Today I have my second YLP installment. First was the Unicorn 1.0. Today is the Gryphon G180, a triple of triples light, powered by three 18650 cells. Read on for more!

Official Specs and Features

Here’s a link to the official 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, NW temp).

Long Review

The Big Table

* Measurement disclaimer: I am an amateur flashlight reviewer. I don’t have $10,000 or even $1,000 worth of testing equipment. I test output and such in PVC tubes!! Please consider claims within 10% of what I measure to be perfectly reasonable (accurate, even).

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 to the cell holder.

The threads are big and very smooth, and anodized. It takes just the tiniest loosen to break the contact for an electronic lockout.

The bezel is easy to unscrew.

A little metal plate olosely 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 just 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 are 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 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 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)

PWM

Even on low I don’t think that’s really “PWM” – just a bit of ripple. All in all this is a good result.

For reference, here’s a baseline shot, with all the room lights off and almost nothing hitting the sensor. And here’s the worst PWM light I have ever owned. Also one of the very first lights I ordered directly from China!

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 UI 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, in 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 the 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….

These beamshots are always with the following settings: f8, ISO100, 0.3s shutter, and manual 5000K exposure.

Tint vs BLF-348 (Killzone 219b version)

Test light is on the left.

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 UI (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.

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