I got mine, the cr123 version and i quite like it. Note of caution do not take it apart in hand otherwise youll end up searching for hours for the tiny magnet and the steel ball inder the selector.
Decently bright. It is a single mode multimode light. Can act both ways. Unfortunately a forward clicky was not present.
I received one of each (16350 and 18650) today. Being the hopeless nerd I am, the first thing I did was to take the pill apart to see what makes this thing tick. From a first glance, it seems to be direct drive, with brightness controlled by PWM via a FET (the B772 thingy). More interesting, judging by the pin-out, the MCU seems to be a PIC 12f..., which means, it could be reprogrammed (cue manic laughter).
As you can see from the picture, the driver PCB is quite large, larger than the 4x7135 driver I put next to it for comparison. The pill is quite deep, so there should be enough space to stuff in two of these babies, which could be controlled by bypassing the FET...
I think you all get where I'm going with this. Replace the Q5 with a well-driven XM-L, reprogram the MCU and you've got an insanely bright light with a kick-ass UI.
I'm excited ...i'm going to re-program my MCU ..when I get the stuff to do it with .. I just ordered my programmer it's in the mail . whoo hoo i love ebay
I got mine today, well, 3 of the 4 I ordered. The single order has not arrived yet. It does indeed have real hall effect control and they are surprisingly well built. Both sizes feel good in the hand and work very well. Threads are clean and anodizing looks even except for the head being a different shade than the body. The head is very thick walled.
All three emitters are a different tint with one being greenish, another purpleish and the 3rd cool white. The reflectors are smooth and very deep making for a small hotspot and pretty good throw. I am very impressed compared to what I was expecting. Now I just have to figure out how to take one apart to upgrade it to XM-L.
Hey, Budgeteer, how did you get your selector ring off? One of my CR123 models seems to be off with mode selection. When it clicks into place the light goes out. While rotating it goes into the next mode in between detents then out again when it clicks into place. The whole thing is out of whack and it’s weird because it worked fine at first then it went screwy.
They are offering me a $10 refund and allowing me to keep the light but I'm not sure I want to do this if I can't fix it. I suppose I could use it for parts or just keep the tube and swap tubes with the one working head, SolarForce style to use either 16340 or 18650 batteries. Any ideas on how to adjust the mode detents?