These were display models that are probably one to two years old. They’re not the newer Mk II models. There’s some things that would have to be fixed before I even considered using them.
The D25A’s have a delay when turning them on. When looking in a mirror, you can see the light flicker before it turns on. I don’t love reverse clickys, but I don’t mind my Convoy S2+. With the D25A it seems like I can make a “thumbs up” before the light even comes on. The d25c isn’t as bad.
A small Omten switch will fit. What I’m wondering is if it will it will fix the delay, or if its caused by the driver instead?
This brings me to my other point. I’d love to mod these things to heck, but I don’t want to lose multi chemistry support, especially for the D25c with cr123s. My additional frustrations are with the UI. The D25A starts on either moon or turbo every time so it requires two clicks to get to the most commonly used setting. There’s a no moon setting, but it has bad spacing. The D25c has mode memory, but this means that often when you turn it on, you have to go through 8 strobe modes to get low or medium.
I’m not sure if they’ll grow on me, but they’ll make a good project and I can sell them or give them away. I thought about exchanging them for the Mk II, but that looks to have the same UI as the D25c; which can make you go through 8 strobe modes from on to get to low or medium. I also bought the original model d25a to be a AA sipper, and the new type uses a buck boost driver.
I have a D25c and I’m with you 100%. It’s a nice, small light but damn that UI is awful! Mine is CW so if it doesn’t sell (I have it listed on Bladeforums and r/flashlight) I’m hoping to swap the emitter.
I have wanted both of those lights for some time now. I was holding off to see if I could grab used Ti versions but none have really popped up. Even now knowing they aren’t perfect, it still doesn’t stop me from wanting both of them.
I seem to find I don’t really mind unique or undesirable UI’s. I should probably just break down and order the aluminum ones and give up on the Ti’s. I really shouldn’t buy anything until I get my box of partially finished projects completed but, what kind of fun would that be.
I bought two d25c ti for $45 each. I’m returning them because they are different than the picture showed. They’re striped and not knurled on the head. That’s the other complaint I see, that the newer titanium is just ugly. The moon on the d25c isn’t really a moon mode like on the d25A, so I wouldn’t mind it starting there if I could somehow REMOVE mode memory, to start on moon every time. But I think its all part of the same chip.
I appreciate the form factor and want to mod one. It’s just that I like the 16340, cr123 flexibility; one for cost and the other for being common.
I also noticed that rear clickys on really small lights aren’t fun. Your thumb has to bend uncomfortably to operate it.
Funny… one of the d25c ti has memory and one doesn’t. Both say Cree XP L V5 on the box. The one with memory also has a whine and is definitely being returned. I like the one without memory a little more now.
I’m thinking of exchanging a D25A for the MK II model. It looks from the pictures like they expanded the head around the pill a tiiiny bit. I wouldn’t like that because on the D25A, the entire head, with its knurling and bezel, are the same diameter, and looks good that way. It could just be an optical illusion from the pictures. I’ve seen a remarkably small amount of info on the MK II models, no reviews, little feedback. I wonder if they squeezed a 17mm driver into the D25A MK II.
I love the D25A, but I have worn out two of them. The threads start to wear, and maybe the anodizing wears off? Once this happens the head is very wobbly (they start wobbly out of the box) and the light will go to full direct drive when the head is bumped. This is extremely annoying when trying to use the light on lower levels with dark adjusted eyes. They should revise the UI so the head stays tightened, IMO.
Yeah, that’s why I’m selling mine. I don’t want to have to leave the head loose in order to have more than one mode. At some point the threads are going to wear and the head will fall off.
with all due respect, I have no experience with your particular light
but maybe these thoughts will help you.
ime with other lights, twisties in particular, the condition of the O ring has a lot to do with the feel, and tightness of the head, including how much it can wobble.
I think that is because the O ring supports the head as it turns, possibly even more than the threads. Here is a way I proved that to myself. I removed the O ring from one of my twisties, and operated the light with no O ring at all. I could make the head wobble more, than when I reinstalled the O ring.
I find that as an O ring wears in, it changes and wears thinner, and the head becomes easier to turn, until at some point it is too easy. Replacing the O ring transforms the feel of the light.
moral of the story, it is possible that a new O ring will make your lights head wobble less.
if that does not work, I would try a bit of teflon tape wrapped around the threads… Im pretty sure you can adjust the tension so the head wont wobble nor come loose…
