Review: TrustFire Z2

The optics would be easy since flood is available just by removing the head. There just needs to be something to protect the LED without blocking too much light.

ok,I like it;

For the DIY gang: the light is nice as is (although horrible low PWM), but it is a pain to mod: led on flimsy 8mm PCB, bad mounting of the board to the body and no easy way to improve that, tiny reflector is only just screwed tight so no space for thicker led-pcb, driver PITA to remove, and because the clicky is above the driver there is a separate contact board and the actual driver has no negative contact ring around, the clicky is unremovable, . The only straightforward mod would be reflowing a different led on the tiny board.

I still have plans with mine, but I need some courage to start.

djozz, if you go through with modding your Z2, please do a thread about it. Or please start a thread and start off for now by posting some clues and pictures about disassembly I have a couple Z2's because I wanted to mod it, but I can't even figure out how to take it apart without feeling like I'm going to break it.

I was 'lucky' to receive a Z2 with a faulty switch from dx last year, and I received another one without having to send in the broken light. So I had one spare to do some brute research on .

I will do a thread on it, but beware: it may turn into a resultless martyrdom you may not want to be witness of...

It's either me or you, and sorry friend, I'd rather it be you. :D

I like the Z1 and have a Z2 coming — specifically to carry as a pedestrian. I like turning the strobe on when I’m crossing — any — street at any time (after several nearby deaths from drivers who just didn’t see a pedestrian, or skateboarder, or bicyclist, or other car).

I’ve found the strobe really does get drivers’ attention. A couple times it’s done that for a speeder at enough distance they manage to skid to a smoking halt short of running into the crosswalk.

Yeah, I’m young enough I can still panic and skitter away. But not all of my neighbors are that spry. Gotta keep these drivers paying attention.

they issued me a return ticket to a US address……after endless emails, with no response, I threw the 3 dead ones away…… I’m done with this model…

$13.30 with the BLF code on FT if anyone is interested. I’ve been looking into the Z2 for a while because I thought the magnetic base would be useful for my line of work. I enjoyed reading your review!

Damn.

You should not have chucked them. You could have auctioned ‘a bucket of broken Z2’. I would have happily paid for broken ones.

As it stands I have to buy new ones to get spares to experiment with modding the optics.

I rate the Z2 quite highly. It is the light I keep in my pocket every day. It is a properly cheap flashlight, not one of these +$30 ‘kings’.

I really like head torches but they are inconvenient as pocket lights. I feel this form factor bridges the gap nicely. The angled head, magnetic base and clip provide a variety of ways the light can be held/positioned for a task. While not as good as a headband it certainly beats chomping a piece of knurled aluminum.

The only other choice for this form factor in a budget price range is the UF-Hx series. Unfortunately the UF-Hx series is just too expensive for a budget almost disposable pocket light. (by disposable I mean I would be annoyed if I lost it but not properly riled that I had lost an appreciable chunk of change.)

My only complaints about the Z2 are:

1. The reflector is to big, gimme more flood!
2. The screws holding the clip are not beefy enough.
3. The so called anodising chips VERY easily.
4. Low is not low enough.
5. Flashing modes.

From my observations I think there are 2 possibilities to making the reflector more to my liking.

1. Dismantle the reflector, chuck it away and glue the little lens to the LED aperture.
2. Dismantle the reflector and file down the outside threads on the reflector by ~5-7mm. File a corresponding amount of the reflector housing. It will still stick out a little but it will not be so bad, also more flood!

To make it more floody there is also the possibility to change the xp-e led to xp-g, it will broaden the hotspot quite a bit (2.2 times the surface area of the hotspot to be precise).

(I still have not modded my Z2, sometime....)

i agree that i would rather have more flood! the magnet in the tail makes it nice for close-up work where you have a surface to put the magnetic tail to. but the throwy beam ruins this use.
so if someone has successfully modded a z2 for more flood (not mule style) i’d be interested to know how!

Watch this space…

So my Z2 lasted 10 months, now the switch is intermittent/broken.

I have been hoping someone would take these apart and figure out how to mod them.

Pulling the green cover off and unscrewing the little retaining ring, there’s no apparent way to get the switch out (nor, after taking the battery tube off, is there any apparent way to get the pill out from the other side). The switch is a little black button offset in a white ring set into the gray metal of the head.

This switch is most likely just worn out; the LED lights up with the button half-pressed slightly off center, and changes modes erratically in that condition, but it’s dark when the switch is fully clicked.

And this, as mentioned above, has been my everyday-pedestrian-crosswalk attention-getting light. It’s saved my life a couple of times last winter on dark rainy nights — during the commuter hour, in a crosswalk, when some idiot with superbright blue headlights was racing up to the intersection.

Fast strobe straight into the windshield, wait, wait SCREECH OF BRAKES as the driver wakes up.

Ah.

I’ll probably try a little tuner/electronics cleaner and try that in the switch area, if I can’t figure out how to remove it.

Fortunately I like this light enough that I’d already bought a spare Z2
(from FT, still in its box, you know, “just in case” — well that worked out).

So — anyone else working on these lights?

(Meanwhile, I just swapped a little-used Z1 head onto the Z2 battery tube, which works fine. The Z1 is meant for 3v lithium CR123 cells but lights up OK on the AA battery tube with 1.2v NiMH and also fine with li-ion).

I suppose I could hope the switch in the Z1 is a little better made, but that would be optimistic.
Time will tell.

I actually prefer the Z1’s three speeds (bright, low, strobe; with mode memory) to the Z2’s five speeds (bright, medium, low, fast strobe, SOS; also with mode memory).

Somewhere in this thread I promised to mod my z2. But it has not happened because the z2 is extremely unservicable. I also have not been able to do anything about a faulty switch I had, just impossible to get it out, press-fit extremely tight, perhaps glued..

Yeah, it's a very tough light to work on. It's even tough just to cut in half. Maybe I'll finish that up tomorrow and post some pictures so you can see just what you'd have to deal with.

Thank you in advance (grin)

I’ve been thinking of just drilling into the white plastic around the switch and around the battery-contact button to try to get some leverage to twist and pull those things out of the head, but waiting a bit to see if anyone has had a better idea work out.

Also ordered a “Moon M6” to see if that very similar light is any better. (Says it’s 1xAA three-mode)

I’m still using my Z2, by the way, as it’s easily pocketable, and I rely on the strobe (and mode memory) for walking at night, so it’s always ready to deter careless drivers. And it’s noticeably brighter with a lithium-ion or an Energizer lithium primary cell.

The “Moon M6” was a decent little light, but had “next mode memory” so less useful as a crosswalk light…

Mine isn’t around anymore, must have been in the box-o-lights that I at some point gave away. It was goodlooking though :slight_smile:

They are still available at some stores in AliExpress :wink: