I have one Order from 18 september still waiting…
sorry don’t want go off topic
My first order finally arrived, after about a month. The second was backordered for a couple weeks before I cancelled it.
At first, I thought it had an aluminum emitter cup, but it’s plastic, so I got rid of the mylar sheet I’d cut to prevent wear on the ano and provide an extra layer of insulation. I covered the bottom of the pill with UV-set resin to prevent shorting should the cell or driver-side spring slip. I push the warped plastic insulator into the tube, against the negative terminal of the battery before screwing on the tailcap.
I’ve added an adhesive plastic ring aroudn the emitter to try and increase pressure on the MCPCB, but I don’t think it is actually making contact. I think I’ll try to shave down the rim on the plastic cup so it can screw down further.
It doesn’t seem like a bad light for $15, but loosing ~80% of the output when zoomed is a reminder why I haven’t purchased any zoomies since my first Sipik SK-68 clones.
Is there anything that can be done (easily)? I’d happily give up a 25-50% of the travel on the wide end to get more output (ideally without sacrificing intensity).
That’s just a fact-of-life for any kind of zoomie. Only “fix” is to use a LED with smaller emittting cone. So instead of shining over a 160° cone, get one with a narrower angle that shines only over, say, a 140°- or 120° cone.
Dunno if a “precollimator lens” would do anything but ruin the beam.
Just goggled HD vs HI (XP-L), and there’s not much diff. 115° for the HI, 120° for the HD! So the HD has a teensytiny bit more spread.
To make an efficient “zoomie” you need to be using a reflector. That scoops up all the light from the emitter, in all positions.
Like a Maglite. With throw, and spill.
Not joking.
Tony Maglica had the right idea, it just needs refining for nowadays. Magleds are all very well, but are stuck with poor optical and thermal systems, and choice of LEDs, drivers etc. and historical designs.
Trying to do it with a pure lens system (aspheric or otherwise) just means wasting most of the light when zoomed out (edit, I meant zoomed-in), scattered about inside the head and dissipated.
You may get a nice projected image of the LED surface though, but that is only a small proportion of the overall output, which does not blast straight out perpendicularly, like some sort of laser.
LEDs are Lambertian emitters, or slightly tightened up with the addition of a dome.
Laser remote phosphor systems have potential, but that’s another story, and it is too early for them to be made zoomable yet.
There are better things that could be done with a combination of a reflector, and a lens system, but AFAIK nobody has tried, and you’d end up with something like the internals of e.g. a slide-projector.
Don’t use them :
“Protection” circuit failed in my Nitecore LR30 as soon as I put it in… saw some smoke so I threw it outside !
The battery flew out of the lantern, 20sec later a hissing with some smoke appears and 2sec later BOOM !
First time with Li-ion failing, thankfully I saw enough videos to know how it ends…
I wanted to film it but my toddler was a bit anxious seeing it so I chose to reassure him rather than collecting internet karma.
Wow. Wowza. Holy Smokes. Er……Unholy Smokes. The Z1 clone may not burn down your house but the free batts they included may. Yikes.
I don’t buy any Xanes. Ultrafire is much better than Xanes. But these Xanes were free, what a trap. Luckily no one get hurt.
They was send as a “Gift”
this is the reason
Yeah I get that…
we must also pay for waste disposal
what a bad Gift
Wow… 
… Did it blow up the LR3O too??
what about the free 26650 cell we received? It’s a Vappower. Is it a safe battery?
No, fortunately when I threw it outside the door the battery jumped out of the lantern.
They landed about 1 meter from each other.
The battery hissed and made a loud BOOM
I don’t think that the Vappower is bad quality though
Good… glad you didn’t loose the LR30 in a poof of smoke & boom. 
Don’t know is it safe… using my own cells. Probably it is.
It will very possible hit 5000 mAh with lower discharge rate.
And here you can see a HJK test of similar cell it is not same, but it need to be safe for use : Test of Vappower IMR26650 5000mAh (Green)
Sorry to see this, but offhandedly I’m happy that it happened in a Nitecore and not in this clone, that would have started all the original freak out stuff again probably,
We wouldn’t have known if it was caused by that cell or this clone, darn glad you are skilled enough and knew what to do,
I’ve thrown a few lights out the window myself but don’t believe I’ve ever seen the end of a cell blown off like that, that is something else.
T18, are you saying you threw lights out of window when you suspect they were going to blow up? But they didn’t. 
Ha Ha, yep, like to freak the neighbors out, it was fun for awhile but now their on to me so now I just throw the cheap ones I don’t want anymore, hope they don’t start throwing them back at me, maybe better leave my windows open for a bit afterwards, you think?? ha ha… 
You must have driven many lights with 10A 20A current and know that shits will happen one day.
Close or open window is not going to affect your neighbor, but they might have reported to police if it really exploded. I think maybe prepare a big container that’s batteries explosion proof is better.
Mine arrived today, 6 November.
All appears to be in order & working well right out of the box. . :+1:
No smoke… No fire… No boom… Life is good. .