"Switch retention" as in mode memory or removal?
I received mine yesterday. It’s pretty nicely made, almost flawless finish, a couple of very minor marks on the edge of the tube, a minor mark on the reflector. The tail threads are large, well cut, the inside seems well machined. There were quite a few small bits of aluminium on the surface. Overall not quite Fenix build quality but not far off. The switch works well, the two modes is a nice idea, easy to use. I’ve yet to do output measurements, previous lights from this maker don’t seem to be well regulated, so I expect a drop off on max, but we shall see. Well worth the money thus far.
removal. There are also several imperfections around the bezel end of the reflector but they have no obvious effect on the beam and are easily ignored.
Postman just brought mine by this morning, which was a nice surprise — I went for the free shipping, so I wasn’t expecting to get it for another week or two.
Nice fit & finish, nice heft, comes in a nice box. Rather heavy with four fresh Ladda 2450mAhs in it. Love the simplicity of the 2 modes. Nice ramping, easy to use. Overall I’m quite happy with it. 
Thanks for putting the GB together. I feel like I got a winner.
^
Got mine yesterday night and feel the same. Like how both levels can be customized. Made the first level Low and the second High (just wish it would keep after a battery change). Also like how Strobe can be quick access from anywhere and is easy to get out of. Thank you freeme for organizing this GB.
Got this to turn into a floody light for a gift. Looks like Kaidomain has several 35mm and 34mm glass triple optics. I need to measure what is the max size that will fit. Anyone know what DTP base will work with them?
http://www.kaidomain.com/c/225.Flashlight-D_I_Y/1/100/releasedata/
I recieved the two I ordered last Friday.
I really like those lights!
Lockout works perfect, UI is fine for me, host is well made, LED and reflector are perfect.
Only contra, until I saw freeme’s lanyard solution: the lanyard…
Why does Crelant give those useless lanyards with their lights? Same with my 7G3CS!
You can not fit them in a useful way.
But that brings me to another pro-point!
Because I had no fitting lanyard with me, I dropped it…
While bicycling at 25km/h on a paved road from handlebar height, so about a meter!
Execpt for some optical damage at the tailcap and bezel the light is still in perfect working condition!
Thumbs up for that one!
I received mine today & like it a lot.
However I’m wondering if anyone else had theirs briefly “act funny.” During one of my initial turn ons (turn on # 4~7) instead of turning on it started to give me a flashing light. Almost like it’s strobe mode but a bit slower. I couldn’t turn it off so I twisted the tailcap slightly off & then back on again. That apparently fixed it. So far I haven’t been able to replicate this phenomenon. Has anyone else had their light also act funny? I wonder if I have a wonky driver 
FYI - the light has never been dropped. I have a freshly charged set of Eneloops in there & the total run time I’ve put or the light must be no more than a minute.
^
Yeah, I think it is getting power intermittantly as the tailcap is screwed on. I just figured the power cutting on and off simulates button clicks. So it seems to go through all kinds of modes as the tailcap is screwed on. Like two quick clicks goes into Strobe. Then, two more quick clicks goes to SOS, which can seem like a slower strobe at parts of the cycle. I don’t think it’s anything to worry about, but it is a bit obnoxious.
Hmm. That’s a valid explanation. I’ll pay more attention when I have the light on next time. Maybe I can find a way to replicate what I saw b4. Thanks for your synopsis!
(edit: the thing is -> when I turned on the the light to see it flicker the tailcap had already been tightly on for hours so perhaps I was still seeing something wonky w/ the driver. No matter: If I don’t see it again I’ll be happy w/ the light as it won’t be serving any life or death task for me. Thus uttermost reliability won’t be super important for me w/ this light.)
Dirty contact pads? I saw similar behavior after initial battery insertion. A quick wipe of the contacts with a paper towel and it behaved as expected.
Your solution works fine but I found the lanyard too short to easily insert my hand. Fortunately I have some paracord handy. I just cut a piece three inches longer, removed two cores, fed an end through the holes, trimmed, melted the ends, installed the pieces, and
I’m sorry. I misunderstood you (my fault). I thought you meant if flickered as you were turning the tail cap. You are saying it flickers when you turn it on with the switch. Sounds like it could just be the driver may have some thing interfering with how is sits in the bill or may not be tightened down. Check the same with the tail cap pcb. If it’s not a connection issue, then it does sound like a potential driver defect.
