What you got today

When I have 20 tabs, my computer crashes...

I tend to have about 25 tabs open all the time....some times it gets up to +80

My name is Piers....and I'm a tabaholic. :P

I tried the new version of Firefox, but it crashes on my system past about 6 tabs so it's usless for me...I'll stick to Chrome.

Hehe.. the tabs just dissapear off to the right of the window, with a dropdown menu to access them, I just need to stop filling the same window with tabs and open a new window lol!

I ordered that exact combo too, except I ordered the L2X extended. It was a bit of an impulse purchase, and afterwards I think I should have gotten the normal length model. There's really not that much options in XML/SST-50/P7 drop-ins over 6V. So far I found one (thanks to this forum...) in XML and ordered that from KD. At max 4,2 voltage range there would have been much more drop-in options. I'm not yet ready to go the DIY route, my skillz with soldering iron are not that great.

I think I have to order myself a grey L2P to host a P7 or something...

I got a package yesterday and opened it as i'm expecting many things. Turns out it was 5 pairs of white "sunglasses" without lenses but instead having the horizontal "lines" for lack of a better term.

Immediately asked myself if i got this from DD instead of the 3 q5 emitters and someone in warehouse made a mixup. It turns out the real buyer did a crappy job for the shipping address. The postal delivery guy probably tought as this must one of the "Budgeteer BLF" packages again... :/ and threw in my mailbox. LOL!

Anyway a little social engineering (facebook and other) made me find the pour soul with the slight dyslexia and is coming today to pick it up. It turned out it is my neighbour who lives 3 stories above me but we don't know each other at all.

At least i did not have to drive at the postal office for this . :/

If you have a soldering iron and solder it's very easy to learn. Don't be afraid! At worst you end up ruining some pocket change worth of electronics. You'll probably do it nicely the 1st time apart the soldering job will look way better when you have some practice. If you think it is just remotely interesting aor amusing do try!

Received 2x18650 TF black and 4xUltrafire 18650 batt case holder (man, I thought it will be 2 pc/set lol :bigsmile: ). All this from 3rd MF cashback campaign (ordered april 1st, shipped apr 5, received today, apr 14). Excellent. Hadn't thought that 18650 were so... big :O Plastic wrapper is better than on my TF black 14500 from LT, but that could be because 18650 is bigger and it's easier to wrapp it :~ Don't have DMM ATM, so will check it later. Plastic cases are very well made ;)

Same here :bigsmile: Had to buy 8 GB of RAM to work flawlesly lol :bigsmile: BTW, have you tried Opera 11? :p

Well I was into RC cars way (waaaay) back, so I have an old soldering iron and limited experience. It's just that the stuff in lights is tiny. It wasn't very big on RC cars either, but there was some room for error, or at least for non-perfect sold. And my hands are more shaky and eyes less sharp then in my RC days.

But anyway... What I got today?? Lets see now... 2 reflectors with springs (OP abd SMO), one 3-mode regulated circuit board, one XM-L emitter with base, one Solarforce L2 host in gray with SS smooth bezel. And some misc. s**t like o-rings, 18650's, lanyards and stuff.

If things go south and I'm not able to put that together into a working flashlight (ok, I still need the pill), I will delete my account here (not sure if I can do it btw) and go back to the other place and order some custom scheisse that's expensive and useless but with tons of street cred.

Is there a "emitter/driver swap for dummies (warning: pic heavy)" thread going on somewhere here? Or anywhere?

There isn't one. But there ought to be. Hopefully I'll have time in the next week to write one.

But I hope that someone else who is good at this stuff (I'm not) will write it first.

This is a heavy hint to those who do this stuff more often than I do!

Match

Budgeteer

Old

Step up. You guys do this much more often than I do

This thread is pretty close to what you are talking about but Triker is doing some extra work that most people don't do.

http://budgetlightforum.cz.cc/node/2051

He's using heavier wire, soldering the pill/driver connection with wire (instead of a blob of solder), and using some kind of special isolator disks instead of the usual cardboard or home-made ones. He also epoxied the LED in place instead of using Fujik thermal adhesive or non-adhesive thermal compound. Basically he outclasses the rest of us.

