The World's Most Powerful Pocket Thrower [DBS w/ SST-50 Review]

Click on any image in this review to see the full size version





Note to posters: Before flaming me about the title, read the post. I realize this light isn't the farthest throwing or brightest LED, but I think as a combo of the two it certainly wins. I'm sure it's possible to build a hotwire with an IMR cell with considerably greater output and <8 minute runtime, but that hardly counts. And yes, those with smaller pockets might have problems EDCing the DBS

This light is a combination of the DBS body\head, a DBS MC-E lightly textured reflector, and a Nailbender SST-50 2.8A single mode WJ bin C3 color P60 dropin (yeah, that's a mouthful :duh2.

First, the raw numbers. I don't own a high end light meter or integrated sphere, and this light has never been directly tested, but very similar setups have been tested by both Big C and mrgman, so I would give these numbers a +-10%: 23-25k lux w/ 460 OTF lumens. An XPG DBS is around 18 lux, 300 OTF lumens. A R2 DBS is ~21k lux, 220 OTF lumens. A R2 aspheric DBS is ~65k lux, 140 OTF lumens. The thrunite catapult, a 2x 18650 light, is around 30k lux, 540 OTF lumens - but with a head and body far larger then the DBS, close to a maglight size and certainly not pocketable.

When I got the DBS, I stripped it down and meticulously cleaned and re-greased every part of it. I applied thermal paste in 2 areas - between the P60 pill and the reflector, and between the reflector and the body. The P60 pill to reflector is the main area of heat transfer, as the P60 pill does not touch the sides of the light. Applying AS5 in the threads really helped heat transfer - before, the pill would heat to 'too hot to touch' in 20-30 seconds, but I could comfortably unscrew it at over a minute with the AS5 on.

Beamshots:

First, the SST-50 in P60 dropin format:



Next, the SST-50 in the DBS, with the AKOray K-106 on the right side. This picture was taken at an equal distance and cropped equally so size of the hotspot can be directly compared to the SST-50 above, but I had to step down exposure to make the hotspot visible, so brightness cannot be directly compared. The AKOray is for reference; its hotspot is roughly equal to the SST-50 P60s in brightness, although it is much smaller:



According to my rough measurements, the hotspot on the DBS is around 1/7th the area, with a much brighter sidespill.

Here's some outdoor pics. The camera was on auto, so it's hard to compare brightness, but I never got a chance to capture P60 shots in manual.

Reference (daylight, approximate target areas circled in red):





SST-50 P60 (Note that it was foggy that night, the beam was 'fuzzier' then normal):





And finally, DBS + SST-50:

The 120' beamshot doesn't really do the DBS justice. Like I figured, the camera underexposed the image to the point where it looked like the P60, but with a smaller hotspot. Tonight is slightly foggy, though not nearly as foggy as when I used the P60. You can actually see the beam in real life, though (but not nearly as bright as it appears in this image).



This image is a much better representation. Thanks to the lights from the house, the camera exposed it much more closely to what it actually looks like.



If you don't like the single mode, you can get a triple or five mode driver from Nailbender; they only deliver 2.5A, but the difference is small so go for it if you want modes

It was a close choice between the smooth and the lightly dimpled reflector, but with a lux loss of 2-3k the lightly dimpled reflector eliminated some fairly serious rings around the hotspot.

Here are the links\prices for the various parts:

Flashlight body ($49): http://flashlightconnection.com/Der...V3/DBS-V3-Host-No-Reflector-or-Pill-p183.html

MC-E Light OP reflector ($20): http://flashlightconnection.com/Orange-Peel-OP-Reflector-DBS-p48.html

UCL lens 43.41mm x 2.89mm ($6.25): http://www.flashlightlens.com/str/index.php?app=ccp0&ns=prodshow&ref=ucl_lens

SST-50 WJ bin P60 dropin ($65-75): https://www.candlepowerforums.com/threads/248771

Total: $140-150 shipped w\ CPF discounts

Sorry for the somewhat scattered review, I had to write it in a short timeframe and I had to put a lot of information out there. If anything is unclear or you have questions, post away and I'll respond as soon as I can.

A big thumbs up for the many people who steered me in the right direction on this project :thumbsup:

EDIT: More pictures!
It's been really foggy the last few nights, a big contrast to the cold, crisp nights we're used to. Guess it's the warm weather, slight rain, melting snow, and 93% humidity
Distance in all 3 shots is around 90'.







