New 1xAA / 1x14500 Light at QCG

http://www.qualitychinagoods.com/trustfire-3mode-1x14500-flashlightfcsa2-p-1584.html

It looks like it could be the first underrated Chinese light. I really do suspect it makes more than 50 lumens on high. On the other hand the low mode is way too high. Apart from that, I wonder what sort of LED is a "SP-E"? I thought at first that it was based on the body of the SmallSun ZY-C41, but this has a strange waist-band diameter near the tailcap, and the battery contact in the tailcap is a spring, not a spring-loaded post as I found in my ZY-C41 review. Apart from that, you may be interested to note that it has an "Aluminum Alloy Crust Material." Not sure if the crust is chewy, crunchy, or just plain flaky. I wouldn't buy this light yet from QCG, because it'll probably show up at DX for about $13.00, unless this has some special LED that I don't know about.

Update: Now available at KD for a much better price:

http://www.kaidomain.com/ProductDetails.aspx?ProductId=10489


Update #2: Briefly became available at DX, but now "out of stock"

http://www.dealextreme.com/details.dx/sku.36358


The LED certainly isn't a Cree XR-E but could be an XP-E or possibly an XP-C. The reflector looks like it was intended for an XR-E LED there's a huge hole at the base where you can see the LED mounting. By zooming in on the rather low resolution image the LED looks almost like a quad-die LED (I downloaded the images for a closer look.) 50lm on high should mean a runtime of approximately forever, they don't mention the drive current or the voltage used to take the measurements though.

Hmmm, so what's your opinion on the quality and efficiency of this emitter? And what about the 30lm low? Isn't that really bright for a low mode? It seems to me that an Akoray K-106 on low is about 6 to 9 lumens. Thanks for the tips Don!

Not actually certain which one it is. If it is an actual Cree. Cree make a lot of different types of LED. From their website

Did you guys check out the lumen rating, why so low though.

Yes, I don't really believe the lumens rating. It's rare for these suppliers to understate their products though.

Thats what i dont get, if the light is 14500 compatible then it should be way more......but if the light just puts out 50 or less total lumens then something is probably mistyped.

Now available at KD for a much better price:

http://www.kaidomain.com/ProductDetails.aspx?ProductId=10489

Absolutely no helpful details for this light still.

Taking a look at the pics of the beam it really does look like the emitter is underdriven......has a blue tint to me. It does look like a nice well built light, just wish they gave more details about it.

Gotta love KD's random number generator when it comes to dimensions. Don't they even look at what they put up?

I was going to say something mean, but decided not too......okay im going to say it....must be the slanted eyes...lol.

Ha! That is funny. 37 inches long. And more than 8 inches in diameter. It would have an aspect ratio like this:

8.35"W x 37.82"L Now that's what I call a flashlight! Laughing

Probably the only AA light in the history of the world that makes my 6D Mags look tiny...

And the only flashlight you'll use and carry on your shoulders like a bazooka. Laughing

Nah, they were 2.75" in diameter. Well, the projectiles were - the overall diameter was well under 4"

The recoil should be less though...

You could get an awful lot of 18650s into an 8" diameter. And a lot more AAs 8.35" is 15 AAs across. Can't remember the formulae but that's roughly 150AAs will fit in the diameter. Having done the sums it is over 200 AAs.

Even at 50mA each that should give 60 hours runtime. But given the 14AA length that gives you 21V at 150x50 - 7.5A at 21V for 60 hours. A bit heavy though. Not as much shoulder carried as truck carried. A typical AA weighs around an ounce (28g) so 150 x 14 of them (2100) weighs 150x14x28=59kg/130lbs plus the weight of the light... 200 * 14 * 28=78kg=172lb

Yup, I used to be a teacher hence the silly calculations.

Sounds like you were in the military too. What do you do now?

My total personal military experience was 2 weeks as a potential army chaplain. But green doesn't suit me...

However, i shared a flat with an army officer for several years and my brother spent 27 years as an air force officer and now sells kit to them.

Since 1989 I've been a pastor in a psychiatric hospital (Went there in 87 as a student and sorta stayed). Beats working. Tried that, hated it.....

Was a teacher from 84-86, worked in various labs or was unemployed from 82-84. Was a student of chemistry from 78-82

Wearing another hat, i build networks and sort out computers. Makes up for the difference between what the day job pays and what i spend.

That's quite the variety in careers. Working in a psychiatric hospital must be scary at times. It would be interesting to hear some of your psychiatric hospital stories over a couple cases of beer. Teacher, pastor..... so how did you get into computers?

Well, here is a strange little saga... The TrustFire S-A2 was available for about a day on DealExtreme, but the item is now "temporarily sold out" which we all know usually means "gone forever". It would appear that this item was pulled due to some (deservedly) strong criticism in the product forums of DealExtreme's false advertising and deceitful business practices. This stemmed from the fact that the S-A2 does not appear to have the led bin that they claimed it had. So, if you want this light, looks like you'll have to get it from KD.