My brother called to say that 2 of 5 SK-68 type lights that he got from TMart were DOA. He and his friends like that type of light and he is always ordering them. Last week when I was visiting him, I accidently left my ’68 there and as he knows it’s my EDC he felt obligated to mail it back to me. Included in the package were the 2 DOA lights he just got from TMart. Here are the pics
The problem it turns out is that there is a cheaper emitter in these. I have seen this emitter in the cheap MR16 lights, but never in a ’68. both lights had burned emitters. I replaced one of the emitters with an exact replacement and the result was the worse beam profile and color I have ever seen. For the second light I cut down a 20mm star with an XP-G2 on it. I didn’t know how that would perform and the workmanship isn’t pretty but it works and I like the color and the beam profile very much. Still runs on AA and 15400.
Yikes! 
That looks like a 1 watt emitter, no wonder it’s blown.
That sucks. The last lot of SK68's I got from Banggood were no good either. Dicky switches.
Heheh. We’ll have to be on the lookout for that, thanks for sharing. Do you know if the listing for those claimed Cree emitters?
it looks like the cheap mass cloners of the popular original SK60 Sipik have hit rock bottom of the junk quality barrel of clones. Looks like the same LED i seen in some plastic disposable Dollar-Store lights.
eerily similar to the path the cheap cloners took with the mass clones of other popular lights like the SRK, etc.
I predict next we’ll see them containing a butane cartridge and igniter and they’ll call them Zoomie Candles …
No mention of Cree, just “Q5”
My brother asked me what the difference was between a Q3 and a Q5. To a certain extent the marketers have created a sort of branding in the term “Q5”
Gotcha.
It seems that you have to buy several bad ones these days before you finally get a good one.
I'm waiting till they go so low priced that the dealer pays us to take them. Of course, they won't work, but it's a helluvadeal.
My brother called me today to tell me that he had ordered 7 more of the SK68s because the ones in this OP didn’t work
All 7 were DOA, this time because they did not contain boost driver to enable use by an AA cell. All this driver is a 0.5 ohm current limiting resistor.
I keep mine working by not using a 14500 anymore. It melted the plastic over the switch spring and started acting flakey. I twisted the spring in deeper and it’s been working well ever since. The driver handled the extra voltage just fine.
I’m really sorry to hear this about some of the SK68’s. I have another 10 of them on the way from a couple of Amazon sources. They make nice little gifts for family and friends. At first I thought they were a butt ugly little light but then they really started to grow on me.
Hi Dave,
I doubt anyone not a flashaholic will be tempted to use the li-ons. They do make excellent gifts, and everyone I have given one to was very pleased. There was one couple that had an argument as to how to change the focus. He was determined to twist it, and she knew it had to be in and out. Not sure why she had to ask me since all she had to do was to push it out.
An AC repair man was also a bicyclist and he and a buddy were really impressed with the throw.
I have never had one malfunction, or has anyone to whom I have given one reported a malfunction.
Jerry
I gave a couple to my handymen. I told them to ‘put them to the test’ and let me know how they perform. That was perhaps a year ago and they’re still going strong. They only use AA but they do everything from duct work to plumbing so these lights are inside/outside/hot/cold as well as sweat. So far so good.
Sometimes twisting at the same time as you push/pull is easier than push/pulling alone. Twisting helps overcome the drag that can sometimes make the head hard to get started along the tube.
Agree. I have a couple of silver SK 68 that I have to get a rag to keep from hurting my hand. I use them to test run times as there is too much difficulty in changing the flood/spot. I have not experienced this with the black ones.
Jerry