Jarl
Flashlight Enthusiast
For submission to review forum.
If you're lazy, scroll to the bottom.
I bought this from KD for $26 or so, it is now $41. However, IMO it is worth it, even at the increased price.
Anodizing is even, no colour differences and feel nice. It's more of a matt finish than a shiny finish. I'd say it's type II- when rubbed against my fenix l2d, the eastward takes damage, but when rubbed against my minimag, neither take damage.
The body seperates to 4 parts which screw together. The tailcap, body, head and bezel. The bezel is a strike bezel, with the lens recessed by about a centimetre. The crenellations aren't sharp.
The lens is glass and not quite big enough for the head, sealed with a washer of rubber between it and the bezel.
The reflector is deep, metal and textured, giving a very nice spot-spill combination, with slightly more spot.
The light engine is attached to the reflector. It cannot be undone from it with hands, and I didn't try anything more heavy duty. The emitter is a new style (P4 or better, I'd guess Q5 from the name of the light and the performance)
The head has fins on it, though these are largely useless as the light engine and reflector don't actually make contact with the head apart from at the very top of the reflector. This does worry me- where does the heat go? Nothing seems to get hot in operation- this is my main concern with the light.
The body tube is nice, though the square design is not the nicest to hold, it does provide decent grip.
The tail houses the reverse clicky, and provides some anti-roll when set down. It can tail-stand to act as a candle even with the laynard on, though it is slightly unstable due to the high CoG.
Inside the tail, there are 6 components. The first is the rubber switch boot. Then there is a plastic spacer between the boot and circuit board. The circuit board has a switch, resistor (7 ohms) for the low function, and a spring on it. Then there is a plastic spacer and a funky metal cylinder, which effectively extends the spring, with the collar to hold it all down. The collar is longer than most others I've come across.
Necessary mods:
Rip both springs off the light engine. Undo the retaining ring on the LE (I used the scissors on my SAK for this- it's not on tightly). Peel off the contact board which the spring used to be on (a bit of double sided tape may fall out- dispose). Unsolder the negative wire, and solder it to the threads on the LE as close as you can to the driver. Check the continuity between the outside of the LE and the -ve wire you soldered. Place potting compound on the driver board, then push the contact board back to it's original position. Using your soldering iron, spread the solder evenly over the contact pad that the +ve spring used to be on. (you should be able to do all this without removing the bezel and taking out the LE/reflector). Let the potting compound set (I used blu-tack hardened with superglue, but that's probably just me
). This gives you a couple more mm needed to run protected 18650's without crushing them.
optional mods
The standard resistor in the tailcap of the light is 7 ohms. I replaced mine with a 1/8 watt 1000 ohm resistor, giving a low of a guestimated 3 or 4 lumens. I broke the low current levels on my DMM, but the draw is less than 0.01A at the tail like this, giving at least 10 days constant on. It's just enough light to walk round with dark-adapted vision, though it's not in as much of a flood as I would like.
For heatsinking, I got a load of aluminium foil and cheap heatsink compound from DX, and lathered the outside of the reflector with heatsink compound, put a few wraps of aluminium foil around it, lathered that in heatsink goo, then squished it all into the head and did up the bezel. I'm not sure if it's the phenomenal heatsinking that the large head gives, but it heats up slowly and cools down quickly (unlike my L2D!). In use, it doesn't get warm at all, but running it for 10 minutes indoors will bring the outside of the head to "warm". A minute after you turn it off, though, it's back to normal temperature.
Also, tin the contacts on the head end of the battery tube. This helps prevent wear since they're not contacting with a spring any more.
Soldering the funky metal cylinder to the spring in the tailcap should decrease resistance.
General impressions (lazy people start reading here)
Stock, the light is not great. Protected trustfire 18650's fit snugly, though are too long. When the tailcap is tightened, a worrying amount of pressure is exerted on the batteries. The beam is really nice, more throwy and brighter (just) than my task force 2C on a 18650, but it's impossible to tell the difference between high and medium modes. The LED in the LE is not replaceable AFAIK. The switch goes on (high), on (low), off, repeat. I prefer this to what I was expecting (on;high, off, on;low, off, repeat). The tint is really nice, perhaps a touch on the blue side.
After being modded, batteries are fine (though I doubt xx670's will fit- tolerances are that close), the beam is still great and the low mode is actually useful. If you have an hour or two to spare, then this is a great thrower to buy, but if you don't have the time or inclination to mod it, then there are better lights out there. For the price I paid, I'm really really happy- this thing blows my L2D out the water in throw, spill, runtime and overall output. The L2D has size on it's side, though. For $41 dollars, I'd still be very happy with it.
