Howdy!
Long time no see.
My flashlight-need was in hibernation for quite some time, but lately I enlarged my collection by over 10 cheap lights from AliExpress.
Please note that I won’t post pictures since it would just be too much. If you need some very specific ones, I can make them for most lights, no problem.
No particular order.
8 LED, 26650
F82 variant
Very nice light. For the money you get a lot of flashlight!
4 Modes, hidden Turbo (double click), Hidden Strobe and red light (hold from off)
Nice cold white light. LEDs are thermally bound to case.
Triple LED, 16340
Nice small light, LEDs have Aluminum from the case underneath them, so they are cooled. Nice mode selection, no blinkyblinky
After I changed the LEDs to some with 5000K, very nice. I like this light a lot.
19 LED, 26650
Can’t say too much since I killed the driver while testing how much current it draws. Looks nice, but no aluminum beneath the LED Module, so if you don’t own a lathe (like me) and some aluminum (diam. 34.3mm, height 10-12mm), don’t buy.
55LED, 26650
Same as the aforementioned, killed the driver. Light is OK nice, good combination from flood and throw, 6x18650 batterypack included.
Needs to be modded. No real cooling, driver steps down super fast, like 5 seconds and it hits probably 20% of the initial brightness in High-Mode. Either they make this because the LEDs won’t survive or because the batteries will be damaged.
If you mod it, it could be a good light. you will need a pill that is around 81mm diameter and a new driver.
3W UV, 365nm, built in battery
Can’t say anything bad, didn’t disassemble, but works as intended and is what I bought, small, USB C recharchable, with a 365nm LED and Lens.
6 LED, 26650
Feels cheap, but has a nice tint and brightness, LEDs are thermally bound to the case. Unfortunately, blinky modes.
3 LEDs, 18500
Listing says 18350, but it is a 18500 flashlight.
Horrible light color, no material beneath the LED-board, blinky modes.
Don’t buy unless you want to modify it.
Zoom, 16340
Nice little thing, cell has the mentioned capacity (755mAh, Opus 3100), light color is not so nice. One blinky mode.
LED not thermally bound to case.
8 LED, 26650
Feels nice, blinky modes. One of the best lights here.
LEDs thermally bound to case.
3 LED, built in 18650
Looks and feels a bit cheap (because it is…), cell has somewhat true capacity (1000mAh), LEDs a thermally bound to case, hidden blinky modes. Can’t say a lot negative about this thing.
I did completely take this thing apart, but again, killed the driver. Either those drivers are super delicate or my bench power supply doesn’t give out the voltage that it’s displaying…
1 LED, SBT90.2 clone, 26650
Looks nice (got the red version), throws nice, UI is a bit weird (click for on, hold to change mode), hidden turbo (double click) and blinky modes (hold from off). LED has plenty of material beneath it, so the LED is cooled.
9 LED, 32850
Looks and feels nice, bright, LEDs have material beneath them. Had to print an adapter for 26650s to fit since I don’t trust those cheap Li-Ion cells
Blinky modes. Hidden Turbo.
1LED, 18650
MI80-S variant
Well… it’s a cheap lamp. Modified it with a new gasket around the LED and swapped the reflector with a lens - now I would call it acceptable. But very blueish light (measured 8400K).
Classic “Screw in from behind”-Pill design, LED thermally connected to pill.
Has blinky modes. Driver is like 10%, 15%, and then just direct drive. 17mm driver, so easy to change.
Was a throwback for me to the old times when modding a light was easy.
4 LED, 21700 (included)
TOWILD BC10
Feels SUPER nice. Seriously, one of the nicest feeling flashlights I ever had in my hands.
21700 has real 5Ah, but the light is glued together, can’t get bezel or bat-tube off.
I paid ~26 US Pesos for it which I am quite happy about, probably wouldn’t buy it for the $45 that it costs now. You can get similar lights from Sofirn for less.
That’s it for now, If I had to choose one cheap one, it would be the F82, first one in the list. The Towild is super nice, but only for the price I paid.
Since I discovered that Convoy has an online store now, I have already ordered parts for $130 and will try to change some of the LEDs and drivers in a way that the original USB C Charging still works.
Also I ordered 150 3535 LEDs from AliExpress… 100 stücke 3535 led 45mil Zener diode High power 2W 3000K 5700K Keramik substrat volle spektrum - AliExpress 39 and 50 stücke/sphwh1l3d30cd4rtm3 3535 neutrale 5000k weiße LED-Perlen 5w hohe Leistung lh351b - AliExpress 502 so that I can change all the LEDs if I want to.
I am quite positively surprised about this newer generation of cheap flashlights. If they would finally ditch the idea that anyone needs those blinky modes most of those lights would be great.
I expected more LED Modules hovering over air to be honest.
So far, if you have questions, ask!
Maybe this helps one or two people.
Best regards
Felix
