A clone with side switch, beside that it's cheaper than the others:
I got an ebay version today. It's exactly the same, as the mxdl.
Surprisingly good quality, much better than a common C8 etc...
Tailcap current is ~2.5A with a sanyo cell, and at this current it throws out a nice 36kcd. Not so bad, but will be better with a little more current.
There is now a blank driver adaptor available which will make putting new drivers in this light very easy.
See here.
Nice blank dummy board. Although there is a risk using it in this light because the battery tube needs to touch the -B pad on the board.
Just use the original board as your base. That's what I did. Just put electrical tape over the components so nothing shorts out but be sure to leave the outer ring exposed where it contacts the inside of the pill. Works great for me. I love this little light. Not the biggest or baddest thrower but really comfortable in a cigar hold, throws very well, manages heat better than most lights and, with a KD V2 driver in it, has great moon mode and crazy brightness. All that and it looks awesome and tough, too. Love the head on this thing.
Hard to say... you can see the score line left by the battery tube in the picture below. This is the area that needs to make contact with the tube. At any rate, its easy enough to de-pop the SMT components and use the OEM board as a dummy like JohnnyMac describes. Its definitely a different looking light. I was showing some lights to my cousin and her kids over the holiday and this is the one that got the most Ooh-aahs from people.
here are my mods:
There isn't any coil on it (yeah, difference driver).
But good news, very easy to modify this kind of driver. The resistors -which have been bridged over with a wire by me - are not current sense resistors, but only current limiters, as I see. With this bridge, the current has gone up to 3.8A. (easier without the bridge, if the red wire is soldered to the other side... :) )
tailcap mod: the spring has almost 100mOhm, so with this mod I got a 0.1ohm advantage. Tailcap resistance decreased from 130mohm to 30-40mohm.
a little tin on the positive end of the driver solved the connection problem with unprotected cells
And the result, 44-45kcd in the first 5sec. :) Never will reach the "hottest" throwers, but in this size this is one of the best I think. On mid mode (which means 1.6-1.7A in my case ) it throws like a jetbeam bc40, or almost like a C8 at 3A.
Viffer, I saw that second pad that bypasses the current limiting resistors but had my mind on using an AMC driver. I wonder if the extra .8A makes a big difference in throw. Maybe I'll switch back to the original driver and save the Nanjg for something else. I do like the moon mode though...
Nice mods gents!!
Thanks for the lux measurement viffer. With a U2 and AR coated glass I am guessing it should be very close to 50K at least on a cold start before thermal effects come into play.
Viffer & Kramer, do either of your lights have a couple little scratches in the reflector? I have wear on the ano around the hex area that threads onto the battery tube and a couple small scratches in my reflector. I wonder if either of yours were as rough as mine?
This little light is a bargain compared to the Skyray A0 @ $42 especially when just a little solder and a single rewire of the driver yields a bump from 2A to 3.8A in output! It's a really sharp little giant killer for very little cash. I'd take this over a 980L, a Keygos KE-5 (or any of the other countless 980L clones), C8 or just about anything else in the single 18650 class. $23 shipped makes this baby a winner in my book!
My reflector is clean with no scratches. The typeII finish was perfect out of the box, but I have managed to scratch some edges around the tailcap and head area. So it scratches easier than the best anodize finishes in my collection, although the hex-piece remains scratch free.
Viffer... could you just bridge over these 2 points? Looks like they just stack up parallel R150 resistors in line with the LED+, to throttle down current from transistor output to the emitter. Your wire add just bypasses the resistance. Alternately solder the red LED wire onto the LED+ pad on the right.
2 little scratches on the head under the ano, and the reflector is almost perfect, only a little dust
the solder points are parallel with the resistors, so it can be bridge over there too, the result will be the same as above in the photo, as I made
Kramer,
Here is something you can do to gain a few extra mm in the switch to make room for your protected cells. I'm not using protected but after installing a spring on the driver end to stop unintended mode changes I found the tail cap would not go on far enough.
Disassemble the tail end including both threaded brass retainers. Take the white nylon spring insulator, at the base of it you will find that there is a thin lip that runs the perimeter. Trim that lip off using a sharp blade or file. I had to make a quick diagram (below) since I don't have the light on me to take a pic of what I did. Once that lip is off put that insulator between the switch PCB and the first brass retainer. Removing that little lip will allow the brass retainer to make contact with the PCB contact ring. Tighten it down all the way. Next, use the spring that came with the switch when you install the second brass ring. It is thin enough that when you tighten down the second brass retainer ring it will make solid contact with the first brass ring. Now your brass spring cap will go all the way down to the outer brass retaining ring allowing you to use longer batteries and/or add a spring to the driver side. 
Yeah I cut down that plastic pice too... IIRC that was one of the original mods I did when I first took it apart. I think it does free up some range of motion. I think in my light though its the -B spring coils fully compressing from the added height of the 18650 protection circuit. I've been meaning to go back in and cut the spring down a coil or two, and add some wire braid to reduce the resistance.
Looking at Viffers pictures he clearly has a completely different light than mine. Different driver and tailcap switch gutts. Readers of this thread need to keep this in mind.
You had only a single retaining ring in your tail cap, didn’t you? I just now realized that looking at your pics (at least it would appear that way). Mine has two that came with it. I also have the same driver as Viffer.
Yeah... just one brass retaining ring. Thats the part I flipped over. In mine its that one ring + a spring that make electrical contact to the switch board.
lumapower xm-l (C8 clone) with amc7135 3.04A (mouse out)
vs
ebay "MXDL SA-76" at ~ 3.5A (mouse over)
