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.
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.
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.
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.
I disassembled my S3 by removing the battery and end cap, putting the tube in a Ziplock bag, and dangling it head down in a pot of boiling water for about 60 seconds……I used a palm sized piece of that ‘exercise elastic’ (that comes in strips about 4” wide) in one hand, and an oven mitt on the other hand. Came apart with only hand force.
I did mark one up earlier with leather & pliers, but discovered that a bit of heat releases the glue just fine. In fact, after reassembling it was ‘glued’ again all by itself, and I had to re-heat it to take it apart a second time.
Since then I’ve taken other lights apart this way as well.
I just finished assembling a DIY Convoy S3 host that arrived today from Fasttech with an XM-L T5-5C1 / 4000K and the 8* AMC7135.
As I also bought a pre-assembled Convoy S3 Cree XM-L T5-5C with 8* AMC7135, I had the opportunity to compare.
While I thought in theory they’d essentially be the same, there is a difference. The DIY assembly has a spot that is probably tighter by up to 30%, and the tint subjectively appears to be cooler by perhaps 750K. Both are going to be acceptable for bike lights where cooling will be efficient. (I’ve found that when hiking outdoors at this time of year, they are barely warm to the touch on high, whereas indoors they get too hot to hold, so that little bit of active cooling even at speeds as low as 2.5 km/hr. while going uphill really makes a difference.)
Even the S3 DIY spot is not as tight as the Cree C20 DIY Host using the same driver and LED, so together they will make a good combination for biking. I wondering perhaps if the pre assembled light may not have the reflector screwed down as tight as I did on my DIY unit to account for the difference in the hot spot. So for anyone contemplating this unit, if you want a tighter hot spot you may want to assemble it yourself.
