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 ($40 from DD with coupon) with good balance of flood-throw, overall nothing special.
A common UltraFire C8 xm-l has almost the same ability as BC40, but the quality difference is significant. Plus you get a lot of spare o-rings + a holster with bc40.
here is a comparison C8 mouse out, bc40 over
C8 has a little better throw ability (when the battery is full)
Meanwhile, I measured the led current (with the modified driver) , and got only 3.2A. In this case, the driver efficiency is somewhere 72%. But something wrong with this, because I tried out the reflector with an another led which was powered directly from a lab power supply, and around 4A got the same 53000cd. That's interesting, maybe the DMM self resistance, or the PWM output ditsurbed the measurment.
...and I did a new modification. Now, if I turn off the light and wait about 5sec and turn on, it will start in Hi mode in any case.
You can play the value of the resistor. I used a 30kohm, but if you put a higher resistance, for example 100kohm, the time will increase to about 10sec.
This is how mine behaved stock (might have been a few seconds longer than 5).
But I !@#%@#^!@#$%^ cooked my driver yesterday. Not exactly sure how, probably too much heat from soldering gun (small iron is broken and stupidly used 140W automotive one).
Hearing that it was inefficient makes me feel just a bit better about it.
I'm starting to realize why you guys joke about the xxxfire lottery. There is one small imperfection in my reflector, but otherwise, no build quality issues with mine.
I ordered the sst-50 driver on Dec. 8th. They shipped it Jan 8th.
Anyway, it won't fit the pill, or at least it will require a serious mod. I will do it if I can't find one that fits. I want at least 4A but not more than 4.5. The light will just be used for 'wow' and brief long distance searching, otherwise I would consider that a big waste of battery capacity.
I've ordered this for testing. http://kaidomain.com/product/details.S009442
aqualab driver db says a user reported 3.3A but doesn't sound like it was heatsinked. KD says 5A.
So far I have resisted stripping the ano but if I like what I end up with I will strip it. I've done some informal experimenting w/ bare and anodized aluminum and a torch. I think ano holds in a lot of heat. Flaw in my experiment...measuring by touch - it might not make much difference w/ air as the sink.
Truthfully though, I just don't like it much. Give me silver, black, a color, and in shiny or matte, but this is just kind of weird...
Sorry Chicago-X, I'd been watching price on every version of this torch for awhile:) The manafont one looks pretty good.
If this ends up an (exceptional) performer I might buy this one.