Trustfire TR-J1 review

[chrpai]

This format of battery is a little unfamiliar to me hence why I spent a little more to get the combo with the batteries and charger. A good search shows multiple sources and wikipedia articles on the format but it doesn't seem to be a mainstream item over here in the USA.


Doc Ed's review didn't mention batteries so maybe it wasn't out of the ordinary for him. Any first hand knowledge would be helpful.

I'm guessing that one of the things a company like DRIS does is spec a different driver that can take a few C batteries for power.

 

[Ed Palma]

Oh,oversight on my part. I didn't put the info regarding batteries as well as purported light output etc. because those were usually listed on the sellers sites. I decided to put stuff in my review that wasn't usually in the seller's listings.

It is true that most of my lights (ok, all of them ) use 18650s. I can understand how this might be an issue when diving in remote places where spares are needed (they're not exactly available at the corner store), but I bring along my charger and some spares as well. Think of it like a camera battery (which are Li-ion as well anyway) - on trips, you'd usually take extras and a charger as well.

One thing you have to realize about Li-ions. As Chrpai sair, there are many threads out there regarding them, and I actually pay closer attention to them when charging that I used to with NiMh batteries. A good thing to invest in when using them is a voltmeter just to verify voltage.

 

[jmneill]

This format of battery is a little unfamiliar to me hence why I spent a little more to get the combo with the batteries and charger. A good search shows multiple sources and wikipedia articles on the format but it doesn't seem to be a mainstream item over here in the USA.


Doc Ed's review didn't mention batteries so maybe it wasn't out of the ordinary for him. Any first hand knowledge would be helpful.

I'm guessing that one of the things a company like DRIS does is spec a different driver that can take a few C batteries for power.

One thing I find interesting is that these 18650's appear to be available from 2500 mAh all the way to 5000 mAh (unless this is some sort of Chinese marketing gimmick.) I went with the supposed 3000 mAh version.

 

[chrpai]

Doc Ed,

Can you do some tests on how long they run at full power and the kind of battery you were using?

I ordered mine on May 6th. The seller shipped them via Hong Kong Post on the 9th. Tracking indicates they processed through HK on the 10th and San Francisco on the 11th (USPS). I'm not sure if I'll get any more tracking from here or not as I only have an HKP tracking number.

With any luck I'll have them sometime next week. From what I've read customs shouldn't be a problem for a small electronics order for personal use but we shall see how it goes.

---------- Post added May 13th, 2012 at 07:05 AM ----------

One thing I find interesting is that these 18650's appear to be available from 2500 mAh all the way to 5000 mAh (unless this is some sort of Chinese marketing gimmick.) I went with the supposed 3000 mAh version.

From what I've read, be prepared if they don't fit. I'm no expert in 18650 but there seems to be variances in the standard in terms of width, length and terminal contact shapes / types as well as the concept of a circuit protector. You may encounter integration problems when trying to use the battery with the light. I hope not so let me know how it goes.

I'm hoping that buying it as a kit I avoid those problems but it does pose an additional problem of having only 1 battery to use with it. I'll want to find another one to switch between.

---------- Post added May 13th, 2012 at 02:09 PM ----------

Update: It seems to have move it past ISC SFO and is now in Sacramento. I take this to mean that it's cleared customs! I'd think I'll have my light sometime this week.

 

[Jak Crow]

One thing I find interesting is that these 18650's appear to be available from 2500 mAh all the way to 5000 mAh (unless this is some sort of Chinese marketing gimmick.) I went with the supposed 3000 mAh version.

This is a marketing scam. The typical rating is 2600. The max mah for a 18650 is supposed to be 3000mah. Anything over that is false advertising.

 

[chrpai]

This is a marketing scam. The typical rating is 2600. The max mah for a 18650 is supposed to be 3000mah. Anything over that is false advertising.

I don't know enough about 18650's to know if that statement is true or not but I did find the following website very informative:

Battery test-review 18650 summary

It talks about the differences between different cells and gives performance numbers for different scenarios.

FWIW my light is now in Austin so with any luck it'll arrive today or tomorrow. That'll mean it took the seller a week to ship it and a week to get here. Not bad at all.

