First review,under construction, DQG II R5/R4 neutral - magnet/GITD tail

[ergotelis]

Hi, less than 2 days from shipping time i received my order(thanks dhl!) .
It was for a local group buy, 15 DQG II R5 + 2 DQG II R4.
Package had only flashlights plus some o-rings, no packaging, something like bulk sale. No problem for that!
So, how do i find this new flashlight?
With one word, amazing!It is the smallest AAA flashlight i think!

Some characteristics:

Using CREE XP-G R5 / R4 LED
Material: 304 SS
Switch: Head twist on/off
Two modes of brightness: Lo>Hi ;
Rotate head to change modes;
Current drawn: Lo 25mA>Hi 210mA (scroll down this page, i measured current on the battery and the 25ma mentioned here look quite high, so the runtime mentioned here will be a lot higher)
Runtime: 60mins on hi; 10hrs on lo, with quality AAA
Using PMMA diffuse lens, Angle:15 degree
Luminous O ring on the head
Battery: AAA
Anti-reverse protection
Ashproof and waterproof

Size:57.5mmx12.6mmx12mm

Weight: 12g



Some construction notes:

Build quality is very good due to Stainless steel.
The flashlight has GITD o-ring under the optical lens and on the tailcap, a magnet or a GITD disk. The magnet, is quite useful, especially for camping. Though, the magnet is not so strong, in some metal surfaces, which are vertical, mounted with an eneloop, the flashlight might not sustain its position. But in most cases, where there won't be a lot of vibrations, you won't have a problem with the magnet, it will work fine.
The GITD disk is quite nice, glows a lot if charged and sustains its light for enough time!!
There are no springs, the flashlight lights up when you tighten it up. Do not try to put a spring, is will be simply always powered on. The battery rattles when it is off, but all these are done in order to reduce to the minimum its dimensions. Threads are quite nice, no problem, lighting it up is quite smooth.
There is some quite good knurling both on the body and the head which let you operate it with one hand.
As for its weight, in fact, it doesn't weight. Only if you put an eneloop you can understand that there is a little bit of weight.
The led might not be always centered, but not up to a bad point and the optical lens is quite nice.
It can tailstand.

Some performance notes:
The flashlight is drawing 0,55-0,6 amp, so i guess it will be giving at least a good runtime on high. On low, i measured 0,03-0,02 amp, so you might get up to 1,5 days of good runtime continuously.
There is no clear performance loss in the R4 edition over the R5 edition. At least on mines, could not measure noticeable difference. I estimated its output, at least on startup, over 60 OTF.
Do not use lion batteries, you might burn it. The design of the flashlight protects from reverse polarity, so don't worry on that!
Someone might notice a bit of greenish tint in some flashlight, R5's have different tint among them. THe R4's are really neutral, not very yellowish, something like sunlight.
The beam is very nice, nice big hotspot with a less bright corona, perfect for edc.
Here is a comparison pic:

If you want to see a lot more photos and beamshots visit this page:
http://www.avclub.gr/forum/showthread.php?t=80788
It is in Greek though, but i can answer all you questions.
IF you want outdoor beamshots, please wait a few days.

I can compare it with some other famous edc's:
Zebralight sc60
Zebralight sc50
ITP A3 eos S2 AAA ti edition
4sevens mini123 S3 edition ti
4sevens miniAA
4sevens miniAA2
itp A2 eos AA SS
fenix p1d ce(remember this?)

 

[derfyled]

COOL !

Thanks for that review. Can't wait to have mine !

 

[cave dave]

What do you think the low output really is? More or less than MiniAA in a ceiling bounce?

 

[TooManyGizmos]

~

Didn't I read this initially in the specifications .... "Tighten head to power off"

That seemed to be an important selling point to many people too !

Now review says ... tighten for ON .. battery rattle .. and a weak magnet !

Teased with the Trit tube .......... now just a glow dot .

Good Grief Charlie Brown ........... was ALL that lost in translation TOO ???


Seems there were a LOT of FARCES promised to make this light desirable .....

To be honest , this is the exact result I expected from this China website seller.

Maybe related threads should just be moved to the appropriate Cheap Lights forum. It just seems to be an average low price light .



~

 

[vali]

Ouch... I forgot I have one in pre-order

Thanks for the review

 

[ergotelis]

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Didn't I read this initially in the specifications .... "Tighten head to power off"

That seemed to be an important selling point to many people too !
Now review says ... tighten for ON .. battery rattle .. and a weak magnet !
Good Grief Charlie Brown ........... was ALL that lost in translation TOO ???
Seems there were a LOT of FARCES promised to make this light desirable .....


~

The magnet will be in most cases ok. But in some surfaces, there would be some kind of problem in some vertical surfaces. If you put it an horizonal surface, facing down, there won't be any problem.
The operation is to tighten it on to light it up. Battery rattling (when off) is inevitable by the time it doesn't have a spring, i guess it was done to get the less of the dimensions.
For those who know more technical details about how most twisty flashlights work,DQG II is different, negative contact is all over the head, not only on the ring on the circuit,( inside the head). So, the lighing up occurs when battery makes a circuit between the two contacts.I don't know if i have explained it clearly, if not, tell me to try once again.

 

[bigchelis]

I like it

Any extra for me????

 

[TooManyGizmos]

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Ergotelis ,

The ON - OFF twistie operation does not seem to be different from most other twisties .

The ... " Tighten head to power off " was a POSITIVE SELLING POINT on this light .

I think it's why many wanted it ......... and NOW why many will be disappointed with it .

As I am .


