New XM-L Light,, 26650/18650/4xAAA Good Price and 57mm head ......... NOTE: The star is solid aluminium !!! :bigsmile:

LED Flashlights – General Info 18650 Flashlights
261

Easy. Less throw, less total output. Significantly so. A bit of modding can improve the situation, but it’s best to just think of this light as a reasonably throwy middle-of-the-road light that distinguishes itself by being AAA compatible.

I can’t do a meaningful beam shot comparison because I’ve modded my HD2010 with a T6 3C. Perhaps someone else can.

262

So, this model is between good quality C8s T6 and HD2010.
Off course, the Small Suns are better but the price I paid (16.80:money_mouth_face: is unbeatable.
New best vfm for me?

263

My brother has this light( not rdrfronty. My other brother ) and any respectable xml c8 would kill his, both in total output and throw. I am not hating on the light , it’s just that the output on his is very disappointing. It is a great looking light but just doesn’t live up to what we expected it to do.

264

With the right mods this light hangs with and probably beats most C8 lights, but yeah, definitely not as it comes.

265

Comparison with Keygos M10?

Seems like a HD2010 killer, for the money.

266

From the factory its probably half as much throw as the hd2010. I get around 25-29k lux on the meter where as my hd2010 gets around 55k. Unfortunately its a little disappointing in that way but its a nice light since it runs on 4aaa’s. needs modding to be a better light though.

267

I tried to run this light with 4 lithium aaa and it doesn’t switches on the first 20 times…really weird.
I have to switch it on and off, it just gives a short flash but after some dozen switches it stays on…
I think that is because of the higher voltage of the lithium cells…too sad I wanted to put it in my car.
I let it run for 15 minutes, but after it isn’t used for some hours I have to redo the procedure…

268

I just modded one of these lights for Rusty Joe. Here's a summary:

  • XM-L2 U2 1A on a 20mm Noctigon with the Noctigon reflowed onto a copper round to make up a pill top, Arctic epoxied in place
  • custom programmed Nanjg at 3.5A: Hi-Med-Lo. Used a brass 20mm to 17mm adapter. The adapter was press fit in by using a metal chisel to make notch's in the alum pill inner rim to give the fitting a "bite"
  • got a LED alignment piece off of AliExpress that fit perfect, and gently sanded backside of reflector to give enough clearance for the wire connections
  • used a better, slightly longer + spring, copper braided. Stock spring was twisted out of shape.
  • tailcap - stock has major loss's, about 1/2 the lumens is lost there after mods. Poorly designed switch assembly, the type with the tab sticking out the side to contact the housing. After a few attempt at replacing the switch, and add copper braiding, still couldn't improve it. So, I had a stock C8/HD2010 type switch pre-mounted on a PC board - had to file it down to fit (trick is angle file it so the soldered switch terminals don't make contact with the housing - light would always be ON). It has a large, slightly longer spring. So all I had to do was, on the retaining aluminum ring, cut out the center hole larger to clear the spring, and copper braid the spring. The brass cap over the spring is eliminated with this mod.

After the tailcap mod, lumens went up to even slightly exceed what I measured with a simple jumper wire across the battery "-" end and the body, so all loss's in the tailcap were negated!

I tried it with several 26650’s and 18650’s. Best ones are the KK button top ICR 4000 26650, Panasonic PD 18650, KeepPower 3400, and TrustFire 5000 26650. All those cells did about the same lumens. Here’s the measurements using a fresh KK button top ICR 4000:

Lumens: 1,292 at start, 1,258 at 30 secs

Throw: 64.5 kcd measured at 5 meters

These numbers are really nice for a light this size (bigger than a C8, smaller than a HD2010), and running at 3.5A (actually I can measure 3.6A) without an AR lens, specially the throw.