The chart is in the manual, this was supposed to be a DIY mode selection by the end user from day one. That’s what got my attention when I first read about this light. I guess not everyone dug the idea hence this batch of presoldered lights.
BTW - I didn’t try to unsolder my blinky modes but I don’t see why it wouldn’t work as well(?)
If it’s like the winners I got not that long ago, it’ll be a featherweight Al pill that’s like half the height and a quarter the weight of the C8 pill that FT sells. Same thread.
Standard 20mm star, 17mm driver on mine.
And yeah, an XP-E LB clone that was throwing about 80-100lm of Angry Blue light.
New pill+emitter+driver, and it came out kinda nice. 4300K XP-E2, 1A driver, throws nicely. Didn’t want to stress out the XP-E2 or the cheapo switch it no doubt came with.
A kinda nice ’501 clone from way back (before the race-to-the-bottom was in full-swing) started getting wonky on me as far as the switch. Bright, dim, flicker, bright, bright, flicker, dim, dim, bright, etc., and I’m barely touching the tailcap. Ooookay.
Nah, I’m all but sworn off these “deals” from now on. Think I’m just gonna get real hosts (eg, Convoy) from FT and the like, load ’em up from there. By the time you replace all the garbage from these “deals”, you already spend as much as the nekkid (real) host, and have less agg to contend with.
I just found some of the “S5”-style cheap flashlights that Antenne warned us about, but this time they sell for 1 USD and at that price I wont complain as long as they turn on. Bought 3 myself.
Not sure for how long they’ll last though, only 5 left as of writing this.
Feels decent, reverse-clicky switch. Conventional emitter is (presumed LB or similar clone) XP-E. Tint is a decent CW. COB emitter is a bit cooler, but isn’t obnoxious. Modes are High/Low/COB/COB-strobe with next-mode memory. Pocket clip is a bit weak. Heat sinking is poor, with both emitter PCBs resting on narrow shelves. Based on output and the single-AA operation, I don’t think heat will be an issue.
I believe those ultra-poor “heatsinking practices” are to make products fail early and deliberately. Could be my reasoning wrong here? I doubt it. These flashlights are probably meant for people who isn't going to stick in anything better than alkaleaks, probably causing an early failure even sooner. I refuse to fund this sort of stuff, I believe it ends up costing more in the not so long run.
I suspect that a lot of it is so they can move these lights to sell for $2 price point, well within impulse purchase category… :money_mouth_face:
In this case, it works well, and is obviously not aggressively driven. I’m happy with AA alkaleak performance and understand that to be a limitation of this light. I may, at some point, try to improve the heat transfer with some epoxy, but that’s a very low priority.
To me, the biggest inexcusable feature is still, the next-mode-memory. Someone had to INTENTIONALLY design that. Who is the driver designer who created that and said “YO DAWG THIS IZ TEH AWESOMEZ YO!”
Add that one to the list of people to visit when we have time travel tech. :person_facepalming: