Jaxman Z1 Discussion

This was over at Guelph lake. Sorry guys, I wasn’t having much luck taking beamshots with my cell phone camera, that lens reflection above did turn out cool though.

I was in a bit of a rush to get out of the house so I didn’t have time to charge up my batteries, they were both at about 3.8v which is how they shipped to me. Despite that, I was still very impressed with the output.

Overall I was less impressed with the fully zoomed throw than I expected to be. I knew that it wouldn’t be a “pencil beam” but still thought the hotspot would be a bit brighter. The MT-G2 emitter looks cool zoomed to its smallest. You could clearly make out all (32?) of the squares which make up the emitter at about 50’ away. Unfortunately the camera couldn’t make them out.

My impression of this light changed once I zoomed it all of the way to flood, wow! I’ve never owned any SRK, Meteor or other super floody lights and have never experienced anything like this. Fully zoomed out I would guess this thing could flood an area of at least 100 foot square. It’s great because when it is zoomed out it blankets everything within 100m in uniform illumination. If there is a certain spot in the distance which is not quite being illuminated enough, you can just give it a twist and gain an extra boost to what you can see in this area. I would bet this light would be a blast to have with you hiking in mountains or somewhere with long valleys to look down into.

To start, I put together a very basic build. FX-6 driver with an un-bypassed carobronze spring from fasttech. The tailcap has not been bypassed. I’m also using one of the double spring contact boards sold by Jaxman for connecting flattop cells. To me these little double spring boards seem like they would have quite a bit of resistance. Should I be concerned enough to switch to a magnet?

Also, is there any difference in how resistance in springs and such affects current at the higher voltages of a 2 cell light? This is my first time doubling up cells. Should I be looking at bypassing the springs in this light for a boost in output? What about a shave de-dome, would anyone recommend this for the 5000k MT-G2 from intl-outdoor?

Dude, your cells were virtually DEAD and you were still impressed! Charge em up, do bypasses, solder a blip on top of the rear cell so it’ll contact the back of the front cell (throw away that little divider with the tiny springs) and try again. Grab onto something, you’re gonna be blown away! :smiley:

Haha, thanks for the encouragement!

I just took the cells off the charger and noticed that one of them has a tiny tear in the battery wrap right at the protection board. Is it safe to assume that I shouldn’t use this cell in a light until I can get some wrap for a 26650? The inside of the tube is anodized so it shouldn’t make contact… probably not a smart move though.

I should have read the Fat liitokalas thread before jamming these things into the Z1. I’ve filed the end of the battery tube and extension tube to hopefully remove any catch points. Bummer!

Really, what argument? Just in throw/kcd, an XHP35 HI should beat an XPL HI if done well at high amps, but a dedomed XPL beats them both.

I just built up a Manker U21 with a dedomed XPL W2 1A from an AliEpxress store and seems like the W2 bin could be the real deal. It did a little better than my dedomed XPL V6 0D also in a Manker U21, same FET+1 driver, same setup. I measured the throw of the U21 with the dedomed W2 1A at 245 kcd (990 meters) taken at 5m, and lumens of 1,731 @30 secs. Not bad for a light shorter than a C8 and head diameter at 59 mm.

“… tiny tear in the battery wrap right at the protection board…” Does this mean you’re using protected cells? That will limit your MT-G2. Use unprotected cells and the output will be ginormous. The MT-G2 peaks at around 12A, can take 16A. In other words, you don’t have to worry about the emitter. I have seen about 16.1A hooked directly to two top cells with no driver, hard wired if you will.

Ixnay the rotectionpay. :wink:

It’s is late, I’ve been saying silly things. The cells I was using are not protected, the wrap did not tear at the protection board, it tore next to the positive terminal. I said protection board without even thinking about which cells I was using, whoops.

I knew that the Luminus SBT-70 is a current monster and yet is very inefficient, producing more heat than lumens, so I machined a copper replacement pill for my Z1 and maximized it for mass wherever possible. The driver is a 17mm, so I made the driver bay and retaining ring smaller to fit my 17mm FET+1 driver. Mo mass. :slight_smile:

The SBT-70 is a 3V emitter, albeit a large one, and pulls up to 17A from a single cell. I don’t recall what this one is pulling but it’s high like that, converting most of the current to heat and only about 1300-1500 lumens.

Oh wow what a beautiful pic of the lens, send you a pm!

Dale looks good!

