Got this light from a giveaway hosted by freeme here. He currently has a GB on the light in his GB thread. There are several good reviews already done on this light. Such as these here on BLF (In order of OP date:
So I will just kind of fill in some the gaps.
Initial impression after using just a couple days:
Really like the light. Very compact. At first I thought it might be a AA light. The finish and look are first class. Very high quality all the way around. The the brightest stock single cell (can use 2 cells, but I only used it with a 18650), single emitter I have ever come across. I would prefer if one could reverse through the modes, but the UI has some nice features that make that not a big deal. Initially, I was not going to tear down the light because I like it so much. I, however, became concerned with how slow the light heated up considering it's output.
Arrives in a nice box that would be good for gifting. Love the AR coated lens and reflector.
Tear Down:
After removing Bezel, Lens, Reflector, and Pill Retaining ring (See ReManG's Review Thread linked above). The pill just slides out and this is the only concern I have with the way my light was assembled. The pill fit may seem tight when you first remove it. In my case it just had some burs. Once I got it out, the burs had smoothed and the pill slid freely. I recommend adding some thermal paste between the pill and the body of the light. You don't have to completely remove the light engine. Just slide it up enough to have access to the sides of the pill. You don't have to remove the side switch cover to pull out the pill.
Innards:
I didn't need to remove the switch cover.
The driver got hung up once it got to the threads. Back lighting helped me see it was the USB port housing that was catching. Used an Exacto knife to remove some of the thread peaks. Then, a thin pick to help guide the driver out. Pushed from below with a hollowed out plastic ball point pin tube. Took some finagling. The driver needs to come out straight and level. Pushing down lightly on the vertical switch board while using a pick on the USB housing kept it level while pushing the driver out.
Inside of head:
Driver in head. 22mm with slight filing will fit.
Bottom and inside views of pill:
Has to be a buck driver since it can take 2 cells. Looks pretty complicated. Wouldn't mind replacing it with a DD +7135 loaded with Tom E's Narsil. Would probably beef up the pill to body thermal path if I ever do that. Voltage sense resistor is under the Red LED Lead. It's labled R010. So .01 ohms. Not much room for increasing current there. Some pics:
Inner spring was not soldered to its pad on my light. Outer spring was not centered and barely touched 2 of it's pads. The board is really glued in. So will need to fix while in the cap.
Conclusion:
I'm a big fan of this light. I would recommend that thermal paste be added between the pill and body. It's easy to do and does not require any soldering. While in there, why not throw in a DTP emitter base? That will require unsoldering and soldering 2 wires.
Some of my favorite features:
- Size and shape of light.
- Output
- Finish
- AR lens
- "Breathing" light switch
- Tail stands.