Great to see at least someone’s looking out for the night critters! :bigsmile:
I’ve got the HD2011, puts out a great floody beam. How does the spill width compare to the S3? I was hoping the S3 has a larger spill, if less lumens up the middle.
It looks to me as if the spill on the S3 is about the same size as the HD2011. However, the beams have different patterns… S3 is brighter in the middle with a distinct Mach band near the outer edge of the spill, and HD2011 fades more smoothly from center to edge.
A Mach band is an optical illusion which happens at the ends of a smooth gradient with flat colors on either side. It appears to have a peak or valley at the end, but it’s not real. In this image, it’s the bright horizontal line at the bottom and dark horizontal line at the top… they’re not actually any brighter or darker than the smooth area next to them, even though they may appear more intense.
Edit: Actually, I guess they both have Mach bands around the edge of the spill… it’s just more pronounced on the S3. In any case, they have about the same spill width but the HD2011 is floodier and the S3 is throwier.
Just received my S3, my initial thoughts:
Good spill, a bit wider than the HD2011
Shallow reflector, a bit shallower than the HD2011. I can now see why people suggest the beam profile looks pale or lacking a turbo mode, the hotspot is wider than normal even for a tube light due to the reflector depth, and therefore more dispersed. It will have poor throw and won’t look so bright, however this just means it’s more floody, so just depends on what you’re after. I don’t mind that, the hotspot kind of reminds me of my dedicated bike light which is also dispersed due to being a shallow reflector. Probably would make a good bike light. The HD2011’s hotspot is more focused and looks brighter, but not as floody IMO.
Tube isn’t very grippy, kind of slippery and the square knurling isn’t very aggressive.
Head is part of the battery tube, this indeed is a tube light. Electrical conduction will be quite good, one less set of threads to worry about, although I quite like a removeable head.
Bezel is fixed.
Overall nice looking light with a good finish and nice shiny SS bezel
Hate the tacky green tail button, I’ll be replacing that very shortly.
Edit: just realised my post is almost the opposite of Toy Keepers before mine. :~
Heh, weird. I wonder if it’s just individual sample variation or something else. Mine are the “EDC 18650” XM-L U2 from Intl-Outdoor and the HD2011 from Wallbuys. Maybe different stores have different flavors.
My HD2011 is the floodiest light I have, with the Convoy S3 being probably the second-floodiest.
wow a tube light thats more floody than the hd2011? thats pretty crazy there. i own 4 tube lights and the hd2011 is the floodiest.
whokilled jr, how come you ended buyint the s3 from fasttech? from looking at the op’s pictures, the s3 from international outdoor seems brighter and floodier.
It’s quite possible, I have the grey HD2011 that I purchased locally in Vietnam about 7 months ago, perhaps different batches with slight adjustments.
Looks like in the OP the intl outdoor version has the 7135x8 2.8A driver, and the one from fast tech it has the 7135x4 1.4A driver. You can get the S3 from fasttech with the same driver as intl outdoor, just need to select the right driver. Personally I think 2.8A is the way to go. From my DMM readings I got:
2.81 High
1.3 Med
1.3A is still very reasonable for this form factor and a tube light should be able to handle the heat at this level, whereas 2.8A I consider a turbo so if heat becomes an issue I clock it down to medium, which is still bright.
The beam profile is very similar to my HD2011, the larger spill and hotspot is only slight, so for practical purposes there’s nothing really separating them. I’m scrutinizing them heavily as I’m only going to keep one of them, so the S3 wins based on the better finish. The lack of more aggressive knurling is a bit of a downer though, doesn’t quite feel as good in hand.
One thing I forgot to mention is there is no battery fitting issues, I’m using a protected panasonic 3400 battery from fasttech which is one of the larger protected batteries available.
Wow, that’s the the question I was going to ask right now. Thanks, whokilledJR! I’m going to use panasonic 3400 from intl-outdoor, but most probably they are the same as the fasttech’s ones.
I just got my intl-outdoors EDC 18650 XP-G2 and empty host, and the XP-G2 is actually labeled as a Convoy S3. Not sure if hank did a substitute or it was a mistake. Looks good cosmetically, however the emitter is off center, which I’ll take care of down the road. And speaking of cosmetics, the EDC 18650 host looks identical to the Convoy S3, just missing the white text.
Someone asked about the intl-oudoors clip fitting the lanyard holes: No, the holes are spaced too close, but the tail fin opposite the holes has enough space to mount one.
They are the same hosts, at some point they started printing Convoy S3 on them.
The EDC 18650 is a Convoy S3. Before we all knew Convoy.
I think only the earliest assembled “EDC 18650” units came without the label. As far as I’m aware, the only way to get a blank one now is to get the empty host.
I have the XP-G2 version too, and my emitter is also off-center. I haven’t bothered to fix it though, since it still works fine for my purposes (biking). I’d probably be better off with a 1.4A XM-L version, but I only have 1.4A XP-G2 and 2.8A XM-L so I don’t have the correct ‘medium’ mode for biking use. Instead of 5%/50%/100, I’d prefer if the spacing was more like 1%/20%/100. (I-O’s page says 5/30/100, but mine measures at 5/50/100)
I put custom firmware on my EDC 18650 XP-G2 and I will eventually on my U2. The XP-G2 is easier because the driver is only held down by a retaining ring.
Oops! Must have missed that post. :~
I love the small form factor. Being an engineer, I can easily slip it into the front pocket of my slacks and it practically dissappears. This will replace an old XPG Yezl C1 from CNQ whose only fault was the lack of runtime from a 16340.
Oh? Is it compatible with DrJones’ luxdrv? I haven’t taken mine apart so I don’t know what chip controls the logic.
If it’s compatible, I think I see a new PIC programmer in my future… assuming I can get the light apart. The lack of a separate head piece makes things a little more difficult.
That is exactly what I am using, tweaked to my needs. 
If it is the same as mine, the hardest part is getting the bezel off, it’s glued down. The reflector just comes right out then you unscrew the pill with tweezers. Then unscrew the retaining ring… BAM! ATTINY13 lol 
The only obstacle i’ve seen from prebuilt versions of this light is that there is a “glue” holding the bezel in…after that a pair of long thin pilers or even a metal pick of some sort gets the light apart. Do a search on the EDC 18650 threads to see some that were taken apart.
Sweet. Do you need to melt the glue first, or just force it? i’ve heard a leather glove and pliers might do the trick.
As for re-flashing, I recall seeing links somewhere about the hardware required, but I don’t know whether I need a specific OS and compiler. I currently don’t have any Windows boxes, but could probably set up a VM if necessary. I’d rather do the reflashing from Linux though, if possible.
I used a few layers of denim and pliers. You may be able to get it with little to no heat.
For hardware I use a USB programmer from FastTech(a couple of bucks) and I picked up my SOIC 8 clip from eBay. I paid 17 for the clip.
I used avrstudio for compiling and avrdude from the command line to flash the chip. I’m sure it could be done from Linux, but I personally could not tell you how, sorry.