If you haven't checked out my review and testing post for this light yet, take a look here first:

https://www.reddit.com/r/Electronicsinindia/comments/1vf7f0w/actually_a_really_good_and_repairable_product/

Disassembly & Housing

The teardown was relatively easier compared to lights from other major manufacturers. Accessing the main driver PCB requires removing 6 Torx screws, torx are used as they reduce head stripping during maintenance and make factory assembly easier.

After removing the screws, the side plate requires prying because it is glued down with a waterproof sealant/gasket compound. Prying it open will of course fuck up the factory IP waterproof rating on the side panel ( T7000 glue could be used to reseal it).

Unlike the front bezel, which uses a traditional rubber O-ring seal, the side cover uses a sealant. This is likely due to perimeter size: the front bezel has a much smaller perimeter (~11 cm), whereas the side cover has a much larger perimeter (~23 cm) where compression on an O-ring is harder to maintain.

Note: the front bezel screws are of different size than side panel

To fully remove the PCB, you have to desolder the auxiliary/sense contacts. Beginners should take extra care here to avoid damage to the small SMD components (marked GL FT) situated near these pads. Further teardown requires additional desoldering, which I did not do as it isn't necessary since the PCB is primarily single sided.

Switch Mechanism

The rotary dial switch does not mechanically lock out the light as I initially thought, rather it’s a pretty interesting electronic switch with no physical contact with the main pcb

It uses Hall effect sensors built on the PCB itself triggered by weak magnetic fields inside the dial. The magnetic field is kept intentionally subtle so it won't attract other iron stuff, but it is strong enough to trigger the sensors.

There are two very small ICs near the hall effect sensor marked as GL FT (ones I mention earlier), these are the actual Hall effect sensor ICs/Hall effect latch.

Power Stage & Inductors

As suspected in the review, the driver uses switch-mode regulation:

• 10 micro henry Inductor (100) smaller size : is for the USB-C charging of the Li-ion battery.
• 0.47 micro henry Inductor (R47) larger size: for the main high-power LED driver loop.

The main LED driver operates at a much higher switching frequency (cannot measure exactly as I don’t own a oscilloscope currently), so it to uses a lower inductance value to deliver continuous high current without saturating the core.

Both inductors are resin-molded/shielded inductors. These have significantly better drop resistance than open wire ferrite core ones where a single impact can damage the core as some of you might have noticed

The molded ones also have better suppression for the high frequency audible switching noise.

Microcontroller & Driver Logic

The main controller is an FMD FT61E0A5 8-bit RISC microcontroller.

Almost all flashlight manufacturers use general purpose MCUs rather than dedicated ASIC (application specific ic) controllers. Using an MCU brings distinct trade-offs:

Pros:

1.  UI Flexibility: Allows custom UI modes and thermal regulation logic. Since the control is software-driven, Wuben could technically add features like stepless ramping in future firmware revisions.

2.  Cost & Repairability: Cheaper overall manufacturing costs and standard microcontrollers are easier to source and replace if damaged. (Note: The FT61E0A5 on this board does not support flashing over USB since the USB port is wired for charging only, so updating firmware requires direct programmer pads on the PCB).

Cons:

1.  Stability: MCUs can sometimes freeze or glitch under high noise or low voltage states which is why few medical devices pair MCUs with dedicated hardware safety supervisor ICs.

2.  Quiescent Current: MCUs draw continuous standby/sleep current which matters more on a light like this that lacks a mechanical physical lockout switch, that said this particular micro controller advertises very low current draw just 0.2 micro amps

MOSFETs, Battery Sensing & Hardware Details

• Main Switcher: The primary power MOSFET is an SA4456 (N-channel TrenchFET in an SO-8 package, equivalent to AO4456/Si4456).
• Interconnects: Battery power transfers to the PCB via a flexible ribbon cable rather than discrete wires. This keeps the PCB flush with the body, though ribbon flex joints are more delicate during repeated teardowns I think wuben could have designed the housing a little differently and used wires instead
• AAA Sense Logic (unsure): The small GL FT , GL  (LDO/voltage detector) and FT (signal switch) ICs manage the dual-fuel input detection when using the 4x AAA cartridge Telling the MCU to limit output power of the light for standard AAA cells and also disable the charging port. This confirms the proprietary Li-ion pack doesn't rely on a complex communication bus as I initially thought this also makes future custom battery replacement much easier. [ I am unsure about this as there is no info about these ICs on the internet apart from the general i mentioned, there also appear to be no connection between the auxiliary points (mentioned earlier) and the battery contact of the AAAs I would need to confirm this with Wuben. My best guess for now is internal resistance dependent battery detection]
• AAA Sense Logic: I confirmed with wuben and they told me it's a simple voltage based detection. Basically when in series the AAA (fresh) have a total of ~6v which is off course higher than max voltage of the 3.7v battery (i.e 4.2v). The GL FT ic are actual hall effect sensor IC I forgot that A LDO would need few config resistors and capacitors for the output so yes they are the sensors.
• ⚠️ Does this mean when we put fully discharged AAAs it does not detect properly ? ---> No , it does detect properly as AAAs and AA recover a bit of voltage after being fully discharged to around 1v , after recovering they sit at around 1.2v and the flashlight successfully detects that as I tested and confirmed it.