The light looked really cool. The beam was a even line, and the sidespill made a really cool-looking 3d cone, especially when pointed upwards. I stepped up the exposure to show the sidespill in this shot.



The camera had a hard time focusing on the reflector close up, I did my best to show just how light the OP pattern was.

Looking forward to your beamshots (looks pretty cold out there!). I've never considered using the OP reflector in my DBS/SST-50 as the SMO produces a wonderful ring-free beam.

SCEMan said:

Looking forward to your beamshots (looks pretty cold out there!). I've never considered using the OP reflector in my DBS/SST-50 as the SMO produces a wonderful ring-free beam.

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It's not ringy, more of shades of darker\lighter near the hotspot that the light OP smooths out. At the moment, I have a large bonfire going just behind the garden that's ruining any chances of a beamshot. Once it dies down in an hour or two I should be able to get some. From what I saw earlier, though, the cameras autoexposure just throttles down so the hotspot looks a little brighter and quite a bit smaller. Too bad I didn't take the P60 shots in manual

EDIT: Also, a question: Do you have the 2.8A single mode, or the 2.5A?

Thanks for your efforts Josh, I may have to give this setup a shot. All I really need would be the drop in from nailbender.:twothumbs

Updated with outdoor beamshots :twothumbs

Nice work! For those who'd like to order the light OP reflector for the DBS, you need to order the MC-E OP reflector, then put a note in the "Shipping Instructions" box during checkout stating that you'd like the light OP version. We only have one or two left, but should have more within 10 days. Looks like a really powerful beam! :twothumbs

Good review. The Lego format is a great plus for me.

Now I know what I want.....I wonder how ringy the smooth reflector is?


Good throw considering the foggy conditions.

Nice photo's I think I need to get a light that takes drop ins.

Ps do you mow your snow ????

FlashCrazy said:

Nice work! For those who'd like to order the light OP reflector for the DBS, you need to order the MC-E OP reflector, then put a note in the "Shipping Instructions" box during checkout stating that you'd like the light OP version. We only have one or two left, but should have more within 10 days. Looks like a really powerful beam! :twothumbs

Click to expand...

You can thank JC for this order, I've been in contact with him over PM and was persuaded this is the upgrade I needed for my collection.


JC,
Thanks once again for all your assistance. Looking forward to receiving my DBS, just gotta contact Dave for the pill now.

Cheers,
Tim

bigchelis said:

Good review. The Lego format is a great plus for me.

Now I know what I want.....I wonder how ringy the smooth reflector is?


Good throw considering the foggy conditions.

Click to expand...

I'd take beamshots of it, but I didn't have much luck showing the rings the first time, and now that the pill is thermal pasted into place I'd rather not remove it. There were 3 fairly bright rings just out from the hotspot that were kind of distracting. The light OP is just barely textured, but it smoothed them out to a nice even sidespill. Never thought I'd say that I preferred an OP to a SMO, but it really helps with light around the hotspot. As you can see in the shed pic, the hotspot is only lighting up the center half of the shed, but the bright spill lights up the area around it even at 60'.

Ps do you mow your snow ????

Click to expand...

Nahh, the kids just left the door open. That's the reason for all the tracks around the snow

Excellent looking light Josh! So would this be a fair comparison of 4 Dereelights?

The DBS V3 R2, XPG & your SST-50 all have roughly the same throw, but the XPG has +/- 50% more spill than the R2 and yours has 50% more spill than the XPG.
And then the DBS MC-E would have roughly the same lumens as yours, but only 1/2 the throw distance?

If that were true I guess that would make the R2 look really tight compared to the MC-E, and for my tastes, your set up would be the perfect combo of flood and throw!

There is a slight variation in throw between the three, it goes XPG -> R2 -> SST-50, with around 2.5k lux difference between the XPG\R2 and 3.5k between the R2\SST-50. Since I don't have a light meter, these are semi-accurate guesstimates pulled from various other members who do while attempting to adjust for variations between meters. Not exactly scientific, but it's safe to say the SST-50 throws slightly better then the R2 which throws a tiny bit better then the XP-G.

