Deerelight CL1H V4 Upgrade Help

First of all, since this is my first post, permit me to thank all of you for the great resource here on the CPF!! I was utterly amazed when i first started browsing this site a few months ago and finally could stay away no longer...

Now down to business (ie the subject line)

I was given a Deerelight CL1H V4 with the 3SD 5A Q3 Pill about a year ago as a birthday present. I absolutely love the thing and it goes everywhere with me... From online research I understand this to be somewhere in the ballpark of 225 lumens on high... is this relatively accurate?

Next, I am try to decide if I should upgrade at this time, as I have seen some pretty interesting modules on Deerelight's website. Part of what I am missing however is an understanding of how much better a Q4 is than a Q3 or for that matter, what the difference is between a 3SD R2 and a 3SD Q4 5A/B pill. I am confused and need some help... below I will give some of my desirable criteria and would greatly appreciate some input.

I would like to upgrade to another 3 stage if it does not limit me too much in the way of my upgrade. ie: if there is a 1 stage that blows all the 3 stages out of the water I am game to hear about it. My preference is towards a 3 stage though (want to avoid strobe settings and really need the memory of last setting)

I am also interested in the idea of a battery extension tube for outdoor/field use, thus using dual 18650's but my primary use is an everyday belt carry with a single 18650 battery. Ideally I would like to just unscrew the battery cap, screw in an extender tube and toss in the extra battery and have a more powerful flashlight without having to mess with the emitter/pill. I would be concerned about reduced efficiency with the wider input voltage range however, and would like to know if that is the case, or if I am horribly misguided or delusional in my expectations for swapability (is that really a word).



Many thanks in advance,


Note also I did a good bit of searching for this information, but given how complex I made my problem I decided it would be a good first post for me to get educated on my light... didn't want to be reading outdated posts for what was "new/the best available"...

Well, I can certainly help out a little bit! Q3, Q4, etc. refer to how efficient the LED is, or the way I think of it, in terms of "bang for the buck." For the same amount of current, you get more lumens. A Q4 will give you more lumens at the same drive current than a Q3. Is it worth paying money to go from a Q3 to a Q4 for a change in brightness? I would say from my experience, "no way!" A lot more important to me is tint. Would I pay to go from a cool Q4 to a warm Q4? Heck, yes!

With respect to 5A/B vs. R2, it goes like this from less to more efficient:

Q2
Q3
Q4
Q5

R2

So, for the same amount of drive current, the R2 will give you more lumens than a Q4. However, you need to ask yourself, "Do I prefer warmer tints or cooler tints?" If you like cooler/whiter/bluer tints, go with the regular white. If you like warmer tints, go with the 5A/B.

Will a Q3 5A or Q4 5B be less bright than an R2? Yup. But what I and many others on this forum experience is that the warmer color is worth the tradeoff for reduced lumens, *especially* when used in the woods or in the rain.

For beamshots of the differences, try searching. You'll find lots of pictures illustrating the differences.

I've never used a multi-mode Dereelight module, so I can't help you there.

Does that help? Let us know!

Oh, I almost forgot: :welcome:

Hi! I have 3 CL1H lights with the following arrangement:

1) CL1H v3 with R2 WH (warm white) 3SD
2) CL1H v4 with Q4 5B 3SD
3) CL1H v4 with extender and two hi-voltage heads:
A) Q4 5B 3SM in a regular head
B) R2 RC (cool white) 1SM in the Dereelight aspheric lens module

I use the OP reflector in the regular heads because its throw is excellent whereas the beam is quite narrow with their smooth reflector.

The 1-stage cool white aspheric setup is pocketable and easy to carry with long runtime and its throw is just ridiculous - it can illuminate a tree or car nearly 1/2 mile away!

The Q4 5B looks "whiter" to the eye than does a Q3 5A (I have those in other lights) but the color rendition is still terrific - and Q4 is brighter than Q3.

R2 is technically brighter than Q3/Q4. However, Q4 5B looks nearly as bright outside at night due to its eye-friendly spectrum.

Finally, my Q4 5B 3SM at 8 volts is brighter than my Q4 5B 3SD at 4 volts even though the low voltage pill is still terrific. This could be the usual case, or it might just be the luck of the draw.

