Mine arrived today and I really like it. I agree the spring resistance makes the button hard to press and slightly less resistance would be nice, but it's ok by me how it is.
After reading a bit I see there are different v2 versions floating around, and I ended up with a "Smart PD EX11 SP R5" with "V2" stamped on the opposite side. I was surprised to get one with a slotted piston, which is both good and bad in my opinion, because now I have to go and spend time figuring out how to do the GITD epoxy mod :).
I'm leaving the battery in to see if it's a battery vampire which is supposedly fixed now...we'll see!
BTW, don't expect anything bright, they are about as bright as cheap DX GITD tail caps after a minute of fade out or so. But the difference is it doesn't need charging, and its glowing when you need it!!... unlike GITD that only glows after you have activated it, i.e. you already have the torch.
Not sure about yours, but mine has a single jump somewhere about 10-20% brightness (halfway during the ramp)
I also do see a stepped ramping, as if the brightness ramp involved 100+ steps. The original EX10/D10 had a more visibly stepped ramp (50 steps?) but the later EX10/D10s had a ramp with more steps that could not be visibly discerned. The current EX11.2 has steps that are somewhat in-between, smooth, but visible if you tried to look for it.
Unprotected is pretty scary on this driver, because it runs fully regulated down to 1.7v, and can provide light under 1v. Means you can run batteries dead dead flat before you even realise. Not a problem with vigilant battery management, however I know I can't be trusted... ;)
I also finally got a tritium picture which doesn't look excessively bright... The room was practically pitch dark though, this is probably still a tad brighter than what you will see. The camera can see the blues pretty well and it seems as bright, but to the human eye, blue is almost not visible, green is many times brighter, and yellow is in-between.
I'm super vigilant with them along with my unprotected 18650s, and tend to top them off far more often than needed. I've actually never had one go below 3.7v so far.
the size depends on the size of what you intend on putting into it. The ones I did were just manually milled and was a trial and error thing to get the tightest fit for the glass vials I had. You can get various sizes and its best to find dimensions to fit what you have.
The vials I've used have have been in 3 sizes, 1.55x5mm, 1.5x6mm, 2x8mm. Remember to account for the radius of the mill, in other words, the rounded edges of the slot. I haven't measured the slot, but I'm Guessing... 0.3-0.6mm larger in dimensions as bare minimums
I havent read the review but i can already tell that this is probably the most useful review on the net, written honestly from a user's perspective. I will study it when i get a nice offer (Thanksgiving, ..) on the light.
Thanks for the review efforts!!!
Anyone thinks that this light looks better/worse than Eagletac D25C?
FYI, this light is back on ebay at the moment. Note that the clip they are selling is not a nitecore clip, but the banggood one which is not very nice looking.
easy to mod, but watch the video on this link showing that output with 16340 drifts a lot
the lowest mode is 0.3 lumens.
I recommend it as a CR123 light, it runs steady output that way, and gives a low of 0.01 lumens
however, these lights do have the bug that when switched off too quickly, sometimes instead of turning off on a click, the light drops to low and stays on instead… chaos and confusion ensue… lol
fwiw, I find the Olight Protected USB 16340 fits pretty well. And output is reasonably stable, below 70 lumens, above that, the light will continue to ramp itself brighter on its own, after releasing the button… that drives me nuts!