Love that smooth beam .
Runtime on Hi with eneloop AA? Please (I ordered one and want to know). Do You measure it?
Hi!
Thank you for your detailed review.
I'd want to know if there's a low voltage cutoff built into the driver (for 14500).
Is the driver a buck-boost, right? I hope it's not a cheap boost driver that direct-drives the led when Vin > Vf.
Is it able to squeeze every mah out of a 14500 without lumens drop, triggering the LVC inside the (protected) cell? Or it goes in a sort of "low battery moon mode" at around 3V?
Thank you very much.
EDIT: see my review in the following post.
received mine.
driver is very good, it starts blinking 3 times each 5 seconds from 3.0v to warn you of low battery. obviously no blinking at 1.5v.
no LVC.
same brightness down to 3.0v, then it starts decreasing a little, and remains stable down to 1.1v.
buck-boost driver, startup voltage must be greater than 0.9v, then it stays acceptably lit down to 0.5v.
memory resets after a 4 seconds shutdown. perfect timing.
beam quality is not as good as said by the OP, emitter is not perfectly centered (mine is NW), and in the side beam you can see the shadows of the 2 gold connection wires inside the emitter projected (2 triangles projected).
the pros are that the light is quite floody and thet there's not color shift in the side spill (in lights with with reflectors it always tends to be of a cooler and nastier color).
light came not lubed. I use motorcycle chain lube: not silicone based, does not damage orings-plastics, and it's very greasy, smooth and persistent.
the small hook at the bottom of the light seems flimsy: it moves in and out for about 2mm (but it does not come out).
operation with aw protected 14500 is problematic: nipple is short and you have to twist hard to compress the rubber disk and light on the flashlight.
if you manage to increase nipple lenght of about 0.3mm by pinching it with a claw, operation becomes silky smooth.
one last note: mine came with the oring misplaced: it was installed in the outer slot (too big in diameter, oring damage will occur if left there).
I moved it in the inner slot (slightly smaller) and now the twist is smooth.
CONCLUSION:
with a better emitter centering, it is WELL worth the 35-36 usd.
ultimate edc AA+14500, full stop.
Hmm...my beam is good though. Even better than my Sunwayman V10A (it's good by XP-G standards, just a wee bit of donut, but corona-hotspot area is a bit ugly)
I suppose my beam is not very good because of misalignement of the emitter (it is 0.5mm off the center).
I don't know what to do.
Ric, can you tell me something? I love this flashlight, I was one of the first to pay for it (even paid 2 dollars more, because I bought it before the price drop)..
what a pity for this little problem.
Never thought we’d be giving purple nurples to a torch 
lol
I got mine today and I definitely won't put this in the same category as the AAA. I lubed it immediately after I opened the package and within 5 minutes of trying it out the o-ring broke. Hey... guess what? No spares were included either! Yay! (EDIT: I think the o-ring on mine was in the wrong place too.)
The beam isn't as good. The optic on mine have molding nubs or something (EDIT: I think what I'm seeing is just the little square contacts on two corners of the emitter) that makes artifacts on the outer part of the beam (it almost looks like bonding wires when using an aspheric). The optic also looks much more cloudy than the one on the AAA. The emitter looks centered, but I don't like the tint as much as the neutral in the AAA.
Other than the rubber donut inside and the reasonable output on 14500, there's not much I like about it.
Further EDIT: OK, it's not that bad. the beam isn't perfect, but the tint is pretty good, I just prefer the tint of my AAA. The o-ring thing pisses me off, but I substituted one from a Quark mini AA and it seems to be working (we'll see how it holds up).
I just don't see it replacing my SC51w in my pocket.
I think the same about the neutral tint of this light.
Edit:
here is a picture that shows the artifacts in the side spill (on the top), generated by the gold die bonding wires inside the emitter.
The picture also clearly shows that the emitter is not centered.
Sorry for color balance.. iphone's camera sucks.
Anyway, I'd want to know from someone else if mine are isolated problems, or if these are common issues with this light.
If artifacts are generated by the die's misalignement, I hope Ric will find a solution for me.
The flagship of this light was beam smoothness.. but I find tint and beam shape/smoothness to be WAY better on other lights, first of all the cnqualitygoods' N-LIGHT ST50 (and we all know how difficult is to have a good beam with XML on small and short smooth reflectors).
Sorry for the complaints but at USD 38 I paid for it, and after all this waiting, I'm not fully satisfied. 38 usd is not cheap. Paid 35 usd for Nlight ST50 that is a quality monster. I always rely on cnqualitygoods for quality parts and fast shipment. Maybe the long waiting raised my expectations too much.
Even with these issues, being this the smallest AA light compatible with 14500 and with a buck-boost non-invasive no-memory no-lvc lv-warning driver (all of these are VERY rare features, especially when found together!), I think this will be my favourite EDC light for long times. What a pity that the emitter is not easily swappable. I am a big fan of Hi-Cri Cree leds (I just lit my entire kitchen bench with 10X XPGs 90CRI and light quality is now awesome).
