Olight SR95S UT-Mod or not?

saabluster

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I just added a new light to my beam intensity thread. The SR95S UT.

A few thoughts on this light. Some here know I haven't exactly been kind in my estimation of Olight's prior efforts in this size class. Namely the SR90 which I found to be an example of lazy engineering. It was way way too big and heavy.
They simply took a normal flashlight and enlarged it. Designing lights at this scale takes a different approach. Thankfully it seems they finally realized this and managed to reduce the size a tad but more importantly the weight considerably all the while having better thermal characteristics. That is precisely what I was talking about back when. So congratulations go to them.

I still think they show a lack of understanding when it comes to component matching. I'm not going to go into great detail in this matter(they can contact me for design consultation) but let's say I am a little less than impressed with their choice of LED.

I don't really buy and test lights unless I am at least giving some consideration to offering it as a modded light. Clearly the size means there is tremendous potential waiting to be unlocked. This one however is a tricky one for reasons I will not go into completely here. Sufficed to say I can see a couple potential mod paths with this light but they would all be majorly majorly intensive and require techniques that have been developed for OMG Lumens. So the amount of work alone would mean this light would have to be very expensive. Probably $1000-$1500 depending on how intensive I wanted to go with it. Just estimating that performance might be anywhere from 700Kcd-1.2Mcd. These are just early estimates from ideas I am throwing around in my brain. Not sure if what I have in mind will even work. Most of all I don't know if there is a market for such a light or not. I will continue to investigate the possibility but I'd like to hear your thoughts on this.
 

Devildude

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First of all my bank account is still crying from the TN31mb and the Deft-X, so hopefully this one does not get released too soon. Is the throw going to be better than the Deft-X? For the size I would hope the your magic can get it out to say 1.5 miles or so. My thoughts as to whether or not you should mod this light has to be hinged on whether or not it would be better than the Deft-X which is a tall hill to climb. Some of the best things come from asking what if. Keep up the good work.
 

jmpaul320

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it would be cool to see you give the olight a workover... $1000-$1500 is a bit above my price range though lol... although thats what i said about the deftx and i still bought it
 

rdrfronty

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Saabluster, I'd like your opinion on a slightly different subject if you don't mind. I've got a SR90 that was reading 144K stock. Recently I dedomed it and am getting a reading of about 195K. I know you don't care for them, but do you think I would see decent gains with a SBT-70 swap? Would like to get it in the 250k range if possible.
This need I have to mod it is all your fault :p. I've got one of your TN31mb's on order and will hopefully have it soon. And even though I know my SR90 will never catch the 400K it should do, I am trying to get it too fairly respectable numbers vs it's size.
I think I've read the SR95SUT is driven about 10amp vs the SR90 at 9amp. I was hoping the slightly bigger head of the SR90 would counter balance the slightly lower amperage and give fairly similar results. Any help or suggestions would be greatly appreciated.
As for you idea of modding the SR95SUT - while I think it would be VERY cool, I'm thinking the cost will likely limit sales greatly. If you can keep it under or right at $1K and if the light can put out over 1000K - then I think you might sell enough of them to be worth the investment and time needed to make this happen. Without those two goals I personally wouldn't look to seriously at one and think others might be the same.
Also, is the direction your looking at retaining the reflector or going aspherical? The reflector direction (if its humanly possible) would be much more desirable for most people. The lack of no spill at all is the only thing preventing me from ordering the DEFT-X. My wallet thanks for for that though. Though I still have to fight the urge every time I hear about the light.
And OP, If this post is too far off subject - please feel free to delete or relocate it as needed.
 

saabluster

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Saabluster, I'd like your opinion on a slightly different subject if you don't mind. I've got a SR90 that was reading 144K stock. Recently I dedomed it and am getting a reading of about 195K. I know you don't care for them, but do you think I would see decent gains with a SBT-70 swap? Would like to get it in the 250k range if possible.
This need I have to mod it is all your fault :p. I've got one of your TN31mb's on order and will hopefully have it soon. And even though I know my SR90 will never catch the 400K it should do, I am trying to get it too fairly respectable numbers vs it's size.
I think I've read the SR95SUT is driven about 10amp vs the SR90 at 9amp. I was hoping the slightly bigger head of the SR90 would counter balance the slightly lower amperage and give fairly similar results. Any help or suggestions would be greatly appreciated.

