Xeno E03 (1xAA, 1x14500) - XP-G R5 Neutral White - Review: RUNTIMES, BEAMSHOTS +

[selfbuilt]

Originally Posted by bodhran
Is there any chance of getting a beam shot with the diffuser?

Here you go - f2.7, 1/100sec exposure for both (no diffuser first, diffuser second) Here you go - f2.7, 1/100sec exposure for both (no diffuser first, diffuser second)

Personally, I like this diffuser better than most other wand ones. The flat top gives you a very even beam - a lot of the conical ones tend to still produce some centre throw. Although my preferred diffuser is always a thin flat one over the lens.

Note again the diffuser does not come with the light - it is an optional accessory to be purchased separately.

 

[selfbuilt]

Written by texas cop on 02-21-2011 10:58 AM GMT

Thanks for the well done review, again. Your hard work and excellent charts are the ones getting me into better lights with no hit/miss guessing games. This light is a soon to buy for myself.

 

[selfbuilt]

Written by MichaelW on 02-21-2011 08:17 PM GMT

I would love to see how it handles the 3 volt primary cell, 14505.

 

[selfbuilt]

Written by MichaelW on 02-22-2011 12:27 PM GMT

I bet that xp-e warm-white would die a quick death with 14500 Li-on.

 

[selfbuilt]

Written by BigBluefish on Yesterday 04:21 PM GMT

Thanks for another fine review, selfbuilt. Except, now I want to buy a couple of these! It seems a very well made light for it's price-point. I guess we'll just have to see how reliable they are after some use. I think a neutral xpg and a warm xpe are in my future.

 

[selfbuilt]

The main review post has been updated with the final review text.

The thread discussions have been fully restored from the search engine cache data (thank you tandem!).

Please carry on!

 

[bodhran]

Just go off work and was pleased to see things were up and running again. I'm running mine of the 14500 battery now and the diffuser is great. Thinking now about buying a couple for family, though running on AA's. by the way...I didn't see the Tk35 review. Hope it wasn't lost..*eg*

 

[selfbuilt]

by the way...I didn't see the Tk35 review. Hope it wasn't lost..*eg*

Well, I haven't done one yet. I do have a TK35 on hand for testing, so hope to be able to get to it soon. I have a couple of other reviews that have to get done first.

I'm hoping the restoration of my threads should be complete by end of day tomorrow, so will get back to posting new content then. :wave:

 

[mhelskie]

great review selfbuilt, hopefully me and my buddy can get a hold of this light next month(might order next week).


nice to see CPF working again! Cheers! :wave:

 

[GunnarGG]

Selfbuilt, thanks again for the nice review and also for now restoring the responses lost in the crash.
I did buy two of these lights. One red and one black. Both neutral white.
The red one is still in the box, I think this will be a gift.
I have used the black one for I think 2 weeks now and like it. It has been used indoors and walking the dog.
Low and medium has been used mostly, it's pretty bright on high. It has a nice, rather floody beam.
Compared side by side to other lights mine is slightly green in the tint but I can absolutely not see that if I use it by itself.
When held in cigar grip the index finger finds its place nicely in the fingerwell closest to the tail, so that's my prefered grip.
Easy to use, nothing to worry about if gifted to a non flashaholic!

 

[selfbuilt]

Written by MichaelW on 02-21-2011 08:17 PM GMT

I would love to see how it handles the 3 volt primary cell, 14505.

Below is a table showing INITIAL output in estimated lumens from my lightbox, on various battery sources:

As you might expect, the TI 3V 14505 primary lithium cells perform intermediate to the other approved battery sources.

As an aside, these new AA-shaped primary lithium cells are designed for lights where the same circuit is used in the 1xAA and 1xCR123A models. That way, you can predict their output by looking at how the CR123A runs.

In AA-sized lights where there is no 1xCR123A data to compare to - yet 3.7V Li-ion is officially supported - you would expect intermediate output levels, as shown here. But you are also taking a calculated risk in using a battery source that has not been officially approved by the light manufacturer.

 

[Kyle K]

Thanks, Selfbuilt! I bought this light in neutral white based on your great review and I really like it. I also ordered some Titanium 14505's to try.

Kyle

 

[GunnarGG]

May I add some more observations during the last days.

I did drop it today, it got a little scratched on the alu bezel ring but that protected against chipping of the HA. I have some other lights that didn't have that protection...

The small LED on my computermouse turned red telling me the batteries was low, 2 IKEA alkaline.
I put one of the batteries in the Xeno E03 and the hi didn't work, it was about the same brightness as med, maybe these were dimmer than med with fresh batteries.
Well, I put the light in low mode and it has run for almost 1,5 hours, still running.
I think it can be good to know how for how long you can get some light after you have gotten an indication that your battery is getting low.

 

[Lighthouse one]

I bought 2 lights based on your review, and I am very satisfied with these lights. THe diffuser is excellent. Spend the extra bucks for one- you won't be sorry.

