[candle lamp]

This thread is a review of the OHLED Combat Double. The review sample is quite the same as the final shipping version of the "Niwalker MiniMax Nova MM15". My sample is just marked different brand name (OHLED) and model label (Combat Double) on the flashlight body instead of the original maker labels, due to the group purchase and another reason in Korea only. It's not a copy of the MM15. :whistle:
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Packaging is a simple cardboard box. Included inside is the light, user manual-warranty card, extra o-ring, lanyard with key-ring. holster, removable handle, hex-head screws for the handle and Allen key.
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Manufacturer Specifications from Niwalker website & user manual :
• Utilizes two U.S. made top binned Cree MT-G2 P0 LED chip
• Maximum output up to 5233 ANSI lumens
• Highly efficient circuit design offers maximum output and runtime
• Multi-function clicky side switch with momentary activation and on/off
• Memory function to remember last output setting used (except hidden modes)
• Advanced thermal protection circuit prevents overheating
• Light orange peel reflector creates great throw distance and beam pattern
• Aircraft grade aluminum, mil-spec hard anodized for maximum wear
• Toughened ultra-clear tempered glass lens with anti-reflective coating
• Large copper heat sink pad for superior thermal conductivity
• LED indicator turns red to alert user to switch lower output mode and recharge batteries in time
• Light output / runtime
- Mode 1 : 6 lumens / 300 hrs
- Mode 2 : 180 lumens /120 hrs
- Mode 3 : 450 lumens / 24 hrs
- Mode 4 : 880 lumens / 9 hrs 25 mins
- Mode 5 : 1950 lumens / 5 hrs 17 mins
- Turbo : 5233 lumens / 2 hrs 10 mins
• Max beam distance : 280 meters
• Peak beam intensity : 19.600cd
• Waterproof : To IPX-8 standard
• Impact resistance : 1.5m
* Above data was tested base on ANSI-FL1 standard
• Batteries : four 18650 rechargeable batteries( not include)
• Dimensions : 114mm(length) x 64mm(head diameter)
• Weight : 333g (without battery)
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The hard (type III) anodizing is a very matt black and consistent throughout with no chips on my sample.
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Lettering is clear and bright white against the dark background. There is hot surface warning mark on the head, and manufacturer, model label with serial number are printed on the battery tube. There are two bands of knurling and three flat sides on the tube. The grip is much better than expect, thanks to the almost the same unique anodizing finish as Armytek lights. This kind of finish may show dirt, hand oil, and so on, more easily than regular glossy finish, but give you decent grip.
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The light has 2 parts (i.e. head is one piece with the battery carrier and battery tube).
This built-in carrier seems to make the exterior size of the light fairly small.
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The handle is removable. You can attach or remove it by using the bundled Allen key. However you must open the battery tube before doing that, because the handle attachment point are recessed into the head (i.e., you will be able to attach or remove the handle just after opening the tube).
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The handle is located far from the body, so there is a lot of room for your fingers.
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There is a stainless steel bezel ring which is removable. I didn't open the bezel ring, but the lens doesn't seem to be thick enough.
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The electronic switch is located directly in front of the handle, with a black stainless steel button cover and translucent "N" logo (it appears to be made of silicone). The switch feel is a little bit strong, but good feel to touch and has average travel for this class, which produces a clear clicking sound when pressed and released. The switch is just flat (i.e., not protruded from the head surface), but almost the same level as the head. so the light may turn on if something presses against the switch in your holster or bag. You need to lock the light out by a rapid triple-click of the switch from Off to prevent this. You can refer to User Interface as well.
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The switch will flash once every 3~4 seconds when you first install all four 18650 cells into the light. This is to indicate that the light is in standby mode (i.e., Off). This flashing indicator may be somewhat bright to some users. But this is helpful if you are trying to find the light in the dark. If you don't want to see this light, break the current by rapid triple click of the switch.
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The switch will light up in constant green when on (i.e., the light is on Mode 1~Mode 5 or Turbo or flashing modes). When the batteries are near exhaustion, the switch will turn to constant red.
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The light uses AR coating lens and the purple hue is reflected on it. The reflector is shallow and light orange peel (LOP). Each MT-G2 P0 emitter is well centered in its reflector. The wells overlap quite much but cut out in the middle, so I would expect not only even but also very flood beam profile. Refer to the beamshot. The MT-G2 P0 gives you neutral white tint (CCT 5000K).
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This MT-G2 emitter is fairly larger than others (XP-G, XM-L) and the shape is circle.
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There is also a tripod attachment mount on the opposite side of the switch, with use of the standard tripod screw diameter (UNC 1/4-20).
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There is a lanyard attachment point just behind the tripod attachment mount.
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The screw threads are square-cut of good quality. Both male and female threads in the head are well machined, with being anodized. But it doesn't really matter since the current is carried through the built-in battery carrier only. So physical lock-out is impossible. There are just a few threads. Threads on the head and the body mate well with no issues of cross-threading or grinding.
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The metal built-in battery carrier holds 4x18650 cells in series. The positive contact plate is very slightly raised, and the negative contact spring has good elasticity in the carrier. So all types (i.e., true flat-tops, wide and small button-tops) of 18650's work fine. There is a black plastic protecting plate at the end of the exposed carrier end.
[Correction:14.05.23] I was confirmed by Niwalker that the working voltage of the light is 10.8v~16.8v and the light doesn't support CR123A's or RCR123A's. There is an overdischarge protection function in the light and the cut-off voltage is 11.2v. I, however, do recommend you use the 18650 protected cells, as the cells are in series (i.e., when multi cells are discharged together in series, one or some of them will drop faster than the others). [Correction:14.05.23]
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Height of the built-in carrier appears looks to be a good enough, as it accommodates my wide or longer protected 18650 cells. But there's catch on the side wrapper on the cells when inserting or removing them. Also you may catch the heatshrink on the middle column of the carrier while inserting the cells.
You have to depress the cells towards the negative spring while inserting them as shown in the photo. The depth between the edge on the screw threads and the negative contacts plate in the tube is fairly high. So your wide and longer cells may inevitably touch the bottom of the middle column in the carrier and the sharp edge on the screw threads. Longer cells require some force to get in. The built-in battery carrier makes the light very compact as well as you don't worry about losing it. But you may have to careful not to damage your cells and middle column of the built-in carrier. I don't think the ordinary battery carrier makes wasted space too much, in my view.

