BLF Kronos X6/X5 GB - Group Buy now closed.

Cone in regards to your post #5121, I did one GB and what I got out of it was 1 (ONE) light sent to me free of charge, nothing more.

This was the Maxtoch M24 GB that ended 11/2015, I can assure you it wasn’t for the glory or the “pyschological high” it was because I had bought a light, months before, that I felt was a really good light that cost about half of what the big names of the same quality of this light does. I thought it would be a good deal for people of this COMMUNITY , therefore I put not hours, not weeks but months of my time into the GB and made it happen with a cost well below what you would pay normally for the same light.

I am not ranting and I am not taking it personally, but I wanted to be clear that when you have , for the most part, a great bunch of people who are willing to help each other when they can and not ask anything in return, then to me that shows there is still a little bit of hope that the world does have good people left in it.

The Old Lumens lathe thing that transpired not long ago in an excellent example of what kind of people we have in this forum. I for one am willing to give back a little of what I have gotten from this forum and its members as it is a wealth of knowledge and know how here and as I said some good hearted people here too.

Sorry for the interruption folks carry on.

If you don’t mind me asking Dale, did the old version look like this http://goinggear.com/efest-imr-14500-650mah-3-7v-rechargeable-flat-top-battery.html
or was there a different purple version?

First mod for my lights - the tailcaps. I put another blue emitter on the other side of that board to even it out (actually wound up replacing both because my blue was a bit different from the pre-installed blue. Then I pulled the blue from the copper light and went with two oranges and the pinking tailcap to warm it way up. The blue is beautiful on the stainless but the copper needed a warm colored cap, I think. The results are better than my photography skills, but here ya go:

Wish the blue hadn’t overexposed so much. Up next is a few stronger resistors to tone it down, but I don’t have any here that fit.

add box (I’m late?)

The tail current also drops steadily with cell voltage, so that extends the standby time too. It basically makes a straight line from 0 to 0.63mA as the voltage increases from 2.2V to 4.2V.

I’m surprised to hear that the voltage measurement is correct. Have you let it do the read-out more than once in a row? It’ll likely report 0.1V higher on the second (and later) readings, after the cell voltage has recovered a bit from the turbo and strobe accessed before battcheck.

In any case, people are reporting better battcheck results than I expected, so I think I’ll make the correction factor a little smaller… like maybe 0.07V instead of 0.11V.

Mine were all dry too, but I just used normal silicone grease. So far, so good. What makes you think it’s a bad idea?

You do realize I used the word “could” as a qualifier in that sentence, right? As in it was one of but many possibilities.

Anyway, I don’t generally disagree with anything you said.

To be clear, I don’t care if the people who host this or any GB get nothing or everything in return for doing it. For example, Krono could have decided to do this GB just to avoid spending time with his wife or he could have gotten a lifetime supply of IMR cells from BangGood or anything in-between.

It matters not to me.

Whatever deal he made for himself or the “team” is fine with me. I am truly thankful to be a member here and have expressed gratitude in every post or video I made concerning any light from a BG.

That said, some people sometimes almost make you feel like honest discussions about the results of all the hard work are somehow a personal attack on the hosts of the GB.

For instance. The D80’s shorter than expected tube. That was a problem for some people, myself include. I purchased cells that would work and longer tubes just in case. I wasn’t ticked off then nor am I now. But, saying it was a problem does not diminish a person’s gratitude for all the hard work that was done. Saying the sides of this box should have been better protected isn’t a personal attack on anyone.

When I tell my wife that a new recipe didn’t turn out so well, it doesn’t mean I love and appreciate all she does for me any less. Same thing on a different level, right?

Neal seems pretty good about resolving issues and I’m 99% sure that 99% of these issues will be resolved fairly. But there are things to learn from this GB which may make the next one better and the only way we are going to learn from what didn’t go so well is to talk about it.

It’s a forum, after all. :slight_smile:

At the end of the day, I’m just not seeing the need for animosity amongst those that host GBs and those that buy GBs.

