A few new and uncommon super-budget 1xAA lights on eBay

Thanks for those pictures Don! If you ask me, the MXDL is not a flop by any means; that's an impressively large flood from a rather small light. In fact it sounds like a useful tool for any budgeteer to keep on his shelf.

Thanks for the update Mike! That is is incredibly fast shipping, I wonder how he does it? DealExtreme should be ashamed. They can't even get the product from their suppliers within 5 days most of the time, to say nothing of the shipment.

What color is the beam of your light? My BLF DeLights have a slight but noticeable bluish tinge. My current and only MXDL light (good choice too, by the way) also has a bluish tinge. But my Powerlights have a buttery or, as Don says, vanilla colored beam that is really impressive.

Again, pretty good at 15 days from China.

First impressions. It has the same tailcap and switch as the DeLight, the MDXL, the Powerlight et al. Which means the extension tube ought to fit and work with all of these. Had a bit of fun legoing bits together and taking pics which will go up tonight. It really doesn't bear thinking about how long it'd take to upload them over the 3G modem I'm using just now. None of them seemed unhappy with 2.8V from two Eneloops.

Will try some white wall beamshots under the desk - the walls above it are far too brightly lit for beamshots.

Very nice! Can't wait to see detailed comments from everyone on the C3 clone.

This thread epitomizes budget lighting at its best, in my opinion. They used to buy spices from far away in the Orient. Now we buy flashlights. 8)

Cheaper too - famously, pepper in Scotland was worth considerably more than its weight in gold in the 17th and 18th centuries. With gold at $40 a gramme just now, a 40 gramme flashlight for under $5 has to be a much better deal.

First impressions - pictures to come. A bit brighter on 2AA than the Powerlight and a much warmer beam colour. This can and will vary from sample to sample. On a single AA (All NiMH as no fresh alkalines around just now) it is not as bright as the DeLight and is fractionally brighter, but a lot warmer coloured than my Powerlight that I have with me.

I think I am only waiting for two lights now. And two sets of fine pointed forceps. Must remember not to buy any more this month (well, we'll see if I can make it to the end of the week, let alone month.) Since the car needs a new cylinder head gasket and that is a $750 job, I'd better not buy any more till that's done and paid for.

The Small Sun "5W" does not have interchangeable parts with a real C3. Just tried some C3 bodies and tailcaps with the clone extension and tailcap. They sorta, kinda fit but the thread pitch on the real C3 is much finer. However the extension works just fine on the Powerlight

And the BLF DeLight. That is one of the shorter, earlier DeLights with the tailcap from the Powerlight which works just fine. This is the one with the too short tailcap that works fine with the tailcap off the MDXL and the MDXL works just fine with the tailcap from this DeLight.

Here's the original Small Sun with its extension tube. The finish on the extension is very different from the much glossier tailcap and body.

Here's the LED - yet another unknown. This one would undoubtedly vapourise if anything even close to 5W went through it - the one on the Powerlight has six bond wires, this appears to have only two and those are the limiting factors for current into the LED. Most white LEDs have a forward voltage in the 3.2-3.6V range. Even assuming the higher end of that range 5W = 3.6V x ?A.

Rearranging Power = current x voltage we get power/voltage = current or 5/3.6 = 1.39A. Asuming a perfectly efficient conversion from the 1.2ish volts of the cell to 3.6 that would imply 4.2A out of the cell.

Aye. Right!

1.4A through those hair-fine wires just isn't happening.

The other end of the head isn't all that pretty. A rather poor blob of solder isn't as nice as a spring. It is probably more durable than the bent bit of wire in the MDXL though.

The tailcap is the same as all the other ultra-budget lights. And appears to be interchangeable with all of them.

Single AA configuration

2AA configuration

The beam is a nice colour on my one.

That's the Small Sun "5W", the Powerlight and the DeLight

Better exposed when I remembered to stop the flash from firing.

Of those three, I like the beam colour of the C3 clone best. I like it a lot more than the MDXL. It is very well worth the extra 45 cents over the MDXL and allows all these ultra-budget lights to use 2AA if you want them to. I did rather worry the next patient into the office when he saw me crawling out from under my desk with camera in hand. But then I work in a psychiatric hospital and strange is what the customers are used to - just not usually from the staff....

Since I got carried away taking pics, here's my favourite Lego shot.

Measurements to follow - but at present, because of the versatility, I think this may actually be worth 4x as much as the DeLight. As you may have guessed, I like it.

Very nice Don! Looks like a winner. Dumb question: The SmallSun head can't be used with just the extension tube and the tailswitch can it? Because I like the knurl on the extension more than the single AA body.