[New 2014.06.17] Niwalker reports that they noticed the issue on the built-in battery carrier, and the issue has been fixed for new batch. I am glad to hear they have fixed the issue promptly on the new batch. [New 2014.06.17]
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The battery tube is a just protector of the cells as you can run the light without it. The bottom of the tube is very flat and wide. The light can tailstand very stably.
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User Interface

There are two modes (i.e., regular output modes & flashing modes).
The regular modes are Mode 1~Mode 5, and the flashing modes are Strobe, SOS, Beacon.

Click the switch to turn the light on-off. When on, press and hold the switch to cycle in the following repeating sequence : Mode 1 -> Mode 2 -> Mode 3 -> Mode 4 -> Mode 5. Release the switch to select the output level you want. There is mode memory for the regular modes.

To active Turbo, double click rapidly from On (i.e., Turbo is not the regular mode). The flashing modes accessed by a rapid double click repeatedly in the following repeating sequence : Turbo -> Strobe -> SOS -> Beacon. Alternatively, you can access to Turbo by pressing and holding the switch from Off (i.e., standby mode) for momentary Turbo. Note there is no mode memory for Turbo or flashing modes. The light has an electronic lock-out mode. You will be able to access to it by a rapid triple click of the switch form Off (i.e., standby mode). The two main emitters will flash twice to indicate the lock-out is engaged. Another rapid triple click reactivates.
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Standby Current Drain

Due to the electronic switch, the light has a small current when the batteries are loaded. I didn't measure this current yet. I will update this part soon.
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From left to right : VicLite 18650(2600mAh) protected, OHLED Combat Double (4xMT-G2 P0), Blackshadow Terminator NW (4xXM-L T6), Niteye EYE40 (4xXM-L U2), Fenix TK35UE (1xMT-G2 P0), Fenix TK75 (3xXM-L U2).
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The head size & light weight excluding battery of four lights are as follows :
Combat Double : 63.7mm / 357g, Terminator NW : 63.4x63.4mm / 427g, EYE40 : 66.0x66.0mm / 509g, TK75 : 87.9mm / 506g
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The gripability is good. The build feels solid, and the light is fairly small for their classes. I found it to be comfortable to hold and use. The overall build quality seems very high.
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The light comes with a nice nylon holster with closing flap. The light fits in the holster head-up and down without handle attached. You can fit the light into the hoster head-up with handle attached. But the more cutting-out of the both sides of the holster could be better.
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Measured Dimensions & Weight