The connections are also gold plated for better rust resistance

Other than this there are couple of more ICs that handle actual switching after getting the signal from the microcontroller , few smd capacitors and few current sense resistors etc

Overall, I will give it a 8/10 for the repairability , two points deduced for the ribbon cable and required desoldering at the auxiliary connections

Wuben release assembly videos for all their lights and this gives me the confidence the brands cares about the repairability - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aC9J28Dku08

Also one other good thing is that they have not erased any of the marking that are there on the semiconductor  

Few thing that I forgot to mention in the review post-

• Machining: The body is CNC-machined/milled aluminum rather than cast alloy, having better tolerances and better finish
• Pocket Clip: Constructed from stamped spring steel rather than aluminum to handle continuous flexing without snapping.
• HVAC Utility Note: A professional technician I know pointed out that pairing a UV LED with a red laser module is extremely useful for HVAC leak detection where fluorescent dye is injected into AC refrigerant pipes, and the UV beam illuminates exact pinhole leaks.
• Charging: the light can be used while it is plugged in through the USB-C port eco,low,medium mode can be used this is quite useful for obvious reasons

Overall, it's a very repairable flashlight I hope Wuben considers selling replacement PCB modules directly for users who want to repair on their own

https://www.reddit.com/r/AskElectronics/comments/1oquyof/what_metal_are_used_for_resistor_legs/

I want to test the capacity of few of these, so I thought I would better ask and get some average number

I personally have seen multimeters stop working at 6v but also few devices like calculators at 4v or 5v

Currently on the test list is Hi-waat , eveready and nippo , if you want me to include any other feel free to drop the recommendations in the comments I will try to include those

It is also apparent from the tests I have conducted

.

.

2M in length, standard 60w PD

Price $3 ,but quality is really good because of regional pricing

I have a cheap usb a to usb c cable and the max amperage it says is 2.1 amps and 18 watts.

First question: does that mean i can charge with 8.5 volts max? (18 watts divided by 2.1) But it‘s not allowed to charge with 3.6 amps at 5 volts (18 watts divided by 5 volts) because its over 2.1 amps?

Second question: Is this cable going to limit the current going through? For example if i used a 30 watt charger to charge a power bank with it, is it going to charge slower because it limits the current? Or is it going to heat up and maybe melt?

The cable has a tüv and CE logo on it

Thanks in advance

original creator - Uzimonitrome , subreddit- Rpolandball

>!explanation- Load in slang (semen) and a electronic load is a test device that draws current and consumes power from a power supply/source !<

>!it is shampoo!<

Credits- https://youtu.be/IbmHJ4Ynqzk

After using it for a while and testing it, I can say this is one of the most well-thought-out flashlights I have used

The people at Wuben has taken care of even small things, which I will talk about later.

Design and controls

Build quality is superb. The light actually feels more solid than many branded round flashlights, partly because of its shape. The flat design also makes it much easier to locate and press the main power button, especially when using it one handed This is Very suitable for an EDC

The flashlight has three types of light in it:

• UV
• green laser
• a main white light

There is a rotary thingy for mode selection. It is not a rotary encoder rather a 3-way switch. It also allows you to completely lock the light, probably disconnecting the battery fully.

The switch is on the back and it’s a pretty interesting type of switch, with two switches integrated into one. A short press turns the flashlight on briefly and a long press gives continuous on, with option to select the brightness.

There are 6 modes for the white light:

1. Turbo
2. High
3. Medium
4. low
5. Eco
6. Strobe (actually disorients you, unlike the strobe on many cheap flashlights)

Even after complete battery removal the flashlight remembers the last mode.

