I’m always looking for a gateway to get a flashlight into my wife’s or daughter’s purse, saw these on ebay for $3 and have plenty of 18650 sitting around so here I am.
Arrived today, they don’t seem horrible, just that sort of consumer-level ok.
Threads are good and overall fit is as expected.
Please let me know if there’s anything on the PCB that screams “PURSE FIRE!!!”
Charging with USB brings the like-new 18650 to 4.17V.
Tint is (of course) purple. 2009 Luxeon looking emitter is fine for them for this type of utility use. If modded will require pretty close match because much of the assembly revolves around the thickness of emitter base as the reflector rests on it securely. Without the thick base of the faux luxeon everything would bounce around inside the light.
It’s not very bright, which is good. The negative battery terminal is isolated with a piece of plastic so that won’t be a problem but there’s really nowhere convenient for any heat to get to directly.
The star is the entirety of the thermal management system. Ran it on HIGH for about a minute, looks like 100 lumens, star was barely above room temperature.
So unless someone sees something about the charging circuit I’m gonna gear them up with these.
Modes are HIGH/LOW/STROBE. Smooth reflector. Throwy purple hotspot with useful white spill.
Red LED inside charging end flashes when charging, solid to indicate plugged in.
No place for lanyard, plastic lens held securely in place by a snap ring. A small hole could be drilled through the end cap to accommodate a lanyard.
Be careful with thin wires that run to emitter, route carefully to avoid scraping insulation at various points.
This auction is about to expire but it will give you an idea: USB Charger/Flashlight
It took exactly 4 weeks to arrive.