I’ve been out of the forum for a bit and was catching up some and saw this post and comment regarding this white box not normally expected from Jaxman and wanted to say that I to just received an X1 from Jaxman that also came only in a White box with X1 and tint written on the side with ball point pen, “apparently”,
I say apparently because until now I was not really sure what my white box was because it was completely flattened and while looking at this mess in a box that I received from Jaxman I remember thinking where is the Jaxman brown box, well until now anyhow,
I wasn’t sure what that box was all about reason being that my package had been intercepted by customs and they completely disassembled the X1 and just threw all the parts along with the reflector and an additional pill Paul sent me as a gift and along with an original X1 extension all on top of that flattened white box and so I had a reflector with a pill that was rolling around inside of it when I got the package.
Talk about a gut sick feeling and then rather mad, and then really mad when I saw the reflector and just baffled about everything really and the white box was just a mystery.
I get along with the owner fairly well so I didn’t really want to make an issue out of anything other than informing him about what had happened and sent him a few pictures and just asked is there’s any way to purchase a new reflector since I could see that Jaxman had really gone to great lengths to package my light well enough even in this unusual box,
So I just didn’t ask about packaging and just asked about that reflector and how to buy a new one.
I have had a lot of messaging with the owner and it seems there are some issues going on, but not clear on what except some changes to the X1, not sure if this also means Z1 and I suppose there is some changes in packaging obviously but once I saw the tape on my shipping box saying Customs and Inspected I started snapping pictures and it is just a horrible mess and useless light without a reflector.
I did get a message from Jaxman today so I will ask about the white box,
I have seen one cloned M8 and an X1 and some of us saw the first clone that was done to this company called a Cometa, so it might possibly be a product rebuild from box up.? I do know the X1 is getting some changes and I think he said something minor to the Z1 also but can’t recall exactly but will ask tonight or tomorrow about that box anyhow and if this is what’s to be expected in the future or maybe just ran out of the nice boxes… Beats me…

This is what mine came like, well sort of if not flattened out by customs, this is not a clone, I’m just now reading through the posts here, but I did buy mine directly from the owner and I will now inquire into what’s up with this box, not to forget that the additional stuff that should have came like it would have in a brown box came in a plastic zip bag, in think, maybe Customs did that I don’t know, but that box is for real right now.

Dale, Your machining looks exquisite. Well done. :+1:

Yep, Brett I ordered just about the same time you did and this is all inline with what I got also, I have to reply to a message from Paul so I’ll ask, I doesn’t say much to often, sometimes but I do know he has some health problems and then there’s a lot of other problems BG being one, Manker being one and so on, but if I were to guess with his telling me about the changes being made that the packaging may have ran out and this is what he gets the lights from the machine shop in, my guess

Edit: Paul is the owner

T18, you mean they (customs) just threw all the loose parts in the box and called it “good” :person_facepalming: :person_facepalming: :person_facepalming:

That is truly disturbing……… :frowning:

Yep, let me put some pictures together and upload them, it was a sickening sight I’ll tell you and then the white box was an absolute mystery on top of it all, until I stumbled upon Brett’s comment here, then it was clear and frankly being I paid just what Brett did I to feel a bit ripped off sort of and really this light is completely useless with no reflector,

Please do get those pics up, I would love to see that. Do you know if it was US Customs or before it got here??

Here you go, if you get your package you will know immediately that it was stopped by Customs because well they make it real obvious frankly, Here have a look at how my excitement went from yippee new light to Oh F*** What **&$$****&&&&Y… F*@! Idiots…!!!

What day did Brett say he got his? Mine are date stamped and oh believe this, I was pretty darn mad that’s for sure.

!

Thanks U.S. Customs, Border Protection, Idiots and X1 Light destroyers…

!

:person_facepalming: :cry: :person_facepalming: :cry: :person_facepalming:
THAT……… is worse than sad. It should be criminal……… :rage: … :open_mouth:

Sorry for your trouble…… :cry: … :cry:

Thanks for sharing T18…. :+1:

Wow T18! I am sorry to learn of this! I had not seen your recent posts on this matter.

Thanks Teacher,
I thought this was just my weird luck and then I see that Brett has weird luck also, but he didn’t get the Customs treatment though and that is just not fair…. ha ha ha, Yes indeed you will know immediately that Customs has just ruined your product, that tape really catches your attention… :smiling_imp: :cry: :confounded: :slight_smile:

Thank You Brett, I wasn’t sure of anything with this white box until you thankfully posted something about it here.
As I mentioned I have been off the forum for just a bit and this thread just happens to be one I keep my eye on, so I stopped to look and see what the mad scientist have come up with lately and first thing I see is that white box… wow… I thought I was just in some weird customs thing and that they had put that box in my shipping box and kept the brown box, I really had no clue whatsoever. Certainly didn’t believe Jaxman sent that to me.
And I it didn’t even cross my mind really to ask when I told Paul what had happened.
I do know there is many problems at Jaxman and it has just been building up since that Cometa incident being that was actually the first time his lights were cloned and with BG being behind all that, that is why the Jaxman lights aren’t at BG anymore but then those cloned Z1’s were sold to us of all things.
Paul is a really great guy and I am positive there is a very good explanation for that white box,
Also knowing he’s making changes to his lights might mean he’s changing up everything about his product, there’s a lot of clone problems going on and right down to that box or so I was told, so it’s all sort of coming together now that I saw your box.
And then throw Customs in the mix and well… I am glad Paul promised to send me a new reflector with the new changed X1 when it’s done so maybe I’ll come out on the upside in the end, but what a dismal day that was when I got a box with Customs tape on it, a first and I surely hope a last, I don’t think I’ve ever heard of anyone else here having Customs do that to a flashlight, what does it look like bomb, a hamburger, or a flashlight?