Well I ordered this light just because Boaz said it sucked so bad lol. Nah, really though I thought it was kind of a neat looking light and I like 3 mode lights pretty good too and well heck I'm just a fashaholic and like collecting these budget lights. I figured it would throw well for a AA light with the small XP-C emmiter and smooth reflector and I like throw...or flood...or anything that has a nice bright LED in it hehe.
I ordered this from Lightake because I have been having such great luck with them! They have been the fastest shippers of all the HK vendors I have used and I have always got good products from them and this light was no different, it all worked as should and needed no tweaking out of the package. I am really fed up with DX...fed up so bad I canceled my order for the G10 and my Ultrafire A20 that still hasn't shipped and was bought on Jan 20th. I placed the order for the A20 with KD and it shows backordered so what the heck!!!?? Now I'm waiting on refunds from DX. The last torch I got from DX was the K10 and it burnt up with 1.2 volt NiMH and I'm still waiting on my CSE ticket and parts(from DX) to fix it. Anyway enough of my rant.
Well I like the light but like Boaz said it has some really sharp edges that can actually cut you and it's stupid that this light or the Skyray S-A1 can't tailstand because of those retarded domed shaped Tailswitch covers. It is an easy fix with a new tailswich cover though and I knew they couldn't tailstand when I bought them.
All in all I think the torch is worth having and I do like the simple three modes and no memory(always comes on in high after just about three seconds being off) and tight beam. The strobe is fast and low is about right since it only has 2 light outputs. There is visible PWM, but oh well it's not that bad to me. This light also has a very tight hotspot, throws quite well, is pretty bright and the beam has minimum rings, although they are there and visible on the wall but not distractingly bad. The current draw on my torch with NiMh was about 2.1A at the tail on high and about 220mA on low.
I don't like the fact that there isn't many threads that hold the head on and I also don't like how little surface area there is on the driver to make the negative contact to the body tube. I see possible contact issues in this lights future but for now it is working as it should. It looks as though it will be hard to remove the driver from the pill because I think it is a Press Fit type so I will just hope it keeps working. I definitely don't regret buying it.
Seems like a good light for the price. I dislike the heavy knurling but thats me. Keep the threads clean to avoid issues with. I used copper wire once in such a light and made a washer that filled the gap between the head and body for a good contact. That way alot better than relying only on threads for conductivity. If the driver is press fit it might be a good idea to put a few solder blobs where matters to make the flashlight more reliable in case it falls to the ground or get an excessive shock otherwise.
Actually the threads of the light do not conduct at all(wish they did), it completely relies on the pill making contact with the top of the battery tube. The driver of this torch doesn't have the typical wide ground trace that solder in drivers have, it is just a pressed in board with a copper contact on the side touching a brass ring pressed into the aluminum pill so there is just very little metal really that is able to touch the battery tube. But if it fails I know I can fix it. It's not really "that bad" though.
About the knurling...it's really very smooth feeling almost as smooth as the Skyray S-A1 minus all the sharp edges. I really think this is a good torch.
Same here with the G10 , from three month ago I was trying to avoid this people at all cost, even doing business with the more shady looking sites of the entire web...
About KD's backorder issue is just a bad choice of words, all orders get that but were shipped in time, usually very fast...
Ok thanks for letting me know about KD, I feel better now. I was begining to think I wasn't going to be able to get this torch.
I never bothered making an account with them because I have only ordered one 2 dollar item to test them out but I figured I needed an account this time so I can see what goes on with my order.
How did i know people are talking about me ..And to think I said all those nice things about this light ..i have 3 of them and I ordered them because dino direct said they had xpg r5's in them ..it's not that the light is that bad .. i just was promised something else and bought 3 for that reason ..anyway I'm very curious about the skyray sa-1 how they compare ..Damn you're almost local .. you shoulda asked me to send you one .Or you could come and see me at the hammer festival.. the skyray has been on my list to buy forever ..
I don't know if there is a proper replacement but I got a tons of lenses in different sizes from KD, and the ones I used were great. I just ordered 3 x AR lenses. Better check KD.
I've discovered possibility to change set of modes. I've dismantled the pill (plate with star comes out WITH brass ring), there's driver inside hunging on the wires, wrapped in sticky paper. On battery's side of the driver there's 8-leg IC. 2 of them soldered manualy (visible solder drops), and 2 unconnected have opposite contacts. We have 16 possible connections of this contacts (i.e. Max-Sos, 5 modes, 4 modes etc). After some experiments got this light without strobes, just Max-Med-Min (1A-0.3A-0.15A from AA alkaline)
I tried to remove the driver from the pill on my light when I first got it but it didn't want to come out to easy so I just stopped since the light was new, now I wish I had tried a little harder.
I have to say though I don't mind 3 mode (High low strobe) lights. I walk the dogs outdoors of a night and the strobe function on my F23 came in handy for scarring off a few strays once.
Probably the driver board of this flashlight is the same as the one in the TF R5-A3, and can possibly be modified by the pins to obtain the adecuate modes
I looked at pictures on DX of the R5-A3 and from looking at the battery side of the sub board I would say this is the same driver in the S-A2. Very cool to know these drivers are configurable!
they were supposed to be xpg's not xpc's so i was and am still pissed .. the xpc is a pretty nice tint .. i was looking at it the other day when bluebeam started this thread and thought wait am i just being too tough on this light ?? I'm curious how it stacks up against the skyray S -A1.. The best part of this light was dino direct never responding to a single one of my emails .. ...ahh good times .
Hey Boaz this light has an even tighter hotspot than my SkyRay S-A1 which I thought was the tightest ever in a AA format. Overall I might like the SkyRay a little better and is a little better made torch but hey buy both we are all flashaholics here The tint on both my S-A1 and S-A2 is nearly the same. I must say that a weak point on the SkyRay is how the emitter is insulated from the reflector. On mine it just had some clear rubbery cement on the emitter as an insulator which made mine intermittent. I fixed it by placing a piece of electrical tape on the reflector and cutting out the hole for the emitter. Anyway I still like them both but the SkyRay is a little better made torch and I really recommend it.
Boaz I knew deep down you didn't hate this light as bad as you wanted too even though every edge on this thing will cause you to need stitches. I shaved every edge down on mine they were just way to sharp. Boaz I don't blame you about being pissed about your S-A2 not being as advertised!
Received it! Haven't tried it with 14500, but with NiMH is almost as bright as other ones with li-ion.. very nice AA thrower with smooth reflector.. love it..
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The tint on both my S-A1 and S-A2 is nearly the same. I must say that a weak point on the SkyRay is how the emitter is insulated from the reflector. On mine it just had some clear rubbery cement on the emitter as an insulator which made mine intermittent. I fixed it by placing a piece of electrical tape on the reflector and cutting out the hole for the emitter. Anyway I still like them both but the SkyRay is a little better made torch and I really recommend it.
even though every edge on this thing will cause you to need stitches. I shaved every edge down on mine they were just way to sharp. Boaz I don't blame you about being pissed about your S-A2 not being as advertised!