Still waiting for my first two. Ordered 9 May.
Not the slowest delivery, not the fastest either…
You begrudge them a little walkabout?
Works. Star just floats, only held in by the soldered wires, no thermal paste.
Star says “Cree XML-U2”
I can work with that. Wonder how long it’d run without overheating, anyone tried it in stock situation?
Anyone measured what the driver puts out? And whether it’s a constant-current driver?
I’m tempted to swap in an amber LED, if I don’t burn it up —they’re rated 500/700ma.
One battery spacer, inside the tube.
Tail cap is very loose while putting it on, feels like the threads barely engage, but it snugs up when tightened.
The shiny threaded bezel screws down onto a shoulder, the bezel doesn’t hold anything in — the lens comes out (easily, falls right out) from the reflector side of the head.
So I guess the reflector (which has a plastic spacer in the hole) presses the star against the body.
I don’t have any experience to add about running the light stock, but why not add a dab of thermal paste? It’s ultra-inexpensive, even if you don’t have any getting a little is still a small expense. That said - 2 amps is probably not going to fry anything as long as there’s decent pressure holding the MCPCB against the shelf.
You can’t swap an amber emitter in without changing the driver! It’s a DD driver, the amber emitter’s Vf is [way] too low.
Thanks for the tip on the bezel not holding the lens in place. I hadn’t connected the dots on that.
Post #214 - posted stock amps at 2.0A. Rapid drop in output I' attributing to lack of thermal grease.
It arrived today, 46 days from ordering. I guess it’s ok, body could have been a little thicker. I’ve managed to nick the dome of the led but the beam looks ok to my eyes. Hate the driver, strobe+SOS? Going to change the emitter and driver pretty soon. What 26650 battery would be ok for this?
Well, mine is here, at the post office. Although I didnt request any of the delivery options, the parcel was marked signature required. 39 days from order date. Had $3 credit from GB on the Opus, only paid $7. Hope to pick it up this Saturday…
> amber
PC Rebel Amber, vF 2.55-3.5
But yeah, I’d welcome suggestions for a replacement for the driver, I’d want 350-700mA
ideally with moon mode. I’ll probably make it a floody light with a diffuser.
Yeah, I have thermal paste, I’ll be using a bit.
> 26650
I’m using King Kong 26650 4000 mAh - ICR26650 Protected Button Top from Mountain Electronics, which seemed the conservative choice. He’ll have more in stock soon I expect.
Dang, now I’m wondering if I want another of these lights, so I can do one with a high CRI Nichia.
Arrrrgh.
EDIT — surrendered, ordered another one, and put a Nichia in the first one. Let’s see, six weeks delivery time, the next one ought to be here by, um, September.
Patience….
Quick fix for that…do the pencil lead across the capacitor trick…then you can go H>M>L>off, reset in a few seconds to H>M>L so you never have to get to the epileptic seizure modes 
(but they are still there if you need em)
Arrived today - 1 July.
Also got a refund (they said they would in response to my PM query some days ago)
from Gearbest today.
Now I will refund their refund.
Aside from the slow shipping, it was a good retail experience, good customer service, good website.
Ordered mine with tracking number. One light, nothing else. I placed my order on the 7th of June and received it around the 25th of June, might have been up to 2 days before.
Tracking number was pointless as it was never updated, it stayed on pending the whole time and is probably still there…
Everything about the light is as stated by other members. I tried burning out the led but got bored so I swapped in my XM-L2 T5-6B1 on 20mm Noctigon, BLF17DD driver, and 22-17mm adapter ring from oshpark, courtesy of RED’s shared projects. Also using some leftover Arctic Silver 5 from my pc build.
Very happy with the light, and the heat-sinking it offers. The quality is very surprising to me for the price, everything is in very good order. Does not look like I payed so little.
It is a bit bulkier than I imagined, and it’s making me question if I like it more than my C8 clone. Also gets heavy with a 26650 cell.
It throws slightly less than my C8 with the flat around the emitter on the reflector, most likely since it is a slightly smaller diameter, but it’s a very little difference.
Shipping, quality and pricing, 9/10 would do again.
All I have left is to copper braid the tail spring, since it is fairly thin and quite long.
Ordered mine on 6/02 and still have not had it show up. wondering where my order is.
mine got here yesterday - it took 41 days
hoping mine shows up today or tomorrow, thanks for the reply.
Did the basic upgrade this morning
Solder braided both springs, put in a XM-L2 U2-4C on 20mm sinkpad, 22ga wire soldered before the resistor bridge, thing is CRAZY bright now!
Good news, I can’t wait to start on mine.
Do the move the emitter lead to the other pad thing - that should give you a good bump in current…
Sounds like he did 
yes, it removes the resistor bridge (thus making it full current out of the IC), plus soldering in 22ga wire vs the thin wire that was there didn’t hurt either 