I initially thought there was an issue with mode memory. For example, if I was in Low mode, switched to Medium, and then held the button to turn the light off, the button briefly passes through High before powering down. I initially assumed it would remember High, but after further testing I realized that is not the case. It appears there is some hysteresis, and it correctly remembers the intended mode (Medium). If it did not do that, that would have been an issue, but it is taken care of.

White light output

Wuben claims the white can deliver 1300 lumens at turbo mode. According to my testing it started with 900 lux, i.e. 1500 lumens (5/3 factor).

• 10s mark it drops to - 1360 lumens
• 30s mark it drops to- 1120 lumens

then it gradually drops to 500 lumens at 1 min where it stays pretty much constant. This is 100 lumens more than what Wuben claims.

The other interesting mode is eco mode where it truly shines, or does not shine, at just 2 lumens. It is the lowest brightness I have seen in a flashlight.

The other brightness modes are as follows, all maintain pretty much the same brightness:

Mode	Claims	lumens measured
Eco	1	2.5
Low	50	54
Medium	150	168
High	350	432

All tested after flashlight has been running for 30s using li-ion batteries

As it is made for EDC purpose the beam isn’t the best for long distance but pretty good for near.

Beam distance

These are the measurements:

Mode	Lux at 1m	Distance in meter
Eco	8	5m
Low	170	26m
Medium	440	42m
High	1050	65m
Turbo	3400–1200	117m–70m

The white light has a color temperature of 5000k according to this app, which I am not sure how accurate is, but for short distance it does not strain the eyes as some cheap lights do.

The beam pattern is engineered for short distance

Battery and runtime

The battery part is also pretty interesting. It can run off of two types of batteries: first is the 1200mAh li-ion that they provide with it, and another type is easily available AAAs.

Speaking of the lithium battery, it has an internal resistance of 50 milli ohms which I think is ok for this capacity.

At turbo mode Wuben claims it can deliver 1.30 hrs of run time. From my testing it came close with 1 hr 35 min.

At high mode it again came close to its claim with 1hr 54m of runtime.

It was not possible to test the runtime on all modes due to time constrains, but I suppose it does come close.

It was also clear from this test that the X5 has a regulated/constant current driver because the brightness stays the same throughout the runtime. Normally as flashlight battery voltage drops the brightness also drops.

From empty to full it takes 1h30m to charge and charges with 1.1A

It also does not heat or draw higher energy than the battery is rated indicating that it has a switching regulator for the battery charging instead of a linear (lossy) , switching is definitely better

AAA performance

Using one of the best performing AAA from my recent test:

https://www.reddit.com/r/Electronicsinindia/comments/1v594hn/a_60_battery_vs_20_battery_duracell_ultra_vs/

The Eveready Ultima.

On turbo mode they claim 850 lumens. It over delivered, starting with 1000 lumens, dropped to around 880 lumens at 10s and 600 lumens at 30s, then stabilized at around 40s at 460 lumens.

I also tried if I can get a higher brightness using a better AAA, i.e. Eneloops that have just 20 milliohms of internal resistance totaling upto 80 milliohm or more due to contact resistance when 4 are in series. It still performed the same, so I believe Wuben has electronically capped the power draw for AAA batteries. It only delivers full brightness when it detects the li-ion.

Speaking of detection, the BMS in li-ion battery communicates with the flashlight in some way. A safety feature I noticed, and one of those small things that are taken care of, is that when you put AAA batteries inside it and try to charge it the flashlight refuses to charge the AAA batteries. Quiet a small feature many users might not even notice but it is safety critical.

I tested the runtime with eveready ultima AAA which is a 900mAh battery at 300mA draw and it ran for 1h 30m but as you can see from the image the brightness wasn’t constant

Repairability

Compare to Fenix lights the light is quite more repairable (full teardown coming soon). The front is held by 4 screws and can be unscrew easily in case you need to replace the front glass.

The whole light can also be opened and repaired.

The battery is replaceable but is proprietary. You can of course use easily available AAA when it’s on its end of its life, but the max brightness will take a hit and also it will not last as long as it would with the li-ion, as max a AAA has a average capacity of 700mAh.

It would have been better if it supported 10440 li-ion or LiFePO4 batteries, but I think that would have been a lot of voltage to deal with (12–16.8v for li-ion and 10–15v for LiFePO4) for the current driver.

I also did some research, and it looks like the WUBEN X series is one of the very few flat-style flashlights with a user-replaceable battery.

