New Convoy C8 – Clearly better

The S2+ can be run at 2.8 A until the battery runs off without issues, but your hand may suffer a bit. I don’t believe that the bigger C8 could have worse thermal management than the S2+.

I own several BD lights that I bought directly from Simon on his Aliexpress store. Came in a Convoy box and was even labeled:

“Convoy
BD03” directly on the light.

I’ve seen them called “Big Dipper” but don’t recall if that was on a Convoy site or some other site. I believe that the BD line are all USB rechargeable, but I’m not certain.

Maybe Simon could clear this up personally?

Mahalo

Honestly, I tend to design very conservatively, so even though an LED can probably handle 5A+ and elevated temps for a while without bursting into flames, I try to at least keep things manageable for the LED regardless, if anything for better lumen-maintenance. (I’m one of those weirdos who uses AS5 as thread-lube screwing in a pill to the case.)

Hey, I had a ’98 for about a year, ran it full tilt all the time without a second thought, and was horrified when I discovered the hollow pill, so now it’s in pieces waiting for me to copper-fill the bugger somehow (and drive it at ~2A vs <1A). The floating star never transferred much heat to the case or the pill, and now I know it was because it was all bottled up in the LED. Eep!

So yeah, I’d rather let my hand tell me things are getting a little too toasty, vs not knowing the silent-scream of the poor little critter as it was suffering.

And I probably wouldn’t be keeping it on for too long in one burst anyway, but you never know when you might have to.

Can anybody explain to me the difference between the BD01 and the BD06? It looks like just a few mm difference in the diameters…?

And is there a BD05?

I’m considering getting one of this series for my Dad - the built in charging system is appealing.

Anyone have a favorite BD0*?

And to bring this back on topic, is this series going to get updated drivers with Biscotti?

Lightbringer, I’m sure if you ask Simon when ordering you can get the 6*7135 you prefer. I think the C8 comes with a forward clicky, but you can also ask him to use one to make sure. With Bistro-Mini (or Biscotti) you can select mode 12 and forget about it. 100% all the time. The light will be coming with DTP, you will already have an AR lens, and you should be quite happy.

Simon loves flashlights like we do, ask him in the messaging screen before finalizing the order on AliExpress and he will get back to you, pretty sure he’ll fix the light up any way you like it and would probably even engage level 12 at 100% only for you so you would have it operating as you wish right out of the box. :wink:

Simon is just really great that way. :smiley:

This new C8 foes have coated glass and DTP star and XPL hi right?
Just choose your mode in Biscotti and it seems like you have the light you want!

The BD01 and 06 are almost the same light with these differences:
BD01 comes with two rubber rings under the tail spring to slip over 18650 cell so that can be used instead of 26650.
The BD01 is bigger

Tube and tail of them Lego
the 06 is easier to pocket and a bit cheaper.
I like the looks of the 01 more but use them both (working on reviews so while doing that do a charge cycle twice a day and they both charge excellent)

The BD01 has a ~50mm head as compared to the BD06 having a 42mm head. The crenelations on the 01 are smooth, more gentle where the crenelations on the 06 are sharp and more pronounced.

I know the charging indicator lights through the reflector on the 01, don’t think it does on the 06. What I mean is, with the BD01 when the light is charging you see the illumination inside the reflector cup, it comes through a clear centering ring around the emitter. Looks really cool, I don’t think the BD06 has this feature but I’ve not seen the 06.

The BD01 I also know to have a 7135 regulated driver, easily bumped for more power. :wink: While I THINK the 06 does as well, I haven’t seen that one.

Does new C8 have direct thermal path?

Yes it comes with DTP copper mcpcb

Is it just me, or do the 7135’s on the spring side of the board seem to be closer to the center on the new driver?

I seem to recall soldering the drivers to the pill in the Convoy S-series (S2/S3/S6/etc) because the resistors got in the way of the retainer ring. I wonder if these drivers will allow the retainer ring to be used in the S-series pills? Does anybody have one that they can test?

New driver:

Old driver:

Good eye ‘gchart’, and good question. :+1:
I hope the retainer ring will work with these.

If everyone’s sure it’ll run forever at 2.8A w/o cooking the LED (DTP, integrated head, etc.), then I’ll take it on faith that it’ll work, and be happy with it. :smiley:

My only issue with AX is that, for whatever reason, it always redirects to it.aliexpress.com and everything comes out in italian. Hell if I know how to change that…

And yeah, I go and put “www” back instead of “it”, but same thing, still back to italian. ?!?

