Budget Thrower wanted Should I Mod a C8, buy 1 or get the GT Mini / Micro

Since I am a beginner and have yet to receive any of my Convoy S2+ :rage: . I have 3 on the way, 2 from gearbest, 1 from AE. Anyway, I want a thrower also. I have been researching a little and have done some soldering. But, is it worth trying to build 1 or are the stock off the shelve good enough? It does sound like fun to build 1 if it can be done budget friendly and be better than buying 1. Again, I am new. I now you can get host from MT Electronics but that’s about the extent of it. I now you need a driver and a LED but have no clue what to get.
Can someone help a newbie and point me to any threads that discuss this kind of build. OR, just tell me what to use and I will research how to put it together.
Don’t know if I should be going down the rabbit hole…

The GT mini is a great little thrower so you can’t go wrong getting it. It uses a FET driver and XPL HI.

As far as C8 vs the GT mini: the GT mini has about 30% more reflector frontal area so will have about 30% more beam intensity than the C8 with identical LED and driver. That is significant but to be honest it will hardly seem noticable to your eye. Other differences are that the GT mini is shorter and has a side switch while the C8 has a tailswitch. You might have a preference about switch location.

Another consideration is if you want to get into modding. The C8s you can get stock will not throw as far as the GT mini, but if you mod one you can choose parts to get you more throw.

I love my C8s. A common mod is to put in an XPL-HI and a FET driver (both available from mtn electronics). This gives you a light that is both brighter and throwier than a stock light. The Luminus SST-20 and Osram White Flat are other very throwy emitter options, but admittedly ones that I have no experience with. Search C8 mods in the search bar here if you want to go down the rabbit hole of modding. Otherwise, an off the shelf C8 with XPL-HI or a Lumintop GT mini would be good choices.

Here is a link to a good step-by-step thread on doing this mod on a C8.

If you wanted an XPL-HI and FET C8 you could always just get an Astrolux C8 or Sofirn C8T and not have to do any modding. I personally have a C8T and it has more output and throw than I’ll ever need, while still being compact and light enough to carry in a sweater or jacket.

I have the Astrolux C8 with XPL-HI and BLF A6 driver and can only say the exact same thing ! For the about 17$ i paid for it that's a no-brainer

Budget Thrower? If GT mini is in the list… What about Astrolux FT03 ?

A C8+ with an osram 2mm2 and a 6A driver would throw over 900m

Thanks, guess I will buy a GT Mini.

i have a few c8 lights

2x sst40s different colours
and a xhp50.2 6500k

the xhp throws

you maybe have to get the xhp50.2 star from AE or somewhere

i got mine from a guy in the forum , allready built up clear colour C8

i love it, its my thrower

I would not advice someone that wants a thrower to go with the xph50.2 led. It may have some reach but no thrower for sure.

S2+ is easier to mod because you can screw out the pill. C8 is also easy but I would advice you to get some sort of tangs or tweacers to hold the wires on their place when soldering. And dont forget to put a tiny layer of thermalpaste between the mcpcb and the body of the flashlight.

GT Mini on the way.

Received my Mini yesterday, love it…

I have the FT03 and it’s a great thrower for my needs. It’s probably the best thrower known to Man. Well, maybe……

I have a few C8’s going back a few yrs now.
Off the shelf.
My C8T is Niiice. My C8+ IS a step up again.

There’s always something better than the one you just got.
Me. I go up to next head size with a 26650 cells for more.

i never recomend zoomies as a torch as i pretty much hate zoomies
so i recomended a c8 , best of both worlds, throws, but not compiared to a zoomie, and it has a quite ok floody pattern

there are cheapy zoomies ZANES on AE and BG but i had one and it really went far as long as it lasted!,heat transfer was terrible