DQG 18650 EDC--World's Smallest 18650 Flashlight

No, mine came out nice 'n matt black:

But I really dig the head colour of your light, I agree in that would it be nice to have a matching tail .

True. Many twisties, especially on the budget end of things, have this issue. It can be annoying.

Here’s a few pics of mine:

Kind of hard to show the difference in finish, but you get the idea.

I like the flat black on yours djozz. Goes great with relics green head lol

Do you have (did you put) 2 O-rings on the threads on the body?

One of mine had zero O-rings there, and the other had only 1. After I made sure there were two O-rings, that “push flash” problem is much better.

Yes, I did put 2 black o-rings. And there is still 1 extra white and black one.

Still needs 3/4 turn to eliminate "push flash"

Sorry to hear that then :(… I wonder if thicker O-rings might help/work.

My 2 lights were really loose before I added the 2 O-rings, but after that they’re good. I still keep them in the boxes, and the only time I see that push flash is if I’ve only unscrewed the head slightly.

If that spring would work, I wonder if you called them and asked if they could reduce the shipping for 1-2 springs? $3 seems steep (understatement :slight_smile: )…

Yes I agree. It can be made to flash, but mine is not really worse than other similar twisties including my thrunite neutron 1C, for example.

edit: OK scratch that. Tried again. No flash. Must’ve been before I added the two black o-rings to the body. No flashing by pressing now.

Whoops. Tried again and it sure does flash when pressing on the head. Dangit. I’m not messing with it anymore :stuck_out_tongue:

Looks like it could be a winner, would be nifty if it would hold shape to use 123s or 16340s in a pinch. Just offset the shipping by ordering more stuff :slight_smile:

Do we actually know the voltage range for this? I don’t remember seeing that. I wonder if it could take 2x16340, would it be brighter?

EDIT: I am NOT suggesting anyone try this until we know for sure. I’ve PM’ed RIC.

Pretty sure there’s a post higher up about someone who tried two 123s and killed it, the driver is made for just one li-ion battery.

I kind of thought that, but it’s hard to go through 600+ messages. Wish that BLF had a thread search.

could use 1 cr123a and a spacer in a pinch

I think the Title of this very thread ought to be a clue :open_mouth:

World’s Smallest 18650 Flashlight

Many (larger) 1x 18650 lights have drivers with voltage range of 2.8-6V which permit use of 2x CR123A…. PDs, 1st responders, and military usually use CR123 primaries instead of 18650 li-ions.

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1x 18650 or 2x 16340 (2.8-8.4V) capable drivers are not as common… Which makes a lot of sense to me. If you are going li-ion instead of primary, best to use the larger 18650s with superior run time. Only advantage of 2x 16340 is that it may be brighter (and hotter), but that depends on what kind of regulation is used. And run time will suck.

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That said…. given the heat issues this tiny light has, anything over 4.2v would not be wise IMO. I see no reason to fit a driver that exceeds this.

I did some ceiling bounce lumen estimates on my (NW) DQG18650. There were measurents before from _the_ and relic38, and those were undoubtly better performed than mine, but here are the numbers anyway, actually consistent with their numbers and somewhere in between:

low: 12.5 lumens

med: 157 lumens

high: initially 470 lumen, within a second already 420 lumen, settling after two minutes at 335 lumens and from there a very slow decline.

What I believe is happening on high setting is the following: the very rapid decrease within the second is actually pointing at a unusual high thermal resistance very close the led, directly where it sits on the board, then the still fast decline points at a lot of thermal resistance anywhere through the board to the body. The very slow decline leftover after two minutes is the limited surface area from body to air, so that the body is still warming up slowly.

Design-wise just the limited surface area of the body is not avoidable (it is already made of aluminium and we want this light small) and it is not a big problem anyway. The other thermal issues can be avoided largely by a different design (such as using a small pill anyway with separate led board and driver, it will cost a few mm extra). It made me wonder wether the board the driver is made on and where the led sits on is a metal core one? I noticed from the DQGAAA that that is not the case, and my guess is that it is the same here so that the heat path directly near the led is only through the electrical traces and not through the board at all, which may also be the reason to choose for fujiking the board behind the alu divider in the head.

Any comment on my wandering thoughts?

Actually i can answer the question myself, and with my own picture of the driver ( #574 ) : the driver board contains a large amount of via's and I guess that would be impossible with a metal core one

commenting on my own posts, I must like myself

Going from 470 to 335 lumens means a decline to 71% of initial output. If you look at Cree's xml data sheet about junction temp/luminous flux that would mean a junction temperature of about 155 deg. C ! Awfully close to the melting point of solder, bad for the led anyway. I hope my measurements were lousy and this is not true .

I saw that post Bort!

I don't think it is voltage sag, I used a Efest 18650 IMR battery fully loaded, at 2.0A in the first minutes (not seconds) the voltage drop is 0.3V the most, the voltage stays very near to 4V. It will affect output but nothing near to 30%. And I could repeat the same drastic output decline after cooling down for half an hour without recharging the battery.

I think you’re on to something djozzy. There’s not much to the head.

How could this be modified/improved? Is there space to do anything?

i reread your post and revised my thoughts but you were too quick