Sorry for the quality (phone camera):
ImA4Wheelr,
Is that a TIR from FT? I think I have a few of those around somewhere…
Sorry, the lousy pic quality is misleading. It’s a aluminum reflector. It appears to have a centering bushing but I was not able to pry it out easily. I didn’t want to hurt the reflector as it seems to be pretty decent. The centering ring looks like it might be blocking some of the emitter’s output. This isn’t much better:
Carclo 3up lens fits!
It’s like the body was built for the lens.
I just tried it:
and, just to see it lit up (with the original emitter and driver, not a 3up emitter/star - so don’t get excited :)!):
I think that the tiny “pill” could be filled in, and a 3up star ground down to remove the “corners”, so that the 3up emitter star could sit on top of the pill, but not sure about driver, as I’d really prefer to run the emitters in series (to avoid wires).
I have a couple of these drivers coming in from CNQ:
http://www.cnqualitygoods.com/goods.php?id=1391
The contact board on that driver is 20mm, so it should fit into the head/barrel, and it’s a double board, with a smaller top board, so if that top board could fit into the pill, would that work (and assuming that the driver could drive the 3 emitters at 9V and 1000 mA)?
Looks good Ohaya. Great news.
I’ve been too rushed to give info. Let see:
It has a glass lens.
Thin walled, but feels solid when a battery is in it.
Protected cells don’t fit well. Feels like the threads will strip if tightened all the way down
Has next mode memory.
Throwy beam, but not much power
For $3, it’s a decent deal.
Edit: Current measurements:
H - 1.05 amps
M - .55 amps
L - .15 amps
Strobe - Didn’t Measure
SOS - Didn’t Measure
Wow$3! The flashlight looks okay to me.
Cool! I’m glad it is OK. I was expecting a lot worse. Hopefully everyone gets the same quality or better.
Ordered three more based on these reports. They are definitely decent mod hosts for gift lights.
Will have to seek out the shortest protected cells for them though. Is it the length that makes them not fit well?
Edit: The slide-in pill is not great, but an XP-E isn’t going to throw off too much heat, should be acceptable.
I don’t have many batteries with protection, but I tried an Eagletac 3100mAh, and that worked, and also an Ultrafire protected, and that worked. They do stick out the end of the battery tube (before you screw the tailcap in) a bit further than the unprotected battery I tried (a CGR18650), but both protected batteries worked fine.
Edit: relic (or anyone else): Does anyone know if that CNQ driver I linked would be able to drive Luxeon emitters, at 9v (3x3v) and 1000 mA?
ohaya, thanks for the protected cell info.
That driver should drive any standard 3Vish emitter, Luxeon included. It’s 20mm though, probably not going to fit in this light. I’m assuming you are targeting a different host though, making this the most off-topic comment yet 
Actually, since I have two of these S5s, and since I’ve really wanted a tube-style light with a triple, I’m thinking about at least trying to stuff that driver into the S5. As I mentioned in my earlier post, I’m thinking that if the smaller board can fit into where the driver PCB goes, I can somewhat do that, with the 20mm board kind of sticking out of the pill. That driver uses 2xLi-Ion batteries, so I have a couple of AW 14250 batteries that I bought from lighthound:
http://www.lighthound.com/AW-14250-Unprotected-Rechargeable-Lithium-Battery_p_95.html
Two of those would take about 500mm length, so between the 20mm driver board sticking out of the pill (reducing the space, length-wise, available for the battery) and the shorter than 18650 2x14250 batteries, maybe it’ll work?
Looking at the pic on CNQ’s website, one other problem is that it looks like the emitter leads come off of the 20mm board, rather than the smaller board, so I’m thinking that I could cut some slots in the driver end of the pill so that i could squeeze the driver-to-emitter wires through.
The nice thing about the S5 is, as I showed in the pics, the Carclo triple lens fits perfectly, without alteration, and, because the pill is held by the retaining ring, and it looks like you can screw that retaining ring as far up the head as you want, then as long as (a) the driver works and (b) the smaller driver board fits into the pill and © I can figure out how to get the emitter wires through, then it’s like almost “a natural” mod :)…
If all of that fails, then I’ll need to figure out something else to do with the S5s I have :)!
I swapped an xpg from my junk bin in, new wires to led, soldered the tail cap spring to the clicky, filed the centering ring down, and added two r500 resistors. Output on high is 1.3a, and it has a much more usable beam. And more than twice as bright. Oh, also put some lead on the cap so it always starts on high.
I’ll likely grab one of my cheap high voltage drivers out of my bin and give it to someone who has cr123 lights.
In case anyone is interested, this optical lens from FT fits and works in this S5 light:
http://www.fasttech.com/p/1187501
Comparing the beams between the original lens and the above optical lens, the beam with the optical lens is slightly larger diameter, and maybe a little less well-defined, than with the original lens.
Edit: Beam comparison, optical lens on left, original reflector on right:
I said that earlier that the optical lens beam was wider, but it’s actually the hotspot that’s wider. From the shot above, it looks like the optical lens also has less spill? I really think that’s the case, because on a white wall, the hotspot with the optical lens appeared brighter than the hotspot with the original reflector, but wasn’t sure… now I am sure.
if ir was a AA/14500 light i would buy a dozen of them for that price.
How long can you keep it on high power without meltdown?
Are you referring to the stock light? If so, it does get kind of warm relatively quickly, which is, I think, considered a good thing. I’ve kept it on high for about 10-15 minutes max so far, and it’s still not too hot to hold.
Stock should be fine for heat, at 1.05A. Should not overheat. I doubt I’ll keep mine at that level J) but ones I give away will probably stay in that area.
this link is from the same seller, i think same flashlight for a bit cheaper. $3.58 shipped
The tint is a bit blue and I think I’d prefer a larger hotspot/more spill, but a protected 3400mAh Panasonic cell fits.
I modded mine with an XTE emitter I had and Nanj 1.4a driver. I also put a clip on it from a Sipik 98. I like it now. Not quite as nice as my convoy s2, but quite good for the cost.