As a first foray into 18650 lights, I want to pick up a BLF A6.
I am looking to purchase the BLF A6 in the next day or so to take advantage of the sale on Banggood. What I am trying to figure out is a relatively low cost battery and charger option. For a newbie, the options presented are a bit too much. While I am trying to find something decent (but low cost), I am a bit stuck. I am searching the forums but much like knives and bicycles, the prices and recommendations ramp up rather quickly so I am holding back (for now).
Can you recommend (and hopefully link) something to me that would be good to buy battery and charger wise on Banggood? I’d like to stay under $20 CDN if possible but will extend if necessary.
I am open to something else as well. I am looking at about $30.00 CDN + charger + battery. I’d like to keep it within the $50.00 CDN range for starters. Looking for something about the size of a Surefire Outdoorsman (my last decent light).
The cheapest charger I know of is this thing for $1 each in bulk and free shipping. The problem is the massive capacity of the 18650 might be more than it can charge in one night. I own some, but I just bought them to gut.
As for the battery, the A6’s brightness on turbo is only limited by the battery, so don’t cheap out. Banggood sells them with the Samsung 30Q included, that’s a great battery.
A 30Q from a reputable seller and you are good to go. I don’t buy cells off Amazon. It’s kinda of a crap shoot. I stick to Illumn, IMR, Liion, or seller GenuineCells off of Ebay.
Don’t forget to check out the posted deals by FreeMe or Bangood. They usually have the A6 & the 30Q battery for a little over $20USD.
Then you can figure out what charger to get. In all honesty tho, if you think you will get more lights eventually, just spring for a charger like the Opus BT-C3100(or3400). It is well worth the price as it can charge many different sizes and chemistries.
BTW the A6 is awesome!
Honestly, I dont understand what all the fuss about A6 is. Back when it first came out, it may have been something special, but today? I prefer Convoy S2+ with biscotti firmware.
Nowadays they are nothing special, not even well constructed, nor performant by modern standards.
Do some more homework and you might find something rather better. I’d hesitate to try to point you towards something, because I have had my fill of such torches and not bought a new one for a couple of years now, but I’m sure there are those who could give you a good steer, maybe even a voucher code, a BLF special deal, or an affiliate link.
They were never particularly well made, or finished, nor reliable. Both of mine had to be completely stripped down and hand-fitted back together to make them satisfactory, never mind reliable, the switches in particular. The parts didn’t even interchange, the tolerancing was so bad. Both now also running TIR lenses and different emitters. Not worth the effort or expense to change the drivers, but if I could be bothered I’d do it instantly, with something much better.
They were great, back in the day, but that day is now long gone.
This is exactly what I did. Entry level, folks, entry level. Decent start to another money sucking hobby that I am trying to enter s l o w l y rather than my normal all in approach to things… I am moving from an incandescent Surefire E2, a rechargeable Streamlight Stinger, and an LED drop in Mini Maglite so I think I will see some great improvement.
Many thanks to those that chimed in on the thread. I like things with a bit of history and forum participation so I went with the A6 despite some other options.
I appreciate your quick responses and will be looking around for what is next.
The BLF A6 a good starter budget light, IMO. And, for anyone who hasn’t used 18650 lights before, the BLF A6 is still extremely impressive.
I prefer the BLF A6 to the Convoy S2, even with the biscotti firmware (otherwise the S2 is garbage). The biscotti firmware is nice, but I really don’t like the mode spacing selection. And, there’s no way to program a battery check, without getting other annoying strobe stuff.
Finally, I prefer the BLF A6 FET+1 driver, which gives maximum output. The Convoy’s 7135 drivers give less output, and they’re still not very well regulated if you go with the brightest 8x7135 option. Granted, it’s a small light, so maximum brightness isn’t much good for more than a minute, but it’s still fun to have that output.
The downside (of both lights) is the poor regulation on high modes. The output drops significantly by the time the battery is half-drained. The only way around this is to use a buck/boost driver, but those aren’t available in budget lights.
That said, the Convoy s2+ (with biscotti) is also a nice light, and sure to please anyone new to 18650 lights.
I am still a firm fan of the BLF A6. I have three and I have never had a hiccup; it is possible that quality may have declined over time. Stay very far away from the no-name chargers, stick to Xtar or even Liitokala, preferably Xtar. At one point banggood was selling the A6 bundled with a 30Q cell, they have it now for $22, which is a pretty good deal. If you want to get fancy later you can outfit it with an 18350 tube and cell to make it easier to pocket. I still think it’s a classic. If you do order the 30Q bundle, be aware that they ship it with a thin plastic insulator on the bottom of the cell that must be removed for it to work. The darn thing is nearly invisible.
Max lumen output of A6 is only marginally higher (to a human eye) than S2+ 8x7135, but the A6 draws a lot more current on max, which turns into massive amounts of heat, which can be dangerous in the hands of a beginner.
Also, as the A6 warms up, its UI starts behaving differently - the timing in which it responds to half-presses gets all out of whack, which is a known bug.
It’s about 1300 vs 900 lumens. That’s noticeable side-by-side, though 900 lumens is still nice in an EDC.
Yup.
Yeah, I forgot about that. The UI when hot is useless for doing the “slow press” to go backwards through the modes. I usually just do the “fast press” to cycle though the modes normally, which works. I’m not a fan of the slow-press anyway, even when it works.
The BLF A6, battery, and charger arrived today. Charging the battery as I type this right now.
Great service from BangGood and despite the Canada Post strike and Christmas packages, it was pretty quick arriving. Waiting for full dark to try it out tonight.
Thanks for the suggestions, folks and thanks to robk for the battery insulator info. Took me a minute or two to remember this but then … let there be light … and there was.
It is really good. Switched from seven to four modes and back again. I am amazed at how bright it is compared to my other lights. Money well spent in my opinion.
I don’t know why you poo poo the A6. For the money its a good light. I have a few kicking around that I use for power outages, in car lights etc. They are a good performing, affordable and reliable light. Nice crisp switch, fairly well spaced modes with reasonable run times and IMO the finish on them feels better in hand than the Sorfirn, Thorfire etc and offers better grip in the wet.
If someone wants a bright, easy to use light, they are a perfect starting point or light for someone that isn’t going to spend $50 or more on a light.
Good to hear
The only change I made to mine was to fiddle with brightness of the 4 modes. 7 was a lot to scroll through, and the 4 weren’t the 4 I wanted. Now they are
