The pill is solid and there was even some Fujik under the star.
My sample is reasonably driven at 1.6A. Modes are 100%, 50% & 10%, no memory - starts at high after 3s off. Low mode is not 4 lumen, more like 40 lumen (I think your lux readings confirm this).
Flood (for me) is the more important feature of a zoomie.
Which zoomie would you choose?
I don’t care if it uses 1 o 2 18650.
This SK98 clone from FT?
Trustfire Z1/Z5?
Palight M900?
XXX?
Just got mine through. Some very good and a little bad.
Plus points:
-clean and unbleamished
-surprised at the output. It’s way brighter than an sk68 on a 14500. I don’t have tail cap readings yet. But I’m certainly not disappointed
-tint is very good. Not sure if I’ve struck lucky but the tint it almost identical to my Klarus NT20. Very neutral white edging on the side of cooler. But a million times better than my z8 and as good as any of my other lights
Now the bad:
- the head is very lose and has no resistance. This mean tip it head down and it zooms. Tip it up and it slides all the way to flood. I guess there should be some kind of friction ring to stop this happening. Any ideas on what it need to do or adjust?
I got this flashlight last Monday. I removed the metal ring that you can see in the top picture around the brown part. I used two 20mm o-rings, and I added a bit of grease inside the tube where the pill will slide. Remove the pill and check if the ring is missing or broken.
I removed the pill and replaced the metal spring clip with a rubber o-ring. Now the head slides smoothly but importantly remains in position too.
Have to say I’m quite impressed so far. When on mine tail stands fine too, although is a little wobbly when off.
On a 4.0v 26650 INR I’m getting 1.66 at the tailcap. Reckon it’d be higher on a fully charged one. Not massively driven I admit, but more than enough to be useful. The beam is also 100% artefact and ring free in flood and almost as good in full zoom.
Just charged my 26650, 4.14v off the charger and 1.79 at the tail cap. I know you can drive an XM-L harder, but I’m not sure this needs to be. It’s very usable as is.
Got mine today. Nice. Anyone get the driver out yet? What you see in the review is just a contact plate. The driver is held in by the brass ring. And I cannot get it to turn…
Pill is solid and has a big emitter landing area. Still trying to get the driver out…
Edit: it must be a press fit brass ring… not turning at all. Grr!
Edit2: Ahhh, got it. heat the ring for about one minute with an iron, then grab it with pliers and pull.
Direct drive with an unmarked 8-pin mode chip. Might replace it.
OK, so I’ve decided to mod the driver instead. It’s not bad; 5-mode (H-M-L-Strobe-SOS), no memory and no visible PWM.
Has current limiting resistors; two R820 0.82 Ohm resistors in parallel for 0.41 Ohms. This gives about 2A at 4.2V. Resistors get HOT fast! Burnt my fingies :_(
Changing to two R20 for 0.1Ohm total J)
Edit: Results are good! 3.35A on High, 670 lm OTF at start, 597 after 30s (flood mode), 166 lm OTF in throw mode. A lot of zoom loss here. OK by me, it’s a decent flooder.
24.5kcd for throw. Not too bad.
My SK98 is on par in flood; right around the 600 mark.
I’m still getting used to the forward clicky. This is my only light with one. Mode changing is a bit cumbersome.
Edit: PWM is visible on Med and Low. I missed that the first time. I may change the driver when I get more NANJG’s in.