First Impressions Nitecore EX10 Ti and EX11.2

Very nice. I always liked the form of this light since I first saw it years ago.
Looking at the pictures, I am getting a very strong urge to mod it :smiley:

Keep us posted. She sure is purdy.

same here!:slight_smile:

contemplating my navel
and a driver swap to 11.2
and a 3000k 219b swap ā€¦

need liquid courageā€¦
:beer:

I prefer that the original V10 driver has no lockout from press hold form off
but the V11.2 driver has much better ramping rate and output rangeā€¦ not sure what part of that is driver and what part is the LEDā€¦

EX10 Ti GDP
w 16340 Lumintop USB rechargeable Protected ICR. 68 grams
min 0.4 lm
max 75 lm (70 lm w cr123)

EX11.2 w XPG and black pocket clip
w 16340 Lumintop USB rechargeable Protected ICR, 61 grams
min 0.1 lm
max 350 lm (150 lm w cr123)

Sheā€™s a beaut!

Thank youā€¦ Im feeling very fortunateā€¦

Very cool light :+1: I didnā€™t know there was a ti variant :heart_eyes:

It was a small batch made by Steve Ku. Sold as a host only, you had to provide the internals, just like he did with the LF2XT.

me neither, but thanks to social distancing, I found it while browsing classifieds. I had no idea what it was, but google is my friend

I thought it was a factory Titanium EX10 (16340), but derfyled taught me that its actually a Russtang buildā€¦ more info in following postsā€¦

Im loving the whole experience

yes,
the hosts built by hanko and kuku required transplanting the driver from a D10 and EX10. Some people later upgraded to drivers with firmware 11.2

there was no factory titanium D10 nor X10 versions,
here is a Hanko in the D10 Tribute Thread

here is a collection, I believe left is Hanko AA, two in middle are kuku AA and 16340, on the right is the Russtang EX10 16340

and a few Hanko, D10, EX10, LF2XT

There has never been a factory titanium EX10 (Iā€™m 99% sure on this). I thought yours was a KUKU creation but I just remembered it was sold by Unique Titanium as a small custom run. The maker was RUSSTANG from CPF.

At that time, Nitecore was still a small company and only produced AL lights. If I remember correctly, they had the Defender, the EZ serie, the EX10 and D10, all in AL.

Keep it, take good care of it, I think only about 20 were made.

You bring me back souvenirs from CPF 2007-2008, thanks for the memory !

I think you are right!
And it seems Russtang was the owner of Unique Titanium.

I found this post asking for a Unique Titanium sourced EX10 Ti in either stone washed or polished

here is the beadblast russtang
pic is a link

note the trit slot is not centered,

here are a couple of shiny ones
pic is a link

with the botched trit slot

thanks for the history lessons!:slight_smile:

Im clearly luckier than I thought, cause the trit slot on my sample is centered:

Iā€™m quite certain this is not the original piston. The batch sold by Russtang all had that defect. Yours came from Steve Ku or Jeff Hanko (if I remember correctly that was 10-11 years ago !). He offered slotted piston, also 4sevens (again, I can be wrong with this one) had some custom batch offered in small amount where you could buy only a slotted piston.

Also, at that time, CPF user Precision Work offered a service where he would mill a slot to existing piston. Later, I think Nitecore came out stock with slotted piston but only on a special D10 edition. If you want to push your investigation, I think a good start would be to determine if your piston is TI or SS.

So, overall, you are even luckier to have a so nice specimen !

Cheers !

I also saw a post by russtang stating he had slotted pistons and would install the trit, sold though his store, Unique Titanium. I speculate he had more pistons slotted after the first ones came out off center.

not sure how to tell Ti from SSā€¦ curiousā€¦

I have EX11.2 and EX10 Ti
the tube in the Ti is 1 gram heavierā€¦ the tubes are not identical, the heavier one has a trit. Neither tube is magnetic. The EX11.2 tube is much shinierā€¦ guessing its SS, but no clue reallyā€¦

new questions
where to get a brass plated spring, it is softer than the silver spring, that I find too stiff.

and how to I spin the pill out of the EX11.2?

here is a how to video, but that D10 pill is not quite the same

The piston in my EX11.2 was aluminium.
The bezel too.
I can tell ti from ss or alu by the feel, ti has that slightly grippy feel to it.
If you have a couple 9v batteries or such, some baking soda, some wire and a cottonbud you can test anodize a small area to see if it is titanium.
Colour will change on contact.

The pill on the EX11.2 slides out the front.
I used to use AW 16340 cells as they were a bit shorter and worked well with the PD, longer cells can be difficult.

Yeah it comes out the front and is much easier to do simple emitter swaps than the Nitecore D-10's.

So the ex-10 ti is a golden dragon emitter ?

I wonder if that the offset slot isn't a mistake.Maybe it was just an easier way to cut a slot .I'm guessing someone with enough talent to create the ti lights isn't going to screw up repeatedly like that .

Nice lights that had all of my attention right before I joined BLF. All my lurking was in high end customs on CPF and an intense interest in Nitecore D-10's and ex-10's.

Didn't realize there were only 20 of these made .Glad to see it go to someone who will appreciate it .

great info, Thanks!
the EX10 Ti has no problem with protected USB rechargeable 16340. The battery spring is softer than on the EX11.2

actually not a GDP, it is an XRE Q5

saw a post claiming only 17 of the russtang Ti EX10 were madeā€¦ Im very fortunate

I wrote to Russ to confirm, have not had a reply

I came here to see your pics and post on the Ti EX10. Seems like you are teaching me a few things about this light. I did not realize this was a light created by Russtang. From the pics provided by the seller, I thought it was a one-off prototype made for David Chow of 4Sevens.

Good investigative work my friend!

glad to see you here badtziscool

derfyled is to blame for my russtang education :slight_smile:

EX11.2 progress!

.

D11.2 modded to 219b 3000k 9080
low 0.04
high 72 lumens

perfect beam!

Both the D10 and EX10 are reprogrammable. A couple of CPF members were doing it, but quit.
CPF members ā€œdevā€ and ā€œnightshadeā€.
My last queries of them both revealed they were not doing the mods anymore. The nightshade D10 I lost had a copper heatsink, custom springs and a new ATtiny13V with slowed ramping feature. Wished I would have bought another but it wasnā€™t cheap.
Old post I saved:

Thatā€™s how it all started.

Also, somewhere I have saved the original EX10 circuit schematic.
IIRC, that should be archived on CPF too, if it wasnā€™t lost to their almost endless crashes.

Since you guys are taking about the drivers, is there a resource for replacement drivers for the D10 R2? I have found nothing, Nitecore canā€™t help either. I had an Energizer leak in mine, with the head downwardsā€¦ I cleaned it but the pcb traces are now exposed since the acid ate the board coating. I donā€™t trust the components to last. I have to somehow re-surface and nickel plate the piston inside alsoā€¦ Itā€™s badā€¦ but I love this light too much to abandon it. This D10 was my red pill. I was thinking of making my own driver. Thanks for any help!

Good job jon_slider! I may have to fiddle around with a couple of my user D10s. That 219b mod looks fantastic.