Dereelight's new hi-voltage pills (1SM-2 or 3SM-2) can run on anything from 3.6 up to 12 volts.

This modular flashlight technology is outstanding.

Also, customer service at the USA Dereelight Dealer in California is terrific.

Have fun and :welcome:

martonic said:

Hi! I have 3 CL1H lights with the following arrangement:

1) CL1H v3 with R2 WH (warm white) 3SD
2) CL1H v4 with Q4 5B 3SD
3) CL1H v4 with extender and two hi-voltage heads:
A) Q4 5B 3SM in a regular head
B) R2 RC (cool white) 1SM in the Dereelight aspheric lens module

Click to expand...

Just to clear something up, the R2 WH and R2 WC (not RC) are both members of the cool white family. The WH is a bit warmer (more yellow/green) than the WC, but it's still cool white when it comes to color temp. The 5B/5A are in the neutral white family of Cree XR-E's. None of these are in Cree's warm white category, but the 5B/5A are often referred to as warm white, but more accurately they are neutral white.

As far as the 3SD Q3 5A and the new 3SD Q4 5B, I much prefer the newer Q4 5B for a few reason.

1. It is a tad bit brighter and runs a little cooler (same current as the Q3 module, but more is converted to light, less to heat).

2. I prefer the 5B tint to the 5A, it's slightly more neutral, the 5B has more of a pink/rosey tint to it.

3. The actual circuit in the new 3SD Q4 5B is superior to my older 3SD Q3 5A. I can't detect any PWM and I can't hear any whine coming from it. It's solid.

The 3SD pills are optimized for use with 18650's. If you want to throw on an extension tube you'll have to go with one of the multi-voltage pills that can handle the voltage of the two 18650's. These pills were listed above in this thread.

Here is an example of the 5A vs 5B tints, although judging tints on a computer screen isn't always the most accurate way to go about it, but it may give you an idea.

5A on the left, 5B on the right. On my monitor I can see the 5A has a bit of a rosey tint, and the 5B looks more yellow.

I think you are a bit optimistic regarding lumens from a Q3A5 pill. I do not have that one, but I have Q4B5. Here are my measurement of my neutral Dereelight pills (used in a CL1H):




The red, green and blue collumns to the left shows the average differences in color between these pills. I have given details about how these pictures are made in another tread.
Jens

Thanks for the warm welcomes to the CPF!

This helps immensely...

Note to Wadef... I believe you might have a mistruck key on number 2 of your post, think you meant to say that the 5A has more of a pink/rosey tint to it as that is how you later refer to it. Nevertheless, it was clear to me and much appreciated!!

Thinking about the 3SM Q4 5B - but am now bumping into some ignorance on my part. It was mentioned above that the 3SD pills are optimized for use with 18650's... what is the difference between a 3SD and a 3SM? I thought that directly translated a 3SM was 3 stage, multi voltage... meaning I could run it on either a single or double 18650's, so what is meant by the SD's being optimized for 18650's? Should I read this as optomized for SINGLE 18650's? and if so, how much of a difference am I looking at?

martonic, you stated that: Finally, my Q4 5B 3SM at 8 volts is brighter than my Q4 5B 3SD at 4 volts even though the low voltage pill is still terrific
I think I am starting to understand here that the 3SM is indeed the multi voltage version of the 3 stage Q4-5B, and you have one of the exact same except that it is limited to 4 volts (the SD version). Can you compare for me how the Q4 5B 3SM at 4 volts compares with itself when driven at 8 volts?? If I want to run 80% of the time on a single 18650, would I be shooting myself in the foot (aside from up-front purchase cost) by getting the 3SM? Thank you:bow:

Also, martonic, I have seen no nomenclature on the deerelight website indicating 3SM-2 or 3SM-1 -- I was begininning to think I had this figured out slightly :thinking:... thought the SM meant it could take the higher voltage, so why the -1 or -2??

All of your comments have been greatly appreciated and I hope I am not stepping on anyone's toes with my above observations, suffice to say I am just struggling to become a bit less confused.

Thanks again...