Manufacturer:- www.jillite.com
Retailer:- Warren LITEmania on CPF see this thread
Purchase Price :- $77/£45.30 http://www.xe.com/ucc/
Size:- 60mm (2.363 Inches)long, Body Diameter 20mm (0.787 Inch)
Weight (With Battery):- 1.16oz. 32.89g
Battery Type / Qty :- 1off CR2 Lithium 3V Primary
Battery Life :- Around 1.5 Hours
LED Type :- Luxeon III Bin TxxJ probably TW0J
Rated Output:- not known
Estimated LED Lifespan:- Over 100,000 Hours
Colour:- White
Reflector Type :- Aluminium
Lens Material :- Glass
Electronics:- LuxDrive MicroPuck
Body Material :- Aerospace Grade 6061 Aluminium Alloy
Colour :- Type III Hard anodise
Features:- Ultra Clear Lens
Accessories :- Key ring attachment clip

First of all a big thank you to Warren for supplying me with this light for review. I don't get offered many lights for review most of them are bought with my own money. So this is very much appreciated.

This time we have a light manufactured in Korea. It comes supplied in a zip lock plastic bag with a stapled card to tell you the specifications and serial number. This light is serial number 1631 so proves they are well into high volume sales for what is essentially a very high end key ring light.

The light comes supplied with it's very own key ring attachment clip which has a sprung mini carabineers type release and a turnbuckle connected to a split ring.

Moving on the the light. The first thing that strikes you is the nice design of the light. It has some very well thought out features and has been made an interesting object to look at. I imagine that this makes it a little more expensive to produce but it is well worth the extra effort.

The light as you will see in the photos below is machined from aluminium alloy in several parts. These are then anodised externally with a Type III finish. This gives a natural dark green colour to the parts and is the toughest finish available for this type of alloy. It should hold up well to scratching and general wear.

The light has a good feel to it. The knurling makes it easy to get a good grip on the head along with the flats on the battery tube make it easy to turn.

I love the design of the tail end of the light with the six pointed star shape reminding me of the alloy wheels fitted to sports cars. The head also has some grooves cut into it to increase the surface area and help with the cooling.

The CNC machining is crisp with no obvious defects. The only slight issue is a small burr on the threading next to the O-ring. But some careful prodding with a scalpel blade should sort this out.

The body is laser engraved with the name of the light and the serial number. The rear of the light has the words 'Made in Korea' engraved around the circular cutout. All nicely done and not too large.

The tail of the light unscrews to allow the battery to be installed. This joint is sealed with an O-ring. This light takes a single 'CR2' Lithium cell. This is a common cell in camera equipment and has a very compact size with reasonable energy density. Also a good shelf life of 10 years so it should still work if it has been standing for a bit.

The battery is inserted with the +ve end towards the LED and the -ve toward the tailcap.

The O-rings supplied are bright orange in colour and made from Nitrile rubber . These should give a very good water tight seal to the light and make it more than splash proof. Be aware that they should only be lubed with a suitable product such as Nyogel ones, for this light the 779ZC and the 759G (Conductive) grease are the ones to use.

Operation is simple just turn the two half's together until the light comes on. Don't keep turning once the light switches on though as you will probably crush the electronics. This design is great for pocket carry as there is no chance of it turning on by mistake.

Unscrewing the bezel allows you to get at the LED module and the reflector. The LED and electronics are retained under a removable collar. This screws into the main body of the light. I removed it with some fine round nosed electronics pliers.

This allows you to get at the two PCBs and the electronics assembly.

The LED is a Lumileds Luxeon III emitter and it is fitted to the top of the PCB board.

Colour is good on the supplied LED. Similar to my ARC LSH-S.

This will be due to the suspected TW0J Bin code of the LED. This is not definite info just a good guess on info provided from MBF members. Thanks.

Update 29 August 2005

LEDs now confirmed as TW0J by the manufacturer. Lights cannot use RCR2 cells as the MicroPuck will only accept 3V Max input.

T=67.2-87.4 Lumens
W= 6050K Colour Temperature Tint White
0= 6050K Colour Temperature Tint White
J= 3.27-3.51Vf (Forward Voltage)

The reflector is made from aluminium is dropped into the head of the light. The bezel ring must be screwed down to hold the glass lens and O-ring seal in place. .

The beam from the reflector throws a medium distance (10-20m) and is good for walking at night. A decent side spill also helps with peripheral vision, to stop you falling over things. The beam output is smooth with a good central hotspot.The output is excellent for such a small light, I would think this is a perfect EDC light as it is so small but powerful enough to get you out of a tight situation, like changing a wheel on your car in pitch darkness.

I can see this light replacing my trusty ARC LSH as an EDC as it generates more light with a brighter hotspot and sidespill in a smaller package. Very Impressive.

The measured output is 528 Lux @ 1m

I also took some readings with my Fluke 179 meter. With a current draw of 444mA from the battery. With a typical CR2 around 750-800mAh Capacity you can see the 1.5 hour runtime being somewhere near the mark.

This light uses a self contained dedicated LED driver made by www.leddynamics.com. This is called the MicroPuck. The particular version used is the 2009HI High Output version. This gives a quoted 400mA to the LED. No wonder this little torch is so bright!

The MicroPuck driver gives a voltage boost to the LED so even as the voltage drops on the cell it will still deliver enough forward voltage to fully light the LED. The rated 400mA at the LED will be maintained for as long as possible with a gently tapering discharge until the cell is nearly depleted at which point a rapid reduction in output will occur. But the LED will still run on the lower output for a decent duration. More figures and graphs later in the week.

I am not too sure of the runtime yet. The quoted figures ar 1.5 Hours. I will get a better idea when I get my logging Fluke 189 DMM later in the week and run some tests.

Overall I think this light offers a high quality build with proven electronics and LED in a very compact package. For its size it has an amazing amount of light output and a very useful 1.5 hour runtime. Perfection would perhaps be a two stage switch to give hours of runtime on a much lower output. But to keep the light simple to operate and a pleasure to carry round.

I'm looking forward to future JIL-Lite products. If the quality is maintained then a move to larger lights could be a very good thing. We will have to wait and see.