C8 addicts thread

Hey guys.

A few of you know I’m big on c8’s.

I use my torches (yeah I’m kiwi) mainly for work and hunting. In NZ we have a huge rabbit problem and it’s a super popular pastime.

Anyway, the c8 for me provides an excellent balance of light weight, throw, flood, amazingly cheap price and most of all mod-ability. I have many other torches but the c8 seems the best so far.

Ive started this thread because I think it would be great to keep all the information out there in one place, and we can keep track of what each other are up to.

So without further ado, my efforts tonight.

68,200 lux at 3.56 amps
74,000 lux at 3.75 amps
83,100 lux at 3.89 amps

all tested at 8m, fully charged trustfire 3000mah flames, once amps stabilise, as they actually rise from turn on. There is a HUGE variance in my flames, I have had 3 fail this week, but they are cheap and work good when new. These are all a year old. I’m currently testing other batteries for the xml2’s due to the high vf. Samsungs are supposed to be good? (Tom?)

Made these 3 up for a mate who reckons he cant drive a soldering iron. He uses them for shooting rabbits on a 12g shotgun. He has been using a stl-v2 at 2.5 times the weight, 1/2 the throw, stupid modes and no pressure switch. He now uses these exclusively on the shotguns but i’m in the process of making something more suitable to centrefires for him.

They all have Fasttech 8x7135 drivers. Top has +2 .35a’s piggybacked, middle has +3 .35’s, and the bottom has +3 .38s. On the 10–100 mode.

All have xml2 u2’s de domed in petrol from illumination supply on sinkpads from Vesture of Blood. (cheers mate). Mounted with AS and glued on top to the pill with AA.

Small extra bits are pressure switches, AR coated glass, GITD tail caps, all from fasttech and springs modified to suit longer batteries.

These are 20,000 lux standard with xml u2’s at DD (around 4.3 amps, ie why my cells are failing), so around about 4x brighter than standard.

I can get 10,000 more lux by removing the LED centering spacer, but Graeme likes the slightly wider beam when tracking rabbits.

The hosts are all from an aliexpress trader who is a fraud, has mostly all fake feedbacks on his auctions and has refused to refund me for the fact he sent the wrong items and I sent them back to him - all at my cost. Aliexpress wont respond, its been 4 months I’ve been trying to get my money back.

LED SUPERMALL is a highly untrustworthy, fraudulent trader and I’ll post more details where and when appropriate.

I am currently looking for a new host, and I LOVE fasttech, but their threads are all different, so we will see.

How is everyone else going out there?

I had my xp-e at 2.5 amps up to 128,000 lux last week but damaged the wires tonite moding it more - more xp-e’s are in order I think!

I have an xpg2 im just finishing, its sitting at 99,000 lux tonight at 2.5a, but I’m out of drivers, 20 on the way from fasttech.

My gunsmith needs a few so he’s next on the list.

All my torches are done for free, I just charge what it costs me, I don’t charge for time, its a hobby, not a job :slight_smile:

Cheers!

Chris

Great idea. I Love building C8
Here’s the C8 i just completed. my favorite to date.
Convoy C8
Qlite driver with 2 chips removed giving me 2.28 amps, 3 mode, Brass pole to replace stock positive spring. No high pitch whine or PWM in any mode.
Used 24g silicon wires
Fully potted pill with 3 copper discs inside the pill flat against the top.
XPG2 2B tint mounted on 16mm noctigon copper pcb. I love the tint to much to dedome it lol. maybe the next one i build.
UCL water white lens
OP relfector from KD Smooth beam, really tight hotspot, No rings
Extra 24g wire from switch plate to negative brass post.
All my 3100 mah 2600mah and 3400 mah keeppower fit no problem
Have no equipment to test it but the hotspot is really tight and instantly burns my eyes flashing it on a white wall lol.




I’ll add info when I complete my xp-g2 builds, I have a couple of xp-g specific reflectors from cnqg to try, I will also be going with noctigons, qlite drivers and trying domed vs dedomed, I’m also thinking about silver soldering the copper stars to the brass pill but am so far undecided on if this will be a benefit or hindrance.

Hi,

If you’re interested in throw, in a relatively small form-factor, and if you can get your hands on one, you might try using the head from a FandyFire STL-V6, with a body from an A8 clone and a dedomed XM-L of the suitable variety.

I only recently started dedoming (put it off for a long time, because it seemed like “magic”), but, with an XM-L T6 in the above, I measured 122 Klux. This light also has a UCL/P lens, and it’s direct-driven. Currently, I’m using a KK 26650, but the body can also use an 18650 with an adapter.

I have a new lux meter coming into today it appears, so that I can double-check that lux reading, because I have a hard time believing it myself.

Jim

gotta love those c8s

1st picture - C8 pill from FT. Metal on metal baby! It has screws so no silly toothpaste between the pill and PCB.

10 x 7135s on KD V2 driver

XM-L2 U2 1C

20mm SinkPad

Those soft 22awg heat resistent leads are a godsend to use from intl-outdoor. Notice the red wire? That came with the C8 pill and soldered to the driver ground to the pill.

Crap! Should have used an 1 mode driver. Oh well too late! H-M-L will have to do! At least I remembered to pot the thing before soldering it together.

Ok - all done. This will be going on... (see next picture)

"Hey Tony! Say hello to my little friend!"

crnkin - I'm a little confused here... by lux do you mean candela? lux is a meter reading, which by itself is pretty meaningless. Candela tells me exactly what it is, and ANSI/NEMA standard is on for at least 30 seconds. If you mean candela, you got good #'s on those 3 lights, but the 3.85A one should be 95 - 100 kcd (maybe higher) with what you got, but the batteries I'm sure are killing your #'s.

