It’s been a while since I’ve been able to post something here, but I’m glad to announce that I finally have a couple of new toys to play with!
First up is my unbranded version of the Dongrui ALL-920 made popular by our own Garrybunk here on BLF. I received mine from DealExtreme, at no cost to myself by trading in my DX points. I chose this light over the cheaper Jacob A60 as I liked the 920 design better, and I don’t like plastic reflectors, which the
Jacob is said to have.
I like the looks, the form factor, the function and the pocket-clip of this light. Like Gary said, this is a good thrower. It has a thin beam with a bright hotspot. I don’t have a UniqueFire HS-802 on hand to compare this light with, but from my memory, the Uniqurefire had a much tighter hotspot. My sample is driven at ~1.7A, so somewhat overdriven, but not extremely so. The reflector on mine is very nice with a smooth finish that is free of debris and surface irregularities. It appears to have the same dimensions as a standard C8 reflector which is nice if true, as reflectors can be purchased easily. It does have a lightweight pill, but this won’t be used heavily so I don’t think overheating will be a problem.
What I DON’T like about this light:
First is the poor machining. I’m not a machine-snob by any means, and I don’t mind machine marks in some cases, but these threads are atrocious!
Second is the horrible no-memory driver! The driver is the 3-mode high/low/strobe that is the worst driver to possible put on a dedicated thrower. Anytime I need to use it, I have to cycle through the two extra modes just to get high. My plan is to use a NANJG 105c and pull a few 7135s off to cut the current back to a more reasonable level.
Like the lady said, “Where’s the beef?”
My next toy is a ‘new’ (to me anyway) UniqueFire UF-V2 clone of the STL-V2 that about everyone else here has. A couple of weeks ago, Rusty Joe offered a selection of his damaged and unwanted flashlight hardware for sale, and I was the lucky buyer of his non-functional V2 host. I would like to extend a huge ‘Thank you!’ to Rusty Joe for remembering my interest in purchasing his host from earlier in the spring and giving me the opportunity to purchase the light.
My first experience with this light was a bit scary. The first thing I did was insert a couple of cells to check the function (knowing it wouldn’t work). All I had on hand was a pair or Unprotected cells which I put in the light. The light didn’t work of course, so I removed the tailcap and panicked on seeing smoke coming from the battery tube. I quickly shook the cells out onto the floor, but fortunately neither of them had vented. The actual smoke had come from the driver which was badly burned:
The LED had been rotated on the Fujik securing it to the base pinching the wire between the star and pill, so I had assumed the insulation on wire had been cut. Checking this with a multimeter showed that wasn’t the case, but I drilled the openings in the pill out a bit just to be on the safe side. I purchased this driver from DX…
http://dx.com/p/t6-2500-3000ma-3-mode-regulated-led-driver-circuit-board-for-diy-flashlight-4-5-18v-128269.
…but was disappointed to discover that it had no mode memory, so you have to cycle through the low and strobe modes every time you use the light. I have also ordered this driver…
http://dx.com/p/6-18v-3000ma-3-mode-circuit-board-for-xm-lt60-emitters-57779
…but it doesn’t have memory either. If anyone knows a hack to make either of these drivers single-mode only, let me know!
Interestingly enough, the battery tube from my C8 fits this body, so with the right driver, I could have a large-reflector, single-cell thrower the length of my C8.
Overall, I really like both of these lights. The ALL-920 didn’t really fill a niche I needed, but I had wanted a large-diameter XM-L thrower for some time, and the V2 doesn’t fail to impress!
Side-by-side with the V2, the ALL-920 appears absolutely puny as it puts out much less light, but the hotspot is as bright, or brighter, than the hotspot on the V2, although much smaller. As I feared, my Trustfire TR-1200 will now be relegated to the back of the shelf as the V2 appears to be about twice as bright, with a much better beam profile, wider spill, and greater throw, all with less power consumption. My previous favorite, the deep-reflector C8, is greatly overshadowed by this light. The C8 is great for being compact with a good compromise between flood and throw, but the ALL-920 outthrows it while the V2 stomps it into the ground. (I still like the C8 though; it’s a good compromise for a brighter go-to light.)