Half price, double value flashlights

I bought THESE off of Amazon with a code a while back for $5. They pleasantly handle 5A+ pretty well, shed heat quickly and the lens isn't full of artifacts. They're popular with the field coworkers, even without modification. I've swapped the crappy T6 LEDs with LHD351Ds, SST20s and 219Cs.

Little over $5, but I bought a pair of these:
https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B07G72F77F/ref=ppx_yo_dt_b_asin_title_o04_s00

Pretty standard (Sipik SK68?) clone (but with a red emitter), no spring on the positive end, and one of them has a bad connection somewhere, but the other one has been a very reliable tail light for bike commuting for several hundred miles. I would like to figure out the flaky connection on the one, but for the price, I’ll just buy more if I haven’t by the time the good one dies.

Skywolfeye B16. And I don’t have any yet but probably any of the related zoomies as well.

I bought this for $8 shipped on Banggood’s end of year sale. It goes on sale quite frequently:

https://www.banggood.com/XANES-3320-P50-XHP50-1800Lumens-USB-Rechargeable-LED-Flashlight-With-26650-Battery-p-1563298.html

Comes with a 26650 battery that can be recharged in the flashlight, and a spacer if you want to use a 18650.

i bought one of these . ended up getting my money back as the seller didnt send a charger with the one i ordered

even though i pressed the button that says includes charger. it wasnt this xanes one but the same

desided to put a different led in there and experimented a few times with different leds

7070s
and few chinese copyes of xhp70s at 6volt etc

torch desided it no longer wants to go on high setting

had it 2 months! . its going to be a great host but ill end up doing something for it

it included 2x 26650 batterys . green no branded 5000 chinese mAs

I like the “blood-spatter camo” on that, but a light really has to be Something Special for me to even want to get one nowadays.

Ya know …. No. I haven’t been able to think of any light I’ve bought for which I’d pay twice as much.

Quite a few of’em that I’d buy again at half the price, which is how I ended up with quite a few Meco and SK68ish lights a few years ago as the price plummeted.

I still suspect the SK68s are using a shell that was originally going to enclose something like a shock absorber for a discontinued vehicle, cooling fins and all, and somebody decided, “hey, don’t melt all those down, we could make them into flashlights” ……

I bought one of these a couple of days ago, pleasantly suppressed for £6.69 with Prime delivery.
Supfire M2-Z
Its a little different to the other Supfire M2-Z I can find reviewed.

Threads are not the best, but still better than most cheap C8 clones. Not too sure what the LED is, possibly XPG2 or clone. Draws a little under 2A from the battery on high. Plastic reflector, but nicely focused. Battery was included and measured 1860mAh. USB charging. Tried to take it apart, but the pill may be thread locked.

Zanflare F2, I think they were on sale for like $6 at one time.

I have three still in the box.

YooToo SD2 bought for $9.xx

Can one still get it for that price??

Check with FreeMe

Get the AMUTORCH yootoo SD2 here for $9.99 using discount code: BGASD2 - https://www.banggood.com/custlink/3mv34bEV6a

26% OFF 21700 BATTERY - 1 STÜCKE LiitoKala Lii-40A 21700 Batterie 4000 mah 3,7 V ungeschützte flaches Top Li-Ni wiede Sale - Banggood Deutschland sold out-arrival notice-arrival notice

The code only works is there is nothing else in your cart

Zanflare F3 was very cheap at one point.

I bought several for my family.

Thanks for the tip. :+1:

Just got me one.

I was really surprised by the Sofirn C01, they are sooo nice, I wish they would come back.

Also the Lumintop edc01 I got two for $11 and they are really good value.

The zanflare T1 or F1 (the lantern) was also an amazing value for $15 with battery, charger and magnet included.

Thanks for the tip!

Yeah, I fear the business model is “make a batch, sell them off, discontinue them in favor of anything that looks new and diffrent’’

They could keep my attention if they were competing on driver efficiency instead of look and feel, but (sigh) I don’t see it happening.

Got my SD2 in the mail today (surprised me once again, as the tracking last updated on Jan-14). Very nice. Best $10 light I’ve ever bought. Machining is truly about as good as it gets on a light of any price. Seems like they did a light/fine bead blast before anodizing, which gives the light a that quality feel and sound when handled. The lanyard ring jingles though, but an extra o-ring will fix that. The thermal transfer is honestly impressive too. Virtually immediately you can feel the head warm and cool when going in and out of max mode. Input current was measured across the working voltage range on a power supply, and at 4.1V the readings were 160mA, 750mA, and ~3150mA. It seems purely direct drive, with all modes showing zero regulation. PWM is high enough frequency that my phone camera didn’t pick it up at all, and definitely not visible to the eye. The worst news I have to report is the driver is glued in, but the good news is that they only used a light silicone. I scraped with an exacto knife what was visible, and then poured some acetone around the perimeter of the driver for a few minutes to soften it up. Using a narrow 2mm screw driver, I gently pushed it out from the front through the screw holes on the emitter shelf (carefully avoiding components on the driver though). With moderate but gentle and persistent pressure, it finally let go without much drama (or damage). The body tube is what makes the () contact, as the driver shelf/rim is anodized as well. Driver diameter is about 23.5mm. Forgot to measure it precisely before re-installing, but that should be close enough for now. I’m going to do a full review in the coming days but this is the quick and dirty. There are two parallel R250 resistors on the board and a beefy looking (output?) capacitor that may be responsible for the lack of visible flicker. Traces are wide and vias a plenty. Rear spring is a copper alloy and THICK. The driver spring however is the opposite thin and steel. Body tube is 22mm ID, so rewrap cells should not be any kind of problem. Accommodations for cell length seem to be minimal. A flat top 18650 does not make contact with the factory springs, yet a 21700 doesn’t have much room to grow - protected cells likely will be a tight fit (if they work at all). The threads are fully anodized so lockout is possible, tail-standing is stable, switch is firm and good/decent feeling. I’ll probably change the boot/cover out for a black one (I find the green cheap looking) with rounder edges, as the stock boot has a square cross section that makes it stiffer on the edges than necessary IMO. UI is actually not bad. L-M-H with a ‘hidden’ (double press) strobe AND mode memory. This actually causes you to need to slowly switch modes, and causes an awkward pause between steps as the MCU is waiting for a potential second tap. Very livable though, and this is what takes this light from awesome value as a host, to an incredible torch - period. (For ~10USD)

Thanks for the hands on review.
Sorry to hear about the 18650. I ordered the light too, and because it’s 21700 light I’ll put those cells in it. But sometimes it’s just very handy to be able to put in a 18650 (in a tube) if the 21700’s are empty. Maybe a small magnet on the 18650 solves the problem….