TR-J18 8500 lm disappointment

Hi im fairly new to the flashlight seen but have found my self engrossed looking for hours on ebay and at builds and mods. Im a game-hawker and love hunting at night with my bird, so this is just an extension of a hobby, well thats what i tell the wife and im sticking by it LOL !! i purchased two lights recently, a small pocket size zoomey running on a single 18650 with one xm-l-t6 and supposedly 1600lm which im very happy with for the size and price.



My second purchase after seeing what one xm-lt6 could do was The Trustfire TR-J18 that has seven and boasting 8500lm when i got it i quickly went out that night taking both to test run. The single zoomey has just as much a throw as the TR-J18 i was not expecting this, and the beam angle is as wide it just floods the hole place in front of you, and to be honest dosent seem to be that much brighter maybe 3 times as bright.
I need a light with plenty of throw and a good balance of flood, so my Hawk has the confidence to fly.
I ran it with 3 18650's would the 26650's be a better battery for it ???
Also is there away of tightening the beam for more throw ??? maybe using an aspherical lense like the small zoomey ??? if so any suggestions on how to do this would be of great help!!
Or am i best returning the light for something else ???

:welcome:

Using an aspheric lens on a multi-emitter light like this will result only in a "disco-ball" effect.

There's no useful way of improving the throw of these lights, except for boosting the output.

The TR-J18 only outputs 3000-3200 lumens in stock form (welcome to the world of "marketing lumens"). You can push it harder with a driver upgrade, if you're handy with a soldering iron.

26650's will definitely be a better option.

The other thing for you to read up on is the difference between lumens and lux.

Your zooming light is out-throwing the big guy because even though it has fewer lumens, it can produce higher lux.

Lumens is the measure of how much light you're making. Lux is the measure of how much light is hitting a specific area.

Hi mvyrmnd thanks for the info. Makes sense that an aspheric would only produce a disco ball affect with so many leds, kinda stab in the dark to see if i could do something with the light to make use of it i purchased of the bay and we all know returns can be tricky.
Unfortunately my naiveness has landed me with a flashlight some might consider very good, just unfortunately does not fit my needs.
If i have no look with the return i may look into changing the driver as i have an old HID that does not work and could use the driver from this for a diy jobby.

If there is any thought of a light that people think would fit my needs i would be very grateful of their insight just in case i make another impulse buy!!
Am i right in saying that a flash light with either an SST-50 or SST-90 have good throw as well as spill ? i have been looking at the trustfire sst-90 is this a good buy ??

As a note, it is vary hard for the XM-L to hit 1600 lumen, the light is more likely 400-600 lumen out the front. Also, an aspherical lens project the image of what every is at it's focal point, so it will project the 7 different independent LEDs giving you 7 different hotspots. It could work if you had one lens for each LED. The "8500" lumen light is more likely 2000-3000 lumen out the front.

Lumen = overall output, lux = lumen per meter (light intensity). Lasers have high lux low lumen, a flood light has high lumen and low lux.

The 26650 would be able to take a higher current then the 18650 so would do better in high power lights. Do not use the HID driver, it will fry the LEDs with high voltage (LEDs are not HIDs). You'll need a LED driver for the mod.

For lights, larger reflector + smaller emitting area = narrower beam, and large reflector + higher emitting surface brightness = more throw. So if you want tons of throw, get a light with a large reflector and a well driven smaller sized emitter. The SST-90 has a 3mm x 3mm LED die (9mm^2), the SST-50 has a 2.23mm x 2.23mm (5mm^2) , the Cree XM-L has a 2mm x 2mm die (4mm^2), the XP-G has a 1.4mm x 1.4mm die (2mm^2), and the XP-E has a 0.9mm x 0.9mm die (0.81mm^2).

