Looks like NEW BARE tubes are at Banggood. HERE I am going to contact Customer service for a resend. Post here if you get a “new” one that fits…
Bare tubes available now! Code: 11a743
O-Rings for Short tubes available HERE
Code 30eed0 for $0.99
UPDATE 11/10
BLF or Eagle Eye tube (Select which type in window)
Code (non affiliated): 76986f Price $2.50
Extra, Extra!!!
Code (non affiliated): 9eb033
Code BLF for 8% off
KeepPower 18350 or Nitecore 18350
Battery Code: e4f96d
Bare Tubes are coming, they have not been manufactured and I will update when they are done
New tubes have arrived, they look very, very good. The anodizing looks more like Eagle Eye or Convoy quality. The EE Tube threads are nice and square, the Manker A6 threads fit both new and first batch lights I have. The length is spot on and they work on all my BLF A6 lights. Looks like the tubes and codes will be ready this week!!! Code coming for the KeepPower 18350 as well…
BLF TUBE (NEW on top)
Head end (NEW on right)
Tail End (NEW on right)
Eagle eye tube (X6, A6) below (NEW on top)
Head end (NEW on right)
Tail end (NEW on right)
BangGood’s NEW Brand of lights!!!
UPDATE 10/16 New (hopefully final) round of tubes to be shipped out for sample next week. After approval, only three days needed prior to the finalized tubes being ready for sale.
More battery updates:
My meter has been acting up when trying to measure amps, so I found a friend with a clamp on Ammeter and used about 5 inches of 12Ga copper multi strand wire. The results are below on a Spring bypass BLF A6. It has a V3 2B XP-L HI. It seems all the other A6’s I had have found new homes (more on order!), so this is as close as I can get.
Battery type——-A at start—A at stepdown—V rested battery-V after stepdown
SoShine 18350——–3.43————3.30—————4.20—————–4.09
Nitecore 18350——–4.10————3.78—————4.20—————–4.08
Efest Purple 18350—4.14————3.86—————4.21—————–4.05
KeepPower 18350—–4.23————4.09—————4.19—————–4.06
The SoShine is a good battery for the money, but the best in this small group is the KeepPower, though the others are not far behind. I have asked Neal for a discount on the KeepPower when we buy the tubes and will update when I hear back from him.
Just to clear up the GB and keep people from having to read the entire first post here, this is what the group buy is attempting to achieve:
SHORT 18350 body tubes for the BLF A6 and for Eagle Eye A6 and X6 Three tubes in all as listed below.
Two for the BLF A6:
one anodized (no comment to the side, the default tube)
one bare (BARE)
The last tube is:
Eagle Eye threads (EE) and is anodized only. It fits the EE A6 and X6 (BLF & regular) but NOT the X2.
The anodizing will be black for both and should be a match for the BLF A6 on both anodized tubes (may not be a perfect match to Eagle Eye anodizing)
Hope this helps and thanks for bringing up that this had gotten murky.
Post how many you want of what type, and thanks!
UPDATED PICS
Top to bottom
General pic of all four tubes, Head end to the right on all of them
EE full tube head end threads
EE short tube head end threads
BLF A6 short tube head end threads
BLF A6 full tube head end threads
EE full tube tail end threads
EE short tube tail end threads
BLF A6 short tube tail end threads
BLF A6 full tube tail end threads
UPDATE 09-29-2015
Imageshack is my hosting service and is down for some reason. I will post pics when I can I got the other tube (BLF A6) in from Bugsy36 and am very happy with the form, but the function is not good. It looks like the clip cut was not made deep enough, perhaps .005.010” deeper and it would work with all of my BLF A6’s.- It prevents 4 of my 5 A6 tail caps from screwing down enough to activate. Turns out, the thread lengths were wrong on the tail cap end of the BLF A6 tube, corrected and sent to Neal to pass to Manker
Two thumbs up and Rabbit approved!
I have notified Neal of this and he is verifying with Manker that they will correct this. The EE threaded tube I got had short threads on the head end, perhaps .020” as a piece of .020” copper wire in a ring fixed the issue.
As for the form factor… Lighter than the Convoy S2+ 18350. I have a digital kitchen scale, so the weight may not be on the nose, but the difference between them should be. I weighed them all without a battery:
56 grams for BLF A6 no clip
60 grams for Eagle Eye A6 no clip
70 grams for Convoy S2+ with screw on clip
70 grams for Convoy S2+ triple with aluminum spacer
All four types of 18350’s I have (Keeppower, Soshine, Efest and Nitecore) all weighed 21 grams each, so pretty close, but the BLF A6 is the lightest, even with a clip (+2 grams)
The stock BLF A6 with no clip was 70 grams, but like I said, cheap kitchen scale… so this is only a guideline.
The 18350 tubes on the EE and BLF A6 are a slight bit more “slim” feeling than the Convoy S2+ was, but that may be due to the slightly heavier Convoy tube “feeling” bigger.
The function issues are being addressed and when new samples come out, I will keep you posted. Pics will be up as soon as Imageshack is….
FORGOT TO ADD Neal sent a Nitecore and KeepPower 18350’s for me to test in the light for amps…
The results initially were off from my previous results with all the batteries. I am going to make a new set of leads tomorrow and re test them. It looks like the Nitecore may be the winner on draw, with the KeepPower slightly behind the Efest and the SoShine the budget option bringing up the rear with a good amount of amps for the price…
UPDATE 09-22-2015
Due to shipping mistakes, I have only the Eagle Eye thread tubes and Bugsy36 has the BLF A6 tubes…
We are swapping one tube each VIA USPS, so in a few days we will have some side by side comparisons.
Right now, the BLF A6 tubes work fine according to Bugsy36, but the EE do not. The front threads are about .5mm too short to make contact with the driver ring on my EE A6 reliably.
