MTE "P7-D" SSC P7-C 5-Mode

Ok , I wanted a P7 and went for this one ..
1/ The head is Glued to the Body , and it took a LOT of force to separate the two resulting in minor damage to the finish of the flashlight , I dont know what SFB thought it a good idea , but they should be fired .

2/ The pill came out easy , the P7 star is on lose , there is no thermal compound to speak of , and I think the heatsinking with a lose star would just reek , and I can see the LED lasting very long . + The two screws holding the star in place are super tight [ yet the star is lose ] . Oih vei , I dont know how im going to get those two screws out , again , some one needs to feel the cat-o-nine-tails .

3/ Other than that it seems to be a nice P7 host , double O rings both ends of the body , nice machining , though the threads feel a little rough , but nothing to worry about , and the tail clicky feels good .

4/ The two things I feel are unforgivable are the lose star , and gluing the head to the body , dumb *** stuff !







I havent even turned this flashlight on yet , and I am so glad I didnt , cos a lose star is only going to heatsink so much , no wonder people have been having problems with this flashlight .

Matt

Mine seems to transfer heat to the body very efficiently.

Ok , I used WD40 to clean of the Glue/Locktite , I unsoldered one lead from the star and put in some thermal paste , ok there was a very minute amount there already , but it was very little ..

I put it back together , and I found some small washers for the two screws so now they hold the star to the pill nice n tight .

Using a trustfire 18650 2500mA Batt

Hi - 1.35A
Med - o.48mA
Lo - o.17mA

Ultrafire Protected 18650 2400mA

Hi - 1.62A
Med - o.58mA
Lo - o.2mA

Ultrafire 18650 - @ 3.68v is delivering o.84mA , so I dont think its regulated , so deff room for a better driver .

Claimed :- 900 lumens maximum brightness (manufacturer rated)
- 2800mA current output regulated driver circuitry (manufacturer rated

Now : SSC P7 C Bin (700-800 Lumens @ 2800ma)

So = if we take out the calculator , actual output may be closer to 400Lumen on Hi , possibly as High as 450Lumen ...


Update : Throw @ 1 meter = 3700Lux [ Same conditions Slarforce L2 = 5800Lux ]
After taking it to the back yard , it sure does light up the yard , but it has less throw than my Romisen Cree P4 Mod .
Great for up to 50 Meters , ill have to take it for a walk in the park , but id say great for short range work .
I dont think this is what you want if you want throw , id say a great house light .



Pict 2 = More thermal paste .

No wonder I couldnt get the head unscrewed!

About the lumens... that sounds right for the readings I was getting.
I did some runtime graph on mine with trustfire 2500mah and after 25mins the light was at 43,5ºC!

BTW, here are my readings:

0mins 4550lux 23,2ºC
5mins 3700lux 30,2ºC
10mins 3500lux 35,7ºC
15mins 3320lux 39,5ºC
20mins 3220lux 42,1ºC
25mins 2990lux 43,5ºC
30mins 2850lux 43,4ºC
35mins 2300lux 42,2ºC

I did not continue the runtime as the cell was not fullycharged but still its very hot. I installed the thermometer at the head.

I cant imagine if it was regulated to 2,8A...

Will you test that?

If I had the skill to mod it to 2,8A I would have done it to test

old4570 said:

Ok , I used WD40 to clean of the Glue/Locktite , I unsoldered one lead from the star and put in some thermal paste , ok there was a very minute amount there already , but it was very little ..

I put it back together , and I found some small washers for the two screws so now they hold the star to the pill nice n tight .

Using a trustfire 18650 2500mA Batt

Hi - 1.35A
Med - o.48mA
Lo - o.17mA

Ultrafire Protected 18650 2400mA

Hi - 1.62A
Med - o.58mA
Lo - o.2mA

Claimed :- 900 lumens maximum brightness (manufacturer rated)
- 2800mA current output regulated driver circuitry (manufacturer rated

Now : SSC P7 C Bin (700-800 Lumens @ 2800ma)

So = if we take out the calculator , actual output may be closer to 400Lumen on Hi , possibly as High as 450Lumen ...

Click to expand...

The SSC P7 is rated at 700 to 800Lumen @ 2800mA , unfortunately I dont see this one coming even close to pushing 2800mA

I pulled the pill out to see if I could determine positive from negative , no go , Id have to pull the pill apart to see where positive is fed from in the driver .
Im not going to do that , well not yet . I have a bunch of drivers on order , I might try swapping them around latter on .

But I cant see output being greater than input ...
Still big claims , and from what I see this flashlight only delivers 50% of whats claimed ...

Oh - they claim memory - NO memory ! Mine starts in Med - lo - hi - strobe - SOS .....

I think my next P7 will have to be 2 x 18650 or 4 x CR123A , I cant see a single 18650 giving max output ..

Will see how it goes tonight , ill take it for a walk to see how it compares to my Solearforce L2 R2

Here we go , size comparison to my Solarforce L2 , in fact the MTE will fit in the Solarforce Belt Holster , so I guess size for size , 400+ Lumen , its not so disappointing , would be nice to find a driver that could push a little harder , say over 2Amp , but for $36.50 USD , its 30% more expensive than the L2 and puts out maybe 30% more light , so your not being ripped , but then it does not even come close to whats claimed , keep that in mind when shelling out your hard earned .

