Help on 18650 TN12/EC20 replacement

nightwatchman · 2018-08-27T07:20:22.000Z

Hi Fellow Flashlight addicts,

this is my first post, but I have been coming to this forum for a long time. Love your work and community, I am grateful to join you all now.

I am asking some ideas please. My home was recently broken in to (sadly it is a regular occurrence here in South Africa- five houses within a kilometre radius of my home got burgled on Saturday alone!) Sadly they took my torch collection which included:
Nitecore EC20
Thrunite TN12
Tank007 E09
WF502b
Tank007 TK703
Brinyte PD03A

Fortunately my Convoy C8 (Warm), Nitecore MT10A, DQG tiny IV, Thrunite Ti3 and Olight i3s EOS were in service elsewhere so the *s didn’t get them.

I loved the TN12 because of the superlow moonlight, sensible high and I am tempted to just do a straight up replacement. That said Mrs Nightwatchman liked the UI on the EC20. I am not (yet) in to modding.

I have a bunch of laptop pulls, the best of which are Samsung ICR 18650-30A. Being budget conscious, I am not looking at buying high current cells to power something like the Emisar D4 (as wonderful as it looks by the specs)

I mainly use flashlights around the yard and for pointing out of the window in case we hear anything suspicious during the night. I don’t have a big yard, but travel a lot, so a good flashlight is useful as there are regular power outages in the places I visit in Africa. Strobe is actually quite useful to disorient anyone who tries anything nefarious. We have had a number of ‘fence-jumpers’ reported in our area, mainly in the early hours of the morning.

Oh and another condition to work with is that I have $51 in my paypal account which Mrs NWM doesn’t know about

Thanks in advance!

MascaratumB · 2018-08-27T13:47:06.000Z

Hi nightwatchman and welcome to BLF :+1:

Sorry to know about your house and flashlights I hope you can recover some of them and mostly of your other things!!

About suggestions to replacements, let’s see…
First, here you same a list of members/threads that have some discount codes/coupons so that you can buy some cheaper flashlights :money_mouth_face:

M4DM4X: M4D M4X deals - Astrolux WP1 and WP2 LEP
freeme: Ended..
Fin17: Archive topic - Banggood & Fin17 / GearBEST's Sale . Rovyvon A5 $15.99 . Convoy S21 $15.99
petemer: ✜Banggood deals≫ NC TUP ⚡Rofis TC1⚡$23.06⚡S41S ★★★ $34.65 BLF GT mini ★ ⚡ Fitorch P25 QUAD LED 26350⚡X1R angle light ★BLF GT70★
bilakos10: ☢ [Bilakos10 Premium Deals] ● Astrolux FT03 SST-40 ● Astrolux A01 UV ● Seeknite X6S ● JCD 8898 Hot Air Station ● SQ-D60
FlashlightDeals: UTorch SF01 price drop to $6.99

Then, some suggestions:
BLF Q8
Lumintop GT mini
Rofis MR50
Rofis MR70
Zanflare F1
Nitefox UT20
…

There are many flashlights you can chose at nice prices (with the discounts on the above mentioned threads)! Some are bigger, some smaller, it will be a matter of choosing what you prefer in terms of UI, size, price, tint… There are stores that also sell the EC20 (on AliExpress, at least).

I hope you can decide which one to pick…at a time… Let us know what your choices will be! Maybe other members can help you a bit on this giving other suggestions too!

Best regards and welcome! Good luck choosing (only) 1

Boaz · 2018-08-27T13:23:12.000Z

Tn 12 I'd replace with a 17$ BLF A6.. or astrolux s1 //same thing but if i could have either I'd want the BLF tag on it .. Beautiful driver that alone is worth the price of the light ..nice modes ..it is an easy light to make do what you want it to do ..

Maybe grab a cheap and dirty sofirn during their Brands sale this wek on ali express .. tints are always great at about 5600K which leaves Everyone pleased / lights seem very bright / great moon ./forward clciky and huge bang for Buck lights sp31 imho is a much nicer light than the zanflare which has a puke green tint and odd knurrling and is fat and heavy for no reason

MascaratumB · 2018-08-27T13:26:26.000Z

Boaz:

[…] fat and heavy for no reason

To be thrown to the invaders

nightwatchman · 2018-08-28T08:13:14.000Z

Thanks MascaratumB …really appreciate your response- you have given me a lot of homework…

While I was looking at BG after clicking through the links you included, I saw the Astrolux S42 is at $26 at the moment - had to hold myself back from pulling the trigger….but you know how this flashlight fixation goes right?

Do the Rofis MR50/70 take 18650s?

The Zanflare F1 looks good for the money - I would be interested in knowing if the PWM is noticable? My Thrunite and Nitecore experiences have made me used to the luxury of CC.

MascaratumB · 2018-08-28T10:51:20.000Z

nightwatchman:

Thanks MascaratumB …really appreciate your response- you have given me a lot of homework…

While I was looking at BG after clicking through the links you included, I saw the Astrolux S42 is at $26 at the moment - had to hold myself back from pulling the trigger….but you know how this flashlight fixation goes right?

Do the Rofis MR50/70 take 18650s?

The Zanflare F1 looks good for the money - I would be interested in knowing if the PWM is noticable? My Thrunite and Nitecore experiences have made me used to the luxury of CC.

Hi nightwatchman! Well, you know how it its to go to the market and try to get something in just 1 piece! Impossible

I will only answer about the Zanflare as it is the one I have, and it doesn’t have noticeable PWM.
One thing it has that is not that good is a greenish tint shift (the contrats between the yellow led and the purplish/blueish AR coating on the lens tends to do that).

But you can try to look to other lights before pulling the trigger! The Rofis lights are getting positive feedback around here! You can search for the names and take a look to some reviews too And then go back to those threads with discounts :money_mouth_face:

I hope you make a choice that suits you the best! Or multiple choices :partying_face:

nightwatchman · 2018-08-29T07:14:40.000Z

MascaratumB:

The Rofis lights are getting positive feedback around here! You can search for the names and take a look to some reviews too And then go back to those threads with discounts :money_mouth_face:

I hope you make a choice that suits you the best! Or multiple choices :partying_face:

Had a look at the Rofis lights and they look amazing, but unfortunately require me to purchase a 26650 or two.or three. Will bear them in mind for when I have completed my move from South Africa to the USA, later this year.

I am going grab myself an 3D flavoured A6 (got a lot of respect for BLF and the community driven products and has been in my sights for a while) and given the sale on AliE, a Sofirn…just can’t decide between the SP32A and SP31 :innocent:

You see, this is why we need collections not one single flashlight.

nightwatchman · 2018-08-29T07:26:33.000Z

Boaz:

Tn 12 I’d replace with a 17$ BLF A6… or astrolux s1 //same thing but if i could have either I’d want the BLF tag on it … Beautiful driver that alone is worth the price of the light …nice modes …it is an easy light to make do what you want it to do …

Maybe grab a cheap and dirty sofirn during their Brands sale this wek on ali express … tints are always great at about 5600K which leaves Everyone pleased / lights seem very bright / great moon ./forward clciky and huge bang for Buck lights

Thanks Boaz - you and MascaratumB convinced me

- the sp32A is in my cart and is cheaper than the 31 this week….is that legal?