Just got mine through. Some very good and a little bad.
Plus points:
-clean and unbleamished
-surprised at the output. Itās way brighter than an sk68 on a 14500. I donāt have tail cap readings yet. But Iām certainly not disappointed
-tint is very good. Not sure if Iāve 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 Iām quite impressed so far. When on mine tail stands fine too, although is a little wobbly when off.
On a 4.0v 26650 INR Iām getting 1.66 at the tailcap. Reckon itād 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 Iām not sure this needs to be. Itās 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 turnā¦
Pill is solid and has a big emitter landing area. Still trying to get the driver outā¦
Edit: it must be a press fit brass ringā¦ 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 Iāve decided to mod the driver instead. Itās 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, itās a decent flooder.
24.5kcd for throw. Not too bad.
My SK98 is on par in flood; right around the 600 mark.
Iām 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 NANJGās in.
Thanks for the tip on this light. Got mine today. Not bad.
Might be a lot better with a new driver. My DMM says around 1.1 at the tailcap ā so WOEFULLY underpowered. Still, though, itās brighter than any of my three sk98s (zoomed in and out) I tried and the zoomed-out emitter projection size is about half the size of the sk98ās, which explains why it is brighter. The beam is almost the exact same size as the M12 flood and spot. Still light here so canāt tell for sure, but it seems maybe a hair less bright than the m12, but pretty darn close.
>>>>>- the head is very lose and has no resistance. This mean tip it head down and it zooms.
Just need to replace the piece-of-crap metal c ring with a traditional rubber o ring. Two-minute fix and now it zooms like a dream. Had to do the same thing with my M12. Had the same junky metal c ring in it. If you like the feel of the metal-on-metal c ring, you could also fool around with the stock ring and tighten it up. I like the feel of the rubber ring instead of that scratchy metal one (which will eventually scratch the light barrel).
Someone said that the m12 is better built. Yes, it is. Having said that though, thereās nothing wrong with the aleto. Iāll keep mine. I think Iāll get another so I can change out the stock driver. maybe Iāll do both the m12 and this at the same time. Both sure could use the extra power.
Nice little light. Certainly canāt beat the price! Thanks again for the tip!!
finally someone with the aleto and m12. and your the one that got me to purchase those sk98 clones ubehebe. i actually just sent that out to tom E to get it modded. those sk98ās are one heck of a light.
so right when you said this aleto is brighter, i almost went searching for an aleto, but untill i read that your m12 might still be a bit brighter, then neh, i might as well get the m12.