Convoy L2...Guess who's back???

LED Flashlights – General Info 26650 Flashlights
601

Just picked up my L2 3B from courrier, picked this one up after won ImA4Wheelr’s 6k giveaway, thanks to him and Gearbest for putting that giveaway up ;)!

So, after putting NCR18650B with less than 40% charge in it and comparing to my stock EA8W with 4.9V still in it with Pairdeer NiMh’s it seems like at this setup L2 on high eats EA8W’s turbo for a hearty breakfast, dont get me wrong, EA8W XM-L is no slouch when it comes to throw and I have chinese batteries in it with unknown characteristics when it comes to high drain use, but L2’s XM-L2 hot spot is slightly smaller, yet much more well defined and considerably brighter!

Cant wait to take them both out in the dark and do tests with 30Q in L2 and Eneloop Pro’s in EA8W :D!

Oh and beam is much, much cleaner in L2 than it is in EA8W, just saying ;)!

Mine with battery spacers but without battery weighs 370 grams, not heavy at all.

Given that they both cost about the same and latest addition of XP-L to L2 just needs no convincing which light to get, unless youre particular to NiMh’s and dont use any lithium batteries ;)!

Lots of winks in this post of mine, once again, big thanks to ImA4Wheelr for his giveaway, I think I did a good choice of picking L2 8) !

Will wait for my B158 XM-L2 to arrive, compare them face-to-face stock and then replace LED on L2 and driver+LED on B158, fun times ahead, one more thing to love long winter evenings even more :D!

PS. Slight remark regarding reflector on L2 - it has some small chirps at the very top of it, it appears that they dont affect throw nor beam profile, perhaps at the very outer edges of spill, but didnt notice anything while ceiling ogling at that bright hot spot :D!

EDITED TYPOS

602

+1, they are great choices of tint. I'm not familiar with 4B's but don't want people to confuse a 4B with a true warm. I've tried some 5's (5B1, 5D2, 5D3) and like them all. Warm tints like the 7's I've tried in flashlights, and not too happy with them - what's weird to me is in a flashlight, a 3000K LED is pretty darn yellow, while a CREE LED light bulb at 3000K used in the home looks pretty darn good. It must have something to do with the optics of the enclosures - I haven't researched it.

603

You were right about that and I appreciate it. 4500-4700K is definitely in the neutral range. I wasn’t paying enough attention and over-simplified. I also had a copy and paste goof up calling each of them V2-1A in one or both posts though I listed the color ranges correctly. Anyway, thanks for paying attention. I corrected the errors. They now read as follows in both the OP and post #596 where I mention the emitters. :beer:

XPL HI V2-1A CW 6500-7000K (this comes standard)
XPL HI U6-3A NW 5000-5300K (add $0.50)
XPL HI U6-4B NW 4500-4700K (add $0.50) This one is on the warmer side of neutral

604

Another thing - lens and reflector both have dust particles inside :D.

Any ways to clean reflector effectively without leaving any traces of dust?

605

Best bet is to live with some dust, trying to clean it can see things go really wrong. :wink:

606

I use a can of compressed air - clean air type - no traces of oils, can be pricey though.

607

Realistically, while trying to open up the light to use compressed air it is also possible for the o-ring to break. Get fingerprints on the polished reflector around the rim, break the dome off the emitter and/or break a bond wire, lose the centering ring, not be able to get the same beam profile when putting it back together.

For those that have done this a lot, it is somewhat easier. For those that haven’t, there is a lot of easy little things that can go wrong. Even something as simple as holding the reflector carefully to avoid fingerprints yet having the blast of compressed air surprise you with it’s intensity and knock the reflector out of your hand where it goes crashing to the floor, possibly getting scratched or de-formed in the process.

What do you gain by getting those last little refugee’s of dust out? Any visible difference in the performance? How often do you stare into the reflector while the light is on? Is it worth the risk? What if the glass lens cracks putting it back together? What’s the ambient humidity? Will the whole thing fog up the next time I use it? Is the dog likely to pick up a dropped reflector and use it to play chase with his Master? Murphy’s law, if something CAN go wrong, it will….

For most people, I’d say just leave it alone. But it’s totally up to one’s skill set and average luck coefficient. :wink:

608

+1 Dale - I typically only use the compressed air when modding lights with it all apart anyway. For me, it's been a great assistant. I can keep the reflector sitting around a while, upside down on a clean surface, and not worry bout dust settling in because I'll blow it out anyway before final assembly. For the lens - all depends - I got a pretty good lens cleaner and wipes now.

Unfortunately, this is getting more mainstream now because more lights seem to be coming in with fogged/dirty lens.

609

Yep, beats me what is making that glass lens so ridiculously dirty but they usually do wash up good at the kitchen sink with some Dawn or the like.

610

Get a FilterKlear pen from lenspen.com, works a charm on the glass and flat bits of the reflector.

611

Alternately to the compressed air is to use a camera lens blower. There is one that is shaped like a rocket, with fins that allow it to stand, it has a valve so it sucks air in at the back and blows it out at the front, you simply squeeze the body to blow dust. It’s got a sort of tube, nozzle, that you can get down inside sorta, for the stubborn dust that won’t let go it let’s you get the blast of air up close.

Looked it up, it’s the Giottos Rocket Blaster, under $9 at B&H Photo

I have one of these for my camera equipment, use it from time to time on reflectors and such as well. :wink:

612

Thanks guys, valuable advices!

I did it the old school way, since its easy to take it apart, I simply removed the bezel, cleaned the lens with micro fiber cloth and blew the dust out of reflector with air, thats it, it was really bit too dirty to leave it like that, lens was pretty nasty-ish and reflector had visible dust in it.

Looks fine, for now! Been thinking of some sort of anti-static solution, blow the dust away, charge the surrounding area so that every dust particle there is near reflector and lens gets sucked away by static while Im assembling the light.

613

If anyone has ordered the XPL-HI version please report back here with your impressions. I love my original stock L2 but I REALLY want to know how it performs with the XPL-HI. The original remains my most impressive stock light by a good margin. I can only imagine the throw of the HI version.

614

I tried that on a Convoy C8, it made a dull spot on the reflector. |(

615

Not sure if anybody measured this? I’m looking for the depth of the driver cavity. Want to check if the new L1 will be able to take a MTN-MAXlp HP.

616

The can I bought has no oils or liquids - forgot what brand, but had to do some searching because most have some sort of liquid/oil/agent. Why would it make a dull spot? I've used mine on maybe a dozen or more lights - never saw any problems, at least not that I noticed . I've used the squeeze ball type, probably not as good as Dale's link above though - think I bought mine cheap at FastTech.

617

Color temperature:
XPL HI V2-1A 6500-7000K
XPL HI U6-3A 5000-5300K
XPL HI U6-4B 4500-4700K

shoplink

618

Got my L2 today. It is 9mm deep.

619

Thanks finges. I’ll measure the driver height tonight.

620

You can’t move the can around when you spray, it will leave residue. That’s with any compressed air. Put the reflector under running water and use your finger and lightly rub the residue off. then you can blow it out with a hairdryer or compressed air (without moving the can around, lol).