Beam shots comparing new Neutron to "old" Neutron. Did Thrunite change the Neutron?

Beam shots comparing new Neutron to "old" Neutron. Did Thrunite change the Neutron?

I love the beam so much on my Thrunite Neutron 2A (neutral) so I purchased a Neutron 1A for my daughter. The 1A beam looks nothing like the 2A. It is the most horrible beam I've ever seen. This XML has more rings than the XRE. What happened?

This is what I saw when I turned it on
Wow, lets count the rings.



Unfortunately, this is noticable everywhere I've tried the light so far.
I quickly grabbed my Neutron 2A (neutral) to compare. see the difference? (no, I'm not talking about the tint):



Notice the difference between the reflectors? My old 2A has an OP reflector and the new 1A has a near smooth reflector.



White wall shots (1A is cool, 2A is warm). Notice the 1A has rings and artifacts everywhere. The 1A also has donut hole which you can't see in this picture.




Did the 1A always have a different reflector from the 2A or did Thrunite change the reflectors on all the Neutrons (and not for the better)?
BTW, the emitter is perfectly centered and the reflector looks fine.

Re: Beam shots comparing new Neutron to "old" Neutron. Did Thrunite change the Neutro

to be honest, maybe your Neutron has the rings as well but cause of the warmer tint you cant see them as good? the closer beam shots looking pretty identical to me, just different tint. Your Neutron is also brighter because 2AA

Re: Beam shots comparing new Neutron to "old" Neutron. Did Thrunite change the Neutro

Looking at your close up of the reflectors, the Neutral appears to have a deeper OP but it is hard to tell. I would doubt they are different though, seems unlikely as they use the same LED - unless one is deeper than the other?

The rings you are seeing look to be a combination of light rebounding off the bezel, which can be a problem for pronounced metal bezels and AR coating (the purple tint of the edge of the corona) in your stairwell shots. I doubt this has much to do with the reflector; if you look, the hot spot and spill are the the same on both lights but the cool white has wide rings and purple tint beyond the beam profile. The are both XM-L so would have roughly the same beam pattern (depending on reflector)

The beam pattern on the Neutral will be smoother, the phospher on the LED adds additional diffusion.

Re: Beam shots comparing new Neutron to "old" Neutron. Did Thrunite change the Neutro

Smooth reflector = more artifacts.... that's why OP reflectors were invented in the first place.... looks like they wanted to go with more throw for revision 2... a shame because it was the awesomely smooth flood beam that was one of its strongest points... Hopefully they revert back or offer a rougher OP reflector as an option...

Shao



Edit: Bass, my 1C is as cool as a cucumber and there isn't a ring to be found... The neutral theory is out...

Re: Beam shots comparing new Neutron to "old" Neutron. Did Thrunite change the Neutro

Shao, from your reply I understand there is now a revision 2 of the Neutrons? This is probably the difference the OP is experiencing - the Rev 2 has a throwier beam with a smoother reflector.

The additional phosphor used on Neutral and Warms definitely diffuses the beams vs regular cool white - I guess you have a good sample with deeper, shorter OP reflector and wider beam. First run?

Re: Beam shots comparing new Neutron to "old" Neutron. Did Thrunite change the Neutro

Danielsan said:

the closer beam shots looking pretty identical to me, just different tint. Your Neutron is also brighter because 2AA

Click to expand...

The camera did not pick up the rings in the closer beam shot. In real life they are different as night and day. It also has nothing to do with brighter because I put the cool tint head on the 2AA body and the warm head on the 1AA body and the results were the same.

Bass said:

Looking at your close up of the reflectors, the Neutral appears to have a deeper OP but it is hard to tell. I would doubt they are different though, seems unlikely as they use the same LED - unless one is deeper than the other?

Click to expand...

My "old" neutron (the warm tint) has a moderate OP reflector. The new one is nearly smooth. There are also differences on the inside of the head. It appears Thrunite changed the Neutron.

