Video "review": KD V3 vs DX R2. Recent budget AAA flashlights compared

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Nils

Newly Enlightened
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Dec 12, 2007
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As I had said I would do a "review" once I got my Kaidomain "Tough" V4 AAA and the Dealextreme Aurora R2 AAA flashlights I thought I would get done more quickly doing it "shaky phone camera" style.

I hope I covered most of the interesting points. Please bear with me, my english and camera skills ;-)

Comments welcome

http://files.ndwdesign.net/aaacomparison.mp4
http://files.ndwdesign.net/aaabeamshots.mp4

You can "force" windows media player to play them. Quicktime should do as well or whatever you use for your video playback.

Hope it's useful for you.
 
Thank you for posting this review. Very helpful comparison. I have an R2 on the way, and am also waiting for Jerry to open an order for a V4 to replace a defective V2 I sent back.
 
Thanks for the review. It is nice to compare the two side by side. Would it be possible for you to post beams shots of the two side by side also? That would help me a lot to decide between the two. Thanks.
 
Is the Dx R2 stronger then then Fenix E01? Can it be compare with the L0d CE ?
 
Got my R2, it's definitely very bright. It's much brighter than my E0, so I would say it's much brighter than the E01.

It might be comparable to the L0D on Med / high. The thing is too bright to look at into the lens when it's on.

But build quality is not close to Fenix, so it's going to make decent gifts for non-flashaholics.
 
By looking at the beam shot provide above. It seems its no where near KD V4. Man, I am going to be very disappointed... I been waiting for 1-2 weeks and this "R2" is not up to par with KD V4 Q5... Thank god I purchased this for myself to walk around the house at night. Luckily I purchased a V4 for my mom. I am just hoping the V4 don't have sloppy threads...

The beam shot I am talking about is the second video. I believe the center beam shot is the KD V4 and the left is the R2 and the right is KD V2-3??? (I think).. The sound was a bit off so I cannot hear it quite well.
 
The output from the DX R2 buckle is better than my V3 kai buckle but it is hard to compare a flood with a thrower/flood, the R2 put my V3 into retirement and the R2 is the only light that made my wife go wow :D
 
Thanks for the contribution.
dl'ing as I speak.

Geez, seems like I have been waiting forever for the R2!

I ordered on the 15th.
So I get a package recently. I had ordered a spare LED on a pill (the star metal thingy ;) ) and a regular bulb. The package felt unusually light! I knew the R2 wasn't in there. :(

I thought it'd be a problem of them just forgetting. I opened the pckg and surely no R2 but a note saying it's on backorder. I checked my acct online and it's showing packaging. :thinking:
Ok. Keep waiting.

I surely have electronics experience but found a bit of struggle today.
I went forward to remove a Cree from its pill.
Clear to me that the pads and solder were under the led. I made attempts to heat around the edges with my iron. Nogo.

I had to file a cross on the bottom of the pill, all the way to just barely through the other side. Basically filed it in half both axises.
I then heated the whole metal with my iron. Got real hot. But then the led gave way and the quadrants of the pill I filed came apart.

The LED made it out alive save on bit of the pad removed. I still was able to light it up. The pads on top help also.

NOW! - my concern is when getting my hands on the R2.
Aside from maybe the whole thing being glued in, I still have a concern of the general modding.

I haven't modded one of these cree type flashlights before. I assume they're all mounted to star metal pills like what I just had to deal with.
I can't go about filing apart the flashlight's pill metal base too!
No wait, it just hit me, I have the AAA coming, surely that star base wouldn't be in that narrow flashlight! I do wonder how these Cree's are mounted in in AAA lights. I think I remember seeing a close up photos of a light in "candle" mode, I'll have to find it again.
I wonder how they heat sink them then. :thinking:

I'm still searching the forum on modding. I hope there is an easier way or that the flashlights usually have a different mount for the LED. I don't know. :thinking:

I don't have a heat gun, so that's a bummer.

Anyone feel up to throwing in some comments here.

They don't offer these types of flashlights in other colors and I really want another color, so I'm modding it myself.

Thanks.
 
Well isn't this funny! :twothumbs -
Literally one minute after typing my post above about not receiving my R2, I just got an email from DX indicating it just shipped.
:crackup:

dealgrabber, you say your's won't unscrew? :(
Looks like I'm going to have some tough modding when I get mine.
 
Hey, side question -

I've had this problem for a while with other forums as well as this one.

When I try to search with a 3 letter word, it yields no results because the term is too short. I tried to search by topic the word - mod.

Even though there clearly are threads titled with 'mod' in the them.

Does anyone know a work around to search by short terms? I would think there must be a way. I don't think quotes work. :thinking:

Thanks. :grin2:
 
Ok, I just did some long browsing through the 4 pages at the modding section. I didn't even know there was that section! Still kind of new here.

And I see pill and star board are not the same things. I once did know what a pill was but long forgot. :whistle:

Well, there were some good tips.
The Bionic wrench (extra cash though), chemicals (like acetone), putting in a bag and boiling, and someone made a cool wrench type thing out of two pieces of scrap wood and bolts.

I'm sure I'll get it open. I'll report back to let you know how I did it. But probably in about 10 days as mine just shipped.
 
It seems I got a little unlucky when doing the beamshots:

The R2 got a little under rated. Maybe there had been a battery or contact issue but in the beamshots video its dimmer to what it actually is. With a fresh battery my R2 gets warm relativly quick now. But as the "body mass" of both is totally different that doesn't seem to me as a very good method of aproximatting current draw. Have to measure that once I got a moment to do so.

I'd say overall output of the R2 and KD V4 is similiar. Though the patterns are different as you can see in the video. I would suggest that the fluctuation between specimens of each kind is greater than the difference between both models.

You wont be disappointed by the output of any of them.
:)

Sorry "your" head seems to be glued... Already have been thinking of modding another one to permanetly use as a candle. But if they usually are glued together that might be a no go...
 
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