sk68 clone: longitudinal section

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…

This is precisely why I’d love to see a “naked in-depth review” :slight_smile:

If there is enough interest I will open another thread, or someone else can, I don’t mind.
I am pretty sure that we can raise funds to motivate a reputable reviewer to “see into it”.

I’ll stick to my promise and contribute 0.05 BTC (Bitcoin), or 5 LTC (Litecoin), if this is acceptable for the reviewer.

On this thread: 15mm SK68 Nanjg 5*7135 V1.0 [final] I describe filling the gap between the pill and the thick battery tube with metal, with minimal tooling and material. It would be nice if someone with more stuff would make some rings of copper or soft aluminum and sell them.
The discussion ended up on that thread, because the ring is incompatible with using a 17 mm. driver, so building a good 15 mm. driver was by far the hardest part of the mod. There seems to be little difference between an SK-58 and an SK-68 around the bottom of the pill. I consider 1.8 A too low current to require cooling fins.

From 8-24 to 9/29 - that is how long my DX delivery of my gray Sipik Sk68 took!

But is arrived safely and works great.

Looks like things to the US are routed through Zurich, Switzerland now.

naked in depth is only on skinemax or pay-per-view or you get blurr lines :smiley:

I am working on an XM-L2 Noctigon UltraOK SK-68. It is working but not finished. I have a rough heat transfer ring in place and am working on a better one. The Qlite/BLF SK-68 driver is also in preliminary form. The clone I had the XM-L2 in before, with a 17 mm. driver has a hollow pill, so I took an UltraOK for the XM-L2 and put the works from it into the other clone.

The new ring is 18 mm. diameter, 2.5 mm. wide and 15 mm. ID to fit over the driver and stacked 7135s. The driver board sticks out of its groove slightly below the pill. There is plenty of spare clearance between the ring and the IMR cell. Its 1.5 mm. thickness is more than that of the flashlight body at this point.

One sec, let me go pull out my Sunwayman D40M and prep the saw. :stuck_out_tongue: :bigsmile:

In all seriousness, thanks very much djozz! Fascinating.





I used some solid core 60/40 solder that I don’t use much. If cost were no object, I would have used 99% tin solder, but that is over priced.
The light now has 8 7135s and draws about 2.5 A. Perhaps contact between the 7135s and the ring would increase the current.
The body does now feel slightly hotter than the head, which seems to be a change, as they were about equal when I tested earlier.

It’s time to bump this one up as a reminder of how to cut through all the verbiage and give us a completely revealing review of a modern flashlight.

Why don’t we see this done more often?