Just Joined and got a couple of queries re:LED

Hi All,
Jeez, I am so excited I found this place, you see I was starting to worry about myself, as any normal person would, when I realised I had a collection of around 20 or illuminating devices of one shape or another. Now I realise I am normal after all !!!!!!! Theres loadsa people just like me out there !! lol

Seriously though, I founf the site thru a guy over here in the UK, who has a site called cones-stuff.co.uk, and the link was on there.
I use lights flashlighs in my job, sparetime, and leisure activities. I provide security staff for film and TV sets, and over here in the UK its dark 30% of the time so I always carry a light of some sort. I started with things like MAG and Pelican many years ago, then discovered Surefire and Nite-Ops but always found/thought £50 on a light was a lot of money, 6p are about that over here, but just got my first heavyweight a U2.
Now I like the U2 and it will be great for my regular job, but boy do they eat batteries, so at the instruction of above mentioned site I visited Lighthound las week and bought some 18650 batts and a charger, being a "HAM" I know a little about electronics so when faced with protected as against un-protected, I chose protected, they are AW 2200 mah 3.7v, but they dont fit, so I am presuming after reading for hours and hours on these forums last night, that I ordered the wrong ones and I should have got the "bare" ones, can some one confirm this please or let me know if there is a protected one that will fit in my 2 week old U2 and use the Ultrafire wf-139 charger ? Thanks in advance on that one.
Secondly, I have seen a mention and photo of a mini mini hid lamp but cannot find anyone who sells them. It might not be the light for me, so I better qualify my requirement.
I do a lot of vermin control in the countryside near my home, mainly rabbits, so I need a handheld small lamp that will give me 100-200 yard tight beam to spot rabbits with. I need it to be able to be used by hand or if I decide use a uni gun mount to put it on my rifle if shooting solo.

Any help would be gratefully received.
Finally, phew !!!
Thanks for a great forum, some interesting reading and a place I can call HOME !!!

Regards to All

Lee

Welcome to CPF Lee. Unfortunatley I do not know anything about the U2 but someone here will chime in. If 18650's do not fit then 17650's might as they are a bit narrower in diameter. I was under the impression that Surefire's don't like rechargeables but again someone here with more knowledge about Surefire's like CPF member Size15's will know better. Anyways just wanted to welcome you.

Hi Lee, welcome to CPF!

I believe that the early U2's had a plastic sleeve inside the battery tube that could be removed to acomodate 18650's...I don't think the newer U2's have this sleeve...have a little look inside the battery tube and check which version you have...if you bought it from the UK, there is a slim chance it is old stock with the sleeve.

Maybe one of the U2 owners with the latest model could tell you if 17670's will fit the newer model (17670's will hapily fit & charge in your WF-139). They don't have as much capacity as 18650's but they are still "free lumens" and you won't have to go though tons of Primary CR123's.

As the other poster said..."Size 15's" (resident SureFire guru) will hopefully chime in and help you out.


CFU

There are multiple variations of the U2. The first ones have no plastic sleeve inside and a wide internal diameter allowing them to accept 18650 batteries.

The second, which are more recent, have a plastic sleeve but are otherwise identical to the first. You can remove the plastic sleeve if you try hard enough (some are epoxied in pretty well) and then use 18650's. If you don't want to remove the sleeve you can try 17650's.

Then there's a third, more recent variation that seems to have arisen -- there is no plastic sleeve and the internal diameter of the light has shrunken so that CR123's do not rattle inside. They do not fit 18650's. I would consider trying 17650's, or if you do not mind having your U2 modded a bit, you can send it to someone who is willing to bore out the tube so that 18650's DO fit. If you do not mind a bit of modding then this is probably the best option because 18650's have the highest mAh capacity that you can fit into any U2.

For the handheld light, I would check out the Streamlight TL-3 Xenon. It is not too expensive and throws pretty well, as well as being pretty compact. Or you could check out the larger Wolf-Eyes or Pila lights.

Cheers guys, thanks for welcome and the information.
Mine is definately the newer one with the solid tube and no insert, so Will look at both options, bore-out or 17650 batts.

Thanks carrot for the info re: Streamlight TL-3 Xenon, I will go and check this one out too.

Regards

Lee

Lumalee said:

Hi All,
Jeez, I am so excited I found this place, you see I was starting to worry about myself, as any normal person would, when I realised I had a collection of around 20 or illuminating devices of one shape or another. Now I realise I am normal after all !!!!!!! Theres loadsa people just like me out there !! lol
Lee

Click to expand...

Howdy Lee, and welcome to CPF. Good luck with the U2 thing. Great light. By the way, I hate to break this to you, but just because you've found a place with lots of other flashlight weirdos, don't think that makes you normal.

Lumalee said:

...I like the U2 and it will be great for my regular job, but boy do they eat batteries...I visited Lighthound las week and bought some 18650 batts and a charger...but they dont fit...I need a handheld small lamp that will give me 100-200 yard tight beam...

Click to expand...

First, the U2 is a great light. Also the 18650 is the highest-capacity rechargeable solution for the U2.

However the 18650 won't fit newer U2 bodies. You need a "Leef body": http://www.lighthound.com/index.asp?PageAction=VIEWPROD&ProdID=2657

Re small torch with a 100-200 yd tight beam, that's challenging. Beam width is closely related to the ratio of emitter size to reflector size. IOW from physics alone, it's difficult to have a very slim LED light with high output and a tight beam.

If you don't mind spending a few hundred $, the best solution is probably an HID flashlight. See the HID section of this forum: http://www.candlepowerforums.com/vb/forumdisplay.php?f=7

For HID you could check out Microfire or Wolf_Eyes.

welcome to the forum,,,