The Official Zebralight Thread .

[holygeez03]

I don't see the word "cool" one either one of the linked pages...

 

[ven]

I don't see the word "cool" one either one of the linked pages...

Zebralight are on the ball, it did show cool white as i checked. They have edited since.....................good stuff!

 

[NPL]

Sort of on the ball...

They haven't posted runtimes of most of their new lights that have been in stock for quite a while now. Worries me that runtimes might not be as good as expected. Otherwise, why such a delay?

 

[Ned-L]

Just received my new SC64w. Thanks to all the good programming suggestions in this thread, I programmed it as follows: G6 group: L1 0.92, L2 2.9, M1 264, M2 1400, H1 56.4 H2 127. No accidentally turning it on in high when I wanted moonlight.

 

[markr6]

Yeah I put it through the wringer winter camping and hiking. Same old NCR18650GA I always use. Great light!!

Uh oh! Did I speak too soon? Last night I turned this on and POOF! It turned right off like before. I continued to use it for a few minutes, turning it off and on and couldn't reproduce it. Keeping an eye on this one now.

 

[WalkIntoTheLight]

Uh oh! Did I speak too soon? Last night I turned this on and POOF! It turned right off like before. I continued to use it for a few minutes, turning it off and on and couldn't reproduce it. Keeping an eye on this one now.

I'm starting to think that this is a common problem with the SC600w MkIV HI, when batteries get down to about 50% charge. I presume your light wasn't cold (which is when I have my problems), but I don't think it's a coincidence that once your light heated up a bit, you never saw the issue again.

Anyone have a similar issue with the SC600w MkIV Plus? I'm thinking of getting that one next, but I'll wait until they sort out these issues if it's also an issue with other models.

 

[Lou Minescence]

Im back to report about my SC600w MKIV HI after a few days of use.
No problems at all running NCR18650GA.
I put my VT6 in it and turned the light on. It stayed on while on max output but I could see some slight flickering in the beam. I put the NCR18650GA back in and the flickering stopped.
I don't mind keeping my light and only using NCR18650GA batteries but I don't want to have a problem light in the future.

 

[Lou Minescence]

I'm starting to think that this is a common problem with the SC600w MkIV HI, when batteries get down to about 50% charge. I presume your light wasn't cold (which is when I have my problems), but I don't think it's a coincidence that once your light heated up a bit, you never saw the issue again.

Anyone have a similar issue with the SC600w MkIV Plus? I'm thinking of getting that one next, but I'll wait until they sort out these issues if it's also an issue with other models.

I have the plus model and no problems so far. I have not run the battery very low in it yet.

 

[WalkIntoTheLight]

I lubricated the pogo pins with Deoxit Gold, just in case it has anything to do with battery contact. I guess I'll know next winter!

Those pins really don't compress much at all. One or two were a bit stiff, but I doubt it affects anything. Although I haven't had any issues with the pogo pins in other Zebralights either, I still wish they stuck with springs. Maybe with a spring bypass, if resistance is an issue. The SC600 series isn't going for minimum size anyway, so an extra 1mm or 2mm for a spring design shouldn't be an issue.

 

[holygeez03]

I haven't had my MKIV Plus battery (GA) down to 50% yeah, but I will let it.

A SC600w Plus with a spring/bypass and a larger head/reflector would be preferable to me.

 

[markr6]

I'm starting to think that this is a common problem with the SC600w MkIV HI, when batteries get down to about 50% charge. I presume your light wasn't cold (which is when I have my problems), but I don't think it's a coincidence that once your light heated up a bit, you never saw the issue again.

Cell was at 4.19v. Fresh off the shelf unused for a few days. Same with the old light - every time it happened the cells were usually 90%, sometimes about 70%+. I never get my lights down to 50% or even close that I recall. And I wouldn't say that it ever "warmed up", since the light only turns on for about 1/2 second. Then I turn it back on and it's always fine then.

So with this first incident on my new light, and dozens with the old returned light, it always works fine after turning on the second time immediately after shutting itself off. Room temp, charged cells.

 

[BAreEhD]

Hi everyone,

Yesterday I received my SC64W from Zebralight. I'm experiencing something that seems strange to me so I thought I'd bounce it off you all.