Bass said:

The rings you are seeing look to be a combination of light rebounding off the bezel, which can be a problem for pronounced metal bezels and AR coating (the purple tint of the edge of the corona) in your stairwell shots. I doubt this has much to do with the reflector.

Click to expand...

I removed the metal strike bezel on the cool tinted light and the rings actually got worse. The only thing I can come up with is the smooth vs OP reflector. The beam shots of the rings are actually nowhere near as bad as real life. I've owned at least 50 lights at this point and I have never seen a worse beam.

Re: Beam shots comparing new Neutron to "old" Neutron. Did Thrunite change the Neutro

tre said:

The camera did not pick up the rings in the closer beam shot. In real life they are different as night and day. It also has nothing to do with brighter because I put the cool tint head on the 2AA body and the warm head on the 1AA body and the results were the same.



My "old" neutron (the warm tint) has a moderate OP reflector. The new one is nearly smooth. There are also differences on the inside of the head. It appears Thrunite changed the Neutron.



I removed the metal strike bezel on the cool tinted light and the rings actually got worse. The only thing I can come up with is the smooth vs OP reflector. The beam shots of the rings are actually nowhere near as bad as real life. I've owned at least 50 lights at this point and I have never seen a worse beam.

Click to expand...

I don't know tre. My Fenix PD31 looked a lot like that Neutron. I disliked it a lot and finally got some of phaserburns DC-fix diffusion film and put on it. Changed it from what your seeing to absolutely perfect. If you decide to keep it, rather than send it back, the diffusion film is a very viable "fix" for a beam like that. Good luck. Here's a couple shots of my PD31 "before" and "after" the DC-Fix

Re: Beam shots comparing new Neutron to "old" Neutron. Did Thrunite change the Neutro

I updated the white wall shots. You can really see the artifacts and ring around the spill on the cool tinted Neturon with the smooth reflector vs the original warm neutron with the op reflector.

Re: Beam shots comparing new Neutron to "old" Neutron. Did Thrunite change the Neutro

My Neutron 1A and 2A in both cool and neutral all have the smooth floody beam with a light OP reflector. That was the main reason I have 6 of the neutrons in various AA formats plus a CR123 body. I would not purchase the new version because that beam is not what I want in this light. The beam the old version had is my absolute favourite of all my lights save the Zebralight H501 at least until the H502 comes out.

Re: Beam shots comparing new Neutron to "old" Neutron. Did Thrunite change the Neutro

tre said:

I updated the white wall shots. You can really see the artifacts and ring around the spill on the cool tinted Neturon with the smooth reflector vs the original warm neutron with the op reflector.

Click to expand...

I have 1A, 2A, 1C as well and all has LOP reflector.
It's surprise the difference of the beam profile between OP & smooth reflector is so noticeable.

I link to the relating beamshots here!

Re: Beam shots comparing new Neutron to "old" Neutron. Did Thrunite change the Neutro

The reflectors don't at all the same to me. The one in the 1A looks a lot smoother, less texturing in it than for the 2A. Perhaps that's the reason?

Re: Beam shots comparing new Neutron to "old" Neutron. Did Thrunite change the Neutro

B0wz3r said:

The reflectors don't at all the same to me. The one in the 1A looks a lot smoother, less texturing in it than for the 2A. Perhaps that's the reason?

Click to expand...

I think so.

The shape or form of the reflector(bottom & top) may be another reason.

Re: Beam shots comparing new Neutron to "old" Neutron. Did Thrunite change the Neutro

A few questions for the OP:

1. Is throw significantly increased with the new smooth reflector?
2. Did Thrunite fix the squishy tailcap and wobbly head problems that affected the old models?

Re: Beam shots comparing new Neutron to "old" Neutron. Did Thrunite change the Neutro

CoolLEDs said:

1. Is throw significantly increased with the new smooth reflector?

Click to expand...

