I have compaired it to my solarforce LP2 with the ultrafire 3 mode drop in The A8 give a bit more flood and throw IMO, its the closest light in power and refector size to compair it to.
I cant find my fluke DMM since i moved house to re-test my current draw but i plan to swap the drive out to a 3 mode driver as im not a fan of strobe and s.o.s modes, ill re test then.
I was out last night trying to take beam shot’s but my camera is stuff almost all photo’s now are coming out blurry and its just impossible to take beam shots at night.
Testing last night against a L2P with a ultrafire 3 mode drop in with a redilast 2600 mAh cell tail cap current tested on my DMM to 1.35 amps and the Trustfire A8 tail cap current 1.20 amps.
The hot spot of the A8 is much tighter and brighter then the LP2 and the corona is much larger on the A8 it gives more throw and more flood if that makes sense.
Both lights heat up a lot quicker then 1.2 to 1.3 amp XM-L and put out to much light for this kind of draw i say my DMM is under reading, i still cant find my fluke since i moved so ill try and get hold of another DMM to re-test.
I used the LP2 to test it against the A8 as they are the closest in size and power i have even thought the A8 is bigger and has a slightly bigger reflector.
This is why i compare the A8 to the P60 host as the A8 is just a beefed up P60 host with better heat transfer and better battery run time due to the 26650 battery.
I think the A8 will make a great modified light due to better heat sink, not just a drop in sitting there or wrapped in foil, the XM-L is mounted directly to the head and it soaks up the heat well.
Yes it works with unprotected 26550 king Kong's, unprotected 18650 panisonic NCR18650A's with the single 18650 spacer from my TR-J12, plus all my other 18650's, flat tops are no problem.
The tail cap has a spring loaded brass plunger, on the driver side there is a brass positive button that sticks up and out so there is plenty of contact with protected, unprotected and flat top cell's. If you look at the top right of the 4th picture down and the last picture you can just see what i mean.
I don't know if this helps or not. But, on Ebay, I saw a light I wanted, and they only had it listed with battery. I sent a message and asked could I get the light minus battery and charger. They replied with a price, I agreed, paid and got the light!!
OK with the driver's white nylon screw in cover ? removed, the driver is 16.65mm in diameter, there is a brass button that sits on top of the spring, held in by the white nylon screw in cover ?.
There is a recess of 1.43mm on the bottom side of the white nylon screw in cover ? giving 1.43mm of room from the spring side of the driver to the top of the white nylon screw in cover ? where the lip of the brass button sits.
The white nylon screw in cover ? is 3.51mm thick, the hole for the button that sits on the spring is 4.9 mm wide.
Reason's for these measurements is Ive ordered a KD 8x7135 V2 LED Driver 3040mA 17mm I'm planing of doing a driver swap as i really like this light but dislike the disco modes.
I'm thinking there is two ways to do this one is with this train of thought, the KD V2 driver is 4.8mm thick, the board is 1.2 mm thick, so i will have 2 mm approx sticking up from the base of the driver on the spring side, but i believe i can hide 1.40 mm of this under the white nylon screw in cover ?. Then i would use my dremal to make the spring hole bigger on the white nylon screw in cover ?.
Or I could leave out the white nylon screw in cover ? and use it as is and save around 1.5 mm of hight from not using the white nylon screw in cover ? but i worry since the driver is 16.65 mm wide and the KD V2 might need a bit of sanding to fit, the last 105c driver i used needed a bit of sanding to fit.
I will have to buy a new soldering iron tip so i can solder vertical, but i believe the driver swap will not be to hard to swap and will fit, worth the effort for a 2 or 3 mode light with a decent driver with no s.o.s or strobe modes.
Now i just have to wait for 2 months for KD to ship the driver
I like the idea of covering the 7135 chips... I dont know why but those always looked kind of out of place on the battery side of the board. I would try and attach the plastic cover over the new driver, but leave out the brass plug thing.