[quote=Don]

Step up. You guys do this much more often than I do

[/quote]

Hehe...hint taken! I've been meaning to do write up an intro to modding, but haven't had time yet. Guess there's no time like the present... Since I'm waiting on another "project" to finish drying, I'll start working on one.

Today the power supply for my Turnigy Accucell 6 arrived via eBay. I was a little worried it would have a different size adapter than I needed, but it is just fine. And now I get to play with the charger. The first thing I did was try to charge a NiMH Versapak battery I have. It is a 3.6V NiMH pack in a cylinder shape. The charger I have is for the original NiCad Versapaks, so I don't know how well it works or if it is killing the battery. Anyway, I got stuck pretty quickly and had to go read instructions. I couldn't see any way to enter how many cells the battery pack has in it or anything. You just enter a charge rate. I guess it detects when the pack is full, but it made me nervous and I had to step out, so I stopped the charge.

Next I charged up an 18650 and I am really liking it. You can pick the charge rate and you can see the voltage and current, so you can verify that it is using CC/CV and monitor as it gets full. And it sounds an alarm when the battery is done! I love it. The battery came off measuring 4.21V on my meter, so that's just about perfect. Now I'm doing a discharge test on that battery to see what kind of capacity it has.

I'll write up a full review later on.

Yesterday I got a little hand-crank weather radio by Eton. I might write a review of that too because it is pretty neat. It has a USB port that supposedly can charge things like cell phones using the crank. I doubt it works, but I like the idea of a post-apocolypse radio like that.

I'll be eternally grateful if you made one. I'll print it out and keep it next to my bed =D. Take your time though.

Received my L2P from solarforce-sales today. (actually yesterday but as usual, I was not home and had to drive into town to the post office on my lunch - registered mail)

14 days so, I'm not complaining.

Since I've had the other L2P for a few months of hard use, I plan to do a review here in the next couple of days.

First impressions:

The white printing on this run of L2Ps (they were out for a while) is actually stamped into the metal, unlike my other light which is just printed smooth on the annodization. 4Sevens and other brands do this sometimes and I think it gives this torch more of a high-end look.

The aluminum inside the light and the tail cap threads have a slight gold or brass tint, again, unlike my other L2P.

fullreviewtofollowFoy

Very nice! I am jealous of your solarforce collection!!

I got curious and filled up the sink with cold water, and let my L2i sit at the bottom for 15 minutes. Not a spec of water even penetrated anywhere close to the o-rings. I figured as much. I am very happy with the solarforce lights :D My L2x will be even better I suspect if thats possible. I think Im going to throw it to the bottom of my friends 10 ft. deep pool this summer and let it sit there for a while just to prove a point. I am confident in it :p

My L2i leaked water in. It's the only Solarforce I have that did. I need to take the lens out and check the o-rings in there.

Man, I need to just get an L2X already. I've wanted one for so long. I want an L2X with an MCE just to expand my experience with different emitters.

wanteverysolarforceFoy

brted, how funny, I ordered a crank radio from Amazon today while I was at work. Is yours the Red Cross one? I ended up ordering the Kikkerland Dynamo one.

On another note, my Jetstream BC10 came today, a very nice little single AA light. Very white, very bright, throws to about 40 feet but the hotspot sort of blends right into the spill, so it lights up a LOT of territory out to 50 feet or so. Not bad for a light that is almost exactly 4 inches (9cm) long. Perhaps it is the nicest light I own at this point.

Foy, how many Solarforce hosts do you now have? Nice! I ordered an XP-G dropin from them and two SS bezels.

I need to figure out how to take beautiful macro shots like you do, so I can take a couple 'glamor' shots of my L2x. Its so perdy :P In a rough and tough kind of way. Those L2P's are just so clean and sophisticated looking. I think I need one :(

troop - 8 plus the Skyline.

ocdFoy

Aye, sir! ;)

I leave it to match. But in a week or so when other components arrive there will be a tutorial: Build your own better XM-L (or other) dropin for abut the same or probably less.