If you don’t mind me jumping in here, my understanding is that most o-rings on flashlights these days are made from silicone. Silicone grease will disolve silicone, so a petroleum based grease or synthetic is preferable to silicone grease in those instances. If you have a petroleum based o-ring, then silicone grease is preferable for the same reasons, petroleum disolves rubber. There is a whole university of science for flashlight lubrication, and there are stuffs optimized for different metals, and different o-rings, and its not always obvious. I recently switched from plain old Vasoline to Frog Lube on my current lights, but if I had a Titanium flashlight, I might consider the more expensive and highly praised Nano-Oil, which has different varieties for threads and optimizing o-rings.

SS can have a tendency to gall if not adequately lubed when both of the mating SS pieces are the same type of SS. As an example, on a SS pistol like a .45, the slide and frames are usually made from two different types of SS to prevent galling.

If silicone grease isn’t good for flashlight threads then why does mtnelectronics sell it as such? Im pretty sure Richard knows what he’s doing. That’s where I got mine and its served me well on all my lights. What am I missing?

Forgive me for my ignorance, but I thought plain lubricants such as graphite or silicone lubricants were “good enough” to maintain the threads.

Frankly, I’ve never heard the term “galling” used with reference to flashlight threads. :quest:

Brett, those are the Red cells that Efest sells in almost every line of their offering, if I’m not mistaken the first Purple 14500’s were a light color with the Efest name being smallish. These new ones are dark purple, like the 3000mAh 18650 or the 4200mAh 26650, a new line of their cells that just recently came out.

On the lubricant story-line, I use Nyogel 760G or nothing at all. It’s worked the last 3 years and 135+ flashlights, from base aluminum el-cheapo’s to Type III hard anodize and Titanium and full copper.

+1 - only Nyogel 760G -- ever.

I’m not understanding the galling comment either. You just got the lights, how many times could you possibly have taken the tail cap off? Surely there isn’t any issue between the Stainless and Cu, and I’ve been modifying this little full copper X5 for a while now, rebuilt it fully over and over, no issues with threads at all.

I’ve also got a mistake sample that’s all stainless. No galling there either and it’s been rebuilt several times as well, with drivers exchanged many times as we figured out what was ailing the birth of the brainchild. To this day, those threads are dry. I never put anything on it at all and it’s smooth as a con-artist at a widow’s ball.

Emarkd, on the orange tail LED’s, that’s sharp! I’d love to do that, can you tell me where to get (and what to get) those little LED’s? I’d strongly consider purple as well, just need to know what size and where to find options…

I thought the Alu X5 clip looked nice, but upon trying to use it, it is unusable as it is too tight. Has anyone been able to bend it so that it is usable?

PS: I suggest a mod thread be opened for all modding posts.

I'd like to know as well. That orange is B.A.!

Verdigris ?
Really?
Why don’t you just say, may cause Green crap to develop on the copper?
$100 words.
Whatever

And heaven forbid, we use the wrong lube, a 3 cent o-ring is gonna have a shorter life, Big deal.
Exactly how many years will it take for this supposed Galling to make the threads become unusable?
Probably Long after I am tired of these lights, or dead, which ever comes first.

Have all of you forgotten the Illuminated tailcap has its own thread? :wink:

Pro-tip: basically everything needed is linked there

Sorry, Sharpie but your absolutely wrong about this. Petroleum-based grease will destroy latex. Latex can be solidified into rubber. Silicone grease will make silicone expand and foul its purpose. I respect your electronic knowledge and likely your chemical knowledge is superior to mine as well, but if you’re working from memory, don’t trust it. I suggest you spend 10 minutes on Google researching this to jog your memory. For organic rings, you want synthetic grease. For synthetic rings, you want natural grease. Its not as simple as that, but that’s a good rule for non-experts. I realize we’re talking about o-rings that cost 10 per penny, but when it comes to sealing out water or getting good thread action in spite of the ring, we will spare no expense.

I hope this is in no way patronizing, but I believe this is what he was talking about:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Galvanic_corrosion

NO-OX-ID is my lube of choice. Seems to last much longer than any silicone I’ve tried, and lithium seems to just look dirty almost immediately.