How'd you get the head open to see this supposed heatsink? I had intentions of modding mine when it arrived (to replace the reflector and optic with something better), but can't figure out how it comes apart. I've managed to slide the Aluminum shell off of the plastic body tube after removing the tailcap (which in turn somewhat loosened the Aluminum sheath around the head/neck), removed the rubber collar from the head (which stretches out every easily, you will find - I hope it will heatshrink or glue back into place), and I removed the rubber switch boot, which was a challenge to stuff back into place, but there were no screws beneath any of those items. I'm guessing you need to pop-off the yellow plastic that surrounds the switch to slide down the metal head collar and reveal how to separate the head from the neck, no?
My current measurements on D cells were the same ~2A on high and ~800mA on low, despite high and low being almost indistinguishable to the naked eye.
This is in no way, shape or form comparable to a Mag 2D, but it serves its purpose. I have two nephews who always want to play with a light when they come over, and this will suit that purpose nicely. I've already had some fun conducting drop tests on it myself.
Perhaps he was referring to the D-shaped aluminum plate under the switch and behind the emitter?
Running a bent paper clip down in there from the front end, the aluminum is very thin and I don't see where it is connected to anything else all the way around it. Obviously is bolted to something behind it, but sure doesn't look like much more.
I've got to say I'm liking mine. A nice beat around light that rolls around under the car seat. I can hand it to anyone at anytime, even on the side of the road, and not care one bit if I get it back. Floody beam is crappy and ringy, but that is to be expected.
Spot beam requires unscrewing the head, no o rings at that point, head is loos and rattles... BUT the spot beam focuses nicely and works well. Out throws a Quark AA^2 R5 (of course, it's huge, I know... but the point is, it throws "far enough" for more tasks to be expected of a $7 light).
High and Low are almost the same, so 11hrs battery life is great for a beater light that will never get used. It's basically a handoff light, to hand off to anyone for any reason, and in this function it performs well, along with producing "enough" light to handle any unexpected task I may be forced to begrudgingly throw it's way.
It's like that $9 streamlight worklight. Not a flashaholic's dream, but its cheap and it gets the job done as long as you don't need to spot mice at 150 yards. Sturdy, cheap, functional. Nuttin' wrong with that. We are all just a bit spoiled by the cool stuff that takes specialized batteries.
I received 4 today (at just over $6 each) and they are HEAVY! as well as Very Large! I'm not sure what use I'll have for them but to have one for the collection seems reasonable. I'll probably give the rest away to people who need the "bomb-proof" construction - or maybe just can't afford a set of dumbbells.
Mine must have fallen from the kitchen counter a few times too many and caused the cells to leak. Unfortunately, I left it standing on its head instead of its tail and all the battery acid ran down to the top and ate the LED, the pos battery contact and generally got all over everything. What follows are pics of the repair, which consisted of reflowing a warm white XT-E onto the XP-E star and then thermal epoxying that star to the heatsink. I also modded the driver with a bigger schotkey diode, stacked the sense resistors, and replaced the switch with a single mode switch. Replacing the switch necessitated damaging the yellow plastic that holds the boot and then epoxying it back together. It’s not my exactly a mod I’m proud of, but I know people here won’t judge me too harsly. The last shot is a beamshot comparison between the repaired light on the right, and on the left, something very similar to the stock version. Oh, by the way, you just unscrew the bezel with enough force to jump passed a plastic stop to open the head.
The way the OEM setup works, is that the first press of the switch engages two connections to battery negative, each strapped to its own SMD sense resistor, effectively putting them in parallel to reduce the value. On the second press, only one of those connections remain, taking one of the resistors out of the equation and doubling the value. The resistors were 0.15 and 0.18 Ohms. I can’t offer any explanation for what I discovered when testing on two worn out alkaline cells, but what I noticed was that when the cells were really sagging, the lower mode which pullled less at the tail actually sent more to the LED, measured by clamp meter around the LED- lead. I’m guessing the driver was feeding itself at that point, and leaving less for the LED. It’s what prompted me to change the diode and go single mode.
