[REVIEW] Cheap 14500 flashlight with COB light side and little modding

Yes for sure i’ll do measurements tomorrow

For the magnet i did order magnets at gearbest and waiting for them. I was thinking to glue them (same idea :wink:

Thank you very much :wink: I’ll be waiting for the information then :wink:

I guess that there are better materials than those I used, but I glued mine in “flat” tailcaps (Manker E11 and Sofirn SP32) with “alpha cyanocrylate” glue. If you want take a look at the results here: What did you mod today? - #3171 by MascaratumB :slight_smile:

Thanks again!! :+1:

here are the specs for the reflector :

Hi mizou51!!
Thank you very much for sending the photos with the measures! It will help a lot in what I have in mind!
Btw, and sorry for this request, can you tell me the height of the reflector, please?
It is not necessary a photo, just the measure please :wink:

And thank you very much once again :+1:

oups i did a wrong copy past. It’s corrected.

Eheh, no problem! Thanks for the help on this!
Just to say, I want to see if the reflector will be suitable to make a mod in another light ! This is the closer I get in terms of measures :wink:
So I think I’ll try to get one of these flashlights, take its reflector and maybe the other one works!

Thanks once again :wink:
Best regards :+1:

Thanks for the review, it’s always nice to see such a thorough review of a truly “Budget” light here on BLF.

I’ve seen these online and thought about ordering one because I like the COB side light, but I was worried it would be complete junk. Looks like it would be worth my time to pick one up and do some easy mods on it.

yeah if you have a 14500 spare battery that’s a very good budget light for home use. Just need to glue a neodynium magnet

Hi mizou51!
I just received a similar flashlight and it is really a deal!
I bought it for 1,84€, so it’s really cheap and pretty good to indoor use!! Especially the COB light! :+1:

The output is not the greatest but I guess this is really good for a cheap light! There would be a lot of things to change, of course, but the UI is the only thing I’d change radically.
Starting on a lower mode and then the higher would be the first thing; then, I’d add the possibility to jump the “front light” modes directly to the COB (as sometimes a more floody light is needed); and perhaps I’d drop the blinks on COB light.

But, overall, I’m quite happy with this, so thanks for your review and comments! And also for the measurings you’ve done!
I’ll probably take the reflector and lens out (to use it in other light), and I’ll put a TIR lens (if I manage to…).

Thanks again :+1:

Thanks for the review. I picked up one of these on AliExpress for ~$2.20. Great for the price. I wish it didn’t have “next mode memory” though.

Good review, just received mine today from Aliexpress. Bought mine for 2$ but it has a stupid “Enjoydeal” branding etched on the host.
Overall it’s a good light for the price but it can’t tail stand, but that’s okay since it can head stand while using COB mode.
It also has the Next mode memory which is very annoying.

Update:
Apparently there is also a zoomable version of this light.

I have taken the current measurements when using an eneloop pro and estimated runtime

Battery - Eneloop Pro 1.2V | 2500mAh | 3Whr

High - 535mA - 0.64W ~4.5Hrs
Low - 150mA - 0.18W ~16Hrs
COB - 565mA - 0.68W ~4.3Hrs

Mine is labeled “probe shinny” ,bought from Alie usd 2,12.
I swaped the led with XP -G2 neutral ,usd 0.79 on Alie , and I am very satisfied how it light up now.

you know any way to disable the cob blinkie? or maybe disable next mode memory?

Sorry but I am not so good to modding ,just swaping leds ,reflectors,drivers……basic .
Hope other members can help , I am interested too.

I got one from Aliexpress and it appears to be a different manufacturer or they are cutting costs. Mine lacks the white bush that sits between the LED and reflector. The tail spring looks smaller and it doesn’t have the 4 holes to unscrew the switch housing. The body looks thinner too

It weighs: 33.96g

Mine has low mode on the cob and flashing on the main LED

Next mode memory just ruins a great light.

Fresh eneloop:

560mA cob low
1.8A main high
(1.8A) flashing main
1.8A cob high

I guess you could just swap the outputs on the driver to have low COB and flashing main or low main and flashing COB

The body allows an AA to rattle around a bit and the driver has “CX-WFL50” printed on the bottom

You need to install a resistor, parallel with the capacitor on driver board with value from aroud 1MOhm to 2MOhm.
This trick will discharge capacitor in a certain time after you switched OFF the light, so it will turn ON at first mode next time.
If you click fast enough when ON, those functions still work like normal.
Hope it helps.

what about the pencil graphite method? will that work?

Update : I don’t think that might work since I believe the light is writing it’s mode to eeprom because the light remembers next mode even after days of no use.

I don’t know that method.

With the cheap flashlight likes this, I don’t think it remembers last mode by writing any things to memory, just run pre-programed modes.

I received one from AliExpress as well, 1.77€ or 2.06$.
Store name Black scorpions.

Mine also very thin body wall, AA rattles. No washer under reflector, no holes to unscrew switch housing.
Modes are cob hi/lo, main hi/slow flash.

Current draw with pretty fresh “noname” alkaline
1.76A cob hi/main hi
0.56A cob lo.
Let’s assume that the AA maintains (briefly), say, 1.2V under the load so it would be about 2.1W
Let’s take say 10% off because of driver efficiencies (nothing’s perfect), we’re left with 1.9W.
With a typical forward voltage of 3.1V, assuming it’s a real XP-E (I doubt) we’d have about 0.6A forward current which would be about 150% relative flux if it’s a real XP-E (I doubt).
So ballpark 150-180lumen output seems reasonable to me.

I actually prefer this UI vs the slow flash on cob and only hi on cob.
Reason being that I mainly bought this light for the side cob so I feel it’s more useful to have hi/lo on cob rather than normal and flash.
Also I’d say the flash is more useful with main light as it’s quite throwy.

Nice and really budget light for modding but the AA rattle out of the box is a bit unfortunate though not hard to fix.
Overall 3/5, would buy again.

Edit: If you want to take this light apart, it’s really easy.
The cob “lens” holds the cob in place by one small plastic peg which goes through the cob led pcb.
So you need to pop the cob “lens” off first and after that the whole assembly slides out the front.

Push the lens up from here

And/or lever the lens up (with something slim enough, mini screwdriver or something) and pull/slide it “away” from the front of the flashlight.
The way the lens goes in is that you first put one edge of it in (towards the front of the light) and then you push the rest of it down, making sure cob pcb hole and lens plastic peg are lined up. (Hope that makes sense)

After that you can gently push the driver/pill/main led combo out the front of the light (long screwdriver through the tube or something) while making sure the cob led follows, might need to push the pill and then the cob led and then the pill and so on.
The wires are bit fragile looking so be gentle.