YLP Gryphon G180 Flashlight Review
Today, for testing is the YLP Gryphon G180 Flashlight, a triple of triples light, powered by three 18650 cells. Read on for more!
Official Specs and Features
Here’s a link to the YLP Gryphon G180 Flashlight product page.
Versions
There is just one version.
Price
These list for $78, and are listed as temporarily out of stock. I expect this is related to some shipping concerns, though, and once that is sorted out, then this light will likely be available again.
Short Review
I like it. It’s a fantastic little light, and the price is reasonable. It has the features it should have (namely, LVP, an indicating switch, and NW temp).
Long Review
The Big Table
| YLP Gryphon G180 | |
|---|---|
| Emitter: | Cree XP-G2 x3 (4000K NW) |
| Price in USD at publication time: | $78.00 |
| Cell: | 3×18650 |
| Turbo Runtime | High Runtime |
| LVP? | Yes, with switch warning |
| Switch Type: | E-switch |
| Quiescent Current (A): | ? |
| On-Board Charging? | No |
| Claimed Lumens (lm) | 3200 |
| Measured Lumens (at 30s) | 2796 (87.4% of claim)^ |
| Candela per Lumen | 5.7 |
| Claimed Throw (m) | 228 |
| Candela (Calculated) in cd (at 30s) | 839lux @ 4.559m = 17438cd |
| Throw (Calculated) (m) | 264.1 (115.8% of claim)^ |
| All my YLP reviews! | |
^ Measurement disclaimer: Testing flashlights is my hobby. I use hobbyist-level equipment for testing, including some I made myself. Try not to get buried in the details of manufacturer specifications versus measurements recorded here; A certain amount of difference (say, 10 or 15%) is perfectly reasonable.
What’s Included
- YLP Gryphon G180 Flashlight
- Spare o-rings (2)
- Lanyard
- Carry pouch
- Manual
Package and Manual
Build Quality and Disassembly
Build quality on the G180 is very good.
Like on the Unicorn 1.0, the Gryphon G180 has some branding on the tailcap.
The head has some thicker fins for cooling.
The knurling is not rolled but cut. It’s very similar to some of the bigger Acebeam lights. It’s good knurling; the grip it provides is fairly minimal, and certainly will be comfortable in hand.
The tailcap has the same knurling, but I’m not sure why. It’s clearly a separate piece, but this isn’t what you remove to swap the cells.
The cell tube is just “dumb” – no electronics. The head (left) has a big spring and a big area for contact with the cell holder.
The threads are big and very smooth, and anodized. It takes just the tiniest looseness to break the contact for an electronic lockout.
The bezel is easy to unscrew.
A little metal plate loosely holds three standard Carclo optics.
Above the optics is an o-ring and a thick lens.
Size and Comps
DIMENSIONS: LENGTH 115 MM; HEAD DIAMETER 51 MM; BODY DIAMETER 43 MM
WEIGHT: 201g
This light is approximately the same size and shape as the Fireflies Rot66. It’s also a 3×18650 light.
Retention and Carry
YLP provides this carry pouch, which has all sorts of features and functions. This isn’t really a bag review, but suffice to say that this light will fit very easily into this useful pouch.
For one, it’ll fit right here on the outside – likely the intended place for the light. Easy access, a bit stretchy, and it’ll go up or down.
The pouch also has two other compartments. Each of those is divided further.
There’s also a lanyard, which attaches through this hole in the head. This hole is big, and attaching the lanyard should be very easy.
There is no pocket clip or magnet, nor would you really expect there to be.
Power and Runtime
The G180 is powered by three 18650 cells, held in place by the holder you see below.
The orientation is two up, one down, and they’re in series. Thus, the light will not work with any number of cells except 3. The [max] running voltage is around (4.2Vx3) = 12.6V.
The cells have plenty of room to accommodate any type of 18650.
The battery holder is not directional, so either way you drop it into the body will be acceptable.
The springs contact the negative end of the cell, and the buttons contact the positive terminal. This is the normal way.
Here are a couple of runtimes. Turbo and High. The light didn’t quite hit the 3200-lumen rating, but it’s just outside my 10% “amateur equipment” guideline – I’ll cal lit good enough. Particularly because it holds that with minimal drop for 30 minutes. It does get hot, but what do you expect… Even after the stepdown, once the temperature gets under control, it seems to creep back up to a very good >2200 lumen output (also somewhere in there, my temperature probe slipped off and the temp recording isn’t accurate).
