My first "proper" torch has arrived - YAY. This is the Sipik sk68 clone off ebay, says "CREE" on one side, other than that it is identical to the pics in this thread. The build quality is very good, threads are clean, smooth, no slop. Lens is free from defects, clip seems very sturdy, button is very orange lol. So no aparent change in quality from the original review. Bear in mind I have no other torch to compare this with, just my engineering experiance, and I would be very pleased with myself if I turned out something of this quality on my lathe (cnc has a lot to answer for).
Seems pretty bright with an energizer nimh that was charged about a week ago (when I ordered the torch), much, much brighter than my old double AA maglight (wonder where that is now?). What the heck is this going to be like with the 14500's ???
I notice the slidey zoom thing is sliding on a metal (steel, rust ?) "C" clip, may swap for a rubber O-ring for stiffer action and waterproofing.
So thanks for all your recomendations and reviews that steered me towards buying this torch for the amazing price of £6.89. Less than a service station sandwich (almost).
My 14500's have arrived and work great with this torch. Also Nimh still work, so far anyway. The light is brighter but not by a huge amount, so I'm hoping for a small increase in runtime aswell, yes, I want my cake and to eat it :)
The only other thing I noticed was that this light gets hotter with the 14500 battery. After half an hour it is hot to the touch but not so hot you can't hold it, I'd guess around 40-50 celcius. The temp doesn't seem to rise any more than that (will have to make a thermocouple to get some accurate readings), probably due to the ugly but well finned design.
To sum up, for me, this torch is near enough perfect as my EDC. Thanks to the people on this forum my first high powered LED torch isn't a $10 lemon :)
Some lights don't kick butt on a 14500 ...i know you've heard that you need to respect the 14500 too and not over discharge it .. running it at full pop for 1/2 hour isn't nessesarily a good thing ..as to how bright i will be on a 14500 it depends on the driver ,not just the led ..get the right light and it will impress you beyond belief , but make sure it can take the extra voltage (make sure some other maniac has tried it first) if it starts going blue / purple ..say good bye to your little friend
Anyways, I didn't think this torch was much brighter on 14500s either, until I took a picture against a wall and compared the two shots. Oh yeah, very much brighter, but your eyes have difficulty seeing it.
By my rough workings out this torch uses 2.23W on energiser nimh and 2.99W on grey protected trustfire 14500. Don't take those figures as absolute but as a comparison.
@Boaz - Thanks, good advise. I was prepared to wreck the torch in the name of science lol. Read about some of these torches working fine with 14500's and some burning the driver, guess I got a good un. I'm not too bad with a soldering iron either so killing a LED/board isn't a big deal, and this torch is nicely made so will probably get an upgrade in the future anyway :)
i bet they are all q3... its probably just what they say to get u to buy it... i decided ill hold off.
got the edi http://www.dealextreme.com/p/edi-t-t11-cree-q3-wc-3-mode-160-lumen-convex-lens-led-flashlight-black-1-123a-1-16340-50680
just ordered it, since it looks nicer, and looks smaller lol
i just spent 80 and dx, 70 at manafont, and i STILL havent placed the order for parts i need at KD..... im gonna wait 2 weeks to order those for my next paycheck lol
time to do my taxes so i can get that refund... good thing i NEVER got a stimulus like most people....
i feel bad for people who STILL support this administration. i can see how people were blind at first, but to STILL support this one too....
Red rag time. Until 2006 I worked for the Church of Scotland. I now work for the NHS doing the same job (as I have done since 1989) in the same place. For less pay.
Politics:
"How do you tell when a politician is lying"
"When their lips are moving"
I remember being totally awestruck by my local MSP's capacity for brandy. He was on his third pint and still coherent at one dinner I got invited to.
I have a couple of no-name clones of this light. Like all the flood-zoom lights I've bought I end up not using them much or at all.
You lose 50% of the output at zoom. The best of them loses "only" 40%.
I've bought several of them and most have died or been given away - they aren't a category of light I personally find useful. Others disagree and that's fine - but I won't be buying any more of them.
It is pretty much like me and the Romisen RC-G2. I want to like them but completely fail to do so.
A couple of years ago most of my local council had to be thrown out of a town centre pub for being drunk and disorderly, several of them ended up getting taken away by the police as they kicked up a fuss (Do you know who I am!!). I think I'd pick the high functioning alcoholic over this lot :P
It's not about killing the driver or led yeah that's not cool but my concern is to overdischarge a lithium ion battery purposefully didn't seem like something you wanted to do ..Ask someone smarter than me I'm certainly not mr. wizard here when it comes to batteries .. i just have been warned plenty of times that lithium ion abuse will yield bad bad results ..like fire or explosions if abused ...
This thread has my interest...i'm lusting for this sipik68
yep ...this is a international forum ... it took me 12 minutes just to figure out what a MSP was ... Member /Scottish /Parliment.
Yes, for close-up stuff a very floody light is much more useful - hotspots can become dazzling. I remember having to take the reflector out of a light while working in small, dark spaces. Everything I had with me was too bright for the distances I was working at. This is less common nowadays as I have become rather long-sighted and prefer not to work in tiny spaces.
In most such jobs I needed both hands so a headlamp was the most suitable light for me. The classic example is fiddling with cables at the back of a computer - usually in a brightly lit office, but behind a desk and usually minimal space to work in. Seeing what you are doing does help a lot..
I like the way that a headlamp is pretty much automatically pointing the way you are looking.