When I double click from off to get to M1, I get a very brief flash to H1 before it goes down to M1. Is this normal? I would have thought a double click would get me directly to M1 rather than going through H1 first, if even for a fraction of a second.

Thanks!

 

[Keitho]

"preflash" when going to medium is a normal behavior. A lot of folks program to avoid it: put a low or moonlight mode in place of "high," so the preflash is at a lower (and therefore unnoticeable) level than your double-click ("medium") setting. A lot of people seem to have at least one group set up this way: press/hold for high, double-click for medium, single click to moonlight.

 

[WalkIntoTheLight]

"preflash" when going to medium is a normal behavior. A lot of folks program to avoid it: put a low or moonlight mode in place of "high," so the preflash is at a lower (and therefore unnoticeable) level than your double-click ("medium") setting. A lot of people seem to have at least one group set up this way: press/hold for high, double-click for medium, single click to moonlight.

Or just do a long-press for about 1.5 seconds to go to medium. That avoids the pre-flash from going through high.

 

[WalkIntoTheLight]

Cell was at 4.19v. Fresh off the shelf unused for a few days. Same with the old light - every time it happened the cells were usually 90%, sometimes about 70%+. I never get my lights down to 50% or even close that I recall. And I wouldn't say that it ever "warmed up", since the light only turns on for about 1/2 second. Then I turn it back on and it's always fine then.

So with this first incident on my new light, and dozens with the old returned light, it always works fine after turning on the second time immediately after shutting itself off. Room temp, charged cells.

Yours seems to be related to mine, but with different triggers. With me, it's only when the light is (very) cold and the battery 50% drained. After that, it happens every single time, until I warm up the light (either by using other modes, or by bringing the light indoors). I suspect the cause is the same.

This is a total guess, but I wonder if it has something to do with a capacitor or coil that has to be charged up before the light works normally. Maybe in some circumstances, it takes too long (i.e., microseconds) to charge up those components before the microprocessor turns on and tries to light up the emitter.

 

[markr6]

This is a total guess, but I wonder if it has something to do with a capacitor or coil that has to be charged up before the light works normally. Maybe in some circumstances, it takes too long (i.e., microseconds) to charge up those components before the microprocessor turns on and tries to light up the emitter.

I don't know much about electronics, but something about a capacitor did come to mind. Something in the electronics isn't quite right.

 

[BAreEhD]

"preflash" when going to medium is a normal behavior. A lot of folks program to avoid it: put a low or moonlight mode in place of "high," so the preflash is at a lower (and therefore unnoticeable) level than your double-click ("medium") setting. A lot of people seem to have at least one group set up this way: press/hold for high, double-click for medium, single click to moonlight.

Thanks very much. I'll look into what the best options are for programming.

 

[Fireclaw18]

A hotspot? I think that's normal and generally considered desirable.

The XHP50.2, and other Cree emitters from the same generation are known for unattractive beams, but it's usually not the hotspot people complain about.

My SC600w IV Plus' beam isn't bad. But the tint could be better.

I'm a bit surprised that the tint in my Eagtac DX3b mini is so much better than the Zebralight. The Eagtac's tint is slightly rosy with no hint of green. Both use CREE XHP 50.2 emitters. Looks like Eagtac got a better batch of emitters.

 

[BAreEhD]

Looks like Zebralight has finally posted SC64 runtimes. Here they are for the SC64W:

High: H1 1400 Lm (PID, 2.8 hrs) or H2 875 Lm (PID, 2.9 hrs)/502 Lm (PID, 3.2 hrs)/264 Lm (6.3 hrs)

Medium: M1 127 Lm (13.8 hrs) or M2 56.4 Lm (28 hrs)/22.9Lm (2.8 days)/8.5 Lm (7.3 days)

Low: L1 2.9 Lm (18.5 days) or L2 0.92 Lm (1.5 months)/0.26 Lm (3 months)/0.07 Lm (4 months)

Beacon Strobe Mode: 0.2Hz Beacon at Low / 0.2Hz Beacon at H1 / 4Hz Strobe at H1 / 19Hz Strobe at H1

 

[WalkIntoTheLight]

I don't know why the runtimes of the SC64w would be different than the SC600w, except for the PID levels of course. So why are they different for the other levels? They use the same LED. Don't they use the same driver? Output levels are all the same, so shouldn't the runtimes be the same too?