I am new to this forum but have been registered on CPF since 2003. I have been lurking here since last April.
Recently, I purchased a 3xAAA "Cree" zoomable light on ebay for under $7.00. It was from a US seller so I thought that it was a great deal. DX sells them for $10. There were lots of impressive pics and several pics showed the cree cutouts when zoomed.
But when I got the light, the emiter looked generic with a slightly hazy dome. It sorta looked like my $1.47 ebay AA the way it was hazy. Anyway, when I fired it up, it was dissapointing to say the least. When I do the ceiling bounce test, my ITP A3 was brighter. Also, when zoomed out, the emiter was completely square. It did not have the cutouts like in the listings pics.
So I emailed the seller and he said "Hi sir I am sorry about you have this confuse with our product. that kind of flashlight same with ours. they are both CREE LED. I will reship one more with red ring to you and you can check."
So today, I got the replacement and it has a red ring around the bezel that lights up when in use. It has the cutouts when zoomed and it is about 3X brighter too. This is what i was expecting brightness wise when I ordered in the first place. But oddly the first light's build quality is way better than the red ringed one!
I tried taking apart the original so that I can try swapping parts but I can't break it down beyond the lens. (anyone have any idea? I can post pics later)
So....
A. Should I be happy I got 2 lights and leave a positive?
B. Leave a neg so others will know he is falsely advertising?
C. Leave no feedback.
D. other?
I'm leaning towards leaving no feedback and be on my way.
The nebo redline is a lot more expensive than $7 although I never hear anyone ever talking about it. Funny though that it was a buddys Nebo Redline that awakened my interest in LED lights. I carried a mini mag incan back then and was amazed by how bright the Redline was. That is what started my OCFD. Id call it a day on that one, I think you did OK for $7
And welcome to BLF. fishmaniac meet fishinfool, fishinfool meet fishmaniac.
Wow, me too. I'm a regular on boatingabc.com and a guy there recommended it. So I bought the Nebo from Amazon, compared it to a couple of my older LED lights, and rekindled my interest. Pretty soon you guys had me spending lots of money on lights I never knew I needed...
I'd say .. leave no feedback and just chalk it up to experiance .. they are cheap at half the price and there's no reason to expect much at that price .. my light had a huge flaw in the emitter that I didn't notice till after I left him good feedback .. you really can't hurt these guys since they know how to get around the system anyway with multiple accounts .
( it's not a Nebo redline )>my moneys on a c-30
<< like this ? and the second one is almost th same with a red plastic ring ??.. one is a p4? or a bad q2 and the second is a q5.. or are you saying you got a
<<el cheapo chinese emitter .. most are 2 wires not 3
I think the replays don't cover all you questions yet. You asked how you can get the output of the second specimen into the first one.
To answer this question it is essential to see some pictures of the light. Right away, I would say, it is probably easier to mod that one and leave the second one alone. But anyway, I prefere to see the pictures first.
As far as the feedback thingy, I emailed an ebayer who left him a neg. He told me he not only got a second light I did, but he also got a refund! lol. And of course, he still left a neg. He thinks the guy's a crook for advertising "Cree's w/ 240 lumens but getting crappy LED's with barely 60 lumens". Well, I'm still undecided regards to feedback.
And I also figured out how to swap the LED's between the 2 lights. Both of them simply had the pills screwed in. It's just that the all black one was harder to access. Anyway, the zoom/focusing is off a bit now so I just switched 'em back. lol
I did manage to take some pics so here ya go.
Here's the 2 suspects in a line up with an L4 and A3.
Here's the cheezy looking one (the first one I got).
Another view.
Here's the body of the cheezy LED.
Here's the body and parts of the "red" one.
The pill (both look like this).
This is after realizing I can unscrew it.
Close up of the much better LED.
I hope the pic size isn't breaking any rules.
I'll try to take some outside beam shots next time.
ding ding ding ..who's the smart cupcake here ?? told ya I knew what that light was ...
I need to do the boaz victory dance on that one ..
I have both of these too ..one of my very first lights was the first one he sent you and I like it alot .. it has a pretty warm tint to it ,3 mode and about 70 80 lumens ..I still have no idea what emmitter that is .. it's a very milky little yellow square . Very smooth beam no rings at all .And you're right it's built better too ,better switch.smoother action..
Consider that surefire $140 lights were 60 lumens just a few years ago ...I honestly think you have scored heavily on this dealer and can't contemplate hurting him further by giving him bad feedback .. it was less than 7 dollars and it is absolutely a good 7 dollar light shipped to your door .You don't want to be unfair to this guy .I say leave no feedback and move on you've got more than $7 worth of lights from him .. .learn the lesson ...that almost all ebay stuff that has no descriptions or bad photo's is junk ,if you buy from the bottom of the barrel this is all you can expect .I have 15 blf delights ...one has a semi acceptable tint ..14 are pos imho.. that's my fault for thinking it wouldn't be so or expecting too much from a $1.23 light ... they are what they are ..If you buy 10 $7 lights from this guy ,..oneor two of them might impress you.
My second light like it is a q2 or q3 with a serious flaw a huge air bubble on the dome that makes the beam pretty seriously poor .I paid $6+ for it on ebay and gave the guy decent feedback , shrugged it off and moved on with life ... I think lots of flashlights on ebay are junk and anyone who expects 500 lumens out of a q5 ...wants to be lied to .
