Been looking around for a zoomie for a friend. They saw my cometa and loved it. Now they want one…
So I start putting together prices for a complete bundle… and Cometas don’t exist anymore, and the more I think about it I’m not sure that I want to give a muggle a FET driver anyway.
So what do you guys/gals think?
less than $60
150+ kcd
1x 26650 preferred (protected)
I don’t mind building it if necessary.
A cometa for sale here. You could change the driver if you wanted.
Other option is the UF-1504, but that is a bit bigger.
Are you sure you want them to have li ion?
Second time today I say
Warsun X65 ($12 AliExpress)
4 eneloops AA ~16 Gearbest
Safe and nice quality for the price
If they do want a 26650 or 18650 fits good instead of 3*AA
If you are set on li ion and spending $60 it breaks down to:
Liitokala 26650 ~$7
Liitokala 100 charger ~$5
Leaving 48
If you have a driver and led laying around a Jaxman Z1 host will set you back ~$44 incl shipping
Buy that Cometa and swap driver for a Convoy 8* Biscotti (~$4 AliExpress Simon. Also find a light of your own that you can swap the tail parts with so yulou can make that a fet driven lighted tailcap light.
Yeah that seems best.
The Brinyte B158 might be another great option to consider, especially if you swap the LED to an XPL Hi.
The X65 is 26650/18650/3x AAA right? AAA isn’t really worthwhile imo.
I don’t recall seeing any modded numbers on it. I’ll give it a look though.
A 4x AA direct drive zoomie might be pretty interesting.
Budget wise I’m looking at around $100, 60 set aside for the light itself (host/parts/etc). The rest is set for batteries and an Xtar SV2.
My fallback is a 1504 with xpl-hi and a FET or stacked qlite. Which would be fine, but the 1504 is so bulky with the weird exterior machining. Everyone who sees my lights irl loves the cometa/Z1 because of the sleek design and versatility, but they look right past that 1504 that beats the cometa while using half the current.
I am thinking about the B158, or the B version. 18650 isn’t ideal though.
I don’t think a Cometa is at all suitable for a muggle!
no the X65 is 3xAA
specs say it wrong, it comes with a nice holder for 3 x AA cells
So seeing your budget:
Buy the Cometa
swap driver and tail parts with a Convoy 8*7135 Biscotti driver and tail pats f a light you have that fit
tadaa a nice zoomie and super parts to mod another light.
Oh nice. Thanks for the heads up.
I think with a little bit of work they’re perfectly fine. My only concern is heat, because extended runs generate quite a bit of it… As I’m typing this I just recalled they have a thermal stepdown that can be set.
Cool. I’ll have to pick one up for myself. I believe the 3AAA thing prevented me from buying one a while back.
Why not just get a complete Z1 for $53.90? Do they not meet the kcd requirement?
They’re pretty mediocre stock. Around 50kcd iirc.
I didn’t realize that the kcd was that low on a stock one.
says “AAA” but the picture shows AA
and you can see the extra space in the battery tube around the 26650 cell
I probably did the exact same thing today that I did however many months ago when I first saw it and just glanced the pics and read the specs.
I wonder if the 3AA metal carrier, intended for an X3, would fit the X65?
I would not consider the X65 much of a candidate. I was hoping it would be a cheap little host to mod but the internals are quite a mess. Pill is impossibly tight (loctite), has very little threads to engage with the host body, and has a large cross slot in the shelf so it’s semi hollow. Pill is also made from cheese grade aluminum, some of the worse I’ve ever seen. MPCB is retained only by a glued in plastic disk. Driver is crimped into the pill. I suppose all these things could be worked around but it would have to be quite a mild build or require extreme pill modding. Meanwhile the Jaxman Z1 host is great quality across the board and will push some serious numbers with good beam quality.