The smooth reflector did not change the throw at all. There is no throw. It is a flood light (with a zillion purple and blue rings). The Quark X 2AA throws way farther than this light (even when I use this Neutron with 2AA cells) and the Quark XML is a flood light (think Zebralight beam). I thought I had seen a few bad beams before but this one takes the cake by a mile.

CoolLEDs said:

2. Did Thrunite fix the squishy tailcap and wobbly head problems that affected the old models?

Click to expand...

Head is extremely wobbly. Tailcap I've not noticed.

UI is also not working correctly. When I go from Turbo (head tight) to low (head loose) and back to Turbo, everything is fine. When I go back to low, the light goes off (without pressing the clickie). This happens every time. If I tighten the head again, the light magically goes back on (again without clicking the tailcap).

I've decided this light is going back because of the horrible beam, broken UI, and poor build quality.

Re: Beam shots comparing new Neutron to "old" Neutron. Did Thrunite change the Neutro

I placed an order for a Neutron 1a earlier this week and was a little worried when I came on here and saw all the complaints people had regarding this light (I know it's stupid of me to research the light AFTER getting it). Well I received the light today and I must be lucky or something but my light has none of the mentioned problems. There are no blue ring artefacts, no play in the head whatsoever and I can change from firefly to turbo without any issues. So either I got lucky and received a good one or a lot of people are just getting really unlucky and keep on getting dud ones. That or maybe they've addressed all the issues within like the last month...... :shrug:

Re: Beam shots comparing new Neutron to "old" Neutron. Did Thrunite change the Neutro

stv said:

I placed an order for a Neutron 1a earlier this week and was a little worried when I came on here and saw all the complaints people had regarding this light (I know it's stupid of me to research the light AFTER getting it). Well I received the light today and I must be lucky or something but my light has none of the mentioned problems. There are no blue ring artefacts, no play in the head whatsoever and I can change from firefly to turbo without any issues. So either I got lucky and received a good one or a lot of people are just getting really unlucky and keep on getting dud ones. That or maybe they've addressed all the issues within like the last month...... :shrug:

Click to expand...

Can you set the light to firefly mode, switch it off and on a few times and see if there is light? The problem does not happen from high to firefly but rather when switching on directly to the firefly mode. For mine, sometimes it switches on, sometimes it doesn't.

Re: Beam shots comparing new Neutron to "old" Neutron. Did Thrunite change the Neutro

pjandyho said:

Can you set the light to firefly mode, switch it off and on a few times and see if there is light? The problem does not happen from high to firefly but rather when switching on directly to the firefly mode. For mine, sometimes it switches on, sometimes it doesn't.

Click to expand...

hi pjandyho, I just set the light to firefly mode and turned it off and on 5 or so times and there was light each time. There was a very short pause before the light came on but that seems to be the case with each of the settings and I'm assuming it has something to do with the memory function.

Re: Beam shots comparing new Neutron to "old" Neutron. Did Thrunite change the Neutro

stv said:

hi pjandyho, I just set the light to firefly mode and turned it off and on 5 or so times and there was light each time. There was a very short pause before the light came on but that seems to be the case with each of the settings and I'm assuming it has something to do with the memory function.

Click to expand...

Thrunite probably fixed the issue. Kind of irritating if you are trying to get it to come on in firefly mode when say just woken up from sleep in the middle of the night.

Re: Beam shots comparing new Neutron to "old" Neutron. Did Thrunite change the Neutro

pjandyho said:

Thrunite probably fixed the issue. Kind of irritating if you are trying to get it to come on in firefly mode when say just woken up from sleep in the middle of the night.

Click to expand...

Completely understandable. It seems that rather than properly testing the neutron before releasing it, they released the torch and then relied on the consumers to find the bugs for them. All they've managed to do is annoy quite a few customers and taint the image of what appears thus far to be a pretty awesome light.