deal alerts: @ ebay, all flashlights below $5

Im going to try to pry out that led because it is simply pathetic. If i destroy the light it will be for science.

I did something like that before on SK68 clones. You won’t destroy the LED. The only difficulty is to find a good way to put the retaining ring back or put a new one in to secure the LED nicely.

Not sure if this has been mentioned in this thread already:

UltraFire branded SK98 - $4.99
http://www.ebay.com/itm/Sk98-Adjustable-Focus-Zoom-Cree-Xml-t6-Led-Waterproof-Flashlight-Torch-3-modes-/171986549926

Claims to be an XM-L T6, from a US-based seller. Not sure what to expect; hollow pill and LB-tastic cool-blue emitter? I’ll let you know in a few days! :stuck_out_tongue:

One’s on the way. Hate to be looking for the Q5, but I have a little zoomie in this price range that has a Q5 and is actually pretty good. I’m thinking better than LB, but I haven’t tried LB yet, I don’t think. Plus with the solid pill, it would be worth dropping a better emitter in.

Definitely let us know! I like the 68’S and 98’s

Maybe you could push out the led together with the silver disc from the backside. Usually the driver is only press-fitted too and can be easily removed. If it’s a hollow pill, take a screwdriver or similar and knock the LED towards the top to remove it. On my cheapos the “charging port” is directly connected to the cell. Don’t expect any charging controller or circuit. Very dangerous! The “chargers” that come with these lights are in the best case power adapters with 4.2V output, I got 5V adapters too, charging the cell to neverland.

I took out the retaining disk already by drilling a small hope on the side then pried it out. The disk damaged a little bit. However, through the lens on the front, it is hardly noticeable after putting back.
The LED is marked as an LB. By replacing it with an XP-G2 R5 that I bought from FT, the (LED) lumens increased from about 140 to 200 with 3 AAA (at 400mA). With 18650 it increased from about 220 to 500 (at 1A). All these numbers are from an uncalibrated IS, so only their relative values may be more meaningful.

Won auction for $3.84.
Half the brightness of my preon2. Very blue. Good build quality. Nice threading. Fits preon2 threads. Fits maratackAAA threads. Will drop a better emitter in there.

Check out this little Olight i3S clone for $3.69
http://www.ebay.com/itm/NEW-Mini-1000Lm-CREE-R5-LED-Flashlight-Pocket-Keychain-Handy-Lamp-Torch-Gold-US-/161867913789?hash=item25b0145a3d:g:LfUAAOSw~bFWKacD

Besides the knurling on the head, and i suspect a little smaller reflector & only 1 mode driver, it looks very similar.

I am betting they are using the same pill design, so if they are crap i hope to be able to reuse the pill for my i3S.

the black one is even cheaper.

http://www.ebay.com/itm/1000-lumen-CREE-R5-LED-mini-Flashlight-torch-pocket-keychain-handy-EDC-AAA-10440-/131557529828?hash=item1ea17098e4:g:Id8AAOSwrklVf7rQ

Received this light on Friday; I think it’s worth $4.99, but it did not fail to meet my expectations… I’ve never had a SK98 before, so:

(I’m at a site that’s blocking photo-sharing sites today, so no pics)

Hollow Pill? Check! (Only it’s not bad; it still has a wide/thick base for the emitter to rest on. No thermal compound though.)

LB-tastic cool blue emitter? CHECK! (Different than the other LB emitters I’ve seen; this was an obvious XM-L clone, but obviously not original Cree. All the hallmarks: white substrate, smooth green surface, smaller die size, but unlike my other LB XM-clones, this had phosphor “overspray” extending off the sides of the die under the dome.)

Light also had dry threads (easily fixed) and a stiff negative-contact on the tailcap that needed attention. The light has a threaded in switch retaining ring, so the switch can be removed/cleaned/adjusted/replaced if needed. It uses a 20mm PCB and 20mm driver. Retaining ring is the standard aluminum bronze-colored plate I’ve seen on other cheap zoomies. I like this light more than the smaller SK-68. The light is larger, but still compact. The scaled-up size makes the tailcap easier to remove as well. I’m still not a fan of the design, as the aggressive cut-out in the body combined with the pocket clip lessens the viability for pocket carry. I prefer a pocket-sized EDC to have a smoother profile…

Needless to say, this light didn’t stay default for long. After I checked the awful tint of the emitter, I immediately stripped the pill of the offending counterfeit LED and the factory driver. The emitter was quickly replaced with a surplus XP-L HI, and the driver replaced with a Nanjg 105d 105e I had in my parts box. I then filled the pill with JB-Weld to help improve heatsinking due to the cutout in the pill. Finally, I was able to modify the large OD XM-sized centering ring to fit the XP-sized emitter (and am fairly proud of how that turned out… :bigsmile: )

I started with the original centering ring and bored it out with rotary tool until I could press-fit the OD of a FT-purchased XP-to-XM centering ring into the center. I then sanded the base of the inner ring down until it was nearly flush with the outer ring. Finally, I used the rotary tool to bore out the ID of the inner ring until it was the right diameter to fit around the XP-sized die.

(I’ll need to take some pictures of this process to post; it worked out very well and I’ll probably use this technique again on a couple of my other lights.)

As a last step; I spray painted both the aluminum retaining plate and the centering ring flat black to eliminate rings in the output.

Now it’s a much more viable light; 2.8A high from the de-domed emitters gives a nice W-I-D-E flood that lights up an entire room, while zooming into throw turns it into a fair lightsaber.

Look for more about the fate of this light soon… :wink:

Interesting and thanks for providing the details.
Is your 105D 17mm? How do you fit it in the 20mm pill? (Sorry if you already said and I missed.:laughing:
Also, at 2.8A, will it get too hot?

Sorry about that… I meant to say the 105E; that’s the 20mm variant.
http://www.kaidomain.com/product/details.S023811
:zipper_mouth_face:

Thanks. Any overheat problem?

None that I can tell. I’ve left it running while tailstanding for several minutes on high with the lens removed specifically to let it heat up to help flash any remaining volatiles left from the spray paint. It gets nicely warm and doesn’t seem to overheat the emitter.

Thanks. That’s nice to know. I have one here also just waiting for a 17mm to 20mm adapter so I can use my existing 105c driver.

Sounds good, been wondering, can you just put a new emitter on the LB star, or do you have to replace the star, too? Looking forward to hearing more.

I cut out a circle from many layers of tinfoil and used that as a heat sink. Not sure how much it helps, but I think it helps some. Really like these.

I think you have to replace it. There’s no way you can put the new LED star on top of the old one.

You can re-use the LB star if you wish, but it’s just a cheap and thin aluminum PCB. No need to reflow onto this board unless you don’t have a spare on hand. The LB emitters have the same base sizes as the emitters they copy, so they are just standard Cree-sized PCBs.

In the case of my SK98, I had to replace the PCB as I was going from an XM-sized emitter to the smaller XP-sized platform.

Here are some pics to go along with my SK98 mini-review above…

And finally, my nested LargeDiameter-to-XML-to-XP centering ring: