. It's like sitting in a furnace everyday, if you are wondering. :laughing:

 

[jirik_cz]

This looks bad. real bad.. I was hoping for something more flat. Will I be correct to say that if it drops to 90% in 17mins it will drop to 50% in 80+mins? Oh well.

Too bad I already ordered my Solarforce L950m 😳

It will not drop to 50% in 80 minutes. Look on the previous graph by csshih or graph by me ;-)

 

[Painful Chafe]

Hopefully MrGman or someone else can answer this. Everyone is making an issue out of the drop in output.
I was peaking at the drop in output of the high power lights on MrGmans chart in the sticky. It seams that all the lights that are over 450 lumens have a minumum 10% drop in output after warm up, some aproaching 20%. Seems to me this may be very comon due to the high heat put out of these Mega lights. It looks to me that the Solarforce is right in line with the other 500+ lumen lights. I would hate for this light to get an undesearved bad reputation.

 

[MrGman]

The initial drop that all lights have as the phosphors warm up eventually stabilizes if the chip has some fairly decent heatsinking. Also the driver circuits also have some thermal fold back built in when they get warm for self protection. Once the entire mass stabilizes they typically don't keep dropping in output. It is hard to do a realistic test of this because it has to sit stationary in a rest in order to measure the output. In real world use its going to be hand held and moving around in the air by the operator. Plus as soon as you shut it off it starts to cool down internally and the next turn on comes back up. So for people who don't just keep the light on straight for an hour at a time but run it 5 minutes at a time for so this is really a non issue.

I don't know of a realistic way to test the light on the bench in the secret bunker of truth for more than 5 minutes without it getting warmer than it normally would laying on a black foam rest so I can get steady readings rather than being hand held. Do I turn a fan on "low"? Do I put a damp towel under it? I am not going to hand hold it.

Incandescent lights drop in output from the moment you turn them on also. Since none of them are regulated I can tell you over the course of an hour unless you have a really big battery pack they are going to drop more than 10%, probably no less than 30%. I have measured incan lights in the same size and general form factor as these running on 2 18650 batteries and they draw 3 to 4 amps. They are not going to hold that output constant for an hour. And they only delivered 350 lumens at turn on. I just don't bother to publish every little tidbit of testing I do, especially with incans. So these are still far superior in output and run time.

If some one can device a practical scheme that sounds reasonable of how to keep a light stationary on the bench being measured with limited cooling to simulate human operation I will try and do it. Csshih, nice test plots.

You are welcome to come test your light in the secret bunker of truth when ready. G.

 

[Phaserburn]

MrG, how about a nice moist washcloth wrapped around the head area (the "hand"), and a fan blowing on it on low (the "breeze"). I would think that this combo should do the trick and simulate being held to enough of a degree that you could take your readings.

 

[Painful Chafe]

This will not be all that scientific but: Perhaps you can hand hold a light for five minutes as someone would do in normal use then measure the temp. Then let it cool, run it for 5 minutes again with a cooling fan on it. When you find a fan speed that matches the hand held test..... you get the point. I'm thinking this would be a possibility, but you are the expert and would know better.

Another question. A P7 LED is a P7 LED. Is the only difference between different lights in output drop due to the ability of the light to transfer heat away from the LED due to construction. If so, someone who loves to tinker can find some tweaks to improve the heat transfer.

 

[MrGman]

This will not be all that scientific but: Perhaps you can hand hold a light for five minutes as someone would do in normal use then measure the temp. Then let it cool, run it for 5 minutes again with a cooling fan on it. When you find a fan speed that matches the hand held test..... you get the point. I'm thinking this would be a possibility, but you are the expert and would know better.

Another question. A P7 LED is a P7 LED. Is the only difference between different lights in output drop due to the heat sink ability of the lights construction. If so, someone who loves to tinker can find some tweaks to improve the heat transfer.

A P7 LED is indeed a constant. The variabilities are drive current and heatsinking, and total thermal mass. You could have good heat sink away from the chip into the thermal mass but if its not a big mass, you are still limited. Having a very large thermal mass but not good heatsinking (high thermal resistance in the path) and you still don't do really well. The very things you don't need with a real light bulb (filament) because it has to get hot and roast and you want it isolated from anything that would cool it down, you need in a solid state device. The bigger the block of aluminum that you can thermally couple the actual LED chip to the more power you can drive it with up to its own real power limitations. The desire to drive these P7's with just a little bit "more" power versus what the total heatsinking capabilities are ends up with the same result: You get a high lumen number "spike" at turn on and then it drifts down quickly. If you live somewhere that gets really cold at night and use it outdoors then you would actually get better output out of it. If you don't then you get less. The best LED lights are those where the chip is purposely under driven to keep the output constant for the amount of power consumption and you get steady output for a reasonable amount of power.

These guys that want just a little more drive current pumped through theres so that they can say that they get more out of there custom units don't understand that they actually get less after the first 3 seconds then if they didn't over drive it at all.

The Solarforce L9XX series is still a very good flashlight for the money it does have the low mode which will run for quite a while and make a 200 lumen flashlight look pathetic so its still a good deal overall. I have no regrets on mine for $90. G.

 

[csshih]

It will not drop to 50% in 80 minutes. Look on the previous graph by csshih or graph by me ;-)

hey jirik.. how do you cool your lights?

and 1:25 compared to my 1:24.. that's pretty close! :nana:

I'll have to answer your questions later.. got some finals to study for!

thank you for your support!