[Review] Convoy T2 : AA flashlight (200-400 lumens)

Hahaha.. ;)

“Orange noodles”…… nice!! :+1:

It must be a survival flashlight…… when the batteries die, you can eat it if your hungry. :wink:

Hmm. If you peel an orange, or other fruit, the peelings kind of resemble noodles, or worms.

Orange peel translated into orange noodles……. heh.

And with a Duracell battery:

Yesterday I did one with a Duracell battery. After I stopped the runtime test because it was so dim compared to before. my phone measured no Lux anymore, but in reality it was still doing about 2 lumens according to my integrating sphere.. I let the light on, and when I checked the light today, it isstill running on 2 lumens. This didnt happen with the Eneloop, A Force and Panasonic for that long... just with the Duracell. And it's still running on 2 lumens, even more than 16 hours later.

So, do I recommend using Duracell?

... oh boy oh boy.. No. I don't :p
For 2-3 duracell battteries you can buy 1 eneloop (at least in the Netherlands) so it makes no sense buying duracells.. and no alkaline in general... especially not for the long run.

Oh yes, i remember purposely saving up and running depleted alkalines in my Xeno E03 lights just for the super low firefly modes. :smiley:

Yep, the good old Xeno E03...

I bought a new version of T2 a month ago. Really nice little light for the price, and very practical. 4 modes (1-10-35-100%) are spaced nicely. No strobe modes. Nichia 219c 4000k is a tad cooler than Zebralight`s H53c Xp-L2 4000k, and CRI seems to be a bit lower, but in general it`s very nice tint. Beam quality/geometry is also nice, I mean it can be used both for close and medium-range tasks. Nice throw for this size. I use it with NiMh. An ideal light for everyday use at your home/garden. I`ve never used my S2+ since I got T2.
P.S.I had Fenix LD10 almost 10 years ago and consider T2 as a happy reincarnation of that beloved little light with then fantastic 100 lumen from one AA (and CRI about 50 I think). So now T2 has about 200Lm on max, and for me this is absolutely enough for light of this size.

Did you check for PWM in all modes?

No, I didn`t.

I got both the older Convoy T2 (XP-G2) and the newer Convoy T2 (Nichia 219C)

The older Convoy T2 has 3 brightness levels + strobe mode (quick double-press).
Slow PWM on non-max brightness level.

The new Convoy T2 has 4 brightness levels only, no strobe mode.

Per my testing (I use "shine light through small fan blades" method), the new Convoy T2:
- when using AA battery, there is No PWM on all brightness levels.
- when using Li-Ion battery, there is No PWM on Lowest and Max brightness level. The middle 2 levels have "very fast" PWM (I have to look very closely at the light shining on the fan blades to detect the "PWM" pattern). Unlike on the older Convoy T2, where the PWM is easily noticeable when on non-max brightness level.

Another thing is that I believe the current is well-regulated for the new Convoy T2:
- when I used a Vapcell P1418A (1.5v Li-Ion AA battery), I measure 1 Amp tailcap current on Max brightness level.

If I use the same Vapcell P1418A 1.5v Li-Ion AA on the older Convoy T2, the protection circuit will trigger, tailcap current is higher than 2+ Amps. (seems like the P1418A battery will trigger shut off if it detects power consumption higher than about 2 Amps for more than a few seconds).

Hmmm... I seem to have missed this light.

I'm a hopeless 1xAA junkie.

A 4000K 219C T2 is now a 'Happy Fall Equinox' gift to myself.

slmjim

Where is a good place to get it? What size is the driver? I wouldn’t mind a spare driver.

Convoy Store at AliExpress, directly from Simon :wink:

Received my T2 from Convoy - with LH351D - 4000k (new 4 mode, without strobe). What an amazing flashlight is this. I’m starting to understand why one does never have enough flashlights :slight_smile:

I measured current on new NiMH AA:
table(table#posts).
|Power|Current|
|1%|0,020A|
|10%|0,113A|
|35%|0,407A|
|100%|3,300A|

Just out of curiosity - please can anyone verify? With my other multimeter (I don’t trust it that much) - I measured only 2,47A on 100%.

Is the output sub lumen at 1%?

Thanks

That lh351 looks tempting.

I also got new T2 and i couldn’t be more happier.

This is rocket comparing to Tool AA and similar AA lights

I don't understand why people need 4 levels. For me low - high would be perfect and NO mode memory!

I have the old version (3 levels + strobe, no 14500 support) and like the design very much but not its driver.

So, if anyone know about a boost driver with only low/high and no mode memory please let me know.

I also recieved my T2 from Convoy – with LH351D – 4000k yesterday. I am pleased with everything so far, but the seating of the LED base is not well done. As the head unscrews easily, I decided to have a look just in case. I wondered why I did not see any thermal grease spilling over the edges of the LED base, so I unsoldered and removed it. Underneath, I found a blob of grey thermal grease, but it was only spread to about 8mm diameter and the layer appeared quite thick. I cleaned it away and found a little “nub” at the center of the faced off seat of the LED base. These appear if the tool is adjusted a bit off center. This nub prevented the LED base from seating fully, so that a gap was still there. I scraped the nub off with a fine chisel. But the LED base still would not fully seat, this time because the outer edges of the LED seat would have a slight radius where the edges of the LED base would get caught before seating.
In this image you can see at the 1 o clock position that the edges of the LED base just barely fit, and if there is a radius between the outer wall and the bottom surface, it will get caught.

So I ground a 0.5mm chamfer at the lower outer edge of the LED base, and now it would fully seat.
I remember having had the same issue with a Convoy S9.

I do not think this will cause a lot of problems as the T2 is fairly low on power, but still, with 1mm more diameter of the LED seat and proper adjustment of the tool all this would not be an issue.