The battery compartment has this piece of metal holding it together that is replaceable as there will be cosmetic damage in future from opening and closing it, Wuben has taken care of that. It also has a locking mechanism

The battery compartment springs are all gold plated for lower resistance.

Overall, it is quite repairable and I did not find any planned obsolescence at all. This is quite rare nowadays, as companies usually lock the light completely and make it very difficult to repair.

UV and laser

For the UV light it’s cool to watch object lumens differently than white, but personally I did not find much use. But for you it can be useful for curing UV masks on PCB or check currencies. Also dog stains are visible under UV.

For the laser there is a separate button which in both UV or white position of the dial function only locks when in lock mode. It is quite goodly distinguish so I do not find myself often pressing it accidentally rather than pressing the main button.

The one I’ve got is a weaker class 1 laser and it’s actually a good think. It is quite useful as pointer although it’s not very powerful or bright. The benefit is it will not harm your eye or damage smartphone camera sensors.

Accessories and small details

The accessories it comes with is also of high quality. The lanyard can turn into a USB C to C cable.

One thing I forgot to mention is that the USB port has a covering to make it water resistant.

The pocket clip is also removable and can be fixed on any two sides of the flashlight

Conclusion

The only two cons I found:

Use of AAA instead of AAs. It is clear from my tests that a AAA has 50% lower capacity but costs the same as a AA, but that said it would also make the battery compartment 100% larger than it is.

A missing ramp mode for brightness , the mode selection I think could have been easily added via the rotary switch , but it's absent

The UV light is also very niche , but they are also planning a red light version with the UV and laser removed which I think would be more useful for day-to-day users

credits - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eGguwYPC32I

After using it for a while and testing it, I can say this is one of the most well-thought-out flashlights I have used

The people at Wuben has taken care of even small things, which I will talk about later.

Design and controls

Build quality is superb. The light actually feels more solid than many branded round flashlights, partly because of its shape. The flat design also makes it much easier to locate and press the main power button, especially when using it one handed This is Very suitable for an EDC

The flashlight has three types of light in it:

• UV
• green laser
• a main white light

There is a rotary thingy for mode selection. It is not a rotary encoder rather a 3-way switch. It also allows you to completely lock the light, probably disconnecting the battery fully.

The switch is on the back and it’s a pretty interesting type of switch, with two switches integrated into one. A short press turns the flashlight on briefly and a long press gives continuous on, with option to select the brightness.

There are 6 modes for the white light:

1. Turbo
2. High
3. Medium
4. low
5. Eco
6. Strobe (actually disorients you, unlike the strobe on many cheap flashlights)

Even after complete battery removal the flashlight remembers the last mode.

I initially thought there was an issue with mode memory. For example, if I was in Low mode, switched to Medium, and then held the button to turn the light off, the button briefly passes through High before powering down. I initially assumed it would remember High, but after further testing I realized that is not the case. It appears there is some hysteresis, and it correctly remembers the intended mode (Medium). If it did not do that, that would have been an issue, but it is taken care of.

White light output

Wuben claims the white can deliver 1300 lumens at turbo mode. According to my testing it started with 900 lux, i.e. 1500 lumens (5/3 factor).

• 10s mark it drops to - 1360 lumens
• 30s mark it drops to- 1120 lumens

then it gradually drops to 500 lumens at 1 min where it stays pretty much constant. This is 100 lumens more than what Wuben claims.

The other interesting mode is eco mode where it truly shines, or does not shine, at just 2 lumens. It is the lowest brightness I have seen in a flashlight.

The other brightness modes are as follows, all maintain pretty much the same brightness:

Mode	Claims	lumens measured
Eco	1	2.5
Low	50	54
Medium	150	168
High	350	432

All tested after flashlight has been running for 30s using the li-ion battery

As it is made for EDC purpose the beam isn’t the best for long distance but pretty good for near.

Beam distance

These are the measurements:

Mode	Lux at 1m	Distance in meter
Eco	8	5m
Low	170	26m
Medium	440	42m
High	1050	65m
Turbo	3400–1200	117m–70m

The white light has a color temperature of 5000k according to this app, which I am not sure how accurate is, but for short distance it does not strain the eyes as some cheap lights do.

The beam pattern is engineered for short distance

Battery and runtime

The battery part is also pretty interesting. It can run off of two types of batteries: first is the 1200mAh li-ion that they provide with it, and another type is easily available AAAs.

