I have received the
Kaidomain CREE V1.0 Flashlight(1AA) (SKU2246) and found a few issues:
1) Light only works intermittently when it arrives. There is no reliable electrical contact from the outer ring of the converter board to the metal body of the light.
2) The reflector and the LED + converter assembly is shaking / loose. I tighten both, but then the LED is to far in, completely out of focus and the tailcap no longer screws fully down.
I fix 1) and 2) by removing anodizing from inside the tube where the LED assembly sits. I put 2 washers, size M10, into the tube. I solder a ring of wire onto the copper ring of the converter PCB. This achieves an electrical path from the converter thru the wire ring and the two washers to the body of the light.
3) I realize the reverse clicky doesn't reliably turn off the light due to too much pressure on the tailcap spring. The spring is fully compressed in its initial state, so it doesn't compress any further. I replace the positive contact (actually an abused M3 nut, being soldered to the contact area and thereby raising it), with a contact spring from an old battery box. This way, my second spring does the job of the tailcap spring.
This restores correct operation of the light.
Apart from these faults, the light is mechanically well-made: Threads are smooth, body is strong, clicky is firm, anodizing quality good (type II), reflector clean, lens is glass, generally nice appearance. The light is not the smallest single AA, though (105mm overall length, 27mm bezel diameter).
The beam is very clean, a bit spottier and brighter than my Dexlight X.V Cree, tint is nicely white, absolutely nothing to complain about.
My electrical check reveals that the light is not regulated unlike Kaidomain claims. At 1.2 V I measure 540 mA current draw, at 1.5 V it's 750 mA. With a regulated light, the current consumption should decrease while the supply voltage increases.
I'm using NiMH, so the lack of regulation is not an issue due to the flat discharge curve of NiMH chemistry. Still, it should not be called "regulated" when it is not.
I wished Kaidomain let me write a public review like it's possible on DX, unfortunately I can't figure out how.
Now I ask myself if all
Kaidomain CREE V1.0 Flashlight(1AA) are like this and if the
DX Cree 1-Mode Enhanced Flashlight (1xAA) (it looks exactly the same) is better.
My bottom line: A pretty good single mode AA light at a nice price - if you enjoy fixing it first.
Don't miss out on this related
review of a similar AA light, the HF2 by Ty_Bower.