High is incredibly well regulated, and at >1800 lumens, still very bright.
Both runtimes exhibited a hard cutoff at a voltage plenty high for cell protection. I don’t stand on top of runtimes, so I didn’t actually see the switch doing its thing. Read on for what the switch does when the voltage begins to wane.
On bench power testing, which was done at a max of 11.2V (since that’s what my bench power maxes at), the switch switches from green to red at 10.3V. And from red to flashing red at 9.7V. At 8.5V, the light shuts off completely (and electrically). That’s a per-cell voltage of around 2.8V, which is just fine.
Modes and Currents
| Mode | Mode Claimed Output (lm) | Claimed Runtime | Measured Lumens | Tailcap Amps |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Turbo | 3200 | 2h | 2796 | 2.39 (@ ~11V) |
| High | 2000 | 2.5h | 1849 | 1.40 (@ ~11V) |
| Med | 800 | 5.5h | 746 | 0.49 (@ ~11V) |
| Low | 200 | 22h | 181 | 0.14 (@ ~11V) |
| Moonlight | 10 | 10d | 12 | 0.01 (@ ~11V) |
Pulse Width Modulation
Even on low, I don’t think that’s really “PWM” – just a bit of ripple. All in all this is a good result.
Here you can see a “baseline” – a chart with almost no light hitting the sensor.
Then there’s the Ultrafire WF-602C flashlight, which has some of the worst PWM I’ve seen. It’s so bad that I used a post about it to explain PWM! Here are multiple timescales (10ms, 5ms, 2ms, 1ms, 0.5ms, 0.2ms) to make comparing this “worst” PWM light to the test light easier. That post also explains why I didn’t test the WF-602C at the usual 50us scale.
User Interface and Operation
There’s a single indicating e-switch on the Gryphon G180. It’s black but can indicate red and green. It’s quite clicky, too.
It seems to continually indicate in green (until voltage drops) when running.
Here’s a user interface table!
| State | Action | Result |
|---|---|---|
| Off | Click | On (Memorized mode, if Memory is on) |
| Off | Double Click | Turbo^ |
| Off | Hold | Moonlight^ |
| On | Hold | Mode advance (Low > Med > High > Turbo) (no moonlight in rotation) |
| On | Double Click | Turbo |
| On | Click | Off |
| Turbo (from On) | Double Click | Previous mode (except moonlight) |
| Turbo (from Off) | Double Click | Low |
| Off | Hold switch 10s | Turn memory on or off (Flashlight blinks once for “off” and thrice for “on.”)^^ |
| Any | Double Click + hold | Strobe |
| Strobe | Click | Low |
^ Activating Moonlight or Turbo this way does not store these two in memory.
^^ The light always starts in Low if memory is off. When changing this, the light does cycle through the modes! (It’s an easy way to count 10s). The light blinks once or thrice in Turbo output to notify.)
LED and Beam
In this triple of triples are 9 Cree XP-G2 emitters, at a 4000K temperature. This is a good NW temperature. I’m not sure which Carclo optic is in here, but the light isn’t really all flood (surprise), so it’s likely narrow. Anyway, that’s very easy (and cheap) to change if you want something else out of the light.
Moonlight could probably be a bit lower than 10 lumens.
Beamshots
These beamshots always have the following settings: f8, ISO100, 0.3s shutter, and manual 5000K exposure. These photos are taken at floor level, and the beam hits the ceiling around 9 feet away.
Tint vs BLF-348 (KillzoneFlashlights.com 219b version) (affiliate link)
I keep the test flashlight on the left and the BLF-348 reference flashlight on the right.
I compare everything to the Killzone 219b BLF-348 because it’s inexpensive and has the best tint!
Conclusion
What I like
- Nice build quality
- Very robust “belt bag” is included
- Good LVP
- Indicating switch
- Good user interface (easy access to Moon/Turbo, among other things)
What I don’t like
- A 10 lumen low is a bit high for me
- Surprisingly the MCPCB isn’t a triple of triples. So if you wish to do an emitter swap, you’ll need to reflow on the stock board.
Notes
- This light was provided by YLP for review. I was not paid to write this review.
- This content originally appeared at zeroair.org. Please visit there for the best experience!
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