For the cost of this I will keep it. Thanks for letting me know.
I sent them a mail, I think it is wiser to accept partial refund than wait for ages for a) refund for the light b) refund for the shipping.
I mean, if they accept to give partial refund, that is...
Just too bad this was not XM-L... Too bad.
Great review, thanks for spending the time on what many would dismiss as a cheap headlamp not worth the time.
I happen to be in the market for a 1x18650 headlamp and already own the AA little brother version of this light. I also happen to have an extra Solarforce lens so this might work as a floody headlamp with a flat lens. Thanks again.
Does anyone know whether the pill is hollow?
Also, how did you get the lens out? I have the AA/14500 version of this headlamp and I can’t figure out how to remove the lens.
Lens came out removing the bezel ring first.
Pill is hollow but led itself sits on aluminum.
I see. My AA version must be made differently because I don’t think it has a bezel ring.
i just got my dr-820 from fasttech and you guys were right the beam is terrible. artifacts and weird aberration in it. for my purpose a tight focused, no flood, no spill is what i need. so heres what i did. inside the head of this light there is all kinds of shiny surfaces that face(reflect) light into the lens causing wacky beam patterns. i simply took a black sharpie and colored all the shiny surfaces inside the head even the forward facing surface on the little white plastic “reflector”. this really cleaned up the beam. i also installed a 4X7135 3 mode driver and an xp-e red emitter. i also was able to get 60/40 solder to stick to the aluminum pill when installing the driver as there is no brass adapter like in the aluminum c8 pills.
and i also made a lens shade out of and old prescription pill bottle and wrapped it with electrical tape.
Nice mod kevind43!! Beamshots? 8)
I just noticed, that Fasttech has these so I digged up the Thread.
Here is the link:
http://www.fasttech.com/products/1699/10001231/1102700-cree-xp-gr5-5-mode-zooming-led-headlamp
Price is a bit more than on Manafont BUT with BLF coupon, it drops below it 
BTW kevin, do You think these would fit in there?
http://www.fasttech.com/products/0/10001999/1143102-copper-17mm-to-16mm-rings-5-pack
I think they could make soldering easier.
@cheapthrills…i will try beamshots after dinner tonight. it will be my first attempt so go easy on me. your right it would make soldering easier. i saw those adapters on fasttech i’m confused by the specs. description says 17mm to 16mm but specs say 18mm to 18mm. i have a hunch that it is a 18mm to 17mm adapter(same as in a stock c8 aluminum pill) in which case it would not work in the dongrui. the recess(counterbore) for the driver in the dongrui pill is 17mm.
I ordered one DongRui and those rings… We will see if they fit…
I blacken every surface inside a zoomie head, right up to the edge of the dome.
alternatively, i’ve experimented w/ adding a tiny reflector that fits tight around the dome (~5mmx5mm from a little junk light w/ 5mm led) .
That works well (removes artifacts, sends wasted light forward) but since they were plastic, they couldn’t handle the heat of an xml on high (>3A).
could work well at half that current though
if those rings are indeed 18mm o.d. you might be able to split one trim off the needed amount to create a press fit. and solder the ring back together to “make your own adapter. nope. shoot that wont work either because the counterbore of the dongrui pill is 17mm, unless you can trim a 17mm driver down to 16mm?? just thinking out loud sorry. it looks like there might be enough meat on the 17mm driver to do it. ok here goes. please give feedback on beamshots my camera is an old canon powershot A470. i know…i know its P.O.S. but hell i still have a flip phone too!
this one is at 3 meters fully focused
this one is at approx 6.5 meters fully focused
this one is at 3 meters zoomed out
i quite like this little light when you take into consideration it was 17 bucks, has a plastic lens. over the long term the rubber band, silicone, or whatever that mounting tilt strap thing is made of, will probably fail. it does work for me. i’m walking a couple hundred yards to a spot in the field. sitting, scanning and walking out. i would definitely not recommend this light for cycling or running unless you could come up with a better head mount, strap set up.
is there a slightly dimmer strip in the middle of the emitter, or is that caused by the camera?
But I think the camera exaggerates it compared to the naked eye. I don’t see that dark strip in every xp-e red emitter. That black ring around the outside of the zoomed out beam is caused by the halo shield not being perfectly centered. In the field it is not noticeable at all.
Received in excellent condition.
I modded it with an AK-101 driver.
It is a three mode l-m-h driver with High PWM and about 1.4A drive current.
I changed the R5 LED to a, what was it again, 4C tint? Neutral, anyway…
Removed the optics and glued a generic P60 glass in. Over 90 degrees of pure neutral flood without PWM issues 8)
Friver was press-fit. Very easy assembly. Only had to use knife a little to remove “burrs”.
Old R5 LED was difficult to remove remove because of heat-glue. I used torch and just fried the old one away.
When assembled, used Fujik to “pot” the pill and thermal paste for threads.
Very nice, very affordable!!
Can anyone say what reflector and window can fit in this light?
Bought this lamp from ebay couple of weeks ago. It’s kinda the same like Dongrui but way cheaper. I changed the driver for 4xAMC7135, led for XM-L2 T6-4C and lens for plain glass lens. Now it’s the best head lamp I can imagine under 20$ and what a nice flood!
Sounds great! I might just have to get one and do the same. Is yours just like CheapThrills shown in post 10? Nice pill, press-fit 17mm driver? Good experience with that seller?
-Garry
I wish the head were on one side instead of the middle, but these look to be decent headlamp hosts. That might be too strong. It's possible to mod. Modding might make them decent. Hopefully these get a LOT better in the near future.