Gords,
Thanks for the explanation!
Jim
This ad is full of fail, and 79% off is a blatant lie designed to make you think your getting a good deal, no no name light of this caliber costs that much
If you want an 18650 light thats worth every penny look at a Convoy M1 from fasttech, it may only take 1 x 18650, but its a decent cross between flood and throw, you will get 2.8 amps of light (if you order that version), and the quality will kick the living crap out of this junker
Or the convoy l1 for 2 x 18650.
Personally, I prefer 2 x 26650 lights, 18650 body tubes feel too skinny.
i prefer 26650 for runtime
That l2 looks like a beast! I wonder what driver it uses
it uses the one or two cell ld-29 variant.
2.6a on one cell
2.8ish a on two cell
I just received one from fasttech to put in my defiant 3c then it can run either 3c or 2 x 18650.
From The XM-L data sheet, Cree guarantees a minimum of 280 lumens from an XM-L T6 driven at a current level of 700ma. If the Chinese make the assumption (wrong!) that there is a linear relationship between driving current and lumen output AND you over drive the XM-L at 4 amps ( 1 Amp more than The recommended maximum) you would get:
280 x (4000 / 700) = 1600 Lumens!
If I were Chinese however, I would include the plus or minus 7% variance that Cree also mentions and come up with
1600 x 1.07 = 1712 Lumens 
Who wouldn’t choose a 1712 lumen flashlight over a mere 1600
This .
No problem Jim, as I say, I’m not keen on the effect an aspheric lense gives ie a die image when zoomed in, I much prefer a good reflector, and as I say, I prefer to build a light myself then I can determine the modes, emitter and tint and cell choice based on what I require of the light.
For an off the shelf thrower its hard to beat the stl-v6 fandyfire/stl-v2 skyray for the money. If you want two cell. For the money, the jacob a60 is one of my favorite lights, its a nice quality host and the leads can easily be swapped to give direct drive - no modes, high output. Its not a sophisticated solution and I’ll change mine to a nanjg driver at some point but its nice to have a pure little light I feel.
Another great suggestion if you can find one is available to you in the states - the defiant 3c/3d.
For the money, these lights blow me away, plenty of mod potential, I gave away my pkans further up the thread ie driver that allows either 3 c cells (4.5v at start) or 2 18650 cells with an adaptor sleeve made from 7/8 plastic pipe, copper core to make up the difference in length. I also intend to use either a 3c or 4c tinted emitter to give a nice incandescent glow rather than the harsh white of a u3 1c emitter. I may even use my xm-l2 neutral white to give higher output. Yes its a prodject light and more fun because of that, and because a very kind member gifted it to me from across the pond.
As I say, I really like my trustfire t1, it has options as it is a light with “drop in pills” available, they don’t drop in, they screw in, but the term is apt, there are both bare pills and light engines available and with a 50 ish mm reflector the head is about the size of a maglite. Its another light that would be good for someone wishing to mod/build as you have a few options available. At some point I will build a couple of different light engines as I have another host that takes these modules.
Let me know if I can help with any other host suggestions, I’ve built up a few different lights now and will be building a few more this month, one host is standing out for me as one to do something different with, its a single cell, same size reflector as the jacob a60, its meant for an xm-l and I will be building a few up like that, but I’m thinking of building one for me with a sinkpad and really over driven xp-g2 3d. It should be interesting to say the least. :bigsmile:
Hi,
Older thread, but wanted to update.
First of all, I finally pulled the trigger on a host approach, and got a SolarForce SS and SolarForce L2 hosts from Lighthound. Just ordered it, so am awaiting arrival in a few days. I also got a drop-in from Lighthound, plus an SS bezel and an extension.
I’m looking forward to putting that together!
Also, about the light that I originally asked about in this thread, despite everyone’s advice, I did go ahead and get it from Tmart, and it got here yesterday. I have to say that it is really not that bad. It’s not great, but it’s not horrible either.
Construction seems pretty reasonable, and it also came with a lanyard and a holster, which wasn’t listed on the Tmart pages.
It’s also not bad brightness. Definitely not 1600 lumens :), but it’s just a little less than a Niteye TF25 and Niteye TF20 that I have.
It is flood-to-throw zoom, but I guess I don’t mind that so much, having “grown up” on an SK68.
Overall, not bad for $13+.
Later,
Jim
if lucky to get a good one, you would probally get between 450 & 500 OTF lumens.
I will never understand how the chinese can think to claim these rediculous lumen claims still.
Hi,
I suppose it’s because we, as consumers, let them get away with that?
FYI, here’s a picture of the light that I got, with the holster:
I don’t know how clear that picture is, but as I said, I’m really surprised how not-so-bad this light is, esp. at that price.
Jim
Say that you are getting a little crazy and do a slight mod with this light: you may then want to swap the led to a gen.2 Cree, I suggest this one from dx. It is a xpg2 led that gives about the same amount of lumens that you have now, but much better throw when zoomed in, and the square led-image when zoomed in does not have those ugly stripes, but is much nicer, just some mellow specs 
. (assuming the light is underdriven like the rest and puts out less than 2A).
Hi,
When I have some time, I’ll try to do some disassembling, to try to get an idea of what would be involved, but for now, I just want to “play” with it for awhile, before I take the risk of destroying it :)…
Thanks,
Jim
P.S. I just posted some questions on one of your old reviews.
Can anyone post beam shots of this flashlight? i just bought it am curious to know what the beam looks like
I would, except I’ve been trying to “convert” it to a non-zoomie.
If I recall, I would say that the original beam looked very much like a SK68/SK68 clone.
I assume its just alot brighter than the SK68 clone? I had to replace my SK68 clone and decided to buy another SK68 Clone and the light mentioned here. i was just curious
Zoomed 'out' or with the largest beam area, it basically looks like a flat circle of light.
There's no hotspot, it's all just spill. Some are actually dimmer in the middle.
Depending on how poorly it's made there may be one or two discolored rings outside of that.
Zoomed 'in' or the most focused, you lose a lot of light, but it is a significantly better thrower.
The beam is whatever is on the die of the LED. For an XM-L light, it'd be square with rectangular grids.
There is often a lot of rings surrounding.
This is why i would like beam shots….
As much as I would like to help you out, all my generic eBay zoomies are dead...or I threw them out. Or both.
Save your money, get something that'll last ten times longer at double the price.
It sounds like he already ordered one…