 

[jmneill]

Doc Ed,

Can you do some tests on how long they run at full power and the kind of battery you were using?

I ordered mine on May 6th. The seller shipped them via Hong Kong Post on the 9th. Tracking indicates they processed through HK on the 10th and San Francisco on the 11th (USPS). I'm not sure if I'll get any more tracking from here or not as I only have an HKP tracking number.

With any luck I'll have them sometime next week. From what I've read customs shouldn't be a problem for a small electronics order for personal use but we shall see how it goes.

---------- Post added May 13th, 2012 at 07:05 AM ----------



From what I've read, be prepared if they don't fit. I'm no expert in 18650 but there seems to be variances in the standard in terms of width, length and terminal contact shapes / types as well as the concept of a circuit protector. You may encounter integration problems when trying to use the battery with the light. I hope not so let me know how it goes.

I'm hoping that buying it as a kit I avoid those problems but it does pose an additional problem of having only 1 battery to use with it. I'll want to find another one to switch between.

---------- Post added May 13th, 2012 at 02:09 PM ---------

Thanks for the heads up. I made the mistake of ordering mine seperately. I got the light this morning out of Hong Kong, but am now waiting on the batteries and charger out of mainland China. Light looks great and I'll post on the batteries when they arrive. FWIW I did order the UltraFire brand batteries as seen in the pictures with said light, so hopefully they will fit. One battery in 30 different sizes! However, the UltraFire battery is bringing up the rear in all those tests, (big time) so I may order the LG 18650 D1 given the performance shown in those tests. Downside, $20 bucks for two, and you gotta get em' from Korea it appears.

 

[chrpai]

My light came today and the batteries had a charge so it worked out of the box.

First impressions...

It's much smaller then I expected. For some reason I thought it was going to be this massive MAG style light that I could clobber someone over the head with. In reality it's about the center of my palm to the tip of my middle finger in length.

I haven't tried turning it on the dark yet and I don't have any other lights to compare it to. When I turned it on and shined it at the wall it didn't seem over the top impressive. Like a stupid kid I looked into it and I instinctively looked away. Maybe it is bright as heck.

It came with 2 batteries but only takes 1 battery. If should do me a couple dives in a day and possibly more on a liveaboard.

I hope to take it to the pool tonight if the weather doesn't get bad. Batteries are in the charger as we speak.

 

[jmneill]

My light came today and the batteries had a charge so it worked out of the box.

First impressions...

It's much smaller then I expected. For some reason I thought it was going to be this massive MAG style light that I could clobber someone over the head with. In reality it's about the center of my palm to the tip of my middle finger in length.

I haven't tried turning it on the dark yet and I don't have any other lights to compare it to. When I turned it on and shined it at the wall it didn't seem over the top impressive. Like a stupid kid I looked into it and I instinctively looked away. Maybe it is bright as heck.

It came with 2 batteries but only takes 1 battery. If should do me a couple dives in a day and possibly more on a liveaboard.

I hope to take it to the pool tonight if the weather doesn't get bad. Batteries are in the charger as we speak.

Yea, the picture made it out to look like the size of my previous light (the Intova) which took four AA's, but I knew by looking at the diamiter of the handle in the pic on ebay it was gonna be smaller.
That said, I hadn't even opened mine yet, and to hear that it only holds one of the two batteries is more disapointing to me than it's smaller size. I'm just not to sure about these chinese batteries to begin with. Please post when you've had it in the pool.

---------- Post added May 14th, 2012 at 06:53 PM ----------

Since it is deceptively small as mentioned above....

 

[Ed Palma]

Most sites that I've seen selling it list the lights dimensions, the number of batteries it uses, etc. This is the reason why I didn't include these bits of data in my review. Data points such as the various kinds of 18650s and such are different topics altogether and are beyond the scope of this review.

Here's an example screen shot from an eBay seller:

On a personal level though, considering I use cells with no PCB, I prefer single cell 18650 lights than multiple series configuration lights. As I said before, this is going to be my back-up light, so small and inconspicuous is a plus for me.