building vs buying opens up many many many options, I do hold that the best throw/lumen ratio is the xp-g2 and I do intend to build up an xp-g2 c8 for myself, I already have pills and reflectors to try out, just need another good c8 host (cnqg) and to order qlite drivers and noctigon xp-g2’s,
If any of this sounds interesting I’d be happy, once I’d confirmed all the bits go together to build one for someone interested.
The uf-v3 looks very interesting…from Tmart it looks like it could be here in 5-6 days. Does it throw as well as a C8?
Which ‘affordable’ battery should I order from Tmart?
if its driven right, it should do, I got one from ebay and, well……it needed sorting, I threw a spare driver in and an xp-g2, its still no where near the limit but its a marked improvement.
Don’t let this put you off, it is a real nice little light with a wonderful beam, just I like modding lights, the uf-v3 is one of the better mod bases imo because of its reflector. Its a different than typical design and raises a nice light up to a great light.
If left bone stock, does it throw very well? It says the emitter is ‘CREE U2’ is that an XM-L U2?
I have a tiny little EC1 that throws to 160m on RCR123s according to ‘selfbuilt’, it would be nice to get to 300-400m with this light.
Like some of the guys have said, if you are capable of modding the UF-V3 is a very capable little host. In stock form with an xml u2 emitter it does pretty poorly in the throw department. It does have a really nice beam because of the unique reflector. Mine just came pretty under driven.
it’ll certainly do 200m or so, not too sure how much more, it is supposed to be an xm-l u2, but in all honesty, how do you expect to prove that? 
I’d rather not go the modding route. It’d be nice to buy it, use it and love it! (you may say I’m a dreamer…)
They say the C8 with XM-L T6 throws pretty well, I guess it depends on your definition of ‘pretty well’, right?
Sounds like the XinTD V4 is the way to go, but $30 and a loooong wait don’t sound too appealing.
The C8, if it had WORKed, it would have been fine, I’ll bet.
you need one of three things, patience, low expectations or blind luck lol
LOL, so true!
What do you all think about the Convoy C8 XM-L U2?
it’s supposed to be pretty good, check relics review out, he likes his and I trust him
You have an I 4 charger but no 18650,s? Did you put two cr123's in the c-8or two rechargeable 16340,s in it ?? Either way they aren,t made to r in on anything except. An 18650 2 batteries is too many volts...
2 rechargables s way too many volts
Almost any light with a battery is a bad ide
Very nice light . I have purchased two of them with the 2.8 amp drivers .
I think this will fit in your question
I’m thinking about this one: http://www.fasttech.com/products/1212403
Wish the reflector was smooth, but other than that, it looks ok to me. What do you think?
I’m going to try the cheap way out again, just ordered another C8 w/18650 for $14.60 from Amazon. If this one doesn’t work, that Sunwayman D40A sure looks nice! (and priced right @ FT)
I have a ‘perfect beam’ UF-V3 modded the way I want. I like it alot!
Are there any C8 reflectors that have such a nice tight, clean, artifact free beam as the UF-V3? A clean hotspot, very little scattered in the corona area, and evenly lit spill like the UF-V3?
If not, I will give up on getting a(nother) C8.
I was thinking of ordering this C8 reflector from FT:
http://www.fasttech.com/products/1203500
To ‘fix’ my cheap C8 from Aurabuy.
if wish to buy D40, better get hurry before the item is retracted 
Also interested in hearing about experiments with the different C8 reflectors and how they work (or don't) with specific LEDs. I just recently got a My First C8™ (UltraFire C8) (yes I know, I never got around to picking one up until now) and the reflector does not work AT ALL with a XPG2... ringy and icky just like it was with the XR-E. Pretty OK with an XML2 though. The reflector has a huge flat area around the emitter hole, pretty sure that's just not what the XPG2 needs to work right. In the roughly 42mm x 31mm size, which ones work best with which LEDs?
And to take this off in a completely different direction, I just built a Convoy S4 with a de-domed XPG2 & 3A Qlite, and man... I think it throws better than the C8 with a dome-intact XML2 U2 and the exact same driver. Not joking! It's got an amazing little reflector in it, deeper than it is wide, and even though it's OP it flat out works great (internal dimensions of 17.4mm wide at the front, 18.3mm deep). And unlike a C8 you can hang it on your keychain or stick it in a pocket and forget it's there. Convoy S2, S4 & S5 all have similarly deeper-than-wide reflectors (the S3 has a dumb stumpy little 11mm tall reflector-like thing in it, so skip that one).
Hi Slewflash, I believe the rating on the Fenix TK41 is 59kcd…
Hi Gords1001, When talking about modding with xp-g2, what kind of light would you end up with? A c8 host that can outthrow the Jacob A60, with much more flood?
How would this light compare to the Small Sun zyt-08 you have mentioned?
Could you end up with a light that throws like the TK41, rated at 486m, for a $20-30 price tag?
If so, I would be quite interested in you building such a light for me….
Thanks
hi flitsmal, to directly answer your question
I honestly don’t know :bigsmile: that’s kind of the point of trying it out.
I have the two xp-g c8 reflectors from cnqg, brass pills with emitter pcb hold down screws from fasttech, I now need noctigon 20mm xp-g2 stars from intloutdoor and qlite drivers and some more 7135’s, then I need a source of c8 hosts that fit the pills, cnqg has an ultrafire c8 host, I have high hopes of that doing the trick, I’ll also want some ar coated lenses, then I can try various combinations to see what works best, as I’ve done a couple of xp-g2 builds that “look” like they throw well, I now need a light meter to quantify these results.
What will the light be like? it’ll be a c8, just hopefully a c8 with decent throw and some spill, the xp-g2 has a noticably narrower beam angle compared to an xm-l, in my other builds, you get some spill, just noticably narrower than an xm-l with everything else the same, its not as bright as the latest xm-l2’s but certainly comparable to a modestly driven xm-l t6 you’d get out of an ebay light, the two builds I’ve done have been a 1c in a uf-v3 at 2a, its a very very crisp white light that I find nice to use, the second is a convoy l2 (huge reflector) with an xp-g2 3d driven at 3a, that is at least as bright as the last couple of ebay xm-l lights I received, but with a really nice nw tint.
What I intend to do is build two pills, both about 3.8a (two extra chips added to the qlite drivers) one with a nw xp-g2 on noctigon, one a dedomed 1c ish emitter (dedoming tends to warm up the tint a little) I’ll then be able to compare the reflectors I have to see which give a nice beam and (assuming I get a light meter at the same time) which gives the best recordable throw, then, I can actually make informed suggestions as to what someone else might like.
To give you an idea of output, tom e mentioned he’d built up an xp-g2 xintd c8, dedomed at 3.8a, he’s getting 125kcd, that’s where I’m hoping to get, and the reason I want a light meter, I wish to quantify what I’ve already built, then I have a base line to see how things improve and see how builds work out compared to other lunatics like myself :bigsmile: