Finally arrived. Hmmm, very budget feeling, a lot of failure (dents) outside on the anodized layer, very dusty lens and reflector, no memory function(??wft), little off center emitter.
Measured 1.38A at the tailcap, but it depends on the multimeter and the leads, with thinner leads I got 1.6A.
after a little modification on the driver, now the tailcap current jumped from 1.38A to 1.9A, with thin leads from 1.6A to 2.2A. The led current is somewhere 3.8A.
I got a solid 50000cd. I tried with higher current (2.2A with thick leads), and got above 53kcd, but the brightness sag was so strong, and I didn't want to overstress the driver and the led, so I reverted to the lower 1.9A.
I tried it without the poor glass lens, and reached 55000cd. Something wrong with this lens.
edit:
Okay, I found a lens with almost the same diameter, which is far better than the original, and finally, the best value was 53000cd @1m (measured from 3.17m). That is enough for me.
As I see, the most important part of the circuit the power mosfet, which drives the led. This is a "40n03" mosfet, and its rated current is 4A continuous and 16A pulsed. The other power component is a 4.7uH coil,
and conclude from its size, its rated current above 5A. So if you don't want too much from the driver, it can be modify.
Try to find a webshop. Better if you order resistors with difference values, for example 0.1, 0.22, 0.33, 0.56 0.82ohm etc., you can fine tune the driver with these.
thanks, I'll find a US one, to hopefully save on shipping. A big kit would be great, so I don't mess around ordering $1 parts every time I need one...
your beamshots show why I can't use this light around my house (tight suburban homes). Inside 30 yards (backyard), novices would think the xeno e03 is brighter. But shine it down the street 4 houses away and people inside turn their lights on to see wtf is going on
Do you have any other lights in this class to compare it too? I don't...so I'm just curious what your opinion is. I'm not too into this kind of light...but they're cool enough that if there is a better (budget) one, I'll get it eventually.
Today arrived mine, feels cheap, seems to throw well (tested with daylight, comparing with my throwers)
LED is too blueish/purple, but I don't care in this case, for me color is OK.
I haven't measured anything yet because I'm waiting for the SST-50 driver to arrive, ad then I'll see if mod, or change the driver, depending of the current at the LED.
I just tested it at night and... I like it, and very much.
Even standard-stock, it is awesome and better if you consider the price.
I said it was cheap because of some small imperfections before the anodizing, and also at the tail I had to remove some aluminium... But it is OK anyway, not the best, not the worst.
yeah, mine had a big, and strange, chip/burr at one of the lanyard holes, and it was completely anodized lol
hardly touched it and it fell off.
I should have taken a picture. I couldn't figure out how they made it. It was like a donut. maybe they drill a pilot hole then hog it out to size real fast.
When the finish gets beat up I'm going to strip the anodizing and shot peen it. might not even wait for that...
I've finished shimming the collar w/ copper. Easy mod if you have the right size sheet. I'll do some pictures at some point, the epoxy is setting...
It's simple a good quality and cheap flashlight ($40 from DD with coupon) with good balance of flood-throw, overall nothing special.
A common UltraFire C8 xm-l has almost the same ability as BC40, but the quality difference is significant. Plus you get a lot of spare o-rings + a holster with bc40.
here is a comparison C8 mouse out, bc40 over
C8 has a little better throw ability (when the battery is full)