What you got today

Recieved an order from DX today. 2 xml's on 16mm star (for xml-imizing more of my lights :D), some glass lenses for my tr-801 and similar sized lights, 100 little rare earth magnets, a pack of 10 thermal compound tubes, some lodestar desoldering wire, 2 trustfire flame 18650 and 2 trustfire flame 14500 :) Some diy projects in the future!

Nothing terribly exciting which is why I didn't do anything about it being missing. Just an Ultrafire camo holster for an L2M and some NexTorch grease.

Today I received a Yezl Z1 XML from CNQG (in 12 days), some parts from DX (in 19 days)to do Match's MiniMag mod and some lenses and a charger (in 13 days) from KD. The only fly in the ointment is that KD screwed up my order and send me a 38mm lens instead of the Black Cat that I ordered. Now I will get to experience the quality (or lack thereof) of KDs customer service.

Coming from

Manafont: 5-mode XP-G drop-in (ordered 3-27)

Solarforce.HK: L2 in grey, L2r in black, L2i in grey (ordered 3-27)

Solarforce.HK: L2P in black (ordered 3-30 after they said it was too late to change the L2 to an L2P in the previous order, probably knew I would just get it anyway)

Manafont: yet another 3-mode Ultra Fire XM-L (ordered 4-7)

That still leaves me one drop-in short but my wife is already going to blow a gasket when she sees all this.

madoneFoy

Last 5-6 days:

cnQualitygoods: Yezl S5, Yezl S7, Yezl C1

DX: Another multimeter, Sipik sk68, R2 dropin + various little stuff

That's all I remember, I got three more packages but don't even remember from where...

I got some 14500 TF Flames!

My D10s overheat on 14500, especially the Ti with my neutral emitter turning slight blue within seconds :(. On the other hand my budget torch is a different story.

OMG it makes my (first gen) Trustfire R5A3 into a really awesome torch! The original modes on NiMH (100%, 90%, strobe) become (200%, 90%, Strobe) Its just AWESOME now. Beam is still annoyingly doughnutttttty and throw is pretty average, but the sheer output is cool. Its as bright as my V10R on max (which is a known 210 lumens)

The trustfire R5A3 used to be a quiet cool running torch, now its a real output monster! with a nice heavy build, great for thermal mass heat sinking. Dissipation isnt all that great though.

Also got another 5 packages over the week (order individually to make it more fun to received individual parts) including various drivers and more XP-G neutrals.

Im waiting for neutral XM-Ls to be available at KD or such places. Cutter is already selling them, which work out to be $10 each (on a 10mm round 'star') + 15 shipping (effectively flat rate) so if I buy 3 emitters, it works out to be $45 = $15 each for neutrals on good sized bases. Thinking of finding an excuse for a bigger order to justify the shipping.

Can't wait to recieve my 3 763 i ordered.

[quote=Oldienea]

I have got also 5 driver boards, not 1400 mAh but the new 1560mAh 5-mode version.

http://www.kaidomain.com/ProductDetails.aspx?ProductId=11218

[/quote]

[quote=brted]

I got the same drivers. I measured 1450mA, so I'm not sure why they call it 1560. I was very happy to find they can be switched to 3 modes. Let us know if you're able to get any other mode groups out of it. It's probably just a matter of connecting the correct pins, but I would bet it has 4 mode groups like other NANJG drivers.

[/quote]

brted, please tell me, are the KD drivers with Atmel ATtiny13 processor?

(for re-programming. I need to know before ordering)

They are. More information and pictures here:

http://budgetlightforum.cz.cc/node/1529

Really from Solarforce.HK? or Solarforce-Sales ?

Is there a difference? I don't think so. But if there is, I'd like to know.

they are the same .hk is more their company hong kong site where its mainly product info site. and -sales is their sales/store/world site.

No idea, I was just checking in case there were bargins to be had :P

Sorry. I meant sales. HK has their whole line up and possibly more/better information but it just links you to dealers, including solarforce-sales.

Funny thing; one of the links provided, "Solarforce-USA" lists the Skyline 1 for $84.95 ($29.99 @ SF sales) and an L2 host for $17.95. ($11.50 @ SF sales)

offtopicFoy

Well since this isn’t cpf we can tell the truth …solar farce usa is expensive for no reason and always has been … there is absolutely zero reason to be buying from them … Foy you just tossed a 3rd comapny into the mix … solorforce has a ebay site as well …International trading company … there will be slight differences in prices but you can tell they are one and the same … that is the only place to be buying solarforce …unless you like paying too much … it’s really not that huge a secret … there just seems to be some confusion … like qualitychinagoods or cnqualitygoods 2 different stores easy to confuse …

In my experience, it's always a good idea to check at least ITC and Solarforce-Sales (and the usual suspects, eBay and Google). When they started to get rid of their stock of the aforementioned Skyline 1 and 2, they dumped a limited quantity on eBay first, while keeping prices around $90 on the website. Predictably, they sold out pretty quickly (I remember grabbing the last Skyline 1 they had back then). Then they had them for around $35 plus S&H on both, Solarforce-Sales and ITC and now it's down to $30 on the former and back up around $90-something on eBay.

tl;dr: always check both, Google is your friend, happy DABDay. :D

QCG-Xtar 18650 2600 x2

DX-Topfire 18650 cell box

DX-Some o-rings...

Waiting for second ultrafire P10 from DX and bike mount.

I'm quite surprised with quality of Topfire battery case. It even looks it could be easily modified in waterproof holder. Batteries are already on WP2 charger getting ready for some testing (i hope)

So, Solarforce on eBay is cheaper than Solarforce-sales? I guess I could look for myself to answer that.

Also, in a rare attempt to remain on topic (rare for me, at least) I will report that the Solarforce-sales order I placed 3-27-11 arrived today. 12 days, which is real good for these guys. Anyway, all three hosts made it here in near perfect condition. And, I forgot to include with my order some extra stainless rings to replace the strike bezels they like to ship these with. I thought they were cool when I was first starting out in this new obsession but I've grown quite weary of every damn light coming with a bezel that snags in the side pocket of my shorts.

As usual, Solarforce quality is superb. I will soon burden everyone here with a review on these.

youhavebeenwarnedFoy

Generally they are more expensive on eBay, there was just a small exception to that for a while.

100 more QTC pills. It's too late for the PO today but I'll get as many of them as possible in the post on Monday morning. I'll need to get some more so don't send me any money yet.