The MC-E is driven at 2.1A; the SST-50 is 15-20% more efficient and driven at 2.8A [25% more] with a lighter-textured reflector. So as a rough guess, the SST-50 is putting out at least 30-40% more lumens then the MC-E with a throw well over twice as far. The MC-E is fairly floody, though; but with a $9 diffusion lens from flashlightlens.com, you could turn the DBS into a flooder as well with only a small (5-10%) drop in lumens.

joshconsulting said:

There were 3 fairly bright rings just out from the hotspot that were kind of distracting.

Click to expand...

Guess I got lucky with my SST-50/DBS SMO - no rings at all in white wall or real-world use. Perfect combination: MC-E-type spill & lots of throw.

You might try adjusting the screw-in pill depth in the reflector to eliminate rings. I've used an o-ring to do this with X-REs successfully.

SCEMan said:

Guess I got lucky with my SST-50/DBS SMO - no rings at all in white wall or real-world use. Perfect combination: MC-E-type spill & lots of throw.

You might try adjusting the screw-in pill depth in the reflector to eliminate rings. I've used an o-ring to do this with X-REs successfully.

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As it is, the pill only gets about 2 full turns in before it stops. Since it's the only thermal contact point, I'd rather not unscrew it any. There were very definite rings, though; you might have gotten lucky. Alan at Dereelight recommended a light OP, though he didn't say why. He might have gotten the same beam flaws.

Light OP also has the advantage of removing the cloverleaf pattern in the center of the beam, but it's such a small thing it doesn't really matter. Could you take a picture of your sidespill around the hotspot? I'm curious to see what it looks like in a SMO without rings. I have what looks like four slightly elliptical circle patterns on each corner that are almost invisible, but can be seen pretty plainly in a SMO.

Oh, and is yours the single mode 2.8A or 2.5A?

It's daytime here, but I'll try to get a whitewall beamshot when I have a chance. my SST-50 is a 2.8A DD 3-level.

SCEMan said:

It's daytime here, but I'll try to get a whitewall beamshot when I have a chance. my SST-50 is a 2.8A DD 3-level.

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2.8A DD? Wouldn't a DD pull considerably more from an AW 18650? Big C measured his as 5.7A at the tailcap. Or do you have a special 3 mode 2.8A driver?

Also, you could try taking it in a darkish room with the shades down, I just tried it in a fairly dark room and as soon as I turned on the light the camera throttled down exposure to the point where I never could have guessed it was daylight

I'm running my DBS with the XP-G pill and OP reflector now. The smooth reflector for the XP-G is pretty ringy. By ringy I mean there aren't dark spots, but it goes from bright to not as bright at a few points.

joshconsulting said:

2.8A DD? Wouldn't a DD pull considerably more from an AW 18650?

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It's Nailbender's standard DD 3-mode driver. Since I only use High sparingly as I need it, I've had no heat issues or noticeable dimming in night-to-night use.

Here's the daylight beamshot. It's not that representative of what I see. In reality the hotspot is smaller and spill brighter but at 3 feet the camera cannot meter the hotspot without dimming the entire exposure.

I see. So it's more of a 4.5A high then 2.8, but you don't use high much.

The spill looks very nice. I can see the same four faint starts that I see in the OP, and slight ringyness, but it looks almost as good as my light OP. My SMO was far more ringy then that.

Out of curiosity, is yours a 5700k WJ or a 6500k WJ? I got lucky with a 5700k, and despite the rated 70 CRI, it really does a nice job of making colors stand out - the yellowish lights works far better then the cool blue of my Maglight LED.

joshconsulting said:

I see. So it's more of a 4.5A high then 2.8, but you don't use high much.

The spill looks very nice. I can see the same four faint starts that I see in the OP, and slight ringyness, but it looks almost as good as my light OP. My SMO was far more ringy then that.

Out of curiosity, is yours a 5700k WJ or a 6500k WJ? I got lucky with a 5700k, and despite the rated 70 CRI, it really does a nice job of making colors stand out - the yellowish lights works far better then the cool blue of my Maglight LED.

Click to expand...

So let me get this right you can get a 3-mode Direct drive Nailbender SST-50 that feeds the SST-50 4.5A direct drive?? If so in the DBS ow hot is it getting ?? How does a single 18650 handle it ?? runtime 15 minutes??

I just bought a DBS XP-G and Im very impressed with the Throw and Spill very nice light.But I just received my new version Catapult today my first SST-50 light and Im very impressed so far.This thread has me very intrested in my DBS right now.

lovecpf