Hello. This is my first post ever. I have been getting addicted to flash lights. I currently own some that are to me rather bright. I have an Elektrolumns EDC I bought a few years ago, and have some tanks and 1 ultrafire. I really do not collect, just like to have goo usable BRIGHT lights. Anyway, my elektrolumens is not zoomable and the light is rather floody. I just got my forst zoomable light and I am like WOW. It is an ultrafire Cree Q5. What I want is as follows
Single 18650. Zoomable. Clicky tailcap. And here is the kicker. I want a 1-mode light. I do not want to play aroiund with multimodes. I have owned one multi mode and immediately gave it away. I hated it.
Anyway, the brighter the better and the cheaper the better. Any input would be appreciated. Thanks in advance.
Ottis
Yeah, I guess that would be ok. After I have it on for a few seconds would the next click turn it off? If that is the case I am great with it, it is essentially a 1 mode light. If I have to cycle through multiple modes to shut it off, I could learn to deal with that. Especially if the price/output are good.
So, what are you thinking of? Thanks for any future input.
BTW, I am not extremely familiar with multimode lights. If they all work like this, I may need to re-evaluate my previous statement. The one I did have I owned for such a short time that I don’t remember exactly how it worked.
Get a Uniquefire UF-T20, de-solder the driver and replace it with a contact board. Single mode, tail clicky, direct drive, 18650, good quality host and will have a lot of light.
Mine pulls about 1.5A -1.8A at the tailcap so it's pretty under-driven.
The overall quality seems OK for $10. Mine was shipped with the driver spring very off-centre so I resoldered it. Not a difficult job. I also put some thermal paste under the emitter PCB. It runs well with no sign of overheating.
The tint is a pretty crappy, purpleish hue and being XM-L it doesn't "throw" due to the large hotspot. I only bought this for a front light strobe on my bike and for that purpose I'm satisfied.
If you are open to modding it, replacing the LED with an XP-G2 or XP-E2 would probably give good results in the throw department.
One of the more experienced modders here could probably tell you how to hack it from a 3-mode (next mode) to single or you could maybe even replace the driver.
FYI Both the star and the driver appear to be 20mm.
I was going to say something similar, just direct drive the light (UF Q5) he has already. If you can identify the battery + and - on the non-battery side of the driver, just move the + and - emitter leads to those solder points, and you’ll be direct drive.
Or, some driver boards have notches on the edges, so you can just solder the emitter leads to the battery side of the driver, but if you do this, you’ll need to be careful that they don’t short each other.
I have one of the SK98 3 mode clones made by Ultrafire and it is kind of nice. I don’t think there are any one mode 18650 zoomies, but I could be wrong. I don’t think you can go wrong with the Ultrafire, but I know you said you wanted a one mode.
The led will need a copper board to reliably handle direct drive on a 18650 battery, a xml led could draw more than 4 amps (if using an IMR it will go over 6 amps).
Most any 18650 XM-L light with the driver removed should do it, all that I have seen are good quality, though waterproofness varies. I have not seen anything about a one mode 18650, so the only way to do it cheaply seems to be to replace the driver yourself. The main question is if you want an aspheric zoomy, or a reflector light with fixed throw and spill. Of zoomies, the SK98 type has good cooling for its size and good grip. I have a Raysoon TD398, because it had a favorable review and came with a head band. It has nice knurling. The SK73 type is more compact and therefore cools less well, which may be an issue if you use it continuously on high output.