As for the light, I’d figure out the config, no worries. My only concern is that it cannot flip modes or even go into config by any kind of diddling with the switch. That’s why I might have to go and reflash it anyway or just hardwire the ’13 out of the way (ground/Vcc/NC the offending PWM-out pin, forgot which), which is a pain.

Wonder if I can just buy it in “kit” form… That way I can use the goodies in my black host and use the “clear” one as a regular light.

Feh, I always gotta make everything difficult…

So I keep hearing, and I have no doubt it’s true. :smiley:

I can testify that apparently what was said about the S2 is true.
I did it by accident one time with a fully charged 3400mAh Panasonic. No apparent damage to the S2+………
But that is another story. :wink:

If AliExpress kicks you in a strange language I usually place the item in cart then click global site top right
Then gobto cart and click item to return and browse the shop or whatever.

Dang Dale I can test that cell status thing of the BD06 I got it here.
Give me a few hours and I’ll post a pic.

Mine arrive today! Very excited to try out the new firmware!

Hey all. I don’t have time right now to respond to everything but as far as the naming goes it doesn’t all make sense to me either. Some of these names and designs are “publicly available designs” meaning essentially they’re open source. Anyone can build a C8 and call it a C8 but some companies (like Convoy) do it better than others. In these publicly available designs they may be required to use the original name but I’m just guessing.

The BD series lights to the best of my knowledge were originally made and solder under the Dipper brand name but Convoy now manufactures most of them. I don’t know what the exact rules are but take the BD04 for example. It’s made by Convoy but it’s also sold by Thorfire under the same name and neither company is doing anything illegal in doing so. Convoy does use some of these public designs and does a very good job of them.

As The Miller correctly said earlier, the L2 and L6 are both original Convoy designs and can not legally be produced by anyone else. Hopefully we will never see clones of these lights but it’s quite hard to control in China. It wouldn’t be a very cost effective design to clone though. Simon isn’t making huge profits on these and it seems like a cheaply made clone would stick out like a sore thumb…

No J-Dub74 you say it wrong, IF we see a clone of the L series (so please make that L1 happen :wink: ) we buy a L at Simon of BG/GB/DX/FT with the Convoy name.

Holding the BD06 and no sharp edges.
And while charging it shows red or green just like the 01
The only real difference is head size.
About more pronounced edges, I am thinking of a test to kind of prove “pocket friendliness” but havent figured it out yet
It is good to think of something so I am devoting time on it :wink:

BD01 and BD06
06 hooked up to USB

Sweet! The site didn’t go on about it as they did the 01 so I wasn’t sure. The bezel has much different crenelation on the 06 than the 01, 6 ridges instead of 5, and this on a smaller head so they are more compact, look to be more angular instead of flowing like on the 01.

I’ve had the 01 here, bumped output on it and fine tuned the beam profile a little, it’s really quite nice with a small bit of TLC to tweak it slightly. :slight_smile:

I can attest to that. Bought a bunch of cheap C8 clones at too-good-to-be-true prices, intending to just use them as hosts. Yeah, too good to be true.

I’d gotten some before, pretty decent brass pills, XM-L (genuine or lookalike, dunno, but pretty good), pretty bright (>300lm, at least, from ceiling-bounce tests), not bad for an Amazon special…

These… pfft! Plastic reflector, cheap featherweight Al pill, XP-E sized LB emitter, maybe 80-100lm of angry-blue light, tops. With a decent brass pill from FT that fit fine, a real 4300K XP-E2, new driver, it throws pretty nicely, but still isn’t a light I’d put much faith in. Still got the plastic reflector (ordered 3 different types of Al reflectors from FT to see which’d fit best), but just adding up the costs of getting the cheapo host to do anything (decent pill, reflector, switch, etc.), it’s just plain not worth it. I’d rather just get the real Convoy host from FT that’s all ready to go with solid parts, not crap. Much less agg as well.

If they were to ever clone the L2/L6, you can bet it’d be rated 45,000lm (maybe 150-200lm tops in reality), be half the weight, have horrible purple-blue 7500K LB XP-E clones, and just be an embarrassment to flashlights everywhere.

Sad part is, people’d buy ’em.