Saw a guy over at CPF trying to sell a 502B empty host for $20 today . . .
I'd like a Skyray, but for just a little more I could get another Solarforce L2i.
True, I have an L2i that I run a 18500/18490 in. I tried an 18650 in it but it just seemed a little too snug. The Solarforce beats the Skyray in its battery compatability 18xxx+3 aaa for about $2 more
You can always trim the spring on your dropin a little.
How does the 501A offer a better choice of batteries over the L2m? L2M takes 18350's as well, and I got the 18650 tube with it so that's 3 kinds of batteries for Solarforce if you get the 2-tube kit. I'm also trying to see how this would be shorter than the L2M.
Any chance the 501A could be modified to be even smaller, running with just the pill only, sans reflector?
I'm not getting how or why the battery compartment is separated from the drop-in compartment. And, would you remove 1 or both drop-in springs?
I'm really liking my 18350 batteries. Seems to give new purpose to smaller flashlights. At least fresh, I have no problems driving my 3-amp XM-L on high (I always keep my batteries fresh). The L2M is just more "pocket-able" than the larger L2's. Yet I'd like to see even smaller: no reflector, and preferably a shorter switch. If only they made a metal collet which would tighten over the battery tube, and hold in just the PILL from the drop-in... or, maybe with a very short/floody reflector (might be good for headlamp use as well).
Which 18350's are you using?
I know of only one brand of 18350's being made, and those are Ultrafire brand. Actually, AW makes (or at least used to) an LMR/LiMn 18350. Best deal I found on the Ultrafires at the time, was (surprisingly) at DinoDirect, on a 2-pack. A lot of variance in the price out there. Dino's not known for their low prices--maybe that's changing. Price could've gone up since then, and I remember they had two of the same item, for different prices (and even different photographs). I got the cheaper one. I think Manafont and Kaidomain carry them too, check first if you're budget-conscious.
I also got my Ultrafire 22600's. They are significantly taller than 3x AAA battery holders/adapters, even before the + button on the top and the protection circuit. Almost as tall as an 18650, but the + button wastes a lot of room. More of a screwup job than the 18350's. I've already torn the protection circuit off the back of one, but don't think I'm gonna be able to remove the + button which is probably welded to the top. Will work fine in some applications like probably Solarforce L2i (UPDATE: does work and 'fits', but not well--fits fine inside the battery tube, but not into the tailcap well... tailcap screws closed, but not fully, and not because the battery tube's not long enough, but the battery doesn't sit down inside the tailcap enough... *sigh*), but not in others (without modification) like freebie "9 LED" 3x AAA lights. And frankly, in crap flashlights, running a big cell like that without protection makes me even more nervous than normal. Keeping protection circuit on the other. My far-fetched guess is the engineers had one flashlight, an L2i, by which they designed that product. They could've splurged on a few more crap/cheapo 3x AAA flashlights just to make sure they were making a useful/versatile size. Along those same lines, the 18350 seems 'made for' the L2m. Definitely doesn't fit in my dedicated single-CR123/16340 flashlights (then again, not supposed to).
AW just recently started making them, and rated at 700mah, they offer better performance over the Ultrafires, rated at 1200, at a higher cost *duh*. A lot of crap 3AAA lights waste a ton of room with egronomics, so I find it simple to use 18650's, but a button top 22600 is pretty good too, as pretty much all the 3AAA I've seen have a tall button.
Does AW make anything except that little sticker ??
I just find it odd that that is their little telltale mark .. a sticker ..:~
Wanted to alert any followers of this thread that I tried a 22600 in my new L2i. Previously, I assumed it'd be fine, because I dropped the battery inside the tube, and there was plenty of space. Not having a drop-in ready for it, I left it at that. Later, when I tried to put the tailcap on, I realized that the battery does not quite fit inside of the well of the tailcap. The protection circuit gets down in there a little, and the spring does touch, and I can twist the tailcap on, but not fully. So it does work, but without full cinching of the tailcap... and not because there's not enough room in the battery tube, but because it won't get down inside that tailcap far enough.
I've updated my previous post to reflect this update. I don't really know what those guys were thinking when they developed this battery. So much potential.
srfreddy i don't think you're confusing 18350's with 22600's in your last post, but the lack of a paragraph break might lead people to think you were (looks like you had 2 separate thoughts there). 700 sounds about right for an LMR 18350, not a 22600 which would be approaching 3x that.
Boaz, I'm not sure AW actually 'makes' any of his cells per se, though I have seen him comment about why he would not make 18350's a couple years ago, mentioning the tooling and investment, though he didn't say exactly who would've had to make that investment. I know that his very expensive 18650's are high-end Panasonic cells, with a protection circuit (something you can't get, unless you make them yourself). I personally think he researches and then sources good quality batteries, then buys them in bulk and puts protection circuits and wrappers on them... not that there's anything wrong with that. I got some of the Panasonic (non-AW) cells off of Ebay, and while quite expensive, they're nearly half the price, but they're unprotected and the wrapper doesn't go all the way down, supposedly to help join battery packs. They're a little scary sometimes. Definitely don't want to mess up with those. I have to admit that the one 22600 I removed the protection circuit from though, is somehow scarier... mainly because the lights I intended to use them in range from low-end to VERY! low-end. Already had a scare where i thought I poofed alight which has a lot of trouble staying together, lol.
IMR. The Ultrafire "1200"'s were around that, but the IMR's are much safer. Some guys deconstructed AW cells and Trustfires, the difference was quite big. The protection wire was insulated and "fused" against shorts on the AW, whereas the Trustfire had a solid wire with a piece of tape between it and the cell. The protection circuit was much smaller on the AW, and was cushioned with a foam pad-the trustfire cardboard and tape. AW has his own factories for IMR cells, I think, and maybe strange sized Li-ion (10180, 14760, etc), but gets the common cells from the big brands that develop the high capacity ones (Panasonic, Sony, etc)
I just received the Sky-Ray host from manafont yesterday. It is really nice, and there is only .85mm gap between the dropin and host. It takes a strip of aluminum soda can ~6 inches long and its a tight fit! perfect. tailstands too
.85? thats huge......some of the dropins I've seen for the L2p (on CPF) have I think less than .1mm gap.
srfreddy can you measure some of your tubes and dropins and provide evidence for it "being huge". It would be nice if you could back up your unhelpful statement with some facts
I just remeasured and the dropin is 21.8mm and the skyray tube is 22.49mm inner diameter, so its actually .7mm gap. Again it only takes a strip of soda can ~7 inches long for a very tight fit. The skyray is the best fit for a p60 out of the 4 hosts I own. If the L2p really is .1 mm I really need to get myself one of those and see what all this solarforce hoorah is all about.
I'm afraid I only run incans in P60 hosts, and that's the way its going to stay until I get the cash for a L2P+fitted kerebro's L2P triple or (not ever happening) a surefire.
Not if you want a graphite coated copper dropin that exactly fits the dimensions of the L2P...
The problem being that I COULD of got it, but then of course, I get a goddamn $130 bill for library books....
Who knew a hardcover book was at such a premium.... :(
[quote=srfreddy]
The problem being that I COULD of got it, but then of course, I get a goddamn $130 bill for library books....
[/quote]
Quit chewing the covers off of 'em! 
This is my doctor phil moment.
Srfreddy, I have noticed that the majority of your posts are not very......postive. Maybe buy (or borrow from the library after you pay them the 130) some books on positive thinking and put it into practice, your whole life will change for the better like you cannot even imagine, mine has.
I just measured the internal diameter of my L2P's 22.33mm, I measured a few dropin 22.12-21.76mm.