Thanks Barkuti for your reply.
The reason why I said that if the flashlight ‘can throw in the distance that’s a plus’, is only to make it clear that I want a flood (orange peel reflector type of) flashlight. Ofcorse every flashlirght throw light, but those with smooth reflector can throw further. I mostly need flashlight that will light up the area around me (in front of me) and 3-5 meters ahead, with 10 meters being max that I’m interested in. Everything ahead of that is a ‘plus’ (thats why I said what I said, not because I really need it).
Now, the next information is not important, but I want to explain for what ‘situation’ I would mostly use this kind of flashlight: For ‘flea market’. At the ones in my area, sellers comming before sunrise (which means its still dark or ‘night’), and lots of them already started selling their staff. So I need a flashlight for that kind of situation. To light up the area in front of me (up to 3-5 meters, to 10m being max). Thats what I’m interested in. So I can see what the sellers are offering, and also without being destracted by a hotspot. For that, since I’m an newbie, I would guess 50lm (or 150lm) would be enough to clearly see whats in front of me, and at the same time not waste much battery and not make the flashlight ‘hot’. I guess 40% mode or 30% (of an 7135x3 6T-3B XML2 )would be good for that.
I also read at CPF topic created by Phlogiston (he is a member here as well, but I don’t see that he made the same thread), about Convoy Lights: Option Comparison Tables and Images. I’m not sure that I’m alowed to post links to external sites, so I will not do that but simple google search will find it as a top 1 result. In his topic he posted a tables where he compared some 7135x3 with activated modes like 5–40–100% and he was getting “21 lm —160 lm — 370 lm” for Convoy S2+ Red XML2 T6-3B LED 7135*3 driver. The issue here for me is that I’m a newbie, so I don’t know exactly how many lumens actually looks like in the real life. Is it ~25 enough, maybe 40-50lm ? Or maybe 160lm for what I need? (that flea market ‘thing’).
As for soldering (driver swap), well… I’m not good at soldering yet, though I would like to think that I own an ‘ok’ soldering iron (HAKKO FX-888D). Skill is what I lack.
Since you mantioned ‘kapton tape’ I guess that maybe desoldering requires ‘hot air blower’ instead of solder iron?
Again, thanks for your reply and I apologise for making another offtopic post.
EDIT:
I read more and I’m kinda getting close (at least I want to believe) to what I might decide to ask Simon to make for me for S2+ (if he wants):
Color: Desert tan (Sand)
Driver: 7135*3
Emitter: XML2
Emitter BIN: T6-3B
Light temperature: 5000-5200K
Reflector: Orange peel
Switch Type: metallic clicky switch (‘black metallic clicky’)
Mode memory: Yes
firmware: ?
(I need to decide if I want new firmware depending how much lumens in real life at 5-10% and 30-35-40% an 7135x3 Driver can produce. Old firmware had 2 group modes with 5-40-100% (custom mode was possible with 5-30-100), while new firmware gives modes with 1-10-35-100 (group #10). So I have to think/decide about what is the actual difference between 5-10% and 30-35-40% when in comes to light that I would get in front of me or 3-5 meters away)
modes: ?
(modes depend if I will go with old default/custom firware or with new firmware which has 12 mode groups (#10 being the one I’m interested in)
^ those are my thoughts for now. It’s hard to decide but I hope that I’m close to narrow down my final pick.
If you guys have any thoughts/suggestions I’ll be happy to read it. Thanks!