Hi, nice writeup! Maybe I'll try to remove the head myself..
So far I've accesed the pill through the head (removing bezel/lens/reflector)

Thought I'd chip in my own numbers

(TrustFire 18650 @ 4,10v)
High 2.23 A
Med 0.84 A
Low 0.27 A

Vled:
High 3,29 V
Med 2,52 V
Low 2,08 V

Wattage:
High 7,34 W
Med 2,12 W
Low 0,56 W

Vled is the voltage over the LED.
Wattage is calculated by P=I*Vled.

T.

i also bought exact this light from DX.

well, i only used it for several minutes here and there..

it produces great spill, and i think it is very bright.

400 - 450 Lumens sounds about right, hey 36 $.

i am very happy with it....but can not take it apart.

i broke off the head with another....glued together asian light.

what can i say.....i dont need to run it for 20 min.....

and for the duration i used it....i absolutely love it.

I've purchased the 2 modes version of this light (sku.12623). Same body but just HI-LO.
Using a 2400Mah protected trustfire, 4.21V, I measured 2.78A at tailcap. This means that P7 is driven at ~12 Watt.
And indeed this unit is extremely bright. I can't measure the output, but a ceiling bounce of this flashlight noticeably outperforms my PD20 + PD30 lit together. I'd dare to say that this is easily more than 500 lumen, although it's not certainly even close to the 900 claimed by DX.
Also, while the unit becomes warm with extensive usage in high mode, the heat is well distributed accross the body, and the flashlight can still be held.
Is it just good luck of mine, or is the 2 modes version so much better?

Looks like luck of the draw , I dont think its the P7 LED , but rather the quality of the driver , I have 4 dif drivers on order from DX + 2 drivers on the way from KD , I know one is rated to 2800mA .

Just need drivers that can perform , and fit into the pill .
If I buy another P7 , it will have to be 2 x 18650 . Still this light is very bright , and outperforms my Cree R2's bye quite a margin .

Now all I need to do is wait for the parts to build a L2 MC-E , will be interesting to see how the MC-E performs against a P7 in this small format .


Matt

BTW, how did you read the AMPs? Was it on the tail?
I dont know how to do that on the multimeter... a user here explained me but I never understud

Can you show how its done?

Regards

Make sure you have a 10Amp setting .. On the cheaper MM's its a separate plug for the positive lead .

Take the tail cap of , put the negative lead to the negative on the battery , positive goes to the body / tail cap threads .

I' take a picture .

Matt

old4570 said:

Make sure you have a 10Amp setting .. On the cheaper MM's its a separate plug for the positive lead .

Take the tail cap of , put the negative lead to the negative on the battery , positive goes to the body / tail cap threads .

I' take a picture .

Matt

Click to expand...

lovecpf

Thanks , I will be here waiting for that :thumbsup:

Ok , make sure your plugged for 10 Amps .



Then make sure you set the MM to read 10 Amps



Then negative lead to the negative of the battery



And the positive to the threads of the body ...

Now if you want to read Amps to the LED , you must find the positive lead from the driver , and put the multimeter between the positive output and positive on the led , if you do it the wrong way , thats ok , it will just give a negative reading [ Digital read out ] .

Problem with this one is , white and pink leads from the driver ? Whats wrong with red and black , red being positive and black being negative .
So with this one , I would need to remove the driver to see where the leads output from to tell neg from positive .

Matt

My latest P7-D from DX has no memory function and also had heatsink problems. The LED positive is directly connected to the battery positive terminal. The driver is not able to increase the output voltage so will always give less power to the LED than when direct driven (as in the 2 mode torch which uses a resistor for the low setting), due to losses in the driver. I have been looking for a suitable boost driver but have not found one yet. More info on my P7-D thread - https://www.candlepowerforums.com/posts/2668475#post2668475

Freashly charged Trustfire 2500mah...

How can this be improved?

I just cleaned the clicky switch contact ...

Big thaks for the help here

Regards,

Thats close to what my trustfires are doing , my Protected Ultrafires seem to push more Amps in all my flashlights , there cheap enough over at DX , my next purchase will be the 3000mA Ultrafires .

Drivers \ http://www.kaidomain.com/ProductDetails.aspx?ProductId=1845
Currently using one in my Romisen P4 5mode mod .

I have one on the way , so I might give it a try ...

chang1 said:

My latest P7-D from DX has no memory function and also had heatsink problems. The LED positive is directly connected to the battery positive terminal. The driver is not able to increase the output voltage so will always give less power to the LED than when direct driven (as in the 2 mode torch which uses a resistor for the low setting), due to losses in the driver. I have been looking for a suitable boost driver but have not found one yet. More info on my P7-D thread - https://www.candlepowerforums.com/posts/2668475#post2668475

Click to expand...

So pink is positive and white is negative ? Looks that way in the pictures you posted . :thinking:

You seem to be getting more less the same lux readings I got.
My lux readings on the post above where at 1mt. Yesterday after cleaning the clicky switch I managed to get 5100lux in the first 5mins.

Regards

Yeah , Im thinking I might need to take a look at the clicky , just to see if there is a possible fix needed ...

My first and last MTE ...


Matt