Just purchased a brand new noname XM-L focusable flashlight...

If it happens to not work, fun little light to set aside for when you inevitably start modding. :slight_smile:

It has the same shape and color of a zoomie I picked up at an electronics market in Hong Kong in June last year. Mine happens to have a “sacred fire” logo on the side though.
For what I paid I am happy with it and it has turned out to be very reliable. Of coarse I can’t say weather the insides are the same as in the light you have purchased, so I guess this post won’t help you very much.

The only thing that concerns me about the flashlight is the driver… to be fine it should work similarly with either one or two Li-ion cells, with regards to light output; after all, a 3A discharge is less than 1C for a King Kong 26650 and that is handled with ease.
Does your flashlight perform well with either one or two cells, Mike C?

Cheers 8)

I’ve only run it with two 18650 cells. Never tried any other cell configuration. I’ve had it running continuously on full blast for about an hour, it performed well but I do not have the experience as many others here have, so I cant help much. I haven’t tested what current it pulls on the tail cap.

It did however have the dreaded next mode feature, but I solved that with the help of this thread, post #33 to be exact: Attention! Solution for most of those next mode memory drivers!
Post #72 I posted a photo of the driver, followed by comments on the solution.

What about that “next mode” feature? The driver always remember and starts in the last mode used or something like that? Or some different pesky behaviour? (sorry just too lazy to scan the entire thread lol) :smiley:

Cheers

My light has five modes (high, mid, low, strobe, SOS) just like the light in your link. The “next mode” means that if I have it on high and turn it off, the next time I turn it on it will turn on in mid mode. If it has been on in mid mode and I turn it off, the next time I turn it on it will be on low mode. So if you want to run the light on high most of the time, each time you turn it on you will have to cycle through mid, low, strobe and SOS to get to high… Very annoying… I’m very happy that the pencil trick worked for me, now it always starts on high.

LOL what an annoyance! I would have sent the engineer(s) in charge back to the design table after such a dumb decision.
The pencil trick doesn’t sound like an exact science, a resistor of a given value soldered to the cap legs sounds more reliable to me. But alas, I suppose everyone has access to pencils with ease. :slight_smile:

Cheers

Agreed, but I hate soldering so small components… drawing a line is so much easier :slight_smile:

I’m around 10 for 10 on fixed next mode flashlights with a pencil… science!

I tracked the seller’s feedback looking for negatives on purchases of these flashlights, only to find many “lucky” persons who got their stuff at bargain prices. I barely saved an Euro in the auction vs the “Buy it now!” packs, but after all it was me who placed the bid, so can’t complain. I also bought a charger plus 2 of these INR26650E cells separately.
Hope my toys arrive sooner than later, can’t wait to lay my hands on them! :slight_smile:

Cheers

The light that is scattered around in the head of a zoomy is usually more bothersome than useful, partly because it is ringy. If you really want spill from a zoomy it seems that white color would disperse the light better than a shiny surface would. On the other hand, if you want to light a room with it you can take off the head or take off just the bezel and lens.

OK Fritz, just a while ago I’ve been toying with my SA-9 and just checked that myself: removed the bezel and lens… What a difference! The light spreads so much better to fill a room! Great advice in any case!

Cheers :slight_smile:

Oh boy, if that's the same light - ugh. Lens is way smaller than head diameter -- total waste of radial real estate. I've seen these before and it's a shame - can't even say it will have more heat sinking. "bigger width aspheric - more throw" That's the general rule anyway...

Well, the light arrived past monday, and I’m taking my first impressions of it.
It reads “UltraFire” on a side, and just above it the words “HWA WYS” can be read.
The charger I’ve received charges very slowly, nearly 10 hours to bring mid charged batteries to full. Wow! :open_mouth:
It’s not very bright, the led is lightly driven. Did a quick measurement of 0.36 A at the tailcap on high, with full batteries. That means less than 1 amp of current on the led, even considering full efficiency at the driver. It’s a 3W light, but it’s way floodier than my Saik SA-9, and more intense.
After 2 hours of running on high, batteries were still above 4 volts. The head barely gets warm to the touch. This is probably going to mean the light will deliver more than 8 hours of runtime even on high… (doing runtime testing) What a runtime beast!
Pill looks good (to me of course), solid stuff. Will try to upload a photo later.
Lens… plastic, and scratched. lol
Driver has 5 modes, and the dreaded last mode memory.
Tailcap current raises as battery voltages drop, it seems to drain the batteries at a constant power rate.

More info later
Cheers

I picked up something very similar, a single T6 zoomie. It came with an insert for an 18650 as well as an insert for three AAA batts. Mine is a good light. I’m new to all of this and that light (in black) was the first light I bought. I was amazed (I still am) at how bright that thing is compared everything I have previously owned.

I hope you got yourself a winner.

Cheers,
Rusty

Here is my demonstration of kinda like “chrome plating” the inner part of the head. Flashlight was in fully stock condition except “chrome plating”.
You gain some lumens but visually you gain nothing because if your eyes are adapted to dark you will actually see less far
when fully zoomed.

I got a similar one off Ebay for $12 - here

So far it works well except the modes seem to be random - they don’t cycle through in any set order. Great light, bad driver. I’ll probably fix it at some point.

That’s the flashlight (in short mode). Of course I am not getting this guy’s numbers with regards to current. It seems to be the same host, but the driver is surely going to be different.

Thank you for the demo, PH_Oton. So the output increase is marginal… well, every bit helps!

Cheers

Runtime test finished. This bastard ran more than 12 hours (mostly on high) before the batteries collapsed. I wanted to check if the driver had any kind of protection/low batt warning… and none I found. Despite my frequent checks over the voltages, I finally took a reading of 2.1 and 1.6 V (what a first time outing!). :open_mouth:
Well, it has been a harsh first cycle. The moral of this is… that with such a driver using the torch with 2 batteries can be… a disaster. Either that or use protected cells.

Cheers

Actually getting the LED as close to possible to the back of the aspheric lens helps with the flood (someone here posted about it in another thread that I can’t find), it modify’s the zoom though which is unfortunate

I have a el-cheapo zoomie, I took a pre ’84 penny and ground it down flat, turned it down , then soldered it to a 16mm copper sinkpad (in a skillet on the stove), then put a XM-L on it, and then epoxied to the pill, it now just barely touches the soft dome and the flood is excellent, but the throw no longer gives a nice perfect image of the XM-L emitter on zoom (fuzzy but not clear and distinct) but with the copper under it, it no longer looses brightness as the heat is quickly soaked up by the larger chunk of copper below it. I then put glow paint over the top of the entire star and did my best to keep it off the emitter, now when I shut the light off, the entire shelf glows

Nice even circle, no rings, no spots.