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PWM

No sign of PWM at any constant output levels of the light, leading me to conclude the light is actually current-controlled. I notice there is no buzzing sound in my sample.
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Runtime

1. Turbo (fan cooling & no cooling ) : sampling rate of every 30 secs


The light steps down from Turbo to Mode 5 after around only 2 mins runtime, which were done under fan cooling and no fan cooling. Then the light slightly and gradually drops down in output. Note that I typically do my readings at a sampling rate of once every 30 secs to produce a level of detail for runtime graphs. So I decided to do my readings at a sampling rate of every 5 secs for finding the exact step-down timing again. According to the manual, the light has an advanced thermal protection circuit prevents overheating, that said I expected the different step-down timing between fan cooling and no cooling run. The overall runtime under fan cooling is a bit longer than under no cooling.
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2. Turbo (fan cooling & no cooling ) : sampling rate of every 5 secs


With fan cooling, the light stepped-down after 100secs (i.e., 1 mins 30secs) runtime. Without cooling however, the light stepped-down just 5 secs faster (i.e., 1 mins 25 secs in my testing). I suspect the thermal sensitivity of the step-down control circuit of the light is very high, due to the much higher heating in the light, in my view (i.e., the thermal protection circuit tends to kink in much faster than expect). it seems the the lack of cooling caused a negligible drop in output over the time, along with Turbo output, just before ramping down to Mode 5 output.
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3. Multi-18650 lights on Max.


You can compare the light to other lights in output and runtime relatively.
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4. Turbo (no cooling) : sampling rate of every 30 secs
1) Checking points


I measured with thermal probes attached to three points of the light for the no cooling run. The room temp. was 26 degrees C, and window was opened a little in the test room. The resting temp. for the light before run was 27 degrees C. You can see the three points on the light where the thermal probes were set in place as shown above.
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2) Surface temperature


Note that left y-axis is the relative output. The cyan, black, and green lines represent surface temperatures of the light in degrees centigrade (celsius) should be read off the right y-axis.
The light stepped down after around 2 mins runtime (i.e., when the temperature at the point #1 reached approximately 47 degree C). However the rise in temperature triggered a drop only after about ~36 mins of runtime. The max. temperature on the body was 61 degrees C at point #1. In other words, the temperature continued to rise for ~35 mins runtime in spite of a very quick step-down in output. The surface of the light was quite hot by this period. I have never seen this exceptional thermal-output graph under no cooling. This seems to be due to the high temp. in the light with 2xMT-G2 emitters. So you need the handle installed when using the light on turbo or higher output as it prevent from getting burnt in the hand. I would recommend you to hold the handle on the light when use. Also I recommend you do not tailstand the light on Turbo or higher mode for extended periods or take great caution before picking it up again if you do. Best to constantly hand-hold the light when in use, or limit to the Turbo when using it.
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5. Mode 5 (fan cooling) : sampling rate of every 30 secs


The Mode 5 gives you longer runtime (2hrs 51mins) than Turbo as expected. The light slightly and gradually drops down in output.
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Beamshot

1. White door beamshot (about 50cm from the white door) on Max. output
- ISO100, F/9.0, 1/200sec, Auto white balance


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- ISO100, F/9.0, 1/500sec, Auto white balance


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- ISO100, F/9.0, 1/1500sec, Auto white balance



There is no artifact near the hotspot on my review sample. The tint is a good neutral white. The light is a pure flood light and clearly has a much wider spillbeam than other lights, due to the LOP shallow reflectors with 2xMT-G2 emitters.
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2. 6.5m Indoor Beamshot on Max. output
- ISO100, F/2.8, 1/13sec, Auto white balance

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3. 55m Outdoor Beamshot on Max. output
- ISO100, F/2.8, 1sec, Auto white balance

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4. 60~65m Outdoor Beamshot on Max. output
- ISO100, F/2.8, 1sec, Auto white balance