sk68 clone: longitudinal section

Nice job on the cut! :slight_smile:
Anyone willing to volunteer a nice FourSevens XM18 to djozz to saw in half ?

Love the effort that’s gone into this review!
Well done, we should now refer to this light as the Sipik SK34

You wrongly assume that expertise and finetuning has played a significant role in this design. There once was the Nitecore Extreme Infinity:

(BTW, it is a reflector based light, not a zoomie). And someday a chinese factory made a zoomie stealing the design, I assume that that first clone was the Sipik sk68. It was done fast and cheap without much thought, but it appeared to work well and eventually it started selling quite well. And that last thing, and only that last thing, is what triggered the chinese industry, and the response was not let's make it even better, no, it is: let's copy that. And later: how can we make an exact as possible copy even cheaper.

If the first designer had bored out the pill cavity a bit less deep so that the pill touched the battery tube on the underside, the heatsinking would have been great, and that great heatsinking would have appeared in each clone. But he didn't, and the light worked and sold well...

Here is your review…ok? Thnks. Bye

:smiley:

I know all that, but don’t believe that a designer adapting a reflector light shape to a zoomy would miss a small change that would improve both the heat flow and the mechanical strength.

Honestly, I don’t think the designer really cares. Its cheap, lights up and doesn’t burn out within the 45 day paypal dispute window, its perfect! Next.

Looking in Alibaba, the first listing I find for an SK-68 says “Supply Ability: 50000 Piece/Pieces per Month”. I don’t suppose the designer expected that much success but I think he must have taken the project seriously, probably more seriously than the one who designed the obscure Nitecore Extreme took that design. He relied on Nitecore for style, but did his own engineering. And he got the most important part right, at least, the production cost.

Lol what an review, very original idea. Cool beamshots too :stuck_out_tongue:

This is the most informative review I’ve read on flashlights. Congrats and thanks.
Now, I’d love to see a more high end flashlight reviewed in the same way, but that would be too much to ask. :slight_smile:

if you pay for the flashlight i bet someone would be willing to do it for you

Thanks Explicit, I may split a high end light some day but perhaps cheapy's are the more fun because the design flaws are obvious.

Welcome to BLF! :-)

I’d certainly not be willing to pay 100% by myself, but I’d gladly participate in a crowdfunding project. I’d be willing to participate with, lets say 0.05 Bitcoin (roughly $25). If this “review” project is backed by 20 people the funding would total to 1 Bitcoin. I think this would suffice to “review” a $100 flashlight. Anyone else interested to participate?

Thanks djozz, I am glad you noticed that it was my first post.

Hahaha yeah!

I’ve got a Deft X (not really), gee cutting it in half sounds like a great idea!

:smiley:

I think they got more than their money’s worth for this review! :slight_smile:

Thanks CRX, these specs suit the picture very well :-)

Perhaps the design flaws of the more expensive lights run more to unnecessary difficulty of production, but I still argue that if you are going to sell a few hundred thousand lights, or even ten thousand at $10 each, it is worth putting a lot of effort into the design. A simple example is the shape of the fins. Tapered fins are more common in cheaper lights and obviously cool better, as well as being easier to make, at least in large numbers. One of the things that makes flashlights interesting to me is that even complicated shapes are cheap to make with numerical control tools, at least as long as they are axially symmetrical. I expect it will be just as easy to spot flaws in expensive lights if we get one cut in half. The lack of an effective patent system must work both ways. One makes less money from a good design, but on the other hand to get a good design a Chinese designer apparently has only to correct the flaws in an existing design and adapt it to his needs, like free software. I wonder if the designers would sell their cut in half flashlights after they are done with them.

Djozz’s reviews are a cut above your typical review…