Aleto T6 Flashlight 7000 lumens
- Thread starter Severus
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kj2
Flashaholic
7000 lumens... Yeah right xD
Derek Dean
Flashlight Enthusiast
Howdy Severus, and welcome to the forum!
I had a look at several of their offerings, and they look like nice lights, however, there are a few things you need to understand.
First, many manufacturers inflate their claims about light output, posting theoretical output under ideal circumstances for a VERY short period of time. Most of the established, reputable manufactures now use the ANSI standard, which mandates a strict test procedure to document the actual out the front lumens.
What does this mean in practical terms? Well, this light might theoretically be able to output 7000 lumens, from the emitters, for a brief period of time, but take into account the light lost from the reflectors, the front glass cover, cell sag, etc. and you quickly realize that in real world use, the numbers will be substantially lower.
Second, often, safety circuits are ignored in these lower power lights. What happens if you put the cells in backwards? How hot does this get when running on full power, and is there a thermal protection circuit? Is there any kind of circuit to prevent over discharge of the rechargeable cells?
Another thing to think about. Are you familiar enough with lithium ion rechargeable battery technology to handle a light like this? High power lights can put a tremendous strain on the batteries, and these batteries, if mistreated can be dangerous. They pack a LOT of power into a small space, and if things go wrong, it's not unheard of for them to "vent with fire". Just something to think about.
I don't have any first hand experience with these lights, so I can't comment on this exact model. I can only tell what I've read from other folks who've posted here on CPF over the years who purchased similar high power lights on ebay. Some of them have great results, some not so great. Understand what you're options are if there is a problem. Often, the buyer pays the return shipping, and that can be expensive.
Mainly, before you get into something like this, learn as much as you can about lithium-ion rechargeable battery technology. I love 18650 lithium-ion batteries, but they need to be treated with respect and understanding, so take the time to learn about their use and how to properly recharge them before getting into a high powered light.
Here is a good place to start:
http://batteryuniversity.com/
Have fun!
I had a look at several of their offerings, and they look like nice lights, however, there are a few things you need to understand.
First, many manufacturers inflate their claims about light output, posting theoretical output under ideal circumstances for a VERY short period of time. Most of the established, reputable manufactures now use the ANSI standard, which mandates a strict test procedure to document the actual out the front lumens.
What does this mean in practical terms? Well, this light might theoretically be able to output 7000 lumens, from the emitters, for a brief period of time, but take into account the light lost from the reflectors, the front glass cover, cell sag, etc. and you quickly realize that in real world use, the numbers will be substantially lower.
Second, often, safety circuits are ignored in these lower power lights. What happens if you put the cells in backwards? How hot does this get when running on full power, and is there a thermal protection circuit? Is there any kind of circuit to prevent over discharge of the rechargeable cells?
Another thing to think about. Are you familiar enough with lithium ion rechargeable battery technology to handle a light like this? High power lights can put a tremendous strain on the batteries, and these batteries, if mistreated can be dangerous. They pack a LOT of power into a small space, and if things go wrong, it's not unheard of for them to "vent with fire". Just something to think about.
I don't have any first hand experience with these lights, so I can't comment on this exact model. I can only tell what I've read from other folks who've posted here on CPF over the years who purchased similar high power lights on ebay. Some of them have great results, some not so great. Understand what you're options are if there is a problem. Often, the buyer pays the return shipping, and that can be expensive.
Mainly, before you get into something like this, learn as much as you can about lithium-ion rechargeable battery technology. I love 18650 lithium-ion batteries, but they need to be treated with respect and understanding, so take the time to learn about their use and how to properly recharge them before getting into a high powered light.
Here is a good place to start:
http://batteryuniversity.com/
Have fun!
You are right, I am new to this forum and thanks for your time but I have many years being a flashaholic, I am familiar on how a flashlight works, I own many modded lights and I have an enginnering backgound so I think you misinterpreted my poorly stated question. My intended question (if you want to get a little more technical) was: an unknown manufacturer (at least for me) claim that they got a light with huge questionable output seems fishy. Do anybody that owns one to verify the claim? Thanks
Fireclaw18
Flashlight Enthusiast
- Joined
- Mar 16, 2011
- Messages
- 2,408
Aleto appears to be a budget manufacturer. There's no way the light is anywhere close to 7000 lumens.
They've also exaggerated the lumen claims on their other lights. A quick Ebay search on Aleto pulled up a "2000 lumen" 1x18650 zoomie. My guess is the actual output of these lights is probably closer to 1/4 of what they claim. So maybe 500 lumens for the zoomie and 1500 or so for the 5xT6 "7000 lumen" bike light.
I own 3 copies of the Aleto N8 flashlight and a heavily modded one is my current EDC. I purchased it because at 108mm by 24mm it was the smallest single 18650 zoomable I could find anywhere. I wanted a pocketable zoom flashlight with more power than my 14500 ones.
In construction, the Aleto N8 was very similar to other budget zoomies. Switch housing is solid with a nice fitted retaining ring. The lens was an 18mm aspheric with relatively long 18mm focal length. It accepts a 17mm driver and 16mm star... but has a hollow pill. The emitter was a cool white XM-L. Beam pattern in flood mode was decently wide for a zoomie ... 57 degrees. In spot mode it projects a nice image of the emitter, which I measured at around 9k lux.
While small for an 18650 zoomie, the Aleto N8 didn't quite cut it for me in stock form. I made the following modifications to mine:
1. removed gold anodizing with Greased Lightning
2. Added copper heatsink below the star.
3. replaced emitter with dedomed XM-L2 T6 3A tint. Projects a very nice 4500k neutral tint with far less green than other dedomed XM-L2s.