If you're lazy, scroll to the bottom.
I bought this from KD for $26 or so, it is now $41. However, IMO it is worth it, even at the increased price.
Anodizing is even, no colour differences and feel nice. It's more of a matt finish than a shiny finish. I'd say it's type II- when rubbed against my fenix l2d, the eastward takes damage, but when rubbed against my minimag, neither take damage.
The body seperates to 4 parts which screw together. The tailcap, body, head and bezel. The bezel is a strike bezel, with the lens recessed by about a centimetre. The crenellations aren't sharp.
The lens is glass and not quite big enough for the head, sealed with a washer of rubber between it and the bezel.
The reflector is deep, metal and textured, giving a very nice spot-spill combination, with slightly more spot.
The light engine is attached to the reflector. It cannot be undone from it with hands, and I didn't try anything more heavy duty. The emitter is a new style (P4 or better, I'd guess Q5 from the name of the light and the performance)
The head has fins on it, though these are largely useless as the light engine and reflector don't actually make contact with the head apart from at the very top of the reflector. This does worry me- where does the heat go? Nothing seems to get hot in operation- this is my main concern with the light.
The body tube is nice, though the square design is not the nicest to hold, it does provide decent grip.
The tail houses the reverse clicky, and provides some anti-roll when set down. It can tail-stand to act as a candle even with the laynard on, though it is slightly unstable due to the high CoG.
Inside the tail, there are 6 components. The first is the rubber switch boot. Then there is a plastic spacer between the boot and circuit board. The circuit board has a switch, resistor (7 ohms) for the low function, and a spring on it. Then there is a plastic spacer and a funky metal cylinder, which effectively extends the spring, with the collar to hold it all down. The collar is longer than most others I've come across.
Necessary mods:
Rip both springs off the light engine. Undo the retaining ring on the LE (I used the scissors on my SAK for this- it's not on tightly). Peel off the contact board which the spring used to be on (a bit of double sided tape may fall out- dispose). Unsolder the negative wire, and solder it to the threads on the LE as close as you can to the driver. Check the continuity between the outside of the LE and the -ve wire you soldered. Place potting compound on the driver board, then push the contact board back to it's original position. Using your soldering iron, spread the solder evenly over the contact pad that the +ve spring used to be on. (you should be able to do all this without removing the bezel and taking out the LE/reflector). Let the potting compound set (I used blu-tack hardened with superglue, but that's probably just me
). This gives you a couple more mm needed to run protected 18650's without crushing them.optional mods
The standard resistor in the tailcap of the light is 7 ohms. I replaced mine with a 1/8 watt 1000 ohm resistor, giving a low of a guestimated 3 or 4 lumens. I broke the low current levels on my DMM, but the draw is less than 0.01A at the tail like this, giving at least 10 days constant on. It's just enough light to walk round with dark-adapted vision, though it's not in as much of a flood as I would like.
For heatsinking, I got a load of aluminium foil and cheap heatsink compound from DX, and lathered the outside of the reflector with heatsink compound, put a few wraps of aluminium foil around it, lathered that in heatsink goo, then squished it all into the head and did up the bezel. I'm not sure if it's the phenomenal heatsinking that the large head gives, but it heats up slowly and cools down quickly (unlike my L2D!). In use, it doesn't get warm at all, but running it for 10 minutes indoors will bring the outside of the head to "warm". A minute after you turn it off, though, it's back to normal temperature.
Also, tin the contacts on the head end of the battery tube. This helps prevent wear since they're not contacting with a spring any more.
Soldering the funky metal cylinder to the spring in the tailcap should decrease resistance.
General impressions (lazy people start reading here)
Stock, the light is not great. Protected trustfire 18650's fit snugly, though are too long. When the tailcap is tightened, a worrying amount of pressure is exerted on the batteries. The beam is really nice, more throwy and brighter (just) than my task force 2C on a 18650, but it's impossible to tell the difference between high and medium modes. The LED in the LE is not replaceable AFAIK. The switch goes on (high), on (low), off, repeat. I prefer this to what I was expecting (on;high, off, on;low, off, repeat). The tint is really nice, perhaps a touch on the blue side.
After being modded, batteries are fine (though I doubt xx670's will fit- tolerances are that close), the beam is still great and the low mode is actually useful. If you have an hour or two to spare, then this is a great thrower to buy, but if you don't have the time or inclination to mod it, then there are better lights out there. For the price I paid, I'm really really happy- this thing blows my L2D out the water in throw, spill, runtime and overall output. The L2D has size on it's side, though. For $41 dollars, I'd still be very happy with it.
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