Review: Convoy BD03 - Tube light w/ built-in charging (pic heavy)

pilotdog68

Newly Enlightened
Joined
May 20, 2013
Messages
13
Obviously Convoy lights in general are very popular with the budget crowd. However, of all the Convoy lights the BD series are newer and less known. I have seen some posts on other forums about them (also can be found under the "Dipper" name), but no full reviews. So I asked Gearbest to send me a copy to do a review on.


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Fit and Finish
First of all, this flashlight looks like if a Convoy S3 and an S8 had a lovechild (see the picture of it with my S8), but since the S3 and S8 are cousins it had a birth defect that allows it to charge batteries inside the light. I was honestly expecting the quality to be a bit below what I expect from Convoy, but it isn't at all. No, it isn't the super-matte finish of the new C8, but it isn't the cheap shiny finish either. It feels good in the hand.


The bezel and button are stainless steel, as is the clip. It is an integrated shelf design, and the reflector is OP. There is no driver retaining ring, it is press-fit. This would normally be a bad thing, but in this case the battery tube is not part of the driver circuit, the power is carried through the battery carrier. The tailcap unscrews normally but the battery carrier comes out with it. The battery carrier itself is plastic, with threads that screw into the tailcap. It also serves as the "retaining ring" for the switch/charger board in the tail. The charging circuit is completely separate from the driver.


I have two gripes: The clip isn't great. As you can see it's a wire design that _is_ solid out of the box, but I'm not sure if I can trust it to hold it's shape. However, in the pictures you can see I put a solarforce clip on it that actually seems to work quite well. The other gripe is this: the battery goes in the "wrong" way. Meaning, positive towards the tail. It's not really a problem, but I think they should have labelled it better. It _is_ marked inside the carrier, but it's black plastic and hard to see (maybe a sticker would have been better?). Also adding to the confusion, there is still a spring on the rear, so the positive end goes on the spring. The driver has reverse polarity protection, but I'm unsure about the charging circuit. On the good side, the battery carrier does fit long protected cells (although they are harder to get back out than smaller cells).


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Operation
This is a 5-mode driver (L-M-H-Strobe-SOS) with a reverse clicky and memory, so most of you are familiar with the way it operates. It is "only" 1.5amps on high, but it was much brighter than I was expecting. I'm used to always having _at least_ 3amps, so the brightness for 1.5amps was very nice. My sample has the 4C tint, which is in almost perfect neutral white.


The specialness is hidden in the tail. The light comes with USB charger and micro-USB cable (just like for a cell-phone) and a little do-hickey that clips on to the metal button to charge the battery. You don't even have to open any covers or anything to charge. Very Cool. The downside to this system is that you need to be careful to not lose the little adapter. While charging, a red light can be seen on the tail, and it turns green when charging is "complete". I tested it using a protected Samsung 30B. On mine, the green light turned on at 4.15v. I then waited an hour and it was at 4.2v, waited another 2hours and it was still at 4.2v exactly, so it appears this is a reliable charger.


Also, the light can be used while charging. The adapter that clips on the tail has a pass-through to operate the switch. I think that makes this perfect for biking. You could have the light attached to a USB power bank while riding for extra long run-times. I did a little test to demonstrate. I put in a battery at 3.82v, attached the charger, and turned the light on medium. I left it running for 30min, then checked the voltage. The voltage had gone up to 3.90v, so essentially this could run forever on medium. I tested it again on high this time (battery still at 3.90v). After ten minutes voltage had dropped to 3.85v, after another 20min, it had dropped to 3.75v. The light is actually running off the battery not the charger directly, so on high you'll eventually run out of juice, but it should extend run-time significantly.


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Mod Forecast: Mostly Sunny
Having the charger separate from the driver sounds great, right? Well yes, but remember the driver isn't normal. It connects to batt- right in the middle and has a contact ring that connects to the battery carrier for batt+. And unfortunately, there isn't enough room in the pill cavity to stack a new driver. However, it is a 7135 based driver that has a genuine Attiny13A so you can reflash your own modes on the stock driver and there should be enough room to stack 4 more 7135's for 3amps. This should also work as a host for a triple with some kind of mcpcb spacer.