PS: Nlight ST50 is a MUST HAVE. BUY IT! NOW! perfect driver current regulation and UI, super ultra mega perfect machining and engineering, square threads and superb neutral tint (T4 5B I suppose). MUST BUY FOR THAT PRICE.
bozma88 post some pic of the off center led.
Woooahh.. Very hard to do with iphone's camera.
Here is the best shot I managed to take.
http://is.uoyo.org/i/s/waSJUSEs
Anyway, i am getting used to this beam, but I hope mine is an isolated issue :)
Bye.
ok.. I am starting to disassemble it to make a XP-G Q2 90CRI 3000k (ae7) modding.
Be careful if you want to disassemble it. It is very tiny.
Inside there is a solid brass pill and the driver seems well made, with quality solderings. you can unscrew the pill using pliers that fit in two hidden side slots behind the protective black rubber.
driver board is just framed in the pill.. no screws, no glue.
It mounts an AMC7136.. so maximum drive current may be 400mA, not 500 as stated. (I am not sure). (amc7136 is an high efficiency 10-400ma led driver).
My modding will proceed a bit slowly due to a little problem: the led board (16mm 14mm round Corrected - thank you mitro - ) is glued to the pill.
argh.
trying the freezer trick. any suggestion?
thank you.
Got it today.
To be short: finished in terrible rush compared to first one.
Quite significant machining marks onside battery tube.
Outside looks more used than my pocketed AAA (has been EDC´d since it was published). Hair scratches, signs of stacking the tubes probably? Minor dents on the head...
Head is so sharp, that it will probably eat o-ring on first two battery changes. Sand it first!!
(Oh crap! My keyboards on blood, I cut my index finger when sanding, noticed it just now when writing.Not joking. Be Careful!!!)
Then: lube it. Threads are not butterysmooth but NyoGel does it nicely on these stainless lights.
Emitter is just a tad aside, not affecting the beam.
Beam is odd, though. Quite small spot with quite significant corona AND an other corona around that. Then very wide, very faint (useless) spill.
Gotta say, I liked the AAA´s beam more.
Leave on a table, becomes very hot on Eneloop :(
The thing I so much liked on AAA that it was properly driven.
To good things:
Knurling is more generous.
Has rubber to protect driver.
Just a bit more power.
Tint is better.
No PWM.
All in all I give thumbs up but this is much more less a jaw dropper compared to AAA.
Just one minor correction: the LED is on a 14mm PCB, a 16 would have to be taken down considerably to fit. as far as getting out the led, I just usually pull out the driver, heat the inside of the pill with a microtorch for a second or two and then twist the PCB with a pair of needlenose pliers.
I certainly think this light should have been an XP-G from the start, let us know if the beam improves. I don't think I'm going to mess with it, I'm just going to continue to love my AAA (and its backup which is still in the tin). :)
(almost) non destructive pill disassembly succeded ;)
I had to drill a side hole in the pill, to beat with a flat screwdriver between pill and mcpcb, because epoxy layer had to be broken.
edit: almost done! now I glued the mcpcb only on two small spots on the side, using a high temp 5min epoxy, to make the emitter easily removable. thermal conduction with silver NON ADHESIVE (!!) cpu compound.
waiting for the epoxy to harden, and then I'll put all together and we'll se the result.
I expect some kind of delusion, because the spot will be larger (and that alone will make the beam appear dimmer) and because of the much lower flux bin of this emitter (Q2 vs R2).
But now that I've jumped in the boat of high cri leds, "normal neutral tints" appear really nasty to my eye.
really curious ;)
just finished my hi-cri modding.
hard work.
as expected, perceived brightness decreased a lot.
the spot is bigger, and the overall beam si nicer: less artifacts, less side spill (brightness appears to be more concentrated in the bigger central spot), absolutely no donuts but, I repeat: far less perceived brightness (I extimate half brightness compared to xp-e r2 NW, that due to bigger spot and far lower flux bin).
unfortunately, xpe 90 cri (non hew) is available on the sheets, but I was not able to find any reseller that had it in stock (and that was ok to sell less than one thousand lot).
this xpg hi-cri mod is not for everyone: if you want to impress your friends with this tiny tiny led flashlight, don't do it: this flashlight beam is damn near to the one of an incandescent flashlight (being low-driven, it seems like a slightly undervolted incan, tbh!).. but if you want to have a pocket source of, by now rare, "good light", this emitter swap will satisfy you: its color rendition is just fantastic.
one thing to add to Good ones:
it is completely waterproof (after disassembling it, I noticed that there's an Oring between pill and reflector but, unexpectedly, it is NOT the oring to procuce taht green fluo glare: it is an adhesive fluorescent paper strip attached to the internal walls of the body.
last-minute gift to customers I think 
ps: Oring is factory-installed in the wrong place (in the outer slot).
put it in the inner slot: no more risk of damaging it: I've opened mine almost one hundred times, and my oring is really healthy.
bye
I was considering buying this light, but based on the latest reviews, it may not be worth the "non-budget" asking price of $35.
I'm looking for a single AA light to live on Eneloops and I'm thinking the Eagletac D25A is a better option in this price range.
I think that, even if not perfect, this light is well worth what the seller is asking for it.
It is really really tiny, and the driver is a linear-boost with a really clever "ui" and great efficience.