4. replaced star with 16mm direct copper star from Illumination Supply
5. replaced driver with Nanjg 105c with Comfychair FET mod and DrJones lumodrv firmware.
6. Made external changes to the body: filed down a space on the heatsink fins for a momentary sideswitch. Removed tailcap switch and filed down tailcap. shortened both ends of the body, bezel and lens retaining ring.
7. Replaced stock 18mm aspheric lens with a 20mm fresnel lens with short focal length. Added an AR coated glass lens above the fresnel to protect the fresnel.
8. installed micro-momentary sideswitch and wired it up to the driver through a hole drilled in the side of the body. Added rubber switchboot and screwed in switch cover. Combined with the driver, the interface is an electronic sideswitch: double-click from off for max power, hold then click from on to ramp up or down. Hold from off to start at minimimum and ramp up. triple-click for 25%, quad click for 2%, 5-click for strobe. Also has hidden additional hidden blinky modes and voltage meter as well as momentary mode.
9. Added rubber grip sleeve taken from a 1xAA Nebo flashlight.
After performing these mods, I'm fairly pleased with the result:
1. Size: 91mm long x 24mm wide. It's as small as a DQG mini 18650. One of the smallest 18650 lights around. Smaller than a AA sized Sipik 68.
2. Flood beam: 90 degrees wide of very uniform neutral white. Much wider and brighter than the unmodded light's flood beam. I don't know the exact output, but the FET driver is like running direct drive. My guess is around 900 lumens OTF at turn-on. Due to the relatively small amount of metal in the modded light it cannot be run at full power for more than a couple minutes. Fortunately, the driver has shortcuts to other brightnesses as well as 2-way ramping with 34 steps.
3. Spot beam: a fairly wide image of the emitter. I measured 33k lux with my lux meter with the fresnel lens. 33k lux won't win any records for throw, but is quite nice for a small EDC pocket light that's the same size as many 1xAA lights and also has great flood.
I'm waiting for my can of Duracoat and trustrip degreaser to arrive. My plan is to paint the light Titanium Blue color.
They've also exaggerated the lumen claims on their other lights. A quick Ebay search on Aleto pulled up a "2000 lumen" 1x18650 zoomie. My guess is the actual output of these lights is probably closer to 1/4 of what they claim. So maybe 500 lumens for the zoomie and 1500 or so for the 5xT6 "7000 lumen" bike light.
I own 3 copies of the Aleto N8 flashlight and a heavily modded one is my current EDC. I purchased it because at 108mm by 24mm it was the smallest single 18650 zoomable I could find anywhere. I wanted a pocketable zoom flashlight with more power than my 14500 ones.
In construction, the Aleto N8 was very similar to other budget zoomies. Switch housing is solid with a nice fitted retaining ring. The lens was an 18mm aspheric with relatively long 18mm focal length. It accepts a 17mm driver and 16mm star... but has a hollow pill. The emitter was a cool white XM-L. Beam pattern in flood mode was decently wide for a zoomie ... 57 degrees. In spot mode it projects a nice image of the emitter, which I measured at around 9k lux.
While small for an 18650 zoomie, the Aleto N8 didn't quite cut it for me in stock form. I made the following modifications to mine:
1. removed gold anodizing with Greased Lightning
2. Added copper heatsink below the star.
3. replaced emitter with dedomed XM-L2 T6 3A tint. Projects a very nice 4500k neutral tint with far less green than other dedomed XM-L2s.
4. replaced star with 16mm direct copper star from Illumination Supply
5. replaced driver with Nanjg 105c with Comfychair FET mod and DrJones lumodrv firmware.
6. Made external changes to the body: filed down a space on the heatsink fins for a momentary sideswitch. Removed tailcap switch and filed down tailcap. shortened both ends of the body, bezel and lens retaining ring.
7. Replaced stock 18mm aspheric lens with a 20mm fresnel lens with short focal length. Added an AR coated glass lens above the fresnel to protect the fresnel.
8. installed micro-momentary sideswitch and wired it up to the driver through a hole drilled in the side of the body. Added rubber switchboot and screwed in switch cover. Combined with the driver, the interface is an electronic sideswitch: double-click from off for max power, hold then click from on to ramp up or down. Hold from off to start at minimimum and ramp up. triple-click for 25%, quad click for 2%, 5-click for strobe. Also has hidden additional hidden blinky modes and voltage meter as well as momentary mode.
9. Added rubber grip sleeve taken from a 1xAA Nebo flashlight.
After performing these mods, I'm fairly pleased with the result:
1. Size: 91mm long x 24mm wide. It's as small as a DQG mini 18650. One of the smallest 18650 lights around. Smaller than a AA sized Sipik 68.
2. Flood beam: 90 degrees wide of very uniform neutral white. Much wider and brighter than the unmodded light's flood beam. I don't know the exact output, but the FET driver is like running direct drive. My guess is around 900 lumens OTF at turn-on. Due to the relatively small amount of metal in the modded light it cannot be run at full power for more than a couple minutes. Fortunately, the driver has shortcuts to other brightnesses as well as 2-way ramping with 34 steps.
3. Spot beam: a fairly wide image of the emitter. I measured 33k lux with my lux meter with the fresnel lens. 33k lux won't win any records for throw, but is quite nice for a small EDC pocket light that's the same size as many 1xAA lights and also has great flood.
I'm waiting for my can of Duracoat and trustrip degreaser to arrive. My plan is to paint the light Titanium Blue color.
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Even though post 5 is just a little off topic one can only hope the author of the original post can tolerate some fascinating details of a heavily modified light. He did answer the original question. And even though we don't get the benefit of seeing a visual confirmation of such a light (photo or video), the details are so intricate. I only looked at this post because of Fireclaw18's entry was noted under new threads.
