Well, I got the SK68 lights in a couple of days ago. Pretty impressive flashlight I’d say for the money spent and given that it’s one AA. The boys and even some of their parents seemed very impressed.
Good to hear. I hope the kids enjoy them.
I’m glad you were able to get some lights that the scouts will be proud to carry. I hope your situation with the other flashlights gets remedied to your satisfaction.
I’m sure they love the SK68 already. When I was a scout 20 years ago I would have love that kind of light.
But back in mid 90s I had to use something like that
I remember mine had a very lousy switch…
And all those night search patrol in the forest when chiefs force us to switch the light of so our eyes can adapt to moonlight (even crescent moon), I wish I had a flashlight with moonlight mode.
Curious if you’ve looked behind the LEDs in any of those lights you got — always hoping for a source of those that have a solid plane behind the LED instead of just a hole with a little rim on which the LED sits.
You’d have to poke at one a bit to find that out. But generally there’s a white or silver washer thing that holds the LED down by pressure and if that’s lifted out (easy to remove and replace) then the LED will float up on its two wires and behind it there’s either just a big hole the wires do down through, or a solid flat metal base with 2 little holes through which the wires come. Rarely, the LED would have been stuck down to that solid flat base with a dab of heat-transfer gunk, but almost never happens.
The ones with that solid flat base under the LED transfer heat better and would be prizes for modding.
Haven’t pulled them apart and don’t plan to yet. I don’t want to mess with them until I’m happy with the resolution that I’ve come to with banggood…especially if by some odd chance they want them back.
So the 7 replacements arrived today. So I quickly pulled and played with a few of the new batch. Packaging was different (a promising sign from the get go), and the ones pulled work. 2 of the ones I opened have a been put together a bit shoddy. They had the o-ring that rides between the slider and main body stuck in between the two. There’s also quite a bit of play between those two parts on the ones that don’t have a stuck o-ring. They are a little shorter than the first batch (the 3+volt only). So now I have 14 of these, 7 of the 3+volt only and the 7 of the new batch that will work with alkaline and 3+ volts (yes I did test one of the new ones with two alk batteries and it worked fine, but didn’t seem a lot brighter). Also, those tested from new batch are one mode.
What to do? So DavidEF suggested that he’d buy a few of them from me (see post #56). What I’d like to do hopefully is to find one of you kind souls that would be willing to trade me a charger for Li-ions, or some 14500 batteries, or both. A small charger that will handle any type of battery would be ideal. I figure that I might as well jump in to Li-ion power since I have some lights that will run on them now.
So, I’m open to offers and would prefer to not ship out lights in lots of 1 or 2 or my shipping costs will overcome what I’ve got into them. Yes, I’m keeping a few of these to play with and as spares for future need but I’d say 10 are up for this deal. Also, DavidEF gets first priority in any offers I’ll consider as he was the first to offer to help me out. I’m also open to just selling them, but surely you light addicts have some charger or batteries that you have outgrown. Please send me a PM if you have any offers/ideas.
I forgot to mention. In my quick comparison, the new lights have a slightly better focused beam than the SP68…but the flood isn’t as good IMO.
I’ll plan to post many of these up for sale (in the right forum)in the next few days. I’ve got a busy weekend planned with my bride of 16 years (today) and I’m also talking with David via PMs.
Just letting you all know that I probably post something in the “want to sell” forum in the near future.
Congratulations on your anniversary!
Just received 5x black and 1x silver of these torches and everyone of them works with both 1.5 alkaline and 14500 Li-On. It seem like the silver ones either its this or the SK68 is missing the o-ring in the lens bezel for some reasons. Need to clean the flux and solder balls in the white portion of the emitter with a Q-Tip and some isopro alcohol and add some silicone grease onto the sliding zoom, some are completely dry and some have some sort of motor oil instead of silicone grease, but all in all I am satisfied with the quality !
After comparing #3(with zoom 3 mode) to #2(no zoom 1 mode) I still prefer #2 which is 1/2” longer which feels just right in the palm to press the tail switch and the beam is more focus and brighter than with the XP-E Q5 convex zoom on #3.
Do they still sell those police lights with extension tubes that fit those lights? I can only find these http://www.banggood.com/3W-Mini-Police-Super-Bright-LED-Torch-Flashlight-Keychain-p-81669.html
Or any other way to get a 2xaa in those zoomable lights?