The Miller
Newly Enlightened
- Joined
- May 8, 2016
- Messages
- 75
This review should have been done much sooner.
Sorry dear May (from Gearbest who asked me out of the blue if I wanted to review it and kindly shipped it very fast to me) there was too much work here to be done. Two trees, big 30 meter dead Acacia trees I wanted to fell in autumn came crashing down during a storm. No damage but well all that weight of one on the bamboo at front of the house and of the other on some nice pine trees needed to be taken off so I was just too tired at night to be able to write a review. I mean, a fast reaction on BLF during a little break is one thing, writing a review is something else.
On the plus side, I got really familiar with the Darktort and it took some beating.
It fell more then 2 meters on concrete
It bounced down a concrete stairs
I dropped it in the river and it got swept away to a deep area more then 2 meters deep
I ran it for as long as I could putting it to Turbo as soon as the step down kicked in
And well it took it all pretty well!
PRO
Excellent finish
Durable anodisation
Bright
Dual switch for lockout and easy mode switching
Excellent cooling properties
Very nice feel
Good threads
It cleverly does not switches off on low voltage but stays on extremely unbright
870 ANSI/NEMAFL1 Lumens
CON
Hard to take apart
The plastic thingy at the botton of the driver seems useless (though a small disc or o-ring prevents a negative side of cell to be able to contact the driver so it can be made usefull)
No real moon
The flashlight comes in a simple box and is well protected:
.
.
There is a Chinese manual
And on the back the nice folks of Darktort were so kind to print an English translation as well:
.
.
It is clearly intended for EDC, being a not so thick tube that comes with a handy clip.
Here it is next to the lights I would consider very good EDC lights, the Convoy S2+ in red and S2 in another color
.
.
The Darktort is longer and has a couple of small cooling fins on the head.
At first glance they seem ridiculous, being small and not all the way round.
But not only provide the fins just the right guidance one needs to find the side switch with ease, they keep the light cool. But we'll come to that later.
Here is the head with side switch in better view:
.
This switch is just for mode selection, normally it runs through the low to turbo modes, but pressing this switch longer brings one to the strobe, another long press SOS and another long press beacon.
.
.
At the tail is a button for on and off.
.
Half pressing it turns the light on in the mode it has memorized and turns it off when released. A full click turns it on or off. And it has a solid feel to it.
(ring to take it apart removed counter-clock-wise)
.
But wait what does that PCB say?
sunwayman, reading about Darktort they seem to be a OEM and they make Sunwayman lights.
This Darktort DTC20 is in fact the same light as the Sunwayman P25C so it seems. But cheaper!
.
.
There is a small plastic thingy around the brass button on the driver where the + of the cell is supposed to go.
Here it is on the negative side of a cell:
It is just pushed on the brass thing, it took me a while to get that rotating would not make it come off.
Here it is on a + side of a cell:
I did not know what to make of it, and concluded it was merely to make the driver look neat. But because of the size of the brass driver connector it could not be a polarity protetion thing. Besides the entry in the manual that reversed cells would not work makes me think the driver has that protection build in the electronics. However I installed a small o-ring and now flattop and reversed cells cannot tough the brass driver connector.
.
The plastic thingy makes the light look tidy and neat:
.
.
The anodisation withstood all my abuse very good:
.
.
It has an very soft, silk like feel on the smooth parts, the softest feel I ever encountered on metal.
The parts with knurling are done right an give good grip:
.
.
The threads are of high quality and seem square:
.
They come nice and lubed:
.
Thick o-rings complete the quality feel and finish:
.
Compare the tube to the S2+ tube:
.
.
Everything is just nicer done then on the Convoys.
And just a bit thicker here and much more mass in the head and the fins there make a stunning difference.
After running the Darktort on Turbo for 20 minutes straight (so every time it stepped down, click to activate again) I measured the following temperatures in a room at 18GrdC
Darktort DTC20
Head 48,9C
Tube 40,4C
Cell 36,5C
I wanted to compare this to the Convoy S2+ 6*7138 but after five minutes this one became too hot to proceed (with a lumens output comparable with the high mode of the Darktort torch!)
Head 52,7C
Tube 46,2C
Cell 41,2C
So the little fins do their jobs.
Also there is a difference in weight and thus amount of heat the body can take in.
Darktort DTC20
head 45,1 gram
body 25 gram
tail 17,6 gram
Convoy S2+
head 33,7
body 25,2
tail 15,2
But when warm and turned of the Darktort torch shed its heat much faster, and that proves the fins do work.
