Clone of On The Road M3 ~$13

Perfectly the right place to ask. There's not many options, in fact there's probably no options, but can't be sure because might take a Herculean effort to search for something. E-switch lights specially are all custom designed drivers, so there's no availability of replacement drivers out there. The drivers are somewhat a pain to reverse engineer, so slim chance of being able to re-program the stock MCU. Stock MCU's can vary, but many are PIC controllers where our expertise is with the ATMEL's - even though they are one in the same company now, their line of MCU's are quite different architectures.

It's a monumental task to re-program stock driver MCU's - tons of time, etc., may have to make hardware changes, and they do not make it easy to do by scratching off identifying part #'s, or even if it had part #'s, very tough to trace them down -- many times undocumented by the manufacturers. Is it doable? Maybe, but why suffer with the driver hardware design when you can spend your time better with a driver with hardware features you want? It just doesn't make sense to me, this is why we do full driver replacements -- we get the amps we want, other features, plus a better custom UI.

Thanks for your answer Tom, it was very clarifying about the state of things!
I guess, it will difficult to change my UIs and drivers then :person_facepalming:
Not being able to build or reprogram drivers is a PITA, specially when such nice firmwares are coming out to change the game!

It would be good to find some available for these small lights, ready to swap in and to make lights better! Time will come, I hope :blush:

Unfortunately for lights like this, slim to none chance. Say for example I built a batch of the custom drivers for sale that fit this light, the mounting and wiring is pretty intricate, detailed, and required some pretty good skills.

Stock driver:

My custom driver:

Lots of pics here showing details on parts, assembly stages, etc:

Sorry, you'll get banged with ads though: photobucket.com/user/TomE2012/library/Custom Mods/OnTheRoad M3

:open_mouth: :open_mouth: :open_mouth:

Yeah, for someone like me, it’s not slim, it’s really NO chance of doing this!
The work is really intricate, saw your photos, no chance to do that easily or without proper knowledge!

Thanks for sharing this Tom, it is a really good work! :+1:

We really have to make small lights with these new UIs :smiley: If you know what I mean :wink:

About the Jaxmnve…I’ll have it and accept it just the way it is when it arrives!

It’s worth saying that some manufacturers do have some pretty good technology in their own drivers. E.g. Olight S15 has a buck-boost that will run efficiently on anything from a depleted AA NimH at ~1V, to a 14500 at 4.2, to two AA alkaline at over 6V with extension tube. Meanwhile having almost unmeasurable parasitic drain. And is of course, tiny. The genuine On The Road M3 also has a quietly impressive driver, in my opinion.

Thanks for the thread guys.
My OTR M3 died 3 says ago. My fault, I just Had to take it apart… Broke 2 pads off the driver that mount the SW board. It was pressed in Really hard. I had it HOT too.
Really wanted to get something Olight to help Marshals Family but really cant afford to buy something I may not use. Almost bought the OTR M3 CW version with a coupon yesterday, was gonna swap out my warm emitter to it.
I can swing the $13 on this one… to replace the OTR M3 and it will get the warm emitter from it.

Of all the lights I own, the M3 really has been the #2 go-to. EDC AAA is #1. Wish it were 18350 but…
Will report back when I get it.

Though’t I’d mention, On The Road make a U16, which is an M3 with USB charging. Kit with good OTR cell etc. lists at £25 on GB but frequently on sale at about £15.

Always worth keeping an eye on GB prices for OTR, e.g. recently picked up it’s very big brother, the X5, with 26650 cell, for £17.40, on sale.

https://www.gearbest.com/led-flashlights/pp_642834.html

Gearbest description is incorrect, this does have USB charge port.

About OTR, besides the lights they have on Gearbest (Models: U16, M3, M6, X5, M900, X6, U18), they also have an AliExpress Store where they have other interesting models, such as the M1 (16340 with tailswitch) and the M5 (AA/14500 with side switch).

Link for the Store: https://ontheroad.aliexpress.com/store/3081046?spm=a2g0s.13010208.99999999.258.Cc6QSh

Price is higher, shipping is paid, and some of the specs are in non-english language, what makes it difficult to read.
I sent a message to the seller asking to change language, so that more people can be aware of the specs. Let’s see if it works :wink:

Do you know if the U16 has a magnet in the tail?

I just got the U16 for $20 with a discount, think it was freeme's. Nice little chunkie light, but haven't torn it down yet. Hoping for a little more internal space. Not liking the switch/UI, it seems inconsistent registering clicks and holds. Hopefully the problem is not mechanical. Switches can be hard to find to replace.

I gotta order one of these clones. For $13, it's a deal. Looks like the switch cover is more translucent too - the LEd I got in the M3 can't really be seen in room light, nice on the nightstand though. Should have tried swapping the LED color - think I'n using a warm white or something.

how many lumens is each mode?
can it be set up to start on 20 lumens, followed by 200 lumens, followed by 0.2 lumens?

Im confused by the different UI and mode levels of the various Olight, OnTheRoad, and Jaxman versions
can someone point me to info on the modes of each?

Yes it does :wink:

Nice question!!
BTW, the “clone” model is not Jaxman, its is Jaxmnve :wink: Close names though!

thanks :slight_smile:
I see what they did there…
imo, Olight, OnTheRoad, Jaxmnve are all Chinese factory products with various branding labels and drivers.

Olight, Imo is not being “cloned”, it is one of the clones. It happens to have Lumen Levels that I prefer. I like the 0.5 low of the Olight driver.

Still not understanding why the OTR i3 doesn’t get much love here on BLF
Zoomed out about the same beam profile as the M3 but because if the zoom one can see things further away.
As a matter of fact this clone where we now talk about with zoom would be so nice for these little lights just don’t throw so far yet the i3 proves it is possible.

Can anyone confirm these lights have genuine Cree leds?

You people just made me order one :slight_smile:

Also 18650 version and small 10180 keychain…

This is one of the reasons I opted for it (S1R Baton), the chance to access directly to Moonlight and that being a low moonlight level, maybe not the lowest, but low enough for what I need it.
If it wasn’t that, my 1st option would be the OTR (half the price) or this Jaxmnve (1/4 of the price) :person_facepalming:

Djozz loved it and made some nice things in the i3 :wink:
This was also a thread on it last year!

I guess you have a point on that! It would allow to see further, and it is much more compact than other zoomie lights (AAs or 18650s). The Jaxmnve with zoom, maybe it was a winner for such a compact light!

Fasttech still sells the i3 (along with many other OTR lights, even some that seem oooold school), but GB and OTR on AliExpress don’t have them. Maybe it was discontinued.

I just sold a modded m3. I have two of these clones with charging on the bench ready to mod. I’ll post them for sale here first in case anyone wants one. I’m not sure yet if I can save the charging option. I am going to fight tooth and nail for it though. :smiley:

JAXMNVE M8

If intend to get one, you probably want to check out the short demo first.

Good thing is that there is no visible PWM from my cam.

I like mine!