a new EDC light of 2017- JAXMAN E2L

About being honest to customs:

I know what customs are for and that VAT is a good thing for government money, and I even have the opinion that over here the government money is very well spent.

But the current customs system in the Netherlands is not suitable for small purchases. I payed 20% VAT which is fine with me, but on top of that I pay handling fees that are half the price of the bought item. I’m sure they are real costs that are made by customs but it just kills any attempt to buy small things abroad.

I’m sure that our goverment or whoever down the road controls customs knows this, and they do not want to stop this small trade, so they actively decide not to check packages unless the value is so clearly declared that they can’t ignore it. But in the meantime he bulk of packages from China (my X7 Marauder was way over 100 dollars) get through without checking.

My idea is that it would pay off big time if all packages from China were checked by customs for VAT charges, but they keep the system ignoring this intact to allow small trade to happen

In this system being honest is not a black an white thing. It just implies that for small purchases, Fasttech, dx, Gearbest, Banggood and even Convoy Flashlight will get their packages delivered without their customers paying an extra 100% over what they already payed, and Jaxman is being honest and thus looses their trade to the EU.

It would help a lot if the EU, or the Netherlands, developes a customs/VAT system for small purchases that rewards being honest instead of the current rigid system that only works for bulk trading.

This is a very nice solution , but i have to say that these little Omten switches can handle even 15 amps … My triple X6 (xpl v6) is still running great after a year of use (mostly in turbo).

About being honest to customs II

Apart from Jaxman, my packages from Illumn.com and Mountain Electronics are all checked and charged, no exceptions. It is one of the reasons not to buy from the United States. Asia on the other hand is no problem, I’m sure that there are deals on some level between The Netherlands and China to ‘lubricate’ shipping between the countries.

Gearbest ships a large amount of their packages abroad via PostNL (the main postal service in my country). It is not that labour over here is cheap, how did that happen? I think that postNL is reliable, that is one reason, but they must have made a really good deal as well. And my guess is that it is not just about doing it cheap but also about the above already mentioned ‘lubrication’ of the shipping process, looking in other directions when something comes by that does not follow the rules exactly.

The Netherlands play a bit disproportional large role in world trading (we are a small country), and I’m sure that one of the reasons is that even on government scale trade (in fact: allowing people and government to make money) is at occasions regarded more important than doing what is fair.

Dear friend, the sheet in the picture is not edit by me. It is issued by Aliexpress.
But, we can decide how much of the declaration price for it… But we normally wont change the price except you make a remark in your order. Otherwise we dont know so much about custom fees of ervery country.

We think many countries such as USA, JAPAN, Germany(and other EU counties) will not charge any tax on so little value package. I feel the above counties are rich,and wont charge fees on 20 or 30 bucks……. It seems that I was wrong on it….

Since then ,I will declare every pakcakge under 20USD LATER.

commenting to follow

I think one issue may be that the E2L uses a single-piece head with no pill. I’ve generally found that because of the direct thermal path the heads on pill-less lights like this tend to heat up much faster than lights with pills.

While this is great for getting heat out of the light, it’s not so great when you consider that the flashlight innards and even the battery can all take far more heat than your hand can.

Some “spicy” reading about custom’s last night. :wink: I was just about to “pop some corn” when things took on a calmer note. :+1:
Sure did miss that popcorn though………… :wink:

But it did get me to thinking. I had several shippment boxes, envelopes, & e-bags in my recycle bin that were still around. Sooooo, I checked them out for the exterior customs label .
All were from either Banggood, GearBest, or 1- from FastTech

  • Neither of the 2 boxes had then.
  • DHL envelope (1) had a printed one, folded inside a clear stick on holder. It was unopened but had the actual price I paid for each item. It totaled a little over $70.00 US & for whatever reason on that one shipping had been free.
  • I had about a dozen or so e-Packets, I guess they are called. Three colors…… Light Gray, Medium Gray, Very Dark Gray. All of these had a customs sticker on the opposite side of bag from the address label.
    ….The declared value of the items read like a “fairy tale”. The closest to reality was stated at $20 & would have to be multiplied by 1.8 to equal selling price.
    ….The worst offender at $0.04 would have to be multiplied by around 300 to equal selling price.
    ….All the others fell somewhere in between.

I had never paid any attention to those custom stickers & it was indeed interesting. :slight_smile:

Maybe “declared value” means something different than “selling price”. I have no earthly idea though. :question:

But, after a brief interlude from typing this I did come up with these. I haven’t had time to read but a couple of the links, will read more later. But it appears at first glance there is a wide range of this that falls squarely into a “very gray area”.

Maybe…… that is why the e-Packet’s are all one shade of Gray or another. :smiley:

Declared Value

Declared Customs Value

I am really surprised that small packages gets such treatment especially in NL. Correct me if I am wrong, but I thought NL has been one of the most important shipping hubs since middle ages and they could give it’s own people a little break on import duties especially when 20-30 Euro won’t get you much locally.