Neal is aware and working with the manufacturer on this issue for the Eagle Eye thread style tube… Easily remedied, but it is not acceptable for production.
Will keep you updated…
UPDATE 09-14-2015
Tubes are on the way to me for evaluation and further pics/tests of the different batteries. In the mean time, more Eye candy… EE style for those that were in on the X6 GB…
Update 09-12-2015
Spoke with Neal at BangGood, with all the clip issues and Bugsy36 taking feedback for a possible clip redesign we have decided to nix the extra clips for these tubes.
There were some initial concerns about the tube price being too high as well, so we have the price now of $4.00(US) for these tubes in either finish for the BLF A6 or the Ano EE X6 one… The batteries will cost more than the tubes it seems, so keep that in perspective as well!
I am looking into the EE threads between the X6/A6 and the X2 not being compatible. I do not have an X2 to compare it with, so if someone has both the X2 and either a X6 or A6, try it and let us know here… We are getting closer to this finishing and the initial run numbers for each type of tube will be sent soon, so sign up if you want some!!!
UPDATE 09-10-2015
Been a while for an update, thanks for hanging in with this. We are not low priority, just that there is other work that was spoken for ahead of us getting in the queue for this… Neal has forwarded these to me to post. I know he has sent back a couple of pre-production rounds when they did not meet his standards for what these should be. See if you can spot the surprise…
UPDATE 08-25-2015
Batteries ————————-Heads (one spring bypassed, the other stock)
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Spring Bypass Head With Samsung 20R——- Stock Head With Samsung 20R
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SoShine in Spring Bypass Head—————- SoShine in Stock Head
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Efest in Spring Bypass Head —————— Efest in Stock Head
I got in an Efest 18350 from RMM’s Mountain Electronics, and a Pair of SoShine 18350’s I had ordered from FastTech a while before all this started. I ran them on my SE A6’s, both are 1A/CW if it matters. I also ran a Samsung 20R (also Mountain Electronics) for a control, as this is the highest drain battery I own, this was a control to show that the 18350’s were not pulling more.
_
Update 08-21-2015 OVER 300 now! I need your help with listing these tubes. If you are on the list, check it, any problems PM ME. If you want on the list, tell me the number of tubes total, and then the number of anodized and number of bare ones. If you are updating your wants, let me know the TOTAL first, then what you are adding. This will help a lot to keep the list straight. Examples below:
Example #1 (new, not on list)- I want 3 tubes total, 1 anodized, 2 bare.
Example #2 (on the list already, adding more) I want 6 tubes total, I have two anodized and 1 Bare already, please add 2 more bare and 1 more anodized.
This helps and I know not everyone here speaks English as their first language, so if you have any questions on adding tube, feel free to PM me!
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Update 08-14-2015 Over 200 tubes on the list! The BLF SE A6 is out! Make sure to get on the list for your SHORT TUBE for these lights….
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UPDATE #2 Looks like the initial pricing will be $4.50 for one 18350 battery tube with an extra deep carry clip. The timeline for this will be AFTER the X6/K6 Group Buy is complete, so it could be a bit down the road. Sign up and lets show Manker what we can do for them when they do for us!
The clips will be removable for those that do not like them. My alternate method of putting a clip on a light is HERE
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UPDATE 08-09-15 Bugsy36 will be talking to Manker about this tonight or tomorrow. The more signed up, the better our chances. We are working the issue to see if the threads are the same as on the BLF SE X6 in case you want a shorter X6 as well. NUTS, WILL NOT FIT THE PREVIOUS X6 GB light…. We are also going to ask for one 18350 tube WITH an extra clip per order. This way, no scratching up our tubes when we switch them out…
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Bugsy36, the creator of the Group Buy for the Manker A6 and I exchanged emails about the chance for an 18350 sized body tube being created by Manker for the Group Buy A6 lights.
This would be made separate from the actual Group Buy light so there would be no delay in the almost completed Group Buy he has worked so hard to bring to this point. It is an add on for your light that you have already signed up for, NOT a new light.
I figured while he still has the ear of the very responsive manufacturer (Manker) that has done so much for the group buy, it might be a good time to ask for this. The way I look at this, it is about 30mm shorter body tube that allows you to reconfigure your light to a shorter, more EDC worthy light.
The downside is less runtime of course, but the ability to take 18350, 16340 or LiFePO4 17350 adds to the options… I am only guessing that this driver will not operate on a 3.0V Cr123, but if there are any testers here that could tell me if there are at least lower modes available, feel free to correct this.
I got the idea from my recent Convoy S2+ short host, when I found that the body tube from it would directly screw to my S2…. After I had transferred the driver and emitter to the other pill of course…
I have included some pics here to put it into perspective for those that have an A6 like light already, or those that will (shortly we all hope) begin to get the GB A6.
My stock A6 next to S2
A6 next to S2 with 18350 length body tube installed (same head and switch as first pic)
Parts laid out so you can see the difference in length between the battery tubes. The short tube is backwards though, just noticed this…
My mock-up and bad pic to see what it would look like fully knurled, not to shabby…
Once again, please just list here if you are interested, and I will start a list. There has been no talk to Manker about this yet, first we have to have sufficient interest to see if it is worth asking. I would figure over 200 would have to be requested to initiate manufacturing anyway.
Current unknowns: how long the clip would be on this “shorter” body. The deep carry part would be OK, and it “looks” like it would fit… I would request the shorter tube have the cutout for the clip as well, but it is unknown if it will fit/balance well.
We are going to run with it and ask that every tube has a spare clip, that way you can leave your clips installed and do not have to scratch it up when changing body tubes. This also gives you a spare clip should one break
Thanks again to the A6 team for their effort in making that Group Buy so incredible!