So is the consensus that this light would be fine for a non-flashaholic that would only run it on 4AAA's? (Assuming you'd get the AAA battery holder of course!) I think this could be one of the best inexpensive "high-powered" lights running on AAA's or AA's to gift. I wonder how it does on AAA alkalines - I'm sure it would fire up, but would runtime on high be ridiculously short? The person I'd gift it to may not want to buy AAA NiMh's just for this.
-Garry
At the 13th, it’ll be 34 days, which would be slow but acceptable, at the 30th it’ll be 51 days, obviously, not acceptable. Thing is, ok I only paid a pound shipping, but I’ve had free shipping on cheaper lights that arrived in less than a week (i kind of hoped they would take 30 days, but toni was understanding…) I also have a keygos m10 charger and cells, ordered about the same time which still have not arrived. They were ordered from cybeeport888 so I’m kind of suprised they are not here yet as they are usually damm fast and charged $12.odd shipping (no tracking either, hmmm).
Anyway sorry for the thread hi-jack, just needed a moan. :bigsmile:
They’re sending my AAA holder. Speaking of o rings mine didn’t even come with one on the tail.
From what I’m reading , getting the HD2010 is the better idea…
If this one is attached like the driver in my bt-950l , you wont see the solder joint.
Stuck the tip of the iron in the holes around the outside of the driver and sure enough it was soldered.
Think they tinned the copper ring & the board , then put them together.
It shouldn’t be incredibly hard to improve the heat sinking.
Thinking you could pull the led & driver, use a step bit to open up
the pill & then put a copper slug in. But then again,things are often more complicated than they seem
Will have to wait and see when mine gets here…
I was thinking of either machining a brass/copper pill to replace the original or a press fit piece for the original, I’d prefer to machine a complete new pill as I find it easier to solder to brass/copper than aluminum. We shall see.
Is soldering to aluminium possible at all?
I’ve always thought not, but never actually tried.
From reading here, its difficult, I’ve never tried, but since welding it involves reversing the polarity on a mig and using special wire and gas, I imagine you need different stuff to soldering to traditional materials.
Worth a try, I have an alu pill in mind as it happens, the press fit of the driver is bugging me but it still works.
Neat trick, thank you Match and Garry!
x2…. I’ll have to try it some day. I imagine it needs a REALLY hot iron too, one with a big heat reservoir that won’t go cold when it touches the Aluminum.
Got mine yesterday (at last).
Only had a quick look but I reckon a smoothed 2p piece will fit perfectly below the rim that the star is mounted on. Fit a smoothed 1p on top of it so that its level with the ledge. A combo of Fujik plus a strong epoxy around the inside outer edge to securely fix it in place not forgetting too drill holes for the led wires first. Voila the hollow pill is no more.
IGNORE THIS POST. Close examination of the light now reveals that my casual conclusions were wrong.
Just had a good chance to take a look at my light. These are my thoughts.
The star is mounted in a similar fashion to a Trustfire X9. That is to say the emitter is mounted on an aluminium star. It is not as thick as the X9’s and does not screw to the pill’s body but it is thicker than a star’s platform in a normal pill. The key therefore to improving heatsinking to a considerable degree, without building a slug, is simply to ensure that the edge of the alu star has the maximum possible thermal contact with the pill body where it sits.
There is thermal paste under the star but it has been put mainly in the middle above the void, where it does no good whatsoever, rather than being put than around the edge where it is needed. I presume it was fitted by people who usually fit stars in normal solid pills. If you have some Fujik or other TIM then put a decent thick bead around the edge of the star so that it makes maximum contact with the pill. If you don’t have any then you can use a matchstick to move what’s there to the outer edge. Once this is done I see no significant heat problems unless you are going to do a driver swap to 2.8A/3A. Certainly if the light will be used by non-flashaholics on 4xAAA’s (which in my light draws 1.82A) then heat is unlikely to ever cause problems.
Given the very low cost of this light then once one does the above I believe it great value for money.
Waiting for someone to convert it to XR-E …
BTW, what’s the bezel internal diameter?
Who’s thinking Aspheric then……… 
Because the lens is already glass.
Don’t have a Caliper so can’t help right now re size. Will try to tape measure it later.
Thanks for the details VFMaddict! Sounds perfect for a non-flashaholic buddy of mine. Any chance you could try 4AAA's (alkaline of course) and check runtime? And tailcap draw?
Thanks!
-Garry
No chance to do runtime tests yet. Draw on 4xAAA is 1.82A and on 4x(AAA) Eneloops draw is 2A. But WOW !!! It very noticeably outthrows my KD C8 XM-L with a TF3100 pulling 3A. More so than with a good 18650 in it. Strange. The bottom line is that I am both astonished and delighted by the AAA performance. I can’t think of any light at anywhere near this price which is capable of being non-lithium driven and which delivers this KD C8 beating performance. :bigsmile:
PS As I have a fair number of 1xAAA lights and other devices I always have a very good stock of AAA Alkalines usually three dozen or more… Its good to know that now if I’m ever in a situation where there is no possibility of using my chargers then I can still field a very capable thrower.
Thanks! Sounds great!
-Garry
I left it on last night using an unprotected Samsung 18650 and to me it does seem to have a low voltage cutoff since it reacts the same as my ITP C8 when the cell is getting close to low voltage…….my light blinks 3 times as a warning, has anyone here also notice that. The light was set to low and turned on about 10pm last night and when i got up around 830 my little one told me that the light was blinking.
Ordered! Couldn't take it anymore! 
Teetered on ordering 2, but decided on 1 for now.
So if the low PWM turns out to be a killer, what is a good driver to replace with that would work reasonable on the 4AAA's and keep output down to levels reasonable for the limited heatsinking? One could even be a driver which is direct-drive on high since I plan on 4AAA use only.
Thanks,
-Garry