4.80 AA light from Fast Tech

pics please

Is there something specific you want to see?

I can’t show the reflector and led melted together, because i was disappointed that i did let them get too hot (and they smelled really bad, i did get a slight headache for a couple of hours by it), so i just flushed them as soon as they where cool enough to remove to get them out of my sight :frowning: i used a hot air gun, unfortunately for a bit to long. I stopped as soon as the temp was 150 degrees Celsius on the IR temp meter, that was obviously more than enough so next time i will test lower.
Anyway it is good to know it is this easy to get some thread locks to crumble :slight_smile: i have some Hugsby’s i may want open soon :wink:

I will try to get some pictures taken later in the evening.

EDIT sorry, i can’t upload any pictures for a while, my phone’s Internet/MMS function seems to be down at the moment.

Will this TIR w/spacer work with the stock light? If so, how do you think it would change the beam?

@deputydave: I don't have a light with the stock emitter on hand at this time to check. I assume it would be similar, but much dimmer.

@cajampa: That's interesting that yours is glued. Mine is from FastTech, and I don't think it was glued, but I have the two eBay lights that should be here soon. I'm curious if those will be glued. I'm not sure what the hold-up is; I ordered two lights at the same time from different sellers. The first was shipped without tracking, and I received it a week ago. The second (these two lights) was processed through the Chicago ISC on Feb. 08, then are listed as having arrived at the Chicago USPS facility on Feb. 11. There have been no further updates. I'm hoping they will show up soon.

Thank you sir. In regards to the Ebay version and shipping I experienced the same delay through Chicago, in fact it went from Chicago to Detroit before heading finally to Florida which I thought was odd. Tracking indicates that they’ll be delivered today so that would be a total of 18 days.

@keltex78,
Could you answer these? thanks
“I don’t have any extra thick o rings, where did you get yours that was slightly thicker O-Ring & a better fit.

Did you use a copper DTP mcpcb on this, i wonder if the optic+thicker o-ring is including the thicker mcpcb like a noctigon or sinkpad with your XM-L2?”

The O-ring I used was a spare from my kit... I have a lot of different sized O-Rings that I've purchased and that have been removed from other lights. I just looked through and found one that worked. It's not an unusually thick one, it's just a standard GITD O-Ring like you would use on a P60 host or anything else. It's just a bit thicker than the thin ring that was already on this host. I trimmed it down to fit myself.

I did not use a DTP copper board, just the thin aluminum board that my emitter came with. If you have a thicker PCB, that might make up the difference. Although, I did flatten and polish the shelf the PCB rests on for improved thermal transfer, and that would have lowered my emitter slightly, yours may not need the thicker O-ring.

Yeah :slight_smile: thanks for some really good info keltex78.

Okay, I did in fact receive these lights in the mail today. Put an Eneloop AA in each to test them and they seem to work fine. The star isn’t really seated inside the head, the wires just kinda hold it in and the reflector holds it down in place. I compared it next to the Acebeam L10 (both using an Eneloop AA) and they seem fairly comparable. I haven’t tried a 14500 yet. I lubed all the threads. Probably well worth the $2.99 each. Time will tell for sure of course but they seem to be a pretty decent little light.

I also received a pair of these lights today from Ebay vendor linked above.

The threads on both were so sloppy loose that they caused a ridiculous amount of misfires and mode skips. I wrapped a single layer of metalized/foil tape around the threads of each and now they both function as they should.

With this simple repair, they are now great for the price.

Is that the same/similar to duct tape?

Trying it now with one of the purple GTL (eBay) 14500 batteries. It is brighter but does’t seem to be head-n-shoulders brighter. Been on for maybe 5 minutes now and it’s fairly warm but I can still hold it without issue.

It's the shiny silver metal tape used in HVAC duct work...bonds to metal

Ah, thank you. I’ll need to look into that.

The pair I ordered from the eBay vendor arrived yesterday as well...

Like cajampa mentioned above, the head on both of these appears to be glued to some extent. I'll be working on getting those broken apart for modding soon. I have a small strap wrench that should help... a crescent wrench or vice might help with retaing the hex side of the head without damaging if you tape the jaws...

I think I might have to buy one or two. I’ve been thinking about replacing the Fenix LD01 on my key ring because I dislike AAA cells.

If you change the bottom supposedly steel spring to a better one with lower resistance like a carobronze or even better beryllium copper spring, it will get brighter.

And the strongest 14500 battery i know of is the Windyfire IMR14500 10A, that would also improve output.
Checkout HKJ ’s test

Comparing side-by-side, it's apparent that the lights from the eBay seller are not exactly the same. The light from the ebay seller is slightly longer, by about 1/8" (3mm). The anodization is a bit different, but they otherwise appear to be the same.

Thats interesting,
Is the front part that holds the lens the same shape? i ask because in your picture of your modded fasttech one, i suspected that my ebay one was slightly different.

Thanks for the suggestions. The GTL 1600mAh pretty much sucks. I’m getting about 10-12 minutes out of a fully charged battery in these lights on high. The only other 14500’s I have on hand at the moment are the TF flame 900mAh but haven’t tried them yet in this light. In the SK68 the TF got 1 hour 20 minutes and stayed bright the whole time till it shut off. In the same SK68 the GTL lasted only 50 minutes and quickly got dim.

I’ll have to toss a TF in and see what kind of run times I get on high and low.