Actually the T13 was rated as being the best buy in a thrower when it was close to $30. Don’t let the price fool you it’s no slouch. The N-Light ST90 is a nice looking light but I doubt it outperforms the T13 by much and for $42 plus shipping I can 100% guarantee that I can make a T13 smoke the N-light.
For that money you can get a Trustfire X7 that will simply walk all over either of them and can be modded for another $6 into a “super” thrower by adding a de-domed XM-L2. I’m talking about 6x the throw.
I’m suggesting that this particular T13 has had corners cut. It’s happened before and again, at $17, I’m suspect of any light that has two switches.
…Okay, that has me tempted. But the side-button and overall look of the N-Light is just…cool. And forgive me, but I won’t buy a Trustfire off of eBay without seeing that sticker on the inside of the battery tube first, especially at a little over half what other sites want for it. I don’t doubt the throw numbers but I really don’t think I’m interested in a pencil-beam thrower, at least not yet.
Once you start chasing lux you will always want a little more. I don’t think you would be disappointed at all with it and especially not for that price. Will you want more and end up buying a better thrower? Unless you buy the absolute top of the line thrower that is already modded you will probably end up wanting more anyway. Heck even then it’s likely you will want more if you are anything like the rest of us lux junkies.
The ZY-T08 is one of my all time favorite lights and that is why I suggested it. but the T13 is a great light and at that price I am tempted to buy another one myself, but I am a little worried that it might come with a plastic lens, another reason that I would still suggest the T08. Another nice thing about the T08 is that it fits in a coat pocket. In fact it fits in my jeans pocket. Not that it’s exactly a pocket light but I do carry mine in my front pocket once in a while on walks in case I want to use a thrower when I’m carrying a flooder.
Both of my ZY-T08 (one from FT, other from Wallbuys) have plastic/resin reflectors, but they are good quality. I sanded down one of them to make a bit more room for the wires on a 20mm Noctigon. I really like the T08 for modding, lots of driver space and two cells are nice. The body threads are a loose fit For $20 it is a nice light; even in stock underdriven form it throws well, even more so with a dedomed emitter.
Both of mine arrived with the exact same driver. I dedomed one of the stock emitters so I could compare them side-by-side. The de-dome does increase throw considerably but also decreases hotspot size.
Yep reflectors are some kind of plastic no matter where you buy them from and still great flawless reflectors. I also mod the battery carrier to serial so I can run higher amp drivers. I have one with a aspheric lens in it, SST-90 driver. Simply unreal throw. One with a de-domed XM-L2 U2 A1. The only mod I didn’t care for was the XP-G2 tons of throw but then the hot spot is really tiny. I’m going to put a de-domed MT-G2 4.8amps in one tonight. Should be fun.
I don’t think that any amount of heat an LED will generate will hurt or warp the kind of plastic used in this reflector. I’m not sure what the absorption is like vs. aluminum, my guess is that on either it is highly dependent on the quality of the coating used.
Plastic reflectors can be of low quality, but in this case (ZY-T08) I don’t believe that a metal reflector would be of much, if any benefit.
There is nothing wrong with a “good” plastic reflector. (Plastic lenses are another thing completely.) The problem you have with some of them is that they do a poor job coating the reflector and it gets little flakey spots but none of my ZY-T08’s have been short of perfect.
Plastic reflectors suck, you cannot wipe without scratching them.
Manafont offered a batch with metal reflector and after that the plastic ones.
You can distinguish them from tailcap rubber button. The bad version has the power sign printed on. The good ones have the classic anti slipping button.
I had/have both, T13's and the cheapo/crudo one I got now has the pill glued in -- really terrible... I mean like super glued - all my efforts with the heat gun and strap wrenches could not undo it and I've opened up a bunch of LockTite bound threaded connections in lights using the same techniques.
Any reflector will get damaged when wiped. The metal one is also coated, not polished from scratch. A plastic reflector can actually be an advantage in NOT shorting your emitter base in case you remove the centering ring.
I have nothing but praises for the T13. The best advantage is has over T08 is that it can easily surpass T08 in current mod. Modding stock driver - T08 is limited to 4.2V direct-drive, but T13 can readily supply steady 5A+ from its 8.4V buck driver.
It is also less susceptible to switch current issue - its switch need only carry 1/2 the amperage against single cell version. So slightly less than perfect switch (not uncommon from China for any light) will still deliver good performance.
It’s easy to mod the batteries to series on the T08 I have done six of them already and it’s a breeze. I just did one a half an hour ago for an MT-G2 mod.
Wut? I don't understand - previously it was stated by someone do not attempt to go over like 3.4A or so with resistor modding the T13, if you do, the driver will get damaged. Is there some trick to do over 5A? Maybe I missed the posted/thread???? Please, details!!
Also, I got a dead T13 driver - not sure, but I may have shorted something when soldering on heavier gauge wires. Do you have any ideas on how I could get a working light out of this? Was thinking I could sandwich in a replacement driver, but then I'd lose the side switch capability and just use the tail switch. Any ideas?
I had the N-Light ST90 from CNQG on my watch list for so long as it did look good, side switch and could be a 1 or 2 cell light, but after a review here on BLF where the member was very disappointed with it, I decided against it. Sorry, I dont have the link.
I already had 2 T08’s unmodded and got a T13 from Banggood for about $23AUD which is built very well for the price and would recommend it. I dont know what the Wallbuys version is like.
The T08 and T13 throw about the same, have a great hotspot and I like them both for different reasons.
I googled it. He was disappointed by an aluminum-sunk XM-L U2, probably being driven at ~8 watts. We’d all be dissapointed by such a light.
The ST90’s strong suit is the machining/anno, the 2-switch UI (tail on/off, side mode change), and that it has a boost driver that can be…boosted. Add a $6 copper-sunk XM-L2 and a 90c trimpot and it’s just as good as most out there, but it looks better.
I have a t13 from wallbuys, I got it in one of the early sales maybe Christmas…
Modded to3A it works nice all in all good shape didn’t even changed the led as it makes a nice bright spot. Electronic switch with additional tailcap switch is nice, no memory so it always starts in high. Thumb up.
The only thing I don’t like is the tailcap with the switch coming out like a pimple.
T08 with mtg2, seems like a good combination. If I hadn’t laying some potential mtg2 hosts laying around I probably would order one…