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Conclusion



Pros:
- Typical Convoy quality
- solid construction
- reliable built-in charger
- nice beam pattern
- great tint (4C)
- 1.5amps is perfect for gifts, it will wow them without burning their hands


Cons:
- Stock UI (blinkies)
- Clip isn't as good as it could be
- battery orientation should be better marked






Final word: Great value overall, good for gifts especially.
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Gearbest is offering a coupon code for this light in the different tint offerings.

For 3B, 4C, or 5B tints the price is $21.99 coupon: ConvoyGB
For 1A or 7A tints the price is $20.69 coupon: BD03GB
 

gunga

Flashaholic
Joined
Nov 29, 2006
Messages
8,080
Location
Vancouver, BC, Canada
I think if it had a normal circuit and pill etc it might be more popular. Seems like it has some nice upgrades from the usual s2 etc.
 

Mkduffer

Newly Enlightened
Joined
Dec 19, 2015
Messages
40
Thanks for the great review and killer pics. Think I'll spring for one as I've always had a weak spot for rechargeables. Like the idea of not having to open and close my light every time the battery runs down. Too bad it's only IP65 (Aliexpress says IPX7), though and I'm leery of that right-angled micro USB charging piece. Oh well, worst case, I'll have to charge the battery outside. Not the end of the world.

Good info about the reversed battery, too. I'm sure I would have mucked that one up.

Mahalo!
 

Mkduffer

Newly Enlightened
Joined
Dec 19, 2015
Messages
40
I actually ordered 3 of them. 2 w/ 5k tint, 1 w/ 4.2k. Simon had a scratch-n-dent special for $16.99. TBH, I couldn't tell where the damage was, until I dropped one and it became apparent. :fail: It was right there, on the corner where it fell. lol Still haven't found any damage on the other two yet, and now that I have the lanyards attached, they are far less likely to fall out of my pocket. :D

Love all three of them, with some minor issues:


  1. When the battery drops below acceptable levels, the light starts to flash 2 times per second. That is the extent of the low voltage protection. It would be nice (since this will not run a single 1.2v cell) if the unit had actually under voltage protection which shut off the light. This way, I wouldn't have to worry about damaging my batteries if the light accidentally turned on. IMHO, this should be a standard feature on lights which only use Li-Ion batteries, or at least an option.
  2. On the tail cap, there are 2 two lanyard holes, however they are situated one per side. This means the lanyard has to cross over the bottom of the tail cap, leaving an uneven surface. It causes the light to wobble a bit when tail-standing. Another hole and the problem would be solved.
  3. Not a big fan of the 5 mode UI with the 2 flashies. Unlike most other Convoys, this does not have the additional 3-mode that you can opt for. All things considered, a fairly minor irritation.
  4. The carrier is extremely tight when using protected 18650's, or at least it was with mine. I checked my protected cell and it was a bit longer than the laptop pulls I've been using in other lights. I suspect it's because of the addition of the PCB. When installed in the BD03 battery carrier, it was difficult to put in and almost impossible to pull out. A push-out hole on the back side of the carrier would be nice, if the body can't be lengthened to accommodate protected cells.

I agree that the reverse battery install in the carrier could be better indicated, especially since there is a big spring where the positive terminal connects. For those not used to 18650, it could be mistakenly assumed that the spring represents the negative terminal. To that end, I've taken a silver sharpie and made notes inside and outside the carrier.

My wish list:
  1. Fix the issues above.
  2. Firefly mode.
  3. Better clip. The wire clip is the reason (well partially) that I dropped my first BD03. Second reason was because I wasn't running a lanyard because of issue 2 above. Also, there are sharp edges to the wire clip which I fear will scratch the body when I switch orientations.

Mahalo
 
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