I received these lights yesterday, and for the price I like them. The threads are not so fine that they would strip easily, and the front easily screws on. I got 3 hours run time on high with Tenergy Premium batteries, and with Chinese Alkalines from Harbor Freight got 6 hours on low mode.
It is smaller than the Sipik 68 although it does not zoom. It has two modes and strobe, which I could do without. The beam is not ringy and has a nice center hotspot. https://www.fasttech.com/products/1815003
I like them and believe they will be reasonably rugged so that I will gift them. I prefer AAA lights, but these are not bad.
Answering to my question, in case someone was wondering the same.
The ones in BIC are 3 modes with next mode memory ( :Sp )
Pretty small, shorter than a MXDL 3w (AAA) that I have. (only the body, not counting with the keyring clip, obviously)
If it had a clip it would be a nearly perfect cheap EDC flashlight (size wise), but the keyring clip isn’t bad either, just a matter of personal preference.
edit
Bought two (actually bought three, but were on two different orders and the last one arrived first, go figure)
One of them is pretty decent, draws ~0.9A on high, ~0.25A on low (on a Ni-MH), just great for a small EDC light.
The other…draws ~0.9A on high and ~0.75A on low, no wonder I didn’t notice much difference between modes.
Dunno, might have been a one in a million problem, or might be a usual lack of quality control.
But hey, it’s a cheap AA twisty, you don’t find them very often.
Disassembled the one that draws 0.75A on low. (the other one works great so I don’t want to mess it up )
No thermal paste under the star.
But has an o-ring between the lens and the reflector (shouldn’t it be between the lens and the head? ), an o-ring on the head (in the middle where it unscrews) and another between the body and the head. overall it’s well equipped with o-rings. :bigsmile:
I am going to buy two, and if not good will exercise the eBay money back guarantee. I have 4 of the lights from Fast Tech. Probably will take a couple of months to get the lights.
Jerry
I have to stop I cant keep from buying cheap lights lately………….
I have probably ordered 15+ different lights since sometime in December……… the wifey is not going to be happy hopefully I get to the mail a lot more than she does.
Just ordered one from fasttech. It’s cheap enough that loss isn’t a big concern and I have some lithium primary aa’s that I can use in it rather than risking my rechargeables. Not sure I like the modes or mode memory however so that might mean a driver change eventually.
jerm03, did you order the $2.99 ones off of Ebay? How do they compare to your others? Same Q5 led? Just as bright? Finally, was there any customs issues? They sure harp on it on their Ebay sales page.
I ordered five of these and they were shipped on 1/31/15. It shipped next day as I ordered on the 30th. Looks like it took about a month for them to arrive for Jerry so I’ll anticipate about the same. He also has a thread on this light specifically, that’s how I found out about the $2.99 deal.
Here are my results of testing with various batteries. I like the light.
Cree Super Light AA
Lo Tenergy Premium 5hr 30min
Lo Thunder alk 5hr 12min
Lo Everyready alk 5hr 0min
HI Dura ion-co 1hr 39min
Hi EBL 1hr 33min
Lo EBL 5hr 56min
...along with a slightly thicker O-Ring to take up the extra space:
=
It turns out to be a perfect fit, and creates a great beam pattern. A decent driver and some high-current 14500s would make this into a crazy-bright pocket light. I installed a Nanjg 101AK; even @ 1.4A using my three-year-old TrustFire cells is very impressive.
Also, how about that annoying keychain nub on the base? No problem there... A dremel, a file, and wrapping up with some rubbing compound clears that up. Now it tailstands! Add a good thick layer of GITD nail polish and you get this:
)