Unfortunately not - the body tube has male threads at both ends, the extension male at one end and female at the other. It should be possible to get any engineering shop to make up a double ended male adapter though this is likely to cost many, many times as much as the light here. Might be worth asking where you are, the labour costs may be very much lower. All you need is a very short threaded section that will screw both into the head and the extension - any competent machinist should be able to turn one up for you in a few minutes.

Ah, you're right, the extension has a male and female end doesn't it. Oh well. Still looks pretty nice.

Small Sun "5W"

Single Eneloop

Throw: 330 lux at 1 metre

Lightbox: 79 lux

Two Eneloops

Throw: 750 lux at 1 metre

Lightbox: 165 lux

Since all the others will take the extension, let's see the numbers for them.

Throw with 2AA NiMH - Lux at 1 metre

MDXL: 364

Powerlight: 950

BLF DeLight: 2180!

Lightbox lux

MDXL: 169

Powerlight: 269

BLF DeLight: 300

Now I must lube the extension, the squeaking as it was attached and detached is horrible.

But the diameter is close to that of some spark plugs. Your local garage might just have a set of helicoil inserts used for repairing damaged cylinder heads on engines. This would be a cheap way of getting the body you want if one of the inserts will fit.

In the 2AA configuration the Small Sun "5W" fits very nicely in the Ultrafire 6 inch holster. Which costs all of $1.36

http://www.dealextreme.com/details.dx/sku.5264

It also takes my other 2AA light, the Ultrafire WF-606A very nicely. Think I'll get a couple more of these for use with Ultrafire C3s with an extension tube. The Aurora SH-032 also fits nicely in one of these.

The MDXL fits nicely into the small camouflage holster which takes all my single AA lights and some of the single CR123 ones - the smaller ones have yet to find a suitable holster.

http://www.dealextreme.com/details.dx/sku.29354

I just took delivery of quite a lot of them so will be off to the craft shops at the weekend to buy some black dye that will work on them.

Dont know if you guys carry it over there, but you might want to try some Rit-Dye......there made for fabric and such.

sb56637: The MXDL definitely has a blueish/purple tint, at least mine does. I tend to like warmer tints but I sure can't complain considering the price. I've been told that MXDL is associated with ROMISEN along with SAIK, if that's true I wonder if there is a Romisen with the same body?

Mike

Got the MXDL today... not impressed. Not too bright, maybe because of the wide hotspot. Produces something blue-violet, definitely.

But then, I have nothing to compare it to, except a broken RC-G2 which draws 0,25A from an eneloop. My MXDL pulls 0,31A.

But I want to show you something - the C3 clone is 20c cheaper until tomorrow:

http://cgi.ebay.com/5W-LED-Torch-Flashlight-waterproof-Sporting-Camping-/270577987355

I'm thinking of taking one, the impact of the sick exchange rate is negligible at these prices :)

One question - do the other lights (MXDL and BLF) take 2AA, even if the specs say up to 1,5V?

Both of them have been run briefly at 3V with no more blueness than they usually have. The MDXL is running 525mA at bout 2.6V or about 1.3 watts. It does say 3W on the side...

I only have one MDXL but I have plenty BLF lights. In fact, why not go the whole hog with it and put a 14500 in it?

That BLF light is now a lot bluer than it already was. Don't try 14500s on it. It was also startlingly bright but it wasn't going to be for long. So since I've at least partly cooked the LED on it, I've no problem with running this light on a pair of Eneloops - which has killed the LED but that was probably the fault of the 14500. On another BLF with 2 AAs I see a current draw of 600mA which is probably too much for the poor thing. Not wanting to kill another one, I left it at that.

The MDXL hasn't gone blue after a few minutes on a pair of Eneloops so will possibly be OK but individual samples may well vary widely. It isn't even getting warm. Since the Powerlight has a very low current draw it might well survive better than the others. Since heatsinking on this device doesn't really exist I'd not want to run it for hours on 2AAs - the higher voltage of two alkalines might be too much for it though the current draw will make an alkaline's voltage sag horribly.

After about ten minutes the MDXL had not got any bluer, but when I took the head off it was clearly getting hot in there. It may do the same with a single cell as well, I don't know.

Dylon used to be the brand the last time I bought any fabric dye - but that was in the early 1970's. I'll find out at the weekend.

I used to use it the bring back the color in my faded jeans and i can say it did a fine job.......lasted a couple of cycles in cold washings without fading again.

Managed to buy the "5W" one in an auction even cheaper, for $3.50 ;)

http://cgi.ebay.com/5W-LED-Torch-Flashlight-waterproof-Sporting-Camping-/280518711035?cmd=ViewItem&pt=US_Flashlights&hash=item415037d6fb

I suddenly seem to need more Eneloops :)

I just received the MXDL T51 today... Not bad at all for the price. Nice wide beam, good runtime, no flickering. Bad points: Unexceptional threading on both ends, a bit too long (~10.4 cm), and no tailstanding. I'll try to do a detailed review sometime soon.