Amazon Deal Alerts & Discussion Thread

Bansuri, thanks for sharing. Nice features. I ordered 3 with that code.

I ordered 4 with the code to get free shipping since I am not an Amazon Prime member (and all were discounted). One for the wife and three for gifts to some soon to be very excited grand-nieces.

Thank you forum member "bansuri" for posting the deal. This is a great forum thanks to contributions from members like yourself.

Thrunite T10T V2 is on sale on Amazon with 30% off code 30T10TV2:

https://www.amazon.com/dp/B07XNMQ6TS

A 1xAA or 14500 titanium flashlight under $30 with a decent UI.

Got my 2 delivered and installed, not industrial grade but good enough for “hang it up and leave it there”. No crazy colors but the kids love ’em.

Evidence of kids raised by a flashoholic: after explaining how the buttons work and they don’t need another app cluttering up their phones my daughter said , “yeah, it’s a pretty simple UI!”

GDF - ordered a NW, $5 after the coupon, plus applying my rewards . Thanx!

The light itself was a nice proposition. Thanks! Until the moment the shipping costs kicked in.
Slow shipping was almost €80, slow slow shipping was almost €40. Sigh!.

Seems that in these new times of trade wars and outbreaks flash sales (from a trusted seller!!!) or swapping lights with other members is going to be the only thing to keep the B in BLF.

3 Lumintop deals here on Vipon including EDC 18 for $34.99 shipped from Amazon if anyone’s interested;

https://www.vipon.com/promotion/index?search=flashlight

later

Good deal on the EDC18. I just spent $5 more on Amazon’s Lumintop site for the same deal. Nice light—sent it back because I don’t like the clip.

Overready’s clip fits it. The FW3A clip fits it too. Shame to send back a whole light because of the pocket clip.

If I didn’t already have a EDC18, I would be all over this!

I love the clip. The EDC18 is my daily usage EDC light. I got the triple XPL HI 5000K and measured 3800 at turn on, 3500 at 15 secs on a good 25S, with spring bypasses and improvements on the MCPCB backside with MX4 thermal paste, plus better 22 AWG wires,same size as stock but higher strand count. Also I wired the switch LED into pin #7 so it's controlled by Anduril now, and updated Anduril to my latest.

With this amazon deal, it says XPL HI but no idea on tint, so it's probably CW. With that said, I had to order another one... :FACEPALM:

From the product description (with pictures):

Triple Emitters with Optical Lens
3*Cree XPL-HI LED Cold White
Detectible stainless steel bezel enable the light to install the glow gadget
Triple TIR optical lens provides a smooth and wide beam

Thanks Muto for posting this EDC18 deal. Amazon estimates delivery will take one month.

Hopefully there will be an easy way to remove the light's tail magnet and replace it with a spacer so I can carry it clipped in the front pocket of my pants along with a minimalist wallet without having to worry about erasing the magnetic strips on credit and debit cards. My other front pocket is reserved just for my cell phone which I carefully guard against damage (my back pockets are empty for sitting comfort).

Not knowing anything about Vipon, I was apprehensive about signing up but will see how it goes.

Vipon works good and if you have another email available you can sign up again for another account. A lot of Amazon specials will be one per order but again if you have another person with Amazon give them the second code and rock and roll.

As far as delivery time Amazon is giving themselves plenty of buffer, if it says in stock you will probably get it a lot quicker than they are quoting. They quote May 16 right now on EDC18 which is only 3 weeks.
Last 2 orders I got were like a week to 10 days but as always YMMV.

Did not get the EDC18 as already have the FW3 and do not see any gain but think this one is built better as the FW3 has known issues.

Good deal they have on the IYP365 with Nichia goodness as well but have 3 of those so unless they do the pink one for the wife in the future will hold off on that.
Later,

Keith

I've ordered a bunch off of Vipon deals, as have many here - haven't had or heard or probs. Here's some pics of the EDC18:

This is how I poked out the driver. Desoldered the LED wires first, then light taps on the solder pick with the hammer till it broke the glue seal. You have to sort of feel around with the pick to be sure you are not on a component. Might make some damage - I'm usually lucky with this. If I have to hit it fairly hard, then chance of damage go up:

The MCPCB has some contaminate on it, looked like solder. I sanded it out and it came off easy, so pretty sure it was solder:

Our classic FET+7+1 design with the ATTiny85. I didn't trace down the FET, but I left it, though debated to swap it out with a known good one:

One more shot:

It's hard to see but there's a tiny green LED under the black part of the switch. The R10 is a 20K resistor from Batt+ to the green LED (direct wired).

Some details of the tear down:

  • there's a small screw in the extra hole in the MCPCB. The screw doesn't hold anything down, but it's there to keep the MCPCB from rotating
  • the board mounted switch is held on by a small amt of solder on the 4 pads, and this one has 2 plastic pins going into 2 holes in the PCB - no glue, but gives it some support and proper alignment. These switches are notorious for failing, least what I've seen. You can see there's only a tiny amt of solder on the 2 front contacts. Either the solder joint fails, or the PCB pads rip up. The switch may continue to function but becomes harder to press because internally, it's bending backwards.. To improve it, I add extra solder on all 4 pads, specially the front pads, and then add a good 2 part epoxy to the back of it where it makes a nice 45 deg support wall behind it. Can use JB Weld, for example.
  • so, the electronics is simpler because the switch and driver are all one piece, but I really don't like these type of switches for reliability. The flat switches mounted on a separate PCB are a better design, least in my opinion. If you can't add the support to the switch, try not to over press on the switch - give it the min amt of pressure needed, no more. It should last longer.

On mine, I pulled the R10 resistor and tombstoned a 10K there, then wired up to pin #7. Also had to pull the R4 resistor since it's connected to pin #7. I should have wired the R10 resistor direct to the R4 pad instead of the MCU pin, but didn't realize that R4 was on pin #7.

For fyi, R4 and the C4 cap are there to support main LED input - yes, it's an attempt to read light blinks on the LED. I first brought this capability up and TK experimented with it, got it sort of working. She didn't fully implement/test it, but wanted to leave it in the circuit design of the FW3A family. The idea was to use a phone app to program/configure UI settings.

Please post how you get the magnet out.

I do my best research after ordering. From Post #10 in this thread (which I just read and saw your original question about this) it sounds like I will not be able to remove the magnet which is unfortunate.

https://budgetlightforum.com/t/-/58145/10

I believe there are ways to demagnetize magnets?

The PCB the spring is mounted on is definitely glued, just not sure if still might be possible to remove it.

I didn’t order this but I noticed when Amazon has slow shipping for COVID you can sometimes go into your order after it’s placed and “change shipping speed”. For me it basically made thing come with no delay