Talking about “lubrication”, the Post published an interesting map.
Canadians and Aussies and few others, seem to be able to run their countries without the need for any “lubrication”.

Wow…. do you have a link to the complete article? I’d like to read it. :slight_smile:

Sure here is the link How the world’s biggest companies bribe foreign governments—in 11 charts v

Thank you. :slight_smile:

Fixed It
.
:wink:

T18……. once again great pictures! But I do have a question about how you de-attached the MCPBC.

Once you removed the optic did you place something in two of the three optic holes and twist in a circular, but horizontal motion to break the MCPCB loose from it’s “mooring”??

A lateral twist I guess is what I am trying to say/convey.

I realize from your pictures that your MCPBC seems to not have been “moored” as firmly as others. But I was just making sure about your process in case I decide to employ it. :slight_smile:

Thanks in advance.

:slight_smile:

Thank you Teacher for the kind words and I’d be happy to explain the process I used to remove that MCPCB, not difficult but was frankly something that should not have been necessary, quit a pain frankly.
Happened to see your post and wanted to let you know that I did and I will have to get back to you on this, but I will, promise…!

Say Teacher, FYI, I got 2 - M2’s, as I had mentioned I am never really sure of what to expect with Jax but I guess I was right, so some good news, and removed the bezel quickly to get a peek and it’s real clean, the entire light is darn nice for sure, will try and get some pics this evening and tear it down more, never know what looking into the pocket will bring you, surprise… ha ha…
Anyhow I thought you’d like to know this and so what I said stands of course, but really glad I got two now or I’d be a bit bummed, but I would have at this moment, turned right around and bought a bunch more of these, pretty sure at first glance, nice clean light, Take care

Thank you T18, look forward to the reply whenever you have time. :wink:

Hmmmm, 2 - M2’s, a “surprise”, I am intrigued. :slight_smile:

Take care and talk later. Looking forward to the M2 tear down pics too, when you get them that is. :wink:

I got my 2 lights in from Jaxman yesterday, the UV version and the E2L triple. They both have outstanding finishes and the attention to detail, assembly of the light before the text being applied so everything lines up, is just stellar! The gray steel E2 L is a very nice change from black or silver, really like it a lot, and the SS bezel goes with it very well.

The tail switch retaining ring is left hand thread, in case anyone was wondering.

Stock, it performs like this…

0.07A for 24.88 lumens
0.62A for 220.8
2.06A for 741.75

So I put a Qlite with 8 extra chips and biscotti flashed…

Level 10 of biscotti

0.04A for 10.557 lumens
0.42A for 137.655
2.23A for 643.77
5.92A for 1652.55

Much mo bettah! :smiley:

Edit: For the record the second set of numbers was pulled off the same cell without recharging. :wink:

Nice build Dale, I also picked up his E3 version UV and that to is an awesome UV with filter lens great for my trit work and the bigger winner for me is that I bought a couple of the AA M2 - 2 Cell lights, they are not only nice looking and pocket friendly but how they are built is completely unbelievable.

I have posted some pics over on the E2L host page of this other new light the Jaxman M2 and my tear down and what I found out M2 pics
I really liked the looks of the body style out the gate and then looking at it I had some ideas and a lot of hope so took a chance and bought a couple normally I don’t really look at AA lights but this one seemed different and so when I got it and tore it down I was in for a huge surprise, a very pleasant surprise.
So just saying that M2 light is a real sleeper, the retaining ring is what really blew my mind,
I hadn’t seen one as good as that in a long time and really allows for sky’s the limit, I know what I’m building with it in 14500 but could only imagine a Dale build with this same light, definitely worth a look…!

Aw man! You’re gonna make me buy more lights! :stuck_out_tongue:

Ha Ha, it never ends, you must have looked at my pics, did you see that retainer… amazing, it stunned me really,
I knew if I didn’t mention this AA light most wouldn’t look at it, but it’s a real sleeper as I’ve said and cheap for what you can do with it.
I’m right now am doing a mock-up with another driver populated both sides to see if that retainer is what I think it is and a XHP50,
I’ll drop a picture soon, it’s to cool and what’s cooler yet was a recent conversation I was having with RMM about the new XHP50.2 and the new XHP70.2, well while we was just talking suddenly Richard says I just got some 50.2s and he dropped one in a C8 smo to see what would happen beam wise, we know what happens with the old 50-70’s and it seems all those old issues with the dies is history per RMM eyeballs, so being the footprint of the 50.2 is 5*5 which is same as the stock emitter this M2 light came with and is currently on 16mm noctigon at Mt. well … you know… ha ha
The reflector in this AA is a very lite stippled OP with a hint of smooth and 9mm emitter hole, 31mm across I think and about 23.5mm deep, driver pocket I tried to get a lot of angle shots, very nice really.