What's your price range? The Olight SR95 UT is one of the best stock LED throwers at $450 (SBT-90 in a 4" reflector). The Thrunite TN31 also throws pretty far (XM-L in a 3" reflector).\

:welcome:

Hi Gunnner12 i kinda thought that the little light was far from 1600lm that is way i was so disappointed with the TR-J18, The driver i would be using for the DIY project would be the driver out of the TR-J18 if i was to upgrade it. I think im nearly there in sorting a return out for it ill just have to wait and see if seller will play ball.
Unfortunately $450 is well out of my price range, i would be looking for something in and around 100euro think that's about $120-$130
What is your thought on the Trusfire x6 is it a good light for the money ?
THE sbt-90 is it a de-domed led. pricey chip !! why de-domed ?? what is the reason for it?
The reflector i have is of an old bruiser its a about 7" or in and around 180mm is it a bit big ?? I have the casing batteries and charger, i was thinking of keeping it simple and just change the flashlight over to leds and run a single SST-50 or 90 i have an over-sized heat-sink that fits perfect. Flash light below is more or less exact match, how would a reflector of that size with an SST-50/90 put out light would it throw or flood.

Ozzy1981 said:

Hi Gunnner12 i kinda thought that the little light was far from 1600lm that is way i was so disappointed with the TR-J18, The driver i would be using for the DIY project would be the driver out of the TR-J18 if i was to upgrade it. I think im nearly there in sorting a return out for it ill just have to wait and see if seller will play ball.
Unfortunately $450 is well out of my price range, i would be looking for something in and around 100euro think that's about $120-$130
What is your thought on the Trusfire x6 is it a good light for the money ?
THE sbt-90 is it a de-domed led. pricey chip !! why de-domed ?? what is the reason for it?
The reflector i have is of an old bruiser its a about 7" or in and around 180mm is it a bit big ?? I have the casing batteries and charger, i was thinking of keeping it simple and just change the flashlight over to leds and run a single SST-50 or 90 i have an over-sized heat-sink that fits perfect. Flash light below is more or less exact match, how would a reflector of that size with an SST-50/90 put out light would it throw or flood.

Click to expand...

I have one of those spotlights. The reflector is all wrong for an LED. If you were to fit an aftermarket 55W HID Kit into it (my exact setup) then that would be a good upgrade for it.

The SBT-90 has no dome to reduce the apparent die size, which increases the throw compared to the SST-90, if all other things are equal.

If that light is using a automotive bulb, a HID upgrade might be a good idea, and if you are feeling up to it, you can also swap out the battery pack for a Li-ion pack for a lighter spotlight. You'll need a different charger for the Li-ion batteries though. The focal point of those spotlights are usually pretty high, meaning it won't catch most of the output of a LED and not sent as much light into the hotspot. A HID bulb meant to swap for a car headlamp would be a perfect swap.

As for the Trustfire SST-90, here's a review. Seem like you'll need to mod it to get more output.

mvyrmnd is right about the dedoming. With the dome, the apparent size of the LED is larger (the dome magnifies the die), so removing the dome gives more throw by reducing the apparent size. But without the dome, less light get out since less light is hitting the dome-air interface perpendicularly (at least that's what I think happens).

On average the J18 is brighter on two cells than it is on three, and it gets a little brighter when each cell gets down to 3.9 volts from the reviews I've read. 2400 + lumens otf On start up. It's quite floody, all showerhead types are. There's a dx driver that'll bump it up to 4800 lumens, but it still won't out throw the FenixTK70.
A good throw with lots of overall light is the Fenix TK41. There's lots of good info on this site, and youll learn to look for ANSI out the front lumens, and lux readings for throw to find what works for you.

Hi CarpentryHero just shows how much of a newbie i am i would of thought less batteries = less voltage resulting in a drop in brightness lol that has just gone over my head:thinking: Whats ANSI ??

Do you have a link for that driver just in case i end up having to keep The J18 ?

The tk41 is a lovely light but has to many batteries at 8 i think i would find my self charging them all the time as i could need too sets for the length of time it would be using the light = 16 batteries or can this take 18650's. The tk70 is out of my price range, the missus would have a heart failure, shes convinced i need the light for hawking and not just another hobby :laughing:

Hey Gunner12 thanks for the link i think that the Trustfire sst-90 is so far the best light for me but i will keep doing my homework this time.

Do you have any idea were i could get a HID ballast or kit, i know nothing at all about weather id be buying a good en or a total duff, from what has been said i think its better to go HID with this diy and eventually change to li-ion batteries.