.
.
The runtimes Darktort specifies seem to be accurate (I only checked Turbo and got a longer runtime as promised so trust them on the rest.)
However there is something very interesting happening when the voltage gets low.
The light gives three blinks and swithes down one mode.
This is repeated till the torch seems off.
But it is not off, very faint the LEDs is kept lit.
This was strange. After a full day the cell used for testing this was not measuring lower so at first I did not understand why this behaviour was choosen.
But during the test to see if it would trip the protection of a cell thus having it standing in this faint mode, we went out in a hurry and I grabbed it as EDC. And as always I wanted to click it ON to see is it works. And of course by doing so I actually turned it OFF and then it hit me…NICE…
When a light switches off on low voltage the cell will bounce back the voltage. So a fast check for working on a light would make it seem like a cell is ready to use. The Darktort makes it very clear the cell is not ready in this case. So from bug/fluke I am certain it is a feature and a good one as well for a EDC.
.
.
The reflector is slightly bigger then that of a stock S2+
.
It gives the Darktort light a nice beam:
.
It throws better then the S2+:
(S2+ left and DTC20 right
.
As a matter of fact, beam, brightness and tint are very much the same as the Thorfire VG10 that has a wides head and bigger reflector:
(Thorfire left and Darktort right)
.
.
Outside this flashlight proved handy.
To give you an idea what people you shine at see, here it is at turbo shining at 100 meters:
.
.
The Darktort shining at us from 25 meters:
.
So do not shine at people. it is just too bright for that
.
.
The house from 30 meters away then:
LOW
.
MED
.
HIGH
.
TURBO
.
.
The house from 100 meters away:
LOW
.
MED
.
HIGH
.
TURBO
.
.
.
And to conclude I have no idea where the name Darktort comes from.
Though I find it amusing to see the word Dark in the name.
The name as a whole sounds a bit German, and maybe that is the reason, German stuff has a name for being quality.
But I must say quality is a word that definitely suits the Darktort DTC20!
.
.
Thanks for reading.
Feel free to ask any questions or post remarks!
.
.
Oh yeah May asked me to post this in the review:
Coupon: DTC20 can be used on Gearbest to get a price of $26.99
Sorry dear May (from Gearbest who asked me out of the blue if I wanted to review it and kindly shipped it very fast to me) there was too much work here to be done. Two trees, big 30 meter dead Acacia trees I wanted to fell in autumn came crashing down during a storm. No damage but well all that weight of one on the bamboo at front of the house and of the other on some nice pine trees needed to be taken off so I was just too tired at night to be able to write a review. I mean, a fast reaction on BLF during a little break is one thing, writing a review is something else.
On the plus side, I got really familiar with the Darktort and it took some beating.
It fell more then 2 meters on concrete
It bounced down a concrete stairs
I dropped it in the river and it got swept away to a deep area more then 2 meters deep
I ran it for as long as I could putting it to Turbo as soon as the step down kicked in
And well it took it all pretty well!
PRO
Excellent finish
Durable anodisation
Bright
Dual switch for lockout and easy mode switching
Excellent cooling properties
Very nice feel
Good threads
It cleverly does not switches off on low voltage but stays on extremely unbright
870 ANSI/NEMAFL1 Lumens
CON
Hard to take apart
The plastic thingy at the botton of the driver seems useless (though a small disc or o-ring prevents a negative side of cell to be able to contact the driver so it can be made usefull)
No real moon
The flashlight comes in a simple box and is well protected:
.
.
There is a Chinese manual
And on the back the nice folks of Darktort were so kind to print an English translation as well:
.
.
It is clearly intended for EDC, being a not so thick tube that comes with a handy clip.
Here it is next to the lights I would consider very good EDC lights, the Convoy S2+ in red and S2 in another color
.
.
The Darktort is longer and has a couple of small cooling fins on the head.
At first glance they seem ridiculous, being small and not all the way round.
But not only provide the fins just the right guidance one needs to find the side switch with ease, they keep the light cool. But we'll come to that later.
Here is the head with side switch in better view:
.
This switch is just for mode selection, normally it runs through the low to turbo modes, but pressing this switch longer brings one to the strobe, another long press SOS and another long press beacon.
.
.
At the tail is a button for on and off.
.
Half pressing it turns the light on in the mode it has memorized and turns it off when released. A full click turns it on or off. And it has a solid feel to it.