 

[geckoblink]

I just wanted to say that I've been using a Fenix LD10 clip with my Xeno and It's worked out well so far. There isn't a perfect place to seat the clip, but below the tail cap works relatively well. There is very little play and the LD10 clips is very stiff.

 

[rickypanecatyl]

I've been looking for a while for a colored AA light as my little girl really, really wants her own flashlight like Daddy! I ordered 2 of them, hid one and gave her the other one. She was so excited as I was when I found out about them.

She dropped it from about 2' and it broke. I tried the other lights tail cap but that wasn't it. At that point I realized wow - this thing is pretty locked up. Not much you can do except take the tail cap off. My girl was broken hearted that Daddy's special present for her broke so fast. I couldn't get it going and my wife wanted to try dropping it. She dropped it and it worked - intermitently for a few days! I just gave her the other one and she was thrilled. I was sure it was a fluke. She has it tied with a lanyard around her beltloop and riding her bike it must have swung into her handlebars or something and now the 2nd one doesn't work. Sorry to be so frank, but


this light is a total piece of crap!!!

 

[jasonck08]

I've been looking for a while for a colored AA light as my little girl really, really wants her own flashlight like Daddy! I ordered 2 of them, hid one and gave her the other one. She was so excited as I was when I found out about them.

She dropped it from about 2' and it broke. I tried the other lights tail cap but that wasn't it. At that point I realized wow - this thing is pretty locked up. Not much you can do except take the tail cap off. My girl was broken hearted that Daddy's special present for her broke so fast. I couldn't get it going and my wife wanted to try dropping it. She dropped it and it worked - intermitently for a few days! I just gave her the other one and she was thrilled. I was sure it was a fluke. She has it tied with a lanyard around her beltloop and riding her bike it must have swung into her handlebars or something and now the 2nd one doesn't work. Sorry to be so frank, but


this light is a total piece of crap!!!

The LED supplier screwed up with the reflow solder job on a few of these lights. Xeno does not reflow solder the XP-G's onto the MPCB, but they should have caught it.

All the LED's in the new batch were properly reflowed, and I've literally done about 200-300 drops on a couple dozen of these lights from 3ft without a failure in the latest batch.

Instead of flaming on the forum, couldn't you just try to contact me so I can resolve the issue? I'll pay for shipping both ways. It's as simple as replacing the light engine (which I will do for you) then ship them back, and you'll never have this issue again.

Here is a link to a test that Xeno did with the latest batch:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tZrH2ALjNrE&feature=player_profilepage

Email me at: admin (at) tacticalhid (dot) info

 

[rickypanecatyl]

Instead of flaming on the forum, couldn't you just try to contact me so I can resolve the issue? I'll pay for shipping both ways. It's as simple as replacing the light engine (which I will do for you) then ship them back, and you'll never have this issue again.

Jason thanks for the kind offer! You are right - I should've contacted you first - sorry for the rant!

As I don't have a lot of confidence in the Malaysian postal system and one of the lights is working intermitantly I think I'll hang on to that one and send in the one that doesn't work at all.

I got the warm tints by the way and they are amazing compared to the typical cooler tints how they bring out color and help with depth perception. They look almost just like an incandescent w/ the efficiency of LED.

 

[jasonck08]

Hey Ricky, why don't you send me an email and I'll send you some basic instructions for removing the light engine. Then you can just mail that part back.

 

[cave dave]

Got my two a couple days ago and overall I am really pleased. They seem like a great light for the money. I got a Warm and a Neutral. I think these will make Gift lights, although they would be better with L-M-H sequence.

Some additional comments:
- Knurling is the most aggressive I have seen. A bit too aggressive in my opinion. I would prefer it wasn't so sharp.
- I also would prefer it was Low - Med - High with no memory. There was a poll on CPF about sequence preference and the vast majority preferred L-M-H, with H-M-L in distant 2nd and hardly anybody preferring the "non-sequential" sequences.
- Neutral Tint is a bit cooler than my Neutral Quarks but warmer than my Neutral Rominsen and S-Mini.
- Threads came unlubed. A bit of lube makes it much smoother to replace the tailcap at battery changes.
- I would prefer the Lens retaining ring was stainless steel for better durability.
- I dropped one of the lights on carpet from about 3 feet with no ill effects.
- Low (called ultra-low in paperwork) is rated for 10 lm. Since it is about half the brightness in a bounce as a Fenix E01 I would say it is more like 5lm.
- Glow button lasted a lot longer than expected. I figured this was a gimmick but it was still visible at 5am after getting charged up at 1030pm when I went to sleep.

Issues:
Right off the bat I had to do some minor surgery because one of the lights had two tailsprings twisted together under the retainer. I thought I could just leave it as is but the extra force actually dented the back of an eneloop battery. Trying to untwist the springs was like one of those metal challenge puzzles but in miniature. I took me 20 min to figure it out. This should have been caught by the assembler or the QC person.