*2016* New Fenix PD32 2016: 900 Lumens

[CelticCross74]

That is a very good question kreisl. Fenix seems to have developed a habit of suddenly dropping new product out of nowhere unannounced over the past couple of years.

The 2016 PD32 is one of the best EDC lights I have ever had. That ragged thing they call a "holster" that comes with it....is most likely a marketing attempt to get you to buy one of their new actually very nice high quality holsters they sell separately. I got two of them. They are perfect for any PD series. Then again they cost HOW MUCH AGAIN?

For 2018 the only real possible change for the PD32 would be including that very nice high quality holster instead of what looks like cut up pieces of old seatbelts sloppily threaded together.

XHP emitters take some pretty stout electronics to drive any of them. ZL seems to have started to come close to getting very compact XHP lights working correctly on almost a consistent basis for example.

Still, the 2016 PD32 MINUS that sack cloth "holster" it comes with is soooo close to being a stellar value. The XP-L HI emitter does just fine. For more power and throw you would end up with something like the P12GT which is I believe a full INCH longer, only has 4 main output modes, it DOES have NC's bells and whistles package and thermal regulation though so of COURSE I have that one as well.

The P12GT also came with a poopy holster. The same sold separately high quality holster that Fenix sells is also sold separately by NC. My P12GT is actually a very tight fit for it due to its length though.

UC35? In reality one of the best EDC "Cigar tube size" category lights ever despite it being the LONGEST light in that category....has been in desperate need of a quality holster that will actually fit it.

I still have my original PD32 340 lumen....it STILL WORKS PERFECTLY!!

2016 PD32 tail boot switch mod I discovered to eliminate that short hard to press stock tail boot-AT V3 rubber boot. No more having to FORCE the switch to activate. Using one of my AT V3 tail boots half the force is required and can be worked from almost any angle due to the V3 switch boots rounded shape. The one I put into mine still allows the light to tail stand as well.

I hope these pics of it I just took show up-

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[kreisl]

Great post, thx for sharing all the info and pics!

Separate quality holsters by Fenix and NC?
Do you mean Fenix ALP-MT and Nitcore NCP30?

I wasn't aware of these products 😶

 

[colight]

I've been on and off the grid for quite some time now, but I have been following CPF whenever time allowed. I have to say that this is quite an interesting factor which I have not really given much thought before, but your ideas certainly have some merit. I'll follow the manufacturers with interest to see if they come up with something.

 

[colight]

I've been on and off the grid for quite some time now, but I have been following CPF whenever time allowed. I have to say that this is quite an interesting factor which I have not really given much thought before, but your ideas about the pouches certainly have some merit. I'll follow the manufacturers with interest to see if they come up with something.

 

[kreisl]

While i've been posting on questionable physical reverse polarity protection lately (see my recent posts on: K18 SS, SC52, S1A SS, Smini Ti, H1 Nova, HM61R, LD01 SS, WTH2020), there has been an interesting concurrent thread on TLF, showing the failure of electronic RPP on the FW3A 1×18650. :devil:

This PD32 2016 model, my #1 favorite 1x18650 EDC thrower of all time, is advertised as featuring "Reverse polarity protection, to protect from improper battery installation". This may well be true (personally, i doht trust fenis marketing rep blah see my shared experience with HM61R and LD01 SS) but then it has to be electronic RPP and not mechanical/physical/structural RPP. Does it matter? Well it's imho good to understand why/when an implemented RPP can fail, as seen in the TLF thread.

The 18650 battery in the pd32 2016 is suspended between two spring coils. This should help dampen the shock of the impact on the driver disc when the light gets dropped accidentally. Fine with me.

On the other hand it means that no matter how you install the battery, correctly vs reversely, the springs always touch the poles of the 18650 battery, and the electric circuit does get closed when you tighten down all flashlight parts AND press on the tailcap button. Fenis design department should do exactly that, the 24h test: take a fully charged unprotected 18650, install it in the pd32 2016 reversely, make sure that head and tail cap are both fully tightened down, fully engage the tailcap button (thus establishing a closed circuit powered by a reverse voltage source), and leave this electronic state running for 24 hours. Maybe they did that. They certainly should have.

If the PD32 2016 has electronic RPP, then the point of this post (incl the TLF link) is to tell you: electronic components can fail.

With Fenis, i doht trust information which i am getting from their marketing reps, also because of mutual misunderstanding borat of Chin*lish communicate En*rish (Did you understand the latter part of that sentence, fully? Exactly, my point haha. ). The earlier PD32 models had a different metal(+)contact structure, hinting at the usual physical RPP. There is some chance that marketing reps simply copy pasted old features (like physical RPP) to the specs for the later PD32 models, even though the metal(+)contact structure had completely changed. Let's say, i wouldn't be surprised if such a copy paste editing error had happened here or some other kind of error in the fenis design department.

With this post i wanna remind every owner including myself that errors can happen, accidents can happen, and that i personally cannot confirm that PD32 2016 has electronic RPP. I can confirm though that it does not have mechanical/physical/structural RPP (which would be the safest kind of RPP imho), which is interesting to know per se. If you, or a troll, claim that you did the 24h test and nothing has fried, then good for you but i won't confirm your results, if that's what you're after.

Conclusion:
If you install a fully charged unprotected 18650 reversely AND the driver eventually breaks, then feel free to blame it on a failed electronic component of the electronic RPP and not on the actual lack/missing of electronic RPP in the first place lol, as seen in the TLF thread. And if your driver doesn't break, then hooray to the trustworthily long-lasting quality of Ch*nese electronic components :huh:

How good/effective/reliable is electronic RPP after all? Just read the TLF thread. I found it very enlightening no pun intended and it made me wonder and question :fail:

Having said all of the above, no matter whether my cherry-picked cherished pd32 2016 does have electronic RPP or not, i am never going to test if that electronic RPP actually/still works! It might still work on your unit, i am just going to assume that after 4.0yrs since purchase the critical component has expired and that my unit does not have working electronic RPP anymore. Better safe than sorry.