(ring to take it apart removed counter-clock-wise)
.
But wait what does that PCB say?
sunwayman, reading about Darktort they seem to be a OEM and they make Sunwayman lights.
This Darktort DTC20 is in fact the same light as the Sunwayman P25C so it seems. But cheaper!
.
.
There is a small plastic thingy around the brass button on the driver where the + of the cell is supposed to go.
Here it is on the negative side of a cell:
It is just pushed on the brass thing, it took me a while to get that rotating would not make it come off.
Here it is on a + side of a cell:
I did not know what to make of it, and concluded it was merely to make the driver look neat. But because of the size of the brass driver connector it could not be a polarity protetion thing. Besides the entry in the manual that reversed cells would not work makes me think the driver has that protection build in the electronics. However I installed a small o-ring and now flattop and reversed cells cannot tough the brass driver connector.
.
The plastic thingy makes the light look tidy and neat:
.
.
The anodisation withstood all my abuse very good:
.
.
It has an very soft, silk like feel on the smooth parts, the softest feel I ever encountered on metal.
The parts with knurling are done right an give good grip:
.
.
The threads are of high quality and seem square:
.
They come nice and lubed:
.
Thick o-rings complete the quality feel and finish:
.
Compare the tube to the S2+ tube:
.
.
Everything is just nicer done then on the Convoys.
And just a bit thicker here and much more mass in the head and the fins there make a stunning difference.
After running the Darktort on Turbo for 20 minutes straight (so every time it stepped down, click to activate again) I measured the following temperatures in a room at 18GrdC
Darktort DTC20
Head 48,9C
Tube 40,4C
Cell 36,5C
I wanted to compare this to the Convoy S2+ 6*7138 but after five minutes this one became too hot to proceed (with a lumens output comparable with the high mode of the Darktort torch!)
Head 52,7C
Tube 46,2C
Cell 41,2C
So the little fins do their jobs.
Also there is a difference in weight and thus amount of heat the body can take in.
Darktort DTC20
head 45,1 gram
body 25 gram
tail 17,6 gram
Convoy S2+
head 33,7
body 25,2
tail 15,2
But when warm and turned of the Darktort torch shed its heat much faster, and that proves the fins do work.
.
.
The runtimes Darktort specifies seem to be accurate (I only checked Turbo and got a longer runtime as promised so trust them on the rest.)
However there is something very interesting happening when the voltage gets low.
The light gives three blinks and swithes down one mode.
This is repeated till the torch seems off.
But it is not off, very faint the LEDs is kept lit.
This was strange. After a full day the cell used for testing this was not measuring lower so at first I did not understand why this behaviour was choosen.
But during the test to see if it would trip the protection of a cell thus having it standing in this faint mode, we went out in a hurry and I grabbed it as EDC. And as always I wanted to click it ON to see is it works. And of course by doing so I actually turned it OFF and then it hit me…NICE…
When a light switches off on low voltage the cell will bounce back the voltage. So a fast check for working on a light would make it seem like a cell is ready to use. The Darktort makes it very clear the cell is not ready in this case. So from bug/fluke I am certain it is a feature and a good one as well for a EDC.
.
.
The reflector is slightly bigger then that of a stock S2+
.
It gives the Darktort light a nice beam:
.
It throws better then the S2+:
(S2+ left and DTC20 right
.
As a matter of fact, beam, brightness and tint are very much the same as the Thorfire VG10 that has a wides head and bigger reflector:
(Thorfire left and Darktort right)
.
.
Outside this flashlight proved handy.
To give you an idea what people you shine at see, here it is at turbo shining at 100 meters:
.
.
The Darktort shining at us from 25 meters:
.
So do not shine at people. it is just too bright for that
.
.
The house from 30 meters away then:
LOW
.
MED
.
HIGH
.
TURBO
.
.
The house from 100 meters away:
LOW
.
MED
.
HIGH
.
TURBO
.
.
.
And to conclude I have no idea where the name Darktort comes from.
Though I find it amusing to see the word Dark in the name.
The name as a whole sounds a bit German, and maybe that is the reason, German stuff has a name for being quality.
But I must say quality is a word that definitely suits the Darktort DTC20!
.
.
Thanks for reading.
Feel free to ask any questions or post remarks!
.
.
Oh yeah May asked me to post this in the review:
Coupon: DTC20 can be used on Gearbest to get a price of $26.99
