Review: TrustFire TR-803 Cree Q5-WC

My Trustfire TR-803 arived yesterday. Initial impression was WOW what a nice CR123A flashlight with a very bright flood beam.

Some comments before the photos:
- Build quality is quite good for the $16.90 price tag.
- Very bright and nice flood beam (exactly what I was looking for)
- Single mode (hate the multi-modes, especially the flashing ones)
- Can tail stand
- Glass lens
- Many O-rings
- No glue on threads
- Does not heat up as fast as I thought it would (after 5-minutes it is hot, but not very hot)

That was the :thumbsup:, now for the :thumbsdow:
- No O-ring fitted in front of the lens and it makes a rattling sound when shaken
- The light arived with the tail/switch section in different coloured anodising
- The threads are of acceptable quality (not good, but not bad)

General:
- I tried to buy 18mm x 1mm O-Rings from a local supplier, but they only had 18mm x 1.5mm O-rings. Fitted one in front of the lens, but it popped out when I tightened the lens.
- I bought it at the higher intro price, but it was reduced at DX. I believe that this was to be in line with the KD price

Flashlight disassembled in main sections


Switch and pill sections - note the soldering on the circuit


The other side of the switch and pill sections


Pill section - like the O-rings - note the soldering


Reflector removed. Emitter on very small board


Switch disassembled - aluminium washer fitted to switch on right side of photo


Body/barrel, switch and head


Assembled light - note the colour difference of the switch/tail section


Better beamshots to follow later. Still light here and went to a darker area in the house. TR-803 Left, MTE 5-mode Rebel top, UltraFire C2 Cree Q5 5-Mode right


Beamshots at lower exposure setting - not visable is that the flood portion is much brighter than the other two


Need to run. Our rugby team just kicked off against Italy. Can't miss this one.

nanotech17 said:

Aren't you suppose to be watching the 2008 European Football Championship

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Half time. No!!! over here Rugby is #1 and Football #2.

nice... is it true the light is unregulated?... resistor and direct driven?

kramer5150 said:

nice... is it true the light is unregulated?... resistor and direct driven?

Click to expand...

Not sure. I do not like to disassemble the pill at this stage, but it is very likely to be direct driven. I already have two flashlights that have contact problems that I battle to fix. This one was working fine when I got it and my motto is "if it works, don't fix it, except if you want to modify it".

kramer5150 said:

nice... is it true the light is unregulated?... resistor and direct driven?

Click to expand...

I have the TR-801 Cree Q5-WC, a light very similar to the TR-803 but running on a 18650. I would call it semi-regulated: above 3.9V the current is limited to 1050mA, below 3.9V there is no regulation. I think there could be 3 AMC7135 on the driver board (something like DX SKU 1885). But, of course, I don't know if the TR-803 has the same driver.

Thank you for the review, good stuff for a budding flashaholic who is lookin for a budget CR123 to start. Can this run on 3.7v 700mAh RCR123s??? Cos where i live, primary CR123s are rare and rare = expensive. Thanks again

I use the 16340, 3.6V 880mA batteries with good results. This is still one of the two lights that I use daily.

EDIT: 3.6/3.7V is recommended. With 3V the light output is quite a bit lower.

kramer5150 said:

nice... is it true the light is unregulated?... resistor and direct driven?

Click to expand...

No, it has an AMC7135 board.

Could you answer a quick question for a possible mod : Is it possible to screw the tail end to the head (via the pill section), i.e. without using the main body?

Calina said:

Could you answer a quick question for a possible mod : Is it possible to screw the tail end to the head (via the pill section), i.e. without using the main body?

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Yes, as long as you file or sand off a few mm of the tailcap so that the threads catch. All the threads are the same pitch.

Good luck Mr. Bike light/headlamp builder :nana:

Ah , ah! You caught me there. That is exactly the plan.

I'm not sure if it's feasible but instead of filing the tail cap, I would rather try to put a ring in front of the pill. That way it would be possible to keep all the flashlight parts intact.

Thank you for the answer.

Calina said:

Ah , ah! You caught me there. That is exactly the plan.

I'm not sure if it's feasible but instead of filing the tail cap, I would rather try to put a ring in front of the pill. That way it would be possible to keep all the flashlight parts intact.

Thank you for the answer.

Click to expand...

You do have to file the tailcap, but not so much that it won't work as a flashlight anymore. But I do think that waterproofness will be compromised.

There's an unthreaded section inside the tailcap that's longer than the length of the threads on the back of the pill.

If you install a thick o-ring in front of the lens then the reflector will sit further back in the head, and I think you'll be able to get enough gap on the pill's front side to put a ring in to mount it from there.

You guys must have the patience of a saint to preserver with these cheap DX lights.

jr/

jimmy1970 said:

You guys must have the patience of a saint to preserver with these cheap DX lights.

jr/

Click to expand...

These TR-80X lights are actually really good.

I agree with the above statement made by LukeA.

I have been very happy with the TR-801 lights that I bought a little while ago. I just became aware of their little brothers, but I am not sure if I want to take them on since I have other lights in this form factor already. The 18650-capable slim body, floody beam 801 is more unique.

I don't know if I could give them a really good rating out of the package, though. For me, they were more of a "kit". With things like rattling reflectors (loose retaining ring) and a DOA light (excess solder around driver board holding battery positive away from board), they can make a really bad first impression. But all of the bits are decent, and after a thorough going through, they work well.

I ordered the DX "16-mode" driver boards with mine, since the middle UI on those is a nice simple lo-med-hi. Swaping that in was easy, and after lubing and tightening everything up, it seemed to work nice. The only problem I had was a bad case of tail-tap mode changing, with the heavy battery easily overcoming the tailcap spring when knocked in that direction, and the associated interupt in contact at the positive end. I fixed that with a generous solder blob on the center of the driver board, plus two 8 mm magnets on the positive end of the battery. That just takes the spring to full compression, so the battery has no where to go when tapped. I also took out the lateral rattle with a slip of paper coiled inside the battery tube. Since the battery can't move in any dirction now, there is zero migration of the magnets and no fear of possible shorting from them. I needed a bit more for the unprotected 18650's that I use to achieve this than a protected one would.

Anyway, I am glad that the smaller siblings look as promising as the larger 801 model, and I may have to cave and search for smaller diameter driver options for these to play with, as I am a die hard multi-level kind of a guy. I am a little leery of the multi-mode drivers that come in those versions of the lights stock, as I got one in a TR-C2 light that was simply garbage. That was the one that got me started on installing my own drivers. And now that I can get them without the binky modes, that is what I want.