Actually I MUCH prefer these little zoomies to the SK68.
The SK68âs unwieldy shape with lots of crenelations is uncomfortable for pocket carry. These little zoomies are half the size but virtually the same brightness. They also have a much smoother more-streamlined shape that wonât tear up a pocket.
Performance between this type of light and the SK68 is quite similar. They have a fairly wide flood. Throw is very similar to a SK68, though the beam is narrower due to long focal length lens.
I agree the ring-clip interferes with battery changes. I removed it from mine. Thereâs also a variant with a slightly different bezel design that has a slip on clip that doesnât get in the way.
You can drill through the side of the tailcap, carefully, and make a suitable hole for a split ring.
Much nicer than the stupid little metal clip.
I sure wish I knew a reliable source for solid pills for these #3 zoomies.
Theyâre decent mod lights even with the hollow pill â I stick a copper disk into the shelf, and put a 10mm square board with a PC Rebel on that.
Theyâre a pleasure to give away to people â passing on my older Energizer lithium primary AA cells when I refresh the batteries in the earthquake cache.
I got one of the gold ones. Itâs at least as bright as a SK68 but thinner and easier to pocket. Not as thick or heavy so itâs not built as well but the SK68 is a beefy light. This light makes a good little 1AA cheap alternative. Iâve had mine for about a year with no problems. I like it.
I own a bunch of these from various different brands.
In mine, the star is either 16mm or 14mm. The ones using a 16mm star have a hollow pill. The 14mm ones have a solid pill. Itâs not that hard to file down a 16mm noctigon with a handfile so it fits the 14mm slot.
The driver is 14mm. A 15mm driver from mountain electronics fits easily with a minimal amount of filing at the edges. A 17mm Nanjg 105c can fit as a floating driver below the pill, but it takes a heroic amount of filing and can easily result in a destroyed driver.
Lottery! I have exactly one with a solid pill, and it came with a 16mm emitter; I have going on a dozen with hollow pills, most of those with sort-of-15mm emitters that are probablyjust cut down and filed down. Those are the ones with the rough cut rectangular notches for unscrewing the pill that look like they were put in with a chisel âŚ.
Sure would like to find solid pills reliably. I put in one 10mm square Luxeon PC Rebel board and it fits perfectly on the solid pill â leaves the wire holes unblocked, and self-centers with its corners right at the circumference of the cutout. (Iâve stuffed 16mm copper disks from Etsy into the holes on other ones.)
Has anyone bought the gearbest version and how does it seem to compare to other versions? Iâm thinking of picking some up next time I order from them.
Going by how the tailcap and the crenelations in the mid section look, Iâd also say the gearbest is a hollow pill 1-mode.
Btw. the AE 3-modes are (subjectively) slightly brighter. You could buy several and try to pencil mod them to 1-mode (several capacitors on that PCB) if you donât mind the effort.
They separated my order so I received only silver, black is still in transit. Youâre right, silver has 3 mode and it doesnât work on AA battery but it works on 14500.
Also led doesnât look like XP-E and is less brighter then my SK68 from Bangood.
Other than that; body, zoom and switch looks ok. Its much lighter and smaller then SK68 and feels better in the hand.
Bought one of Ebay ; new record in blue tint and low lumens.Tailcap tread did not fit my extensions.
With Cree it would have been a nice flashlight.
A year ago I got two that where weak but OK.
I just measured tailcap resistance on different (bg/AE) models, the readings explain the lower output on the former: banggood version tailcap has ~4 (!) âŚ, for Aliexpress itâs <0.5âŚ
Tailcap current is ~300mA with NiMH AA. The multimeter I used is probably twice my age (analog scale) so idk how accurate that reading is.
Edit: This is how it looks disassembled:
I soldered the spring to the switch and also added some solder to the contact pad on the side.
The 4 ohm one went down to 0.6 ohm, another measuring 30 ohm went down to 2 (itâs still a bit dim).