Yes - Samsung INR 20R's are the best, and it seems like FastTech's 20Q's are as good in my testing. You also should copper braid the + and - springs, and use 22-24 gauge wires. Other good cells are Pana PD's, maybe the CH's, and the SONY 30A rated ones.

I got one of VOB's copper pills in one of my C8 (LightMalls UF U2 originally). Also have a Convoy C8 with a de-domed XP-G2 getting 125 kcd, maybe better, and a XinTD C8 with an XM-L2 U2 at 3.85A w/dome that does about 45 kcd. (oops, had a mistake there - edit/updated).

I need some AR lens that are 42mm (C8 sized right?) anyone have a good source or experience?

IO has c8 AR lenses

Anyone know what a C8 with a well-driven copper XP-G2 with intact dome does as far as candela?

So if I remove the insulating ring around the LED (and put Kapton tape to prevent shorting), I’ll get a higher lux reading?

It looks like this thread was started just in time for me to post my upcoming test on. Lol. I have several C8’s that I plan on testing next weekend. With the help of my brother I will be measuring tail cap amps, lumens, candela and beamshots of several different C8’s. I have the Xin TD V4 with XM-L2 T6, Lightmalls C8 with XM-L2 U2, Kaidomain C12 with XM-L2 U2( hopefully in by next weekend), Lightmalls C8 with XM-L U3, Lightmalls C8 with XM-L U2, Trustfire C8 with XM-L T6, Keygos K-E5 with XM-L T6 and a Dongrui All-920 with XP-EQ5. That raps up the stock lights. I also have an XM-L U3 on sinkpad driven at 3.85A, an XM-L2 T6 de-domed on sink pad driven at just over 4A These last two are fantastic builds by Tom E. I am crossing my fingers that the Kaidomain C8 comes in on time.

Yeah sorry I mean lux @ 1m or cd.

All are at least 30 seconds, I test them 3 times and take the lowest. Its also just a cheap fasttech light meter so who knows exactly what they are, but work good for comparisons between each other.

I have the fasttech Q’s on the way so will see what I can do there.

What are you running the xpg2’s at? I have thought of running them at 2.8, I have previously ran them at 3.5 on alloy but just testing right now.

The XPE2 at 2.5a was bloody awesome, its basically a jacobs a60 with 25% more cd and a far, far better beam.

Will update as I get each batch finished, im extremely busy with work but this takes my minds of things

Chris

I can comprhend only about 2% but I love the C8platform iwas looking where to subscribe on this forum but no luck any how ill try to keep up with tbis post .

Buh.

So my iphone is playing up, Graeme couldnt pick up the three c8’s because apparently I had no sim card in. Reset and 3 texts come through.

So after playing with some toys and getting the cat off my lap I decided to play with the xpg2 a bit.

Excuse the cell pics and clutter, I have 3 planes, 2 heli’s, 2 rifles and 100 torches on the go at the moment, plus leaving for a 6 week trip to US, Canada and Mexico soon so no time to keep tidy :slight_smile:






So thats 115,260 lux at 1m at 2.85a (7x.35s and 1 .38)
was 99,000 lux at 1m at 2.50a (7x .35’s).

The driver is again Nanjg from fasttech, AR lens from fasttech, xpg reflector from CNQG (Also highly recommended), this one has no spacer, but seems to have a focal point about 1/2 way between no spacer and a spacer, so will get out the sandpaper, see if I cant get 125k at 2.85a.

I wish this Aliexpress seller wasn’t so damn dodgy, because this host is absolutely perfect. The pill height is 1mm higher than stock, so requires no modding for using no spacer. Also has 20mm recess, good switch, stepped c8 xml SMO reflector (best ive found), anodizing is good etc.

Might have a beer and do some youtubing!

Chris

FastTech has them:

https://www.fasttech.com/p/1203405

I'm running a de-domed XP-G2 at 3.85A, but only getting 125 kcd, though I think that # is low because measuring at only 4.3 meters. I used this XPG reflector from KD: kaidomain.com C8 XPG. XP-G2's just increase their output on copper with more amps - Match's charts show it increasing at 4 amps still, here: https://budgetlightforum.com/t/-/16621.

If your #'s are good and getting 115 kcd at 2.85A, I'm think'n that reflector is really awesome. I'm ordering two now... LED positioning and the reflector I've seen make big differences.

For AR lens, I got the AR lens from IOS and UCL from flashlightlens.com, though you may have issues with the thinness of the IOS lens - they were nuch thinner than the stock C8 lens in one C8, so didn't end up using it.

I ordered some AR lenses from FAST TECH we will see what I get! It seems like there are 1.5mm and 2mm lenses out there we will see what shows up.

Did the Xin TD V3 come with an AR lens?? I cannot seem to tell on mine . I am pretty sure that my Convoy C8 did not.

Thanks!

I think the V3 was shipping with an AR, but I had an earlier version. Convoy C8 definitely not - I found the FT AR's totally useless - no difference. Also the cheaper KD ones - same thing. IOS and UCL I trust and appear to be the real thing (UCL definite). Best bet now is maybe wait for OL to get up with his AR lens making hobby/biz - pretty much guaranteed you are getting the real thing.

Love my (stock) XinTD V3 C8 with XM-L T6 3C and Lightmalls C12 with XM-L2 U2. C8s (and C12s) are great. Sounds like I need a 3.85A one.
:smiley:

Has everyone here seen the test of a new XinTD C8 SC-82/V4 here Review: XinTD C8 SC-82/V4 (3C neutral white) ?
Do you agree with his opinion of it?