Defiant 650 Lumens 3D HD

Flashlight Modding and DIY Parts
1

As many of you are aware of by now, these lights were on sale at home depot for $8.98! These are great lights stock, I picked up a couple of them. This is just a thread I wanted to make to let you guys know what I tryout with these lights since many of you are going to want to tinker with these too! The first thing I wanted to try is to swap out the LED. I replaced it with a De-Domed CREE XM-L2 U2 1D LED on Noctigon 20mm MCPCB, and I am really liking it. I still need to add the copper braid to the tail spring and increase the current in the driver (stacking resistors or just replacing). I plan on eventually switching to 3 x 32600 batteries but I need to order them and a driver; I am open to any recommendations for drivers… I still need to do some research.

Here is the results of just the LED swap. The woods line is about 100 yards away.


2

Very nice, if I didn’t have a good thrower already (crelant 7g5 v2) I’d get one to tinker with.

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Great pic, taken just at the right time. Enough light left from sunset to define sky and trees yet dark enough to show off the beam. Nicely done!

4

Thanks for the great pics! I'm gonna swing by my HD and see if there are any left. Online shows it at $8.98 at my store, but says none in stock (there were plenty early last week at $19).

-Garry

5

Nice work and report Mhemling33. That's a real nice looking beam there.

Those lights sold out before Christmas in this area. I should have bought one back then to trade in for a lower price later.

6

You talked me into driving an extra 20 miles to another Home Depot, thanks.

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Ah ha! Nabbed one! There were none where I saw them last week, but I found one somebody stashed away behind other lights! Rang up $8.98 too! Also walked around looking for tools marked on clearance (dchomak style) but didn't find much that interested me.

Oh, I didn't see any 4C spotlights, but did see the 4AA spotlight (XP-G?). Plenty at $4 or $4.98. Wasn't too interested in it though. Should I have been? Is the 4AA model worth anything?

-Garry

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Thanks guys for the compliments!

@Garrybunk - Glad you got one… The only ones that were appealing to me were the 4C Spotlight (which I just a put a MT-G2 in!) and the 650 lumen that you grabbed.

@unknown - 20 miles I hope they had them!

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I grabbed one of the 3D as well; they had one other, but it had a minor defect in the reflector, and I’m broke after buying the first one anyway :stuck_out_tongue:

I noticed the 4aa spotlight in one of dchomak’s picture of the 4c. If it drops below $4 I may get one, I liked the smaller form factor for sure.

Edit: Just got home and tore it apart, you guys weren’t kidding about the mass of this 3D Defiant XM-L2.

Was anyone else’s switch housing glued/loctite in the pill housing? I’ve apparently been having bad luck recently as my last DST was covered in Loctite, and this 3D also seems to have some kind of glue in the upper switch housing threads.

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I bet there’s a good chance that other 3D “with the minor defect in the reflector” is Loctite free :wink:

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Probably. :smiley:

I’m just hoping heat works again, this stuff doesn’t look like loctite… It’s more pale and semi translucent, thermal adhesive maybe?

12

Recently put the Defiant 650 up against the SSzy t13 (stock) and was pretty surprised! The Defiant held its own for throw and hotspot. T13 was noticeably brighter but barely and did reach out a little farther, but the Defiant was right up there in the same class. I have been very impressed by the Defiant lights.