Got mine today. Eneloops are still in the charger, but looks great. Good fit and finish, flawless reflector, perfect little tail-stander. Thanks freeme!
One curiosity: Anyone else got a sticky one? Looks like dried WD-40 or similar all around the button and head. Cleaned off easily enough with iso-prop, may even have been water-soluble.
Before cleanup:
I received my Crelant V4A neutral white, today. Here are my thoughts. Note, it is not yet dark outside, so I’ve been playing with it indoors.
Fast shipping! Only took 2 weeks, and I just chose the free shipping. Normally, packages take 3-4 weeks, sometimes more.
The build quality is good. Anodizing is nice, and I like the natural grey look. (Similar to Zebralight’s anodizing.)
Deep smooth reflector. LED is well centered. Lens does not have an anti-reflective coating. Solid tail-standing. Switch has a nice feel.
Output ramping is nice, and works well. Pity it doesn’t memorize your settings after a battery change.
Max output is about the same as the Sunwayman D40A neutral, about 900 lumens. Minimum output is about 20 lumens. Maxiumum output does drop as the batteries deplete, but not a lot. You’re down to roughly 700 lumens when the batteries are about 75% depleted.
Run time on maximum is about 50 minutes until output is down to about 50%, using standard Eneloops. The light continues to run for quite awhile after this, but output continues to drop.
Installing batteries causes the light comes on as soon as you start trying to screw the tailcap on. This really should be changed.
Throw is good. Much tighter hot spot than the D40A. I estimate it is probably about 50,000 candela, but that’s just eye-balling it.
Beam profile is nice. However, there is a bluish inner corona, just outside the hot spot. Not a problem in normal usage, but you can see it on a white-wall.
Tint is much cooler than I expected. This seems to continue a trend in recent years where “neutral white” seems to be getting cooler. I measure the V4A neutral white at 4900K. Here are some comparisons:
Crelant V4A neutral 4900K
Sunwayman D40A neutral 4500K
Zebralight SC5w 4000K
Astrolux A01 4000K
BLF-348 5200K
4sevens quark XML2 cool 5200K
4sevens quark XPG2 cool 5500K
Manker T01 cool white 5600K
So, you can see it’s definitely on the cool side of neutral. About 700K warmer than a cool-white XPL-HI LED (which is one of my cooler LEDs).
Comparing the heating between the Crelant V4A and the Sunwayman D40A, it’s pretty similar. The V4A is slightly larger, and gets hotter on the head opposite the button. I have no way to measure the heat inside the light. The V4A seems to stay warm for longer than the D40A after you shut it off. Perhaps this indicates the driver is getting hotter, and taking longer to shed its heat to the body.
Overall, I like the light, for the price. It’s not as nice a light as the Sunwayman, but it only cost about a third as much. For that, it’s a good deal.
Well got my light today it was great for the first half hour. I made the mistake to try and tighten the driver retaining ring and snapped the switch wires off. The retaining ring was real loose so I thought it was a good idea to tighten it up. The wires are really tiny. After that I took the pill out the top retaining ring was real loose too so that definitely didn’t help. The mcpcb is not copper and the wires to the mcpcb are real small also. Iam going to replace the mcpcb with a copper xpl hi and new 20 gauge wires. Iam also going to replace the tiny switch wires with 20 gauge but have too mod the pill to do that because theirs no room to put the pill and wires in the head at the same time. Not what I was expecting for a brand new light.
If you have soldering then I’ll show u how to mod and reconnect th wires again when I get home tonight
Yeah I had the same problem with the retaining ring
Do we know how the driver looks like?
That would definitely be helpful, they sure didn’t make it easy. Thanks
For any of us that might want to mess around with it in the future, if you could post videos or pictures of this, that would be a big help.
Has anyone tried this bad boy with diffuser yet?
Any idea if the NiteCore NDF40 diffuser actually fits?