~

 

[Incidentalist]

I have one of the original DQGs and it is a tighten for off. When fully tightened and in the off position, the batteries do not rattle. BUT, I can also loosen for off if I wanted to. In this position the batteries do rattle. Also, this version is supposed to be even shorter than the original. The difference in height between the fully tightened off and the loosened off is large enough to make the original DQG the same length as some of the other short AAA lights. The tighten for off feature, while also a good selling point, is key to making these lights the shortest on the market. I do not see how they could have possibly made this light even shorter than the original without still having the tighten for off feature, there just isn't enough room. Until we can get confirmation that the light stays on when fully tightened, I am going to assume that this version is tighten for off.

 

[TooManyGizmos]

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Well OK then ...... hopefully it really WILL tighten for OFF ..... I hope so .

Maybe ergotelis, the reviewer , is not aware it should work that way ?

Hopefully he will do a re-analysis and re-evaluation and then let us know soon .

I'm also still unclear how to get from low to high mode. Is it diff. than other lights ?
Do you un-twist to low, twist back to off, then quickly un-twist again to reach Hi mode .
Or do you just simply keep un-twisting , through low , until it jumps into Hi ?

I would like it to be just ONE ... long continuous un-screw to go thru low and then to Hi .

No one ever gave those type of details in the specs.

Thanks

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[Incidentalist]

Going by the original DQG that I have, it is one continuous twist. The original went off-H-L-off when loosening the head. The new version should be off-L-H-off when loosening the head from my understanding. While certainly not unique to this light, the continual twist for changing modes is not the standard operation. If you then factor in the tighten for
off and the only other AAA light with these features is the Versati from last year.

 

[TooManyGizmos]

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Incidentalist .......... thank you very much for your input and info ....... / TMG

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[Incidentalist]

You're welcome!

I certainly made plenty of commotion over in the sales thread over the magnet issue. But I think this is an innocent mistake. I could be wrong and we'll find out soon enough.

 

[ergotelis]

Guys, i got 17 flashlights, i tested most of them, how different can it be yours?
Flashlight lights up when i tighten it, switches modes in the classic way other twisty flashlights do, so to get high mode, tighten up->low,tighten off, tighten up -> high.
Sorry, i don't have a DQG I to see how it worked, but from my understanding, it is different than what you mention.
The way you say that it should be working, is impossible, because, in tighten off condition, the battery simply does not make contact. It is easy to see it from my photos, there is no spring!So only tightening it provides operation.
Toomanygizmos, all of the twisty flashlights i have seen, have negative contact from the flashlight body, directly to the circuit, not to the whole head,which is neutral in most cases. This is done,with a help of a spring, not to have battery rattling. HEre, they removed the spring, off mode is simple not tightened in order the battery to make no contact(and unfortunately rattling).

 

[gunga]

So basically it works like a quark mini. Tighten is on, loosen is off, siwtching modes is on - off -on. Right? Just no spring. Very different from teh first rev, and also never properly explained.

Oh well, still pretty cheap and seems cool, just not as advertised.

 

[TooManyGizmos]

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Thanks ergotelis ,

So you are saying that if you screw it together and tighten the two halves together as much as possible .... the light remains ON and Lit .

ergotelis , you made this statement a couple posts ago ....
I paste Quote :
"The way you say that it should be working, is impossible, because, in tighten off condition, the battery simply does not make contact." ...(end quote)
......................................................................................................
That was their design intent > for battery NOT to make contact , tightened.
.........................................................................................................

We understand that as you assemble it and start screwing the light halves together , the light turns ON .
But , if you keep screwing till it is fully tightened , will it then go off ?
It's supposed to go OFF at each opposite end of thread travel .

Did you see their original specifications when they started the Last sales thread for the DQG II , on 3-28-2011 , that said it would be a ... "Tighten head for OFF" .... type of operation ?


If so, is that what you were expecting to get when you ordered your 17 lights?


Thanks for your help in clearing this up .

~

 

[ergotelis]

Thanks, and it is exactly as you mention.
To be honest, i never took notice of this kind of operation they where mentioning and i don't think any of my friends took notice of that too, i will ask them. I only saw that when you mentioned it here. It is different from what is mentioned on their details.
So,nothing strange to me, this was what i was expecting from a classic twisty flashlight and as gunga said, it operates like a miniAA, and the output is basically the same!
For me, it is not a problem the way it operates, though it surely shows some kind of misunderstandings/problem with the dealer, or maybe(and more possibly i think) his manufacturer. At least it is a good flashlight, the only main problem for me is the battery rattling but because it is a very tiny flashlight, it is almost no problem.
Generally, it is a very nice flashlight, with a energizer lithium it is like carrying no flashlight with your keys, it is really tiny!

To add once again, i found another specs mistake: the low is lower than what they mention, 25ma is on battery not on the led. The led, as logical, is taking less. You will be getting better runtimes with this setting, and at least for me, it is better!

 

[ergotelis]

To add, i just opened the head, no glue, but modding it isn't quite easy. The circuit pcb has the led "printed" on it. You have to heat up the whole thing to remove the led, not quite easy! Was thinking of a XM-L, but doesn't fit. Will upload some photos later!

 

[TooManyGizmos]

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😕:duh2::mecry:.... I guess I'll just remain confused .



.............. ?? "(Thanks, and it is exactly as you mention.)" ?? ................

Yada ,yada , ya


.. I mentioned some questions of operation, looking for a precise answer.


If it "operates like a miniAA" .... then it is NOT "tighten head to turn OFF"


sorry I'm so dense .......... I have a learning dis-ability !




help .............................................................. anyone ?


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[leon2245]

what a mess

if you screw it together and tighten the two halves together as much as possible .... the light remains ON and Lit .

Wait, so this statement is true?!

:shakehead