So, this is a fun review I’m making because I found out my grey S2+ was not the first 18650 powered flashlight to enter my household. Messing around in my dad’s car I found this gem in the glove compartment:
- The Flashlight + EDIT
This beautiful zoom flashlight with a supposedly Cree XML2 U2 emitter (as per writing on the MCPCB) with a cool tint.
Plus, now I have found the box!
- Acessories + EDIT
I thought it came with only a single cell charger and a plug for the car cigarette lighter, no wall plug option, but upon finding the box I found the missing wall charger and AAA caroussel
- Interface
The interface is a simple 5-moder.
High (slightly higher low) > Medium (low) > Low (slightly lower low) > Strobe > SOS with mode memory.
- Size
It is about the size of a C8, but it’s much, MUCH heavier, mainly because the bulk in the sliding head, which has about 5 to 7 mm thick walls.
- Specs + EDIT
As you can see, this a 38000 Watt, 108000 Lumen flashlight according to the manufacturer print. 8000 Lumen according to the box. Who’s lying? Who’s saying the truth? They might have put it in another’s product box, as you can see in the picture in the lid, so that is what may be causing the discrepany. Anyway, I don’t have an integrating sphere or anything, but I think the engraving on the flashlight might be a long shot. I’d say a factor of a 1000
It comes with a button top, unprotected NK 18650 battery rated at 4200mAh. Unfortunately the manufacturer did not print the discharge rate of the cell in the wrapping. Or accurate capacity. Guess we’ll have to wait on HKJ for that one.
- Disassembly
Here are the guts of this flashlight. There is a battery sleeve to prevent rattling of the 18650, so it may well be possible to fit a 20700 in there. The solid metal head gives it a nice, comfortable, somewhat forward leaning balance, perfect for illuminating small animals. And then bludgeoning them. There is a DIY style lanyard, a reverse clicky switch and transparent plastic insulating disc over the MCPCB for it not to short with the retaining ring.
Speaking of retaining rings, the one for the tail switch and for the MCPCB have non diametrically opposed holes. There might be a reason for this. There might be not.
The pocket clip of the appropriate size might have been suffering from high demand, as they included a not so well fitting one in the package.
You might also have noticed the absence of spare O-rings. Or O-rings at all. Except for the ones making contact between the pill and the sliding head.
- Pill, driver and emitter
The pill is a big, shelf-less tube of aluminium, but it could be much thinner and shorter, as the driver drives very little current to the emitter, as far as I can tell. The flashlight never gets warm, but that might be because the MCPCB only barely sits on the recessed grove, or it might be because of the high mass of the head takes a lot of time to heat up. Who knows.
- Beam-shots
To compare the beams I used the glove box flashlight on high and zoomed, vs the Convoy C8 with a Nichia 219C 5000k… on low.
In fact, shinning it on my eye was barely a strain (don’t do this at home, please)
- Final considerations + EDIT
- This flashlight may be well under-driven, but with a decent emitter and a tad more current, it could actually do some good flashlighting.
- This flashlight is very heavy. This emitter/driver would have no trouble in a plastic host half the size and 1/8 of the weight (or whatever density of aluminium/density of plastic proportion actually is). This is the worst major drawback.
- The heavy and thick head may protect the flashlight from any internal damage if dropped, but if it wasn’t so ill balanced, dropping it wouldn’t be nearly as likely.
- The second worst feature is mode spacing. High to Low are so close together this might as well be a single mode light.
- Knowing what prices are practiced on hardware stores around here, I bet this flashlight cost a lot more than any of my Convoys stock. But this flashlight is at least 4 years old according to my father, so it might have been a lot closer to the top of the market back then. Still would’ve been way overpriced.
- As an emergency flashlight stored in a car, I’d rather have no memory, as you can easily strobe yourself blind. I doubt SOS would be useful around these parts too, who would ever know/recall morse?
- It’s too heavy to be a quick draw, so strobe is also kinda useless. I might as well replace strobe/sos with a beacon mode.
- Zoomed it seems like a good thrower at close range, but even my S2+ out-throws it in real world test
- The info car under the lid is surprisingly more honest
- Except for being waterproof with no o-ring protecting the tailcap
That’s it. I hope you like this review, and if you do, please hit thumbs up and subscribe. Thanks.
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