Will you be able to get up to 250Kcd by changing the LED in your SR90 to the SBT-70? I'd say almost certainly yes although I haven't tried it. Although the SR95S UT cannot touch the TN31mb in the throw department it does put out more light overall. Albeit with a much much larger size.

As for you idea of modding the SR95SUT - while I think it would be VERY cool, I'm thinking the cost will likely limit sales greatly. If you can keep it under or right at $1K and if the light can put out over 1000K - then I think you might sell enough of them to be worth the investment and time needed to make this happen. Without those two goals I personally wouldn't look to seriously at one and think others might be the same.
Also, is the direction your looking at retaining the reflector or going aspherical? The reflector direction (if its humanly possible) would be much more desirable for most people. The lack of no spill at all is the only thing preventing me from ordering the DEFT-X. My wallet thanks for for that though. Though I still have to fight the urge every time I hear about the light.
And OP, If this post is too far off subject - please feel free to delete or relocate it as needed.
I would almost certainly keep it a reflector based light. I just see so much untapped potential in this light. I would think 1Mcd wouldn't be out of the question if done right. I am glad to see you appreciate the investment that goes into this. I haven't even done any real development on it yet and have already spent over $400. I have bought and tested tons of lights that in the end I turned down. That cost adds up. I don't really have time to add this to the production schedule right now anyway as I have to get the DEFT-X and TN31mb lights out. Still I have to think ahead on these kinds of things. I have to know where I am going.
 

AnAppleSnail

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It sounds like you are saying that you can make an amazing product - but don't know if there is a market to support the development costs? I am constantly amazed at the things you produce, but I just don't yet have a need for a light with more reach than my old Deft EDC.


This comes from working during the day, sleeping at night, and living out in the countryside where even 'only' 40k CP goes as far as I need to see. I understand that some of your equipment is used by authorities in search and rescue. Is there any chance of you being able to secure some kind of development grant? Politics aside, the US Dept of Homeland Security sure has a lot of money for development of tools.
 

ma_sha1

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Modded SR95 UT?, Meet Mr. Mayhem Lol:

Seriously, the hotspot is already pretty small with SBT-90 in this big reflector. Dedomed XML or XPG approach will make the hot spot too small for the utility of a search & rescue light.

Mod it, but without reducing the size of the hot spot, that'll be a real challenge :)

dscf2955m.jpg
 
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jmpaul320

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+1 to what ma_sha said - I put an sbt90 in a regular sr90 and saw a good 50% improvement in lux and the hotspot got surprisingly small
 

Custom

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that's part of why i'm torn between the deft-x and tn31mb.. like others, i want to have and eat my cake (insane lux, 1500+ lumens, usable spill.. in a not so huge package)
lol @ 40k comment in this thread. my dream light would basically be a Mr Mayhem type. smaller body with a Big & deep reflector, a hard driven, direct bonded SBT70 and easy one hand operation.

we all know you stay super busy, is offering "olight owner upgrade services" (kinda like varapower with his mags) just not feasible?
 

Ragnar66

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As far as the money.....thats gettin up there.....but depending on what it throws I can see myself getting involved. I also see that kind of product marketed to LE/Fire etc at the mngmt level as as dept purchases. I know I have some people that are waiting to see what the DEFT -X is all about. Quality lights like this will sell.......they just need to be seen. So many people have no idea they exist.
 

CouldUseALight

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To be compelling at $1000+, you will need the Olight to out-throw the Polarion dual. Even if you manage this from an LED, it will be hard to compete with the HID. :thinking:

The strong suit of the Olight, that really isn't matched except by VaraPower, is the throw with hotspot size. For those of use who like WIDE beam throwers, it's a pretty small world. :wave:

Been thinking about this for a few days, and I would pay for a SR95SUT cut-down like ma_sha1's Mr. Mayhem, with an FM body and 18650 batt carrier, before I'd pay for changes to the beam.

