Convoy S2+

Only unprotected are guaranteed to fit. Some protected will fit.

I think the S2+ is the perfect EDC! It is a good size, uses an 18650 battery, very easy to mod with its brass pill, can take a pocket clip, has many different colors, lots of LED options, tail stands, etc. And the prices are very reasonable given the performance!

Whenever possible, I chose to buy from Simon at the Convoy flashlight Store for my Convoys. He has the latest Convoys, such as square threads vs trapezoidal. And he is the man, the myth, and the legend for Convoys. He is the inventor of Convoys so he should get as much business as possible!

Ugh. With all the actual S-series lights and hosts, I could probably open Convoy America.

They're really great lights, simply because they're compact and have so many options available plus loads of customization opportunities. That emitter is really nice, one of my favorites. I got one in a cheapie light and was quite surprised by it, so I ordered a handful of bare emitters from Digikey to swap into other lights. I'm down to three S2/S2+ lights but have several other models from Convoy and other than some limitations with drivers (sorta) they're all great lights and always at such a bargain price for what they offer. The S2+ makes a fantastic gift, too...have Simon put a muggle driver in it (or set the firmware options to something like that before you gift it) for those who may not have the interest to learn about enthusiast lights but still want something better than typical hardware store junk (only caveat is that they still have to learn about lithium ion cells and not treat them like they might alkalines).

If you catch an S2 bug, just be aware that there have been several running changes to them in a few aspects but for the most part they're still very interchangeable and simple to work on. You should find that it will hold up fine and you'll ding it up and wear off the anodizing before the light gives out. And if you do break something or wear out a switch, have a driver go glitchy, the parts are cheap and quick to swap. Several of mine took some pretty good whacks and drops, never had one fail (didn't even break any lenses, knock on wood).

Banggood has also stocked a lot of S2 lights with older outdated drivers installed...they seem to serve as a clearinghouse sometimes. Fasttech, too. If they have twelve product pages for something, shop carefully because it's probable that there are fifteen products being offered so check the deets closely.

S2+s are an entry drug.

Yeh, if you want one of the most reliable lights out there, get a S2+ with 1-mode driver, simple on/off, at 1.4A, 2.1A, or whatever you want that’s sustainable. Nothing to break, almost.

That's one of the things I love about Simon and everything he offers. I actually wanted that exact same thing but he wasn't willing to do it for me when I asked a few years ago. So I bought hosts and stuff and made my own, put more money in his pocket (which I'm happy to do, honestly), and ended up with something I liked better anyway. Made a second with the SST 365nm in the violet body and gifted that one to a coworker for scorpion finding.

Have a bunch of unprotected. Maybe 50 or so, & only 2-4 protected Ultrafire cells. It was partially the fault of another certain forum I was on years back. :wink:

Well, that & the fact the worst issues I had so far were from protected cells oozing in the charger. Maybe protected is better these days?

I’m interested in the quality of the Ipx8 rating. Ipx7 lights usually die at some point for me.
Some of the Ipx8 ones die as well, usually over time from wet batteries which I try to minimize, but yeah. If the battery is damp, sometimes it still has to go in the light.
It’s embarrassing, but I’ve torture tested a few cells in the wash…luckily no lights yet.
On the plus side, Panasonic unprotected 18650 cells still work after going through the wash.

Pop in a pill, get a driver & you’re on your way?

Why is the S2+ so much better/more popular than the S11?

The S2+ has been around a long time. The S11 is newer. The S2+ is pocketable and has a bazillion different options to customize it. TIRs, reflectors, short tube, pocket clips, easy triple mods. The S11 is a much larger light and I’m sure it does what it does pretty well, but it’s not as interesting.

Take them with a grain of salt. To start with there are really no standardized procedures or equipment for IPx testing and everything is just voluntary. I'll leave it at that, but just know that some products are great and meet their respective requirements and some fall short of them, and some are just marketing bunk that has been regurgitated by copying bullet points or design ideas from others' products without really doing any proper testing at all, or sometimes not understanding the design aspects and missing something important. In our lights, if the correct o-rings are used and things like side switches don't get forgotten about, and if the o-rings are kept in good condition, most lights will stay waterproof to a meaningful degree. Sitting at the bottom of a lake...some survive and some don't.

Chucking an Osram red in it would have provided 15 minutes of good output until dropping to 60% due to it having 2.5 forward voltage. It burns off the extra voltage as heat and drops the battery down to something it can use.

I still have a couple Keeppower protected that fit fine in all of my lights (Convoy or otherwise). The cells can vary a little bit in thickness due to the added wraps, etc., and some brands double wrap them. Tolerances on battery tubes can vary, too. Some time back I had two lights that were underbored by the factory and I ended up buying a cheap 18mm ball hone on Aliexpress for like $4. The same thing from BRM available in the US costs around $27 usually. Worked a treat...chucked it in a drill and used it carefully and before too long just enough metal was removed to make things right. That size is generally used only on hydraulics so sometimes they're sold by that name rather than "ball" or "engine", etc. Just an idea...but that $4 could almost buy you a new battery that fits better.

For this light, does "metal switch" equal "electronic switch" and "rubber switch" = "mechanical switch"?

Yes many options (although not my best choice which would be 1%-20%100%-Strobe), but after trying Anduril I wish the S2+ had this incredibly versatile UI.

I agree. BTW, I see on AE there is also a "Convoy Lighting Store": is this one also run by Simon?

The S2+ is by far the best generalist light you can get, at least in the budget category. It’s small, sturdy, and among the choices of reflectors, emitters and TIRs, you can build yours however you want.

I took my sweet time to purchase my first one because of being averse to hype. Now I have two (one Nichia w/ reflector and one SST20 warm white w/ 30° TIR) and plan on buying at least one more with a LH351D.

That’s disturbingly accurate.

No. Both are mechanical. The usual models have rubber over the button. Some of the older colored models do not. They have a little metal clicky button. The tailcap is slightly different on those and for whatever reason, they tend to not work well (or at all) with protected button-tops.

My S2+ and C8+ lights from Convoy, with rubber on the button and purchased within the last two years, all seem to work well with protected button-tops. Honestly though, I wish I could go back in time and not buy that kind of 18650. The flat-tops sold by Convoy cost a lot less, work at least as well, and should at least theoretically have a more stable connection in the battery compartment.

The thing I never understood is why the range in price for the s2+. The low end is $9.5, the high end is $25. That’s huge.

The other issue is how much extra for the colors. Typically if a light comes in a few different colors, the price is the same. For the s2+, you will pay 60% more for a color other than black. Makes no sense.

[quote]

Porchlight wrote:
Too bad the H1 isn’t regulated. I could have Simon put a red LED in it instead of modding another headlamp myself just to get deep red. Can’t wait for the light to come from his store so I can test it & see if Convoy can survive my use. (I destroy lights)

Chucking an Osram red in it would have provided 15 minutes of good output until dropping to 60% due to it having 2.5 forward voltage. It burns off the extra voltage as heat and drops the battery down to something it can use.[
/quote]

I think Simon has a driver in store for low Vf red Osrams.