slimmest 14500 zoomie ?

As the title says, whats the slimmest 14500 zoomie currently available?

I like my SK68 clone, but its kinda fat, for a 14500 light.

Any 14500 zoomies (complete, or host) slimmer than the SK68 variations?

Thanks
Jim

This type is the slimmest and shortest 14500 zoomie currently available. There are several different variations and clones of it and it is available in multiple colors. It’s MUCH thinner and slightly shorter than a Sipik 68 while having comparable output with a decently wide zoom and nice tight spot. They all use 16mm aspheric lenses. Personally, I think these make much better EDC pocket lights than the Sipik 68 and they’re better even than the Sipik 58.

There are several varieties of this light available at DX and Ebay for as low as $3.

Having tried several different versions I think the best one is the “Ultrafire” brand one. Compared to other versions, the focal length on the lens is shorter so you get a wider hotspot without compromising throw. It also has a solid pill.

For a time there was also an 18650 version of this available solely through Ebay. It was the shortest and slimmest 18650 zoomable while it was on the market, though last I looked the 18650 version is no longer available.

If you prefer slightly different styling, DX has one that is slightly different:

This one has horizontal grooves on the bezel and a only two flutes on the body tube (the others have 3). It also has a slip on clip on the body instead of a ring clip around the tailcap threads. The pill holds a 16mm star, but is hollow. (the ones with solid pills hold 14mm stars, but a filed down 16mm works).

All of these lights fit 14mm drivers. If you want to pump up the output with a replacement driver you should order the 15mm Sipik 68 driver from Mountain Electronics (when available), as that fits with only a small amount of filing.

I got some of those. They are definitely very slim. Small enough that I took the belt clip off mine and the light almost disappears inside my pocket. Zoom shows a die image, but it doesn’t pull back far enough for a very impressive flood. The lens is plastic, is not very great quality, but does the job. It is glued to the inside of the bezel, and some of mine weren’t glued straight. Still worth the price, I think. There are (or used to be, at least) some of these that were made with a boost circuit to take an Alkaline or NimH cell. Those also work with 14500’s so if you’re definitely going to use Li-Ion, it won’t matter, but someone may want to know.

It has been long on the market, but I still like the Small Sun ZY-A29 best for a AA-zoomie. It is better quality than the one mentioned above, I hope it still has a solid pill, but uses (like most AA-lights) a 15mm driver. It is hard to find though, Banggood is sold out..

I have one like that. Was sold as an “Ultrafire 10w” at DealExtreme. It’s larger than the gold one listed in the second post, had a hollow pill, can’t tailstand, and had a very narrow flood mode. I rate is as MUCH worse than the previously mentioned lights.

Take the bezel off, remove the lens and pull the head off, then take it to your favorite grinder and cut it down to where the lines start at the base. Be sure to clean up the rough edges with emery cloth and then re-assemble.
You will now have wider flood than the SK-68 and more output.
Did this to a gold one and a black one, works great.
The black one met the wire wheel for a distressed look. Both are the early ones with boost drivers.
Great little lights.
HTH
Keith

No need to go to a fancy grinder. A simple hand-file works great.

Remove the bezel then file down the bottom of it with your handfile. This shortens the bezel and does 2 things:

  • The main goal is to shorten the bezel so that the back of the lens gets as close as possible to the top of the emitter dome. You don’t want it to touch, but you do want it to be close. Preferably no more than 1 mm gap. The closer you can get it the wider the floodbeam will be.
  • A secondary benefit is that this actually shortens the entire light so it takes a tiny bit less space in the pocket.

NOTE: when you file the dismounted sliding bezel you want to file the back of the bezel (where it sits in the middle of the light), NOT the front of the bezel with the screw threads for the lens. If you file the front of the bezel it changes the focal point. The only reason to file the front of the bezel is if you need a different focal length. Typically this would only occur if you installed a different lens.

Incidentally, this technique works with most zoomies. If you want an even wider flood, try a dedomed emitter. Without the dome in the way, you can file even more of the bezel off for an even wider flood.

Look for SK-58 (not 68) as well.

If you put

#3

into the search box you’ll find the topic with a summary on cheap AA lights and more links about this thin one and others.

If anyone knows a sure source for this topic’s zoomie with solid pills, I’d really like to know.
I see the recommendation above that the “Ultrafire” brand has a solid pill.
Where are those sold, for sure?

I’ve bought a variety of these, never found one claimed to be “Ultrafire” and
I got ONE solid pill out of a dozen of these from various sources, just once, and never again.

I’ve gotten two different lenses — one with much better flood, the other with much better zoom, of course.

The little square boards with Luxeon PC Rebels drop perfectly into the solid pill, the diagonal of the square exactly fits inside the rim of the flat pill and the wire holes are exposed.
For the hollow pills, I put little copper disks in under the Rebels, which work ok, but mess up the distant focus slightly.

Perhaps I should have stated that one reason I like the Small Sun because it is very moddable.