Speaking of the lithium battery, it has an internal resistance of 50 milli ohms which I think is ok for this capacity.

At turbo mode Wuben claims it can deliver 1.30 hrs of run time. From my testing it came close with 1 hr 35 min.

At high mode it again came close to its claim with 1hr 54m of runtime.

It was not possible to test the runtime on all modes due to time constrains, but I suppose it does come close.

It was also clear from this test that the X5 has a regulated/constant current driver because the brightness stays the same throughout the runtime. Normally as flashlight battery voltage drops the brightness also drops.

From empty to full it takes 1h30m to charge and charges with 1.1A

It also does not heat or draw higher energy than the battery is rated indicating that it has a switching regulator for the battery charging instead of a linear (lossy) , switching is definitely better

AAA performance

Using one of the best performing AAA from my recent test:

https://www.reddit.com/r/Electronicsinindia/comments/1v594hn/a_60_battery_vs_20_battery_duracell_ultra_vs/

The Eveready Ultima.

On turbo mode they claim 850 lumens. It over delivered, starting with 1000 lumens, dropped to around 880 lumens at 10s and 600 lumens at 30s, then stabilized at around 40s at 460 lumens.

I also tried if I can get a higher brightness using a better AAA, i.e. Eneloops that have just 20 milliohms of internal resistance totaling upto 80 milliohm or more due to contact resistance when 4 are in series. It still performed the same, so I believe Wuben has electronically capped the power draw for AAA batteries. It only delivers full brightness when it detects the li-ion.

Speaking of detection, the BMS in li-ion battery communicates with the flashlight in some way. A safety feature I noticed, and one of those small things that are taken care of, is that when you put AAA batteries inside it and try to charge it the flashlight refuses to charge the AAA batteries. Quiet a small feature many users might not even notice but it is safety critical.

I tested the runtime with eveready ultima AAA which is a 900mAh battery at 300mA draw and it ran for 1h 30m but as you can see from the image the brightness wasn’t constant

Repairability

Compare to Fenix lights the light is quite more repairable (full teardown coming soon). The front is held by 4 screws and can be unscrew easily in case you need to replace the front glass.

The whole light can also be opened and repaired.

The battery is replaceable but is proprietary. You can of course use easily available AAA when it’s on its end of its life, but the max brightness will take a hit and also it will not last as long as it would with the li-ion, as max a AAA has a average capacity of 700mAh.

It would have been better if it supported 10440 li-ion or LiFePO4 batteries, but I think that would have been a lot of voltage to deal with (12–16.8v for li-ion and 10–15v for LiFePO4) for the current driver.

I also did some research, and it looks like the WUBEN X series is one of the very few flat-style flashlights with a user-replaceable battery.

The battery compartment has this piece of metal holding it together that is replaceable as there will be cosmetic damage in future from opening and closing it, Wuben has taken care of that. It also has a locking mechanism

The battery compartment springs are all gold plated for lower resistance.

Overall, it is quite repairable and I did not find any planned obsolescence at all. This is quite rare nowadays, as companies usually lock the light completely and make it very difficult to repair.

UV and laser

For the UV light it’s cool to watch object Luminate differently than white, but personally I did not find much use. But for you it can be useful for curing UV masks on PCB or check currencies. Also dog stains are visible under UV.

For the laser there is a separate button which in both UV or white position of the dial function only locks when in lock mode. It is quite goodly distinguish so I do not find myself often pressing it accidentally rather than pressing the main button.

The one I’ve got is a weaker class 1 laser and it’s actually a good think. It is quite useful as pointer although it’s not very powerful or bright. The benefit is it will not harm your eye or damage smartphone camera sensors.

Accessories and small details

The accessories it comes with is also of high quality. The lanyard can turn into a USB C to C cable.

One thing I forgot to mention is that the USB port has a covering to make it water resistant.

The pocket clip is also removable and can be fixed on any two sides of the flashlight

Conclusion

The only two cons I found:

Use of AAA instead of AAs. It is clear from my tests that a AAA has 50% lower capacity but costs the same as a AA, but that said it would also make the battery compartment 100% larger than it is.

A missing ramp mode for brightness , the mode selection I think could have been easily added via the rotary switch , but it's absent

The UV light is also very niche , but they are also planning a red light version with the UV and laser removed which I think would be more useful for day-to-day users

Other thing Wuben sent me this flashlight for review, but they did not ask for a positive review . All testing and opinions are my own , Thanks to Wuben for the donation and Fiona for arranging it.

.