Nice find mate! BTW the one that is aliexpress linked does it has glass lenses on? They did not stated which lens do they use and since head has “short walk” they are probably acrylic lenses. But one problem it has 44$ of shipping cost!!! I mean WTF :person_facepalming: Probably some mistake from seller?
Anyway that Ali light would be ultra find if it has glass lens because it is budget 10$ light :+1:
BTW that 18650 OTR Fasttech ligth you linked has a bit dear price…, and I am not sure what to think on that glass lens retaining ring…
Can you talk them into price cool down?
If you are talking about the ChengInn, that must be a mistake, as I only would have to pay less then 10€ for the flashlight.
Indeed, but I’m not sure about the lens and the pill quality, which are the only things keeping me from buying it as I would like to mod it and still get a nice beam.
About the retaining ring, are you talking abou the external ring? I see nothing wrong with it except that it may get trickier to take it out, eventually, without some grooves. But I see no problem with it! Below the lens there is a reflecting “gasket” (sorry as this is not the correct term) as on the i3!
About the price, sorry, but I don’t contact Fasttech! If you find any coupons maybe it get a bit lower. But I wouldn’t count too much on that…
That OTR 18650 would be better deal that is sure… Probably 35$ is for whole set (light, battery, charger). I think they could lower it something below 20$
The OTR i3 itself is more expensive than that.
Also, the OTR Z821 (18650) from FT is a complete kit. I believe that just the flashlight with no extras (meaning: no battery, no charger) would still cost about 25€.
OTR lights are not that cheap in all the places you buy them. Even with coupons, they don’t get much lower than 20€.
Thank you
If you like small zoomable lights, this is the way to go! Easy to mod, you’ll just need to be careful and use a single sided driver!
Other than that, put a good Led on it and do the same I did with the pocket clip and call it a day
Moded my On The Road i3, through a “lego” with the battery tube of the On The Road M1.
Although there are differences in anodozing and knurling, the tubes fit well.
I am using a 16650 (Sanyo UR16650ZTA, 3.7V 2500 mah) battery inside the “new” flashlight!
It uses a 15mm diameter driver, with Crescendo, and I am using a Samsung LH351D.
So far so good
Compared with the FW3A and the FW1A (18500 version)
Do you maybe know when will On The Road company make 18650 version of this light? Can’t believe they missed 18650 format for this light? That is shocking! This zoomie light light really looks extra btw.
Well, I guess the other versions they made/make on the zoomie line are the Z803 and the Z821.
However, they don’t seem to be on sale at least on their AliExpress store.
You can see them here for reference: http://zlsh.net/
This “lego” comes to be a nice solution to have a thinner light but still having some “juice” (as 2500mAh can handle almost 4 x 700mAh 16340s).
Got my i3 today. First impression: very good quality. Very sturdy, it is likely that it could be bored to accept 18350.
Zooming is too stiff for my liking but passable. And since the light is easy to diasassemble, a thiner o-ring should improve it.
Then I put a cell in it….what a disappoinment!
The lens geometry is wrong.
There are bad artifacts in intermediate beam. Donut hole, then some cross. It can’t show a sharp die projection in the best focus position.,
Thanks for your feedback Agro! :+1:
Yes, if it could be very accuratelly bored it could accomodate an 18350 battery, but…it would need to be really accurately
The zooming improves if you lubricate the o-ring , instead of putting a smaller one! That’s what I did with mine and it works fine! I am not sure if with a thinner one it will move loosely.
I am surprised with those artifacts and issues in the beam… Is everything tight? The artifacts will be there, specially due to the reflection on that gasket. I blackened my gasket and also the edges of the lens to avoid some of those artifacts, but it is not 100% perfect!
About the donut hole, what led does it come with? That is really weird…
I had XML2, XP-L HI and now Samsung and none of the have that so I am really astonished :zipper_mouth_face:
Can it be a different lens from the one I got?
I am really sorry you are experiencing those issues :zipper_mouth_face:
I haven’t opened it yet, can’t do it with bare hands but I see grease on the sliding part of the body so I assume it’s well lubricated already.
Artifacts caused by reflection are just rings. My light has them but I’m not concerned beacause they can be dealt with.
I think a lack of tightness would move the focal point and maybe make the beam asymmetric. It is symmetric.
I do think that the lens shape is the cause. Maybe it’s spherical? I don’t have experience with these, don’t know what to expect. Maybe it’s asphere is botched?
Maybe OTR downgraded this model? Maybe they got a deffective batch? Need to contact them about the issue.
I just measured the slider part of the body. 19.7 mm. Indeed very tight, maybe a bad idea. The knurled part has 2.05 mm walls so it seemed easy but the knurling not long enough.
I got 8500 cd at 16m. This is a bit higher than specs, within error margin.
XP-G2 cool.
The beamshots with my phone are bad, maybe I can’t use it or maybe controllable parameters are enough.
But that’s what I have.
Full flood. No beamshot but I noticed that it’s significantly squarish. Not a problem to me but it’s curious.
First donut shot. Barely visible on the shot but very visible IRL.
Tightening it down. More visible on the shot, still more visible IRL.
Black cross. Much worse IRL.
White cross. This one is similar to what my eyes see on the wall though the lines are more visible IRL.
Almost focused. Again it’s similar to what I see
Focused. It’s overexposed, I see the die much better. I see clearly (but not sharply) that the die has cutouts in the corners. Bond wires or finer die details are not visible.
Over-focused. I couldn’t make a good beamshot but the beam worsens. Interestingly throw didn’t get worse.
Is this your first small zoomie with glass aspherical lens?
There is nothing wrong with your light. In fact beam looks much cleaner than on Dereelight, Uniquefire, Tiablo, Crelant etc…
Guys remember this. This is from mine experience and I am long time into this story.
No matter how cheap, light, scratched, plastic/acrylic lenses looks like they have better lights transmittance, cleaner beam, better flood mode, and they are more constant in quality than any factory available glass lenses (for example with glass lens performance may vary up to 30% while with plastic there is no variation in quality at all…)
Same size acrylic vs same size glass lens :
- Glass lens will have slightly larger die projection while plastic will have smaller die projection.
- Glass have different tint projection of the same emitter than plastic one. For example dedomed XPG2S42B is cooler in glass lens(uf 1503) and greener in plastic lens(B158).
- Plastic has greater flood mode than glass lens.
- Plastic has cleaner beam projection than glass one and less artifacts in a beam
Plastic is more durable than sensitive glass… Glass will easy break(especially on edges) if you drop flashlight on hard surface while with plastic nothing except scratch will happen