I like the SR95SUT beam very much :grin2: and wouldn't pay to fix what ain't broke; the body is a pain and could really use improvement. :shakehead
 

Custom

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i second that! a cut down SR95SUT = SOLD.

maybe some cooling optimization (block-o-copper) and more amperage, i know of a few people that would buy it in a heartbeat.
 

langham

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I don't really see a market for it, but I also don't see a market for any light that costs >$600 so what do I know? I would love to see what you could do with almost nothing holding you back and just going all out in the design and engineering of an insane light, but at the same time I don't know if the people who like these lights want the best throw, or they wouldn't own this over-sized, over-priced, heavy and inefficient hunk of metal. You may be able to get the department of defense to bite on an all American made piece of equipment that you built from scratch, but not a modification.
 
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ScaryFatKidGT

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I think id pay $600 for 700-800k lux

If you got it to over... 1,000,000 muuuaahhahahahaha.... I could see you being able to charge what ever you wanted and a couple people buying it, but like ma_sha said going from a SBT-90 to a de-domed XM-L2 may be the limit before people just went with the deft-X, most people will look at the 1000lm rating it will probably have and just get the 1250lm stock one or a TN31

I think you should make a new OSTS TN31 with the XM-L2 and offer it along side the TN31 mb
 
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saabluster

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I really see much potential in this light. When I think of what it will take to get what I want I am unconvinced that it would be worth the effort at this time. There is just too much I'd want to change. The body needs to be smaller and lighter. The LE would have to be monstrously complicated. The reflector would need to change as the stock one is junk. I want to do it but it but don't think I should.
 

KuanR

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It sounds like you would be better off to start from scratch and make your own light, all 100% of it:D
 

Mr. Tone

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I really see much potential in this light. When I think of what it will take to get what I want I am unconvinced that it would be worth the effort at this time. There is just too much I'd want to change. The body needs to be smaller and lighter. The LE would have to be monstrously complicated. The reflector would need to change as the stock one is junk. I want to do it but it but don't think I should.

My guess is with the performance of your new Deft-X and the TN31mb that this would not be a fast mover for you at the cost difference. It looks like maybe your best bet would be to leave it stock and get your money back out of it.:)
 

TEEJ

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I second the motion that you consider not buying existing lights and modding them...but see what you could do with a clean sheet of paper.

You already know for example what makes the Deft-X work, and, I'm guessing, that a Deft-X with a larger head would be able to do even more. As the same companies making the lights you mod also do private label production, you could probably design a head to screw to a body/power source, and make it have whatever performance you desired.

By going modular, you could then have the option of just selling the new heads as you develop them, etc...as you would not be faced with one light using X as a basis, and the other using Y, and another using Z, etc.

You could standardize your bodies, EDC, Med and Large for example, and then put your energy in making heads for them.

The downside is that whoever you contracted to make the heads would probably also sell them on a bazillion Chinese clones, but, that WOULD help them to amortize YOUR costs at least. Considering you ALREADY are making lights based upon a bazillion Chinese clones, I don't think this would put you behind any eight balls in that department.

:D

You would NOT have them make the Wavien parts, etc, as the QA/QC would probably not be there...but, at least the parts they ALREADY make for you, only this time, to YOUR specs, etc.


So, instead of buying a lot of TN31's, and then modding them, you buy a lot of SaabBlasters heads and/or bodies as needed, (Or whatever you call them...) made you your specs, and mod those.
 
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Devildude

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I really see much potential in this light. When I think of what it will take to get what I want I am unconvinced that it would be worth the effort at this time. There is just too much I'd want to change. The body needs to be smaller and lighter. The LE would have to be monstrously complicated. The reflector would need to change as the stock one is junk. I want to do it but it but don't think I should.
Ah the law of diminishing returns, we have all run into this at one time or another. Perhaps it could be a custom light that only a few people would be interested in, if that is the case perhaps they would be willing to spend the cash to help you get it made. Sometimes I think the only bad ideas are the ones left unexplored. Good luck on your quest.
 

saabluster

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Ah the law of diminishing returns, we have all run into this at one time or another. Perhaps it could be a custom light that only a few people would be interested in, if that is the case perhaps they would be willing to spend the cash to help you get it made. Sometimes I think the only bad ideas are the ones left unexplored. Good luck on your quest.
Law of diminishing returns is exactly the issue I am running into here.
 
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