Before I discovered this forum, I was heavily involved in a cabin building forum; I was building a cabin here in the mountains of north NM. That led to the Forestry Forum which led to the Chainsaw Forum (there are people with as many chainsaws as DBSAR has flashlights :O ) and the Off Grid Power forum (I have solar power now). Then the Teardrops and Tiny Travel Trailer forum caught my attention when I built a small trailer for camping. I forget just where but acouple of years or so ago someone said something like "There's a forum for everything. There's even a forum for flashlights!" At that, my ears perked up! Really! How cool could that be, I thought. Google revealed the presence of BLF and a couple other flashlight oriented forums. After a short while I found myself loving this place.
My journey was a bit less interesting. I followed SB over from CPF.
I opened up a bad laptop battery and discovered there were weird cells in it. Lookimg into what they could be used for I got a couple DIY power banks from FT. Then realised they could also be flashlight batteries. Found a deal on 3X pack of 502B. Somehow found they could be modded and bought a 3A driver from MtnE off ebay. Found his site and saw links to here.
Still got that 3A Guppy 502B with the XM-L2 U4 1A emitter.
On CPF, there was a thread by BessieBenny about budget flashlights.
I think someone provided a link to BLF, and that's how it all began for me. 
I found BLF from searching around for the best budget flashlight. I’m a very cheap person and like to do a lot of research to save pennies. I bought a sub $2 zoomie on 3bay and impressed my family with how bright it was for using only a AA. I eventually found some other lights then ended up finding BLF then heard about Convoy. I ordered 2 18650s and a S2+ then was blown away when it arrived. Just so much brighter than any other flashlight I had ever witnessed and at such a low price.
came here via Google! bought a cheap led light on ebay and thought it was one of the worst purchases ever. googled a bit and the first links where to BLF.
Bought a POS 2x18650 zoomie that didn’t last a year.
Found r/flashlight looking for better 18650 batteries for the zoomie mentioned above. Then for a work specific light to replace pos zoomie, That’s how I came upon my Klarus xt11s. A year after that went back and came upon the H03.
From r/flashlight made my way over here to sign up for The GT. Then went in on the Q8. Also on the list for FW3A, Kronos K70 and MAYBE the MF-02 (?).
I was a member on CPF back 2007 then went broke and i found this forum on google so i crawled in here 
I have always liked high power lights. Went to CPF and was really put off by the attitude that if it is one of their pet brands or customs that cost upwards of $150+ it was crap. At the time a $40 light sure, but anything over $100 was way beyond my budget, besides I had a surefire light, and while it was bright, it had a few failings as well.
I knew there was a place that could discuss inexpensive lights that were good or even better than what was being put forward.
Fired up google and lookie here I am, that was a little bit ago, but I have not even bothered to go back to the other forum, there is a lot more quality information here.
When I became interested in lights I joined CPF but a lot of searches about modding lights led me here. This place seemed friendlier with a lot more interesting topics for me.
Was looking for a decent NiMH charger, & came across GarryBunk’s comments on the AccuPower IQ-328.
At the time, I wasn’t into LED lights at all, I just wanted a decent charger for some Turnigy cells. I got in & out of here unscathed… 
It was only about a year after that, when I had used a mate’s LED torch at work, that I found myself back here again by co-incidence, researching LED torches. At the time, the P60 format was all the rage, & SolarForce was the go-to brand.
I liked the friendly vibe of the forum, & soon found myself entangled in the world of modding, & then fell into the very first Old Lumens comp. :partying_face:
I was interested in budget flashlights back in 2010 and bought cheap ones on DX. DX had a pretty good and lively review and discussion forum attached with a nice community of people who could help out with flashlight stuff (completely uncensored which is still unique for a chinese company , Gearbest and Banggood can learn from that!). I learned some first modding tricks and sloppy soldering in that period.
I then started reading on CPF and soaked up a lot of information about leds and new things going on. CPF is still a good source of information.
Then I tried to combine the two……
On CPF where Luxeons and Cree’s were the leds of choice, suddenly the new high CRI Nichia 219A 4500K was all the rage and some expensive flashlights became available with this led. Then Illumination Supply started selling them on a 10mm board, so I bought a few and being into cheap DX lights I modded a ‘NEW 10B’ 16340 cheapie with one, my first modded flashlight :party: . It was immediately my favorite EDC light with wonderful light. I still have it and it would still do great as my EDC.
Enthousiastically I posted about the mod on CPF, mind that this was the very first recorded DIY mod with this brand new led that everyone talked about. Result: total silence…….
I tried once more to do an interesting post (so I thought…) on CPF, now about measuring total light output by doing systematic lux-measurements over the beam profile and then integrating the results into total output, crude but no-one had ever tried that and the result was surprisingly good. It got me one enthousiastic and encouraging reply, from HKJ 
, and further: nothing.
Then I discovered BLF, technically there was less know-how here at the time compared to CPF (in 2012 that was), but the people over here were so much more friendly and responsive that it became my favourite flashlight place to hang out.
I see a link in the spanish forum FL… simply. ( 5 years ago and 1 month….)
yeah those days are memories djozz
DX was the main site many people buy flashlights but then it went down hill at some point:(
I didn’t gain much modding knowledge on cpf whereas here we have lots of smart people.
After I joined this forum I have not look back cpf
i was finding a place where people modding light, at first i thought CPF is that place, but after being here for a while i found this place is much more suitable for me
in march of 2012 I googled - bright flashlight
came across this forum and a thread about the trustfire tr-j12 and king kong 26650s from intl outdoor
the rest is history
Last year, after searching for “flashlight” on AliExpress, I ended up finding Convoy, that - by that time - seemed to have good specs for what I wanted. [ Later confirmed it has :D]
I started searching for ‘Convoy’ on Google, and most of the results directed me to BLF . I didn’t knew what ‘this’ was, by that time, but it sounded interesting. [ Later confirmed it is :sunglasses: ]
So I read many threads here about the flashlights / batteries/ chargers, and then decided to buy a Convoy S2+, 2 cells (Panasonic protected) and a Nitecore Digi D2 Charger.
But then I felt I needed something more and different. That was when I found references to the “Biscotti” firmware being used on Convoy. I started reading the Convoy C8 thread to perceive if it could also be used on the S2+.
When I got my doubts structured, I registered, made my first post on C8 thread, had a very nice welcoming and most of my newbie doubts were clearly answered That took me to my second flashlight order, another Convoy S2+ !
Then I paused, came back months later to ask suggestions for a AA light (ended up with with Manker E11), and then I paused again, “re-joining” in the middle of this year, when I wanted a new flashlight (ended up with the Zanflare F1) and when I perceived I could be able to mod after seeing so many interesting mods, builds, threads…
The BLF projects, the comments on lights, the opportunities to learn and other stuff, got me ‘stuck’ here, and I don’t mind 
Of course, down the road, my budget has been decreasing due to the amount of things I “had” to buy (lights, tools, instruments …) :money_mouth_face: :person_facepalming:
Regards to all! :+1:
mrs dnf is to blame
I was looking for the ultimate EDC light to incorporate into a modified Leatherman sheath, needed to be very close to the Leatherman in length and diameter, so googling led me to CPF, which naturally brought me here, since I am a seasoned bargain hunter.
Now I am slightly addicted, with the requisite Banggood/ Aliexpress/ Gearbest order tracking spreadsheet since I can’t remember all the stuff I have been unable to resist. At least I am not alone in the my-wife-thinks-I-am-nuts club.