I used a spare body and replaced the sideswitch on my modded Aleto N8 with a more streamlined switch cover with metal switch button. The plunger in the button was taken from my scratched up empty DQG Tiny III host.
Here’s what it looked like before (standing next to a a Sipik 68).
Here’s what it looks like now with polished aluminum and the new metal switch button:
The old cover was a chopped down rubber switch boot held on with a homemade metal switch plate. The switch plate was held on with 4 tiny screws. The tops of the screws protruded and it never looked great. The new switch cover is glued on so has no screws. Instead of a rubber boot I used a metal plunger surrounded by a modified #6 finishing washer.
Here’s a picture of the Aleto N8 with my modded DQG18650 Tiny III on the left and a Sipik 68 on the right. Note how the middle and left lights have the same switch.
I really like this switch design. It has a relatively soft touch and is very easy to press when I want to activate the light or change modes. But at the same time the plunger itself is fairly small and is recessed inside a #6 nickel plated brass finishing washer. Accidental pocket activation is extremely unlikely. I’ve been EDC’ing either the DQG or the Aleto for the last month and have had zero accidental pocket activations.
It’s likely I’ll try another shot at Duracoating the Aleto. In the first picture on this thread the N8 has grey duracoat on it with a rubber grip around the center. I never liked how the grey looked, partly because it was slightly shiny… it looked like paint. I have a can of duracoat on order in tactical black, which is supposed to be much flatter.
The one downside of duracoating is it’s hard to remove. I can easily remove it from the knurled bezel with a file, but removing it from the fluted body using the same method wouldn’t work. I’d never be able to get it looking as smooth again. If I do duracoat it in black, I’ll leave the button bare metal.
Overall I’m quite happy with how the Aleto works right now. Beam angle in flood mode is over 90 degrees making for a very wide flood, and throw is a very respectable 28k lux at turn-on. Driver is a 17mm FET driver from RMM with moppydrv firmware and turbo timer set around 30 seconds. Emitter is a 5000K XPL HI. Optic is a 15mm fresnel lens from Edmund Optics behind a glass lens. Entire light is 92mm long making it smaller than a Sipik 68 and almost as small as the modded Triple-XPL HI 89mm DQG18650 Tiny III standing next to it. I’m currently running the Aleto N8 on an Efest 35A IMR 18650.