GB Clone Offically "SOLD OUT" 10/21/18 XPL HI 1300LM Focusing AKA Cometa 2016

Well, when I bought ~12h ago, there were 14 left, after I bought 1.
Now 13.
Doesn’t make a lot of sense to me, but whatever.

@X3: Will try that, thanks! Never used the LH351D before, perfect opportunity

You bought 12!!? Are you planning to resell?

cheaper by the dozen?

“You bought 12!!? Are you planning to resell?”…….

Hey in case he breaks 11 he’ll have a spare.

Logical IMO.

Or if they’re really that bad, you could scavenge parts to make at least 1 good one. :laughing:

I bought 1 :innocent:
I already have one, so two soon

Now it makes sense. 14-1=13 :cowboy_hat_face:

Only 7 units.
Ships from CN Warehouse

Oh no ... you bought 12 ?

I sure hope you don’t plan on selling them to unsuspecting widows and orphans. You’ll have to sit thru a grueling two lecture series about safety issues and maybe learn about the exciting new offers now available with regards to condos and time share ownership.

US$14.95 (Earn 14 BG points)
Only 4 units.
Ships from CN Warehouse

Come on guys, finish it and let’s see who get backorder game with banggood. Tom Tom you wanna join? :sunglasses:

Now only 3 :smiley: could not resist.

I rearranged the leds. The SBT-70 is going into the 1504 (the much bigger lens is a better fit for the led also the light can handle the heat a bit better).
The two Cometas will be fun. One gets a Rebel Lime and one a Osram LCG H9RN.

I bought one more. this time with out battery. anyway still good deal. :smiley:

Me! Of all my lights that one seems to tickle friends and family’s balls the most.

I’ll won’t sell to them for a profit though.

Plenty left in UK warehouse (143), the numbers are just a distraction and seem to change randomly.

And stock can be moved between (bonded ?) warehouses to suit market demand.

Price here (UK) has dropped to $23, which is correct, considering that that will include 20% tax, plus Royal Mail delivery throughout Europe which is not free, un-like subsidised China Post. (VAT applies on top of price, plus delivery, plus anything else).

Probably at least another $5 depending what deal they have done with RM.

I also feel some moral duty to pay my taxes. Seemingly many don’t, even to the extent of shipping bits of torches in separate deliveries with under-declared values to try to slide under the radar (shame on you, Lumintop, and Neal).

And you will probably get it in 2-3 days, with assurance.

Oh, and they will be tracked, end to end, in the EU. And no additional tax or import duty or customs delays (for now), this is an internal free-market.

Sometimes cheap, really cheap, on something this cheap, is not a track worth pursuing.

I suspect that they are also indulging in a psychological game to test out some algorithms. And getting rid of some pallet-loads of over-ordered, rapidly dating, stock. Or just incompetent, which I doubt.

By the way, some of you seem to assume that I don’t have one, and am blowing hot air. Has it occurred to you that you might be wrong ?

1504 on the left Cometa on the right 2,5m away from the wall (Cometa with led coverplate, 1504 without). Both lights with XPL-HI and both with DD Fet driver. But i really have to find a white wall that is 5-10m away (better to see the spot size difference). Picture is not as clear as i want but phone cam is having a hard time with the spots. In real the edges are much clearer.

Not read all too big topic…
What is wrong with this cometas ?
I get it and out of box I put a 26650 run it and all is working well…

Then I disassemble the light.

As it can been seen there is this plastic protection ring which is ok to me I do not mind… It prevent that cells come in contact with this large pill.

Then upper part.

This black one ( don’t know how to call it ) can be very easy to have contact with this wires that are feed an LED.

But that can be solved if you there put another plastic protection ring like this one :

And then tighten this black thing on it so there is no possibility that can touch an soldered contacts for LED.

I would also put one more of this plastic protection ring in tailcap.

In this way all possibilities for shorts will be eliminated. Are I’m missing something since this is first time that I have this light ?

Bought one and this time it’s shipped :laughing:

Wanted one for some time but not for high price with all the problems.

Nice pictures vidraman! I think you've 'covered' the issues well. LoL

The extra ring over the LED may affect the zoom range. I suggest kapton or electrical tape.

Did you make 2 additional rings?

The reason for me is not the taxes, I’m not a big fan of import taxes (but that is a political thing) but at least the money goes to the government, in principle for the good of all.
The reason is the DHL handling fees. If DHL smells that taxes need to be paid, they charge you a fixed ~20 dollar handling over here, which often almost equals the value of the item being taxed. That is not fair, probably much more than the actual costs they make, and the reason why I was not against sending the GT in 2 shipments.

If it works flawlessly once you get it and you don’t mess with hard tightening or extra loosening things up assuming it comes with the insulation ring over the positive battery spring, then it is watt it is, safe to operate! You can do inadvertent damage that wasn’t there before by partly messing around. Point being if you’re gonna partly mess around here and there then you’re better off taking it all apart to see what’s watt.

Carry on. :student:

Ps. For non-modders especially, a good instant way to tell if things are edgy somewhere is to switch it on, then tap it on something like tight knapped carpeting from stem to stern and see if anything happens. If it stays lit, or doesn’t blink/flicker from whatever solid-on mode present then it’s good to go.

And……one other thing.

If you’re really concerned about its integrity for whatever reason you can always open the circuit by loosening the tail cap by a half turn or so to lock it out.

You have done a good job there. But the springs can also move sideways when the torch is closed. This does not matter at the tail, it would just turn on, but at the head it could short out. Clearances are small.

Hopefully the spring (or both springs) would fry and collapse. Which used to happen regularly with this thing.

Since I don’t have a recent one, I can’t advise on further measures. Problem is, that it has, I think, the standard 17mm BLF driver in a pill that would be ideal for 18650 cells. But they put it into a body sized for 26650 and failed to understand that there is a significant difference, particularly at the positive contact.

Also a pity that they don’t supply a 26650-18650 adapter.

I think that you have done a good job with the extra insulation.

Then there is the issue with the driver, which can get flaky at high current levels. I’ve not seen this myself, but it is real. Particularly if you decide to mod. it with e.g. spring by-passes and stronger LEDs. It was fixed in later BLF designs, and if you are very handy with a soldering iron you might manage to retro-fit the fix.

Finally, the brass pill is a weakness. It looks pretty and shiny, but brass is a very poor material thermally. and a screw-in pill is always a compromise.

Due to the zoomie head there is almost no thermal path to it, so it all has to go back into the body. So putting more powerful LEDs into this may stress the driver, and the thermal capability.

Plain Al alloy pill, or an integral design with no pill, just a shelf, would have been better.

The LED was also a poor choice even at the time, for a thing like this. Something with the best surface brightness would have worked much better, which is why you will see talk of modding with e.g. a de-domed XPG2. No doubt newer technology is better.

Still, the basics are all there, particularly the optics, and if you are prepared to do some work it is a great place to start experimenting. Definitely a bargain.