Fasttech - interesting new products - Flashlights, chargers, batteries and DIY and knives - please no discussions.

The heat transfer is noticeable too. I find the F12 gets hotter quicker at 1.75A than the convoy S3 does at 2.8A.

you mean there actually is something we’re allowed to play with that the yanks are not? cool, off to my local tackle shop 8)

Right. I’m starting a Petition - “Ban this Stuff”, “Down with this Class of Thing”.

no petitions please the nation is in mourning/party mood…

Yes, I’ve been playing Elvis Costello’s Tramp the Dirt Down round the clock. :wink:

Yes isotopes and Kinder eggs are all ours!. You know that Kinder eggs are illegal in the US right? So don’t pack any in your case when going on holiday, otherwsie you (and the kids) may end up with a big fine or jail time.

:slight_smile:

Now please can we get back on topic ………… :bigsmile:

The Jetbeam RRT01 I ordered showed up today. Here are some of my initial impressions / observations:

It’s smaller than I expected, which is good. It’s almost as small as a ZL SC52, maybe 2-3mm longer and the back end of the body is wider (same diameter as the bezel of the SC52). Because it’s short, one-handed operation requires holding the light with my middle finger (or middle+ring) and turning the ring with my index finger + thumb. The grip is similar to one-handed operation of my iTP A3 EOS 1xAAA twisty.

The clip is shorter than in the pictures I’ve seen online, which is also good. It doesn’t get even close to blocking the control ring. It also does not seem to rub the front half of the light when unscrewing the torch to put in a new battery; it stops just barely short of that. I’ll see if I can get pictures later.

The reflector is OP/LOP, and I see no rings in the beam aside from the usual mach bands at the outer edge of the spill.

The control ring works very well, though it’s a little bit sticky and could use some lube. It can be slightly difficult to move it by, say, half a millimeter, and instead it’ll want to move by 2mm. I mostly notice this near the high end of its range. Not really an issue though.

I’m pleased to report that the control ring seems to be a visually-linear brightness adjustment, so almost the entire range is useful (the ends seem to reach min/max slightly before the detent, but that’s okay).

It’s definitely not a 3-mode light, as one person suggested. I can get at least 50 visually-different levels out of it, and that’s mostly limited by the ring being a little sticky.

The dimmest levels are lower than the SC52’s dimmest mode, dimmer than a tritium vial, and actually so dim that I can barely tell the LED is on if I hold the light directly up to my eye in a totally dark room. In fact, I can’t even tell where it shuts off, because it fades so smoothly down to zero. You won’t be left complaining that it’s too bright.

I don’t have to turn it up and then back down to get to the dimmest levels. It comes on at the dimmest level my eye can detect when I hold it up to my eyeball in a dark room.

The brightest level (on a half-charged Nitecore 650mAh 16340 battery) appears to be about the same brightness as a ZL SC52 on turbo (Sanyo 840mAh 14500 battery, fully charged). I don’t have any meters or an integrating sphere though.

The body color is almost, but not quite, black. It’s a very dark, smoky grey.

The included materials say Jetbeam half the time and Niteye half the time. The torch itself actually says both on its logo side: “JETBeam ® // www.niteyelight.com

Although the 16340 battery is loose inside the body, it doesn’t rattle when screwed together.

It tailstands easily, and the lanyard nub doesn’t stick out at all.

Aside from the poor runtimes (max ~4 days, compared to 3 months for the SC52), I’m very happy with this light. It looks much more attractive than the military drab color of my SC52, and will probably go into rotation for EDC use.

So, overall, this batch at FastTech seems to be better than the initial batches which were so highly reviewed at CPF. The only ways I’d like to see it improved are longer runtimes and maybe a bit of lube under the control ring.

Good news - thanks for the update. I have one on the way from the Thrunite group buy, and it’s hopefully the same (Op reflector, shortened clip). Pretty much as I expected, so looking forward to mine. Only pain is that I have 18350 efest IMR’s waiting for it … which are flat-top, so won’t fit.

It took me about 9 months deliberating between the RRT-01 and the V11R before I finally pulled the trigger on this one. In true flashaholic style, I also bought the Sunwayman one from Fasttech too the other day. Well, at that price, it would be rude not to,wouldn’t it?

http://gawker.com/5990806/

You could just dab a small amount of solder onto the positive contact, that’s what I do with most of my laptop pulls.

With my soldering skills? Actually I probably will give it a shot. My only other soldering attempt (first for about 20 years, when I screwed up some speaker plugs) was with a Nitecore OEM EZ-AA. That went surprisingly well, so I could be on a roll.

Thanks for the tip.

I got my l2 host today.

I can report that its an excellent host, and with a nw xp-g2, driven at 3a, gives a lovely smooth beam and completly smokes my fandyfire stl-v6 in throw, I now need a 20mm xp-g sinkpad, cw xp-g2, a bit of petrol and a resistor to “correct” the current. … J) 0:)

If you have a small magnet, you should be able to get the 18350 cells to work… but my RRT01 definitely has some reverse-polarity protection, so flat-top won’t work by itself.

As for the RRT01 vs V11R, the factors which decided things for me were the less-sturdy clip on the V11R and the clicky tail switch. I don’t want the light falling out of its clip, and I don’t want to have to rotate the light 180 degrees all the time to switch between power toggle and 1-handed brightness adjustment. … Well, that, and the timing, since FastTech didn’t yet have the V11R when I ordered.

The RRT01 is also slightly smaller, as shown in this pic I found:

I would say that one feature in favor of the RRT01 is the infinitely variable output too. But I personally like the V10x setup of a tail clicky on/off button and an infinitely variable ring.

Hi ohaya
There’s been a misunderstanding,I didn’t mean to imply that the niteye tf20 and tf25 were 3 mode.It was more about how they ramp up.here are selfbuilds graphs showing current linear and visually linear light outputs.The jetbeam RRT15 and21 were current linear as is a 33%/66%/100% 3 mode,the nitecore IFE2 and swm V20 are more visually linear,like a 5%/25%/100% 3 mode.That was the point I was trying to get across.It was my first post and didn’t know how to post links,this is my first post with a link,hope it worked.
I saw the TF25 on special last month at Illumination Supply,so wanted to know if it was current or visual linear,no tests said anything but I found a russian video which seemed to show a rapid rise in light output from the start of twisting the ring and then a german test that said something like-the light goes to max brightness pretty fast-(my translation)which I took to mean current linear,so I didn”t buy it.That was the only “evidence” that the TF’s were current linear.I’d be interested to know how your TF’s behave in reality.If you twist it to half of the max range,is it more low or high?
After the post and the replies,I researched some more and came to 2 conclusions;
Most RC123A torches seem to have been visually linear from the start,the ultra low low’s is a clue.
I suspect manufacturers have changed the ui from current to visually linear without new models or publicity,but that’s only a suspicion,as I say.
I hope this clears up any confusion,both of your TF’s are infinitely variable of course,and I hope they’re visually linear,or resposive enough anyhow.Cheers,Tom

I did buy some magnets a while back, but I’d feel safer with a dab of solder tbh, less chance of dropping the thing and having the magnet short the light - and these are expensive lights.

I think the reverse-polarity protection would also prevent shorting the light, assuming the magnet is small enough to fit. The positive contact has a small plastic bowl around it, which would make it nearly impossible for a flat object to contact both the poles at the same time.

The RRT01 looks nice, but I don’t need another light (I have to keep telling myself this >.<).

But what if your other lights stop working?

They can’t all stop working!