I have both the Small Sun version and the Ultrafire version. They are both heavily modded now (one with a colour XM-L, the other with a Ledengin LZ1 365nm led). Both versions are highly servicable for the following reasons:

-the lens is fixed in place with a screw-in ring. The Ultrafire ring was very thick in both directions, I sanded it thinner and made the hole wider so that a better use of the lens was made, the Small Sun ring was stock already much nicer and thinner. So the lens is swappable (they both have a shorter focal length lens now than stock, a lens from a sk68 with the flat ring sanded narrower makes a very nice replacement). To compensate for the shorter focal length lens you can sand the back side of the screw-on part of the bezel to any length because it is fully threaded on the inside, this leaves no visible marks on the outside of the light, it just makes the light a bit shorter.

-the tail has the standard small Omten switch on a 17mm board, held in place with a screw-in aluminium ring.

-I had a look, they have a hollow pill after all, sorry for the false claim. Hollow pills are cursed on BLF for 100% emotional reasons. No one has proven the bad influence of a hollow pill on flashlight performance. I know that because I did do some testing on it and found no problems at all. A sk68 (or clone) runs the XR_E/XP-E at 1.5A with the led on a thin aluminium board resting on a thin ridge with no thermal paste. I did a runtime test on a cheap clone with a 14500 IMR cell to depletion and found not only that everything survives fine, but the output of the light hardly drops for warming up reasons, the heat just escapes fine. The only significant output effect came from battery drain. When hotrodding a flashlight with hollow pill you will probably use a DTP copper board that is at least twice the thickness of the stock board, so being copper has 4 times the heat conductance. Add a bit of thermal paste on the ridge and you could run it at 7 amps, if you managed to get that into the led (until the whole light get to hot of course).

-like the sk68 there is some space under the pill that allows for a floating 17mm driver (well, sanded back to 16mm that is)

Did you find worse performance without the copper disks? ;-)

Yes, the square PC Rebel board is only in contact with the hollow pill ledge on a tiny triangle at each of the four corners.
EDIT: These: LED Modules – Luxeon Star LEDs

They self-center the emitter perfectly on the ledge or the cutout of the solid pill (and the wire holes aren’t covered)

On the hollow pill, with only the corners in contact for heat sinking, they dim rather fast, I assume because they’re overheating (with alkaline cell). Never let one run long enough to see if it would die, they’re expensive and I’m fond of the emitters.

I did not know they were square boards, that makes it more of a challenge of course! :-)

I’m not a fan of the lens retaining ring design in that one. My recollection (been awhile since I modded it) is that the retaining ring itself prevents the LED from getting very close to the back of the lens…. which results in a narrower than needed flood mode.

There’s a very well built light that looks the same but is 18650-sized on DX. That one has a pill which goes in between the lens retaining ring so the issue is not present. Unfortunately, the AA-sized version is much worse in quality.

I have no problem changing lenses even on lights with glued-in lenses. But doing so isn’t for everyone. Several times I’ve remove old glued-in or press fit lens and replaced them with a different lens. Sometimes a larger lens and even fresnel lenses. Sometimes I have to widen the bezel with a handfile. I’ll usually glue the new lens in with Norland NOA61 optical glue.

While a solid pill is nice, I don’t hugely mind having a hollow pill. For hollow pill lights, I make a baseplate and heatsink out of stacked copper rounds for the star to sit on.

I have a couple of the #3's de-domed and cut down to widen the flood ..nice little cheap light . ilike them much better than the sk68

so far the most consistent #3 zoomie I can find was from Banggood and it’s single mode supports both 14500 and nimh.

hollow pill and tailstands.
consistent neutral white tint without being too blue/purple

I find it useless on a 14500 as it boost just slightly brighter and heats very fast.
Tight fit with 14500 but it works

Yeah, I used a rotary tool with a cut-off wheel and did just like you’re saying, up to where the lines start. I also de-domed a XP-E2 and put it in there for a tight beam when zoomed. But, the OP didn’t ask about modding, so I didn’t mention those things. :bigsmile:

Ummmm, well, I …… yea. 0:)

Can I really keep a flashlight without modding it??

I just thought it was a given, that at some point it will be modded.

Thanks for the ideas guys.

What brands/model #s does the #3 go by?
Or is it just a generic no-name light?

Jim

Hahaha yeah!

These days most of my flashlights are purchased with the idea that they’ll be mod hosts. :slight_smile: I’d never EDC an unmodded cheapie light. Not enough power, modes, UI, etc.

I’ve mostly just used an image search, though I’ve seen a few with a name painted on them. Never found consistently the same thing twice though.

EDIT — here’s one labeled “UltraFire 2016” (but there’s nothing found by ’oogle searching for that)

http://www.ebay.com/itm/UltraFire-Mini-100Lm-CREE-Q5-LED-ZOOMABLE-Zoom-Flashlight-Torch-Lamp-14500-AA-/281497914388?pt=LH_DefaultDomain_0&hash=item418a954c14

Tom E. got one with a solid pill — but I’m not sure where.
and he describes extensive modifications, all highly recommended (grin)

See 3-mode Zoom AA/1450 EXPIRED ! "Black" $1.99 Max 3ea