We were discussing a tail current. I got 13 amps.
I realize that. Sorry I should have been more clear in my reply.
It’s possible my current measurements were done with a poor technique and that’s why they are lower. It’s tricky holding the jumper wire with good contact while manipulating the switch. I could try again if anyone cares.
I (partially) reassembled the flashlight and did a quick test with a USB meter to see the charging speed and it charges with an almost exact 2A (According to USB-meter: 2,028A at 4,97V). From what I could tell, all 4056C chips that I found doing a quick Google search, are all listed as a 1A (linear) charger.
So it’s almost certain that they used 2x 4056C to get to that 2A charging speed.
I’m curious about that too.
I don’t have the knowledge in how those 6 A19T mosfets work/are ‘regulated’ and how much they can handle. Since I don’t know the manufacturer of these A19T’s, it’s almost impossible to find the correct datasheet and thus specs.
That keeps being a difficult thing, that always keeps me questioning myself if I made good contact, or that it’s limiting my result or getting an incorrect (read: suboptimal) result.
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Ok, the stock battery is quite mediocre with IR of 28.1mOhm. With this battery at 4.01V I’m getting 9.0 amps. Now I’m recharging it to repeat the test at 4.20V but no miracle expected.
Upd: At 4.175V the current is 10.5A.
Where I get high current from is Sofirn’s 21700 battery that came with IF25A. It has IR of 8.6mOhm. At 4.12V it results in 13.6 amps at turn on.
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Damn, that’s impressive! I took a look at a couple of (AC)IR measurements I recently did on a couple of 21700’s and that IR is lower than a couple of (new) Samsung 40T’s I tested and almost identical to the 2 new (and more powerful) Samsung 45T I tested a couple of months ago. Only the several new tabless cells I have (JP40/40PL/45D), I’ve measured lower IR.
Impressively low resistance for a ‘stock battery’! Never did think of testing the stock Sofirn/Wurkkos cells I have, but now maybe I will, just out of curiousity! 
Ordinary Sofirn/Wurkkos 21700 5000mAh batteries are not high drain. The one that came with IF25A is 4000 mAh.
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I have at least 1 4000mAh Sofirn battery, but I might have another one, but have to check that, since I don’t know for sure.
I’m certainly going to check it/them for IR, just out of curiousity.
EDIT:
Turned out that I had only 4000mAh Sofirn battery and that is in no way a high drain cell, with an IR of 19,25 mOhm.
BUT, let’s get back on topic for a bit. Sorry for almost ‘hijacking’ your topic @L4M4 !
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I’ve seen this flashlight popping for quite a while now and it makes me curious for a while now, since it looks A LOT like a flashlight that Niwalker is producing for quite a while now: the Niwalker Etmini (series).
There also is a black 18650 version of this one and I’m really curious if (“by miracle”) that battery tube would fit onto my Etmini.
The only reason for not buying one of these lights, is that an original Niwalker Etmini (the cheapest one, the M1 V2S) is regularly on sale on Banggood for around 20-21 euro (excl. shipping) and therefore price difference with the “knock-off” on Aliexpress feels to small to not go for a ‘known quality’ like the Niwalker, instead of a unknown quality with the AE one.
Fortunately there are a lot of other stores that also offer these lights (for more or less the same price), so I expect that there will be a store that does ship to the US:
If none of these links work, let me know, I could easily find another 5-10 listings!
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Of course I already have this one here 
The 2Ah Cell is somewhat to spec. The LEDs are cooled (but no thermal paste) but the lenses have no o-rings and the driver can’t be replaced with another one since there is basically 0 space for modding.
The Modes are High, Low, Blink, which I don’t like.
Double Click for turbo which is like 5% brighter than high…
A light like this with anduril or a standard 3/4 mode driver would be nice.
I spent $12.30 with cell on it.
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Now for something you have never heard of, a design that has never been used before with a name that no one here will recognize: The C8!
Bought it because it was cheap (USD6.63 for T6 1 mode) and I wanted to see, how good or bad super cheap lights are today.
Pressed in switch with some material ground away in the middle, who knows why.
Square threads, didn’t expect those!
Anodizing feels quite nice, I thought this thing will be shiny - I like the very matte finish more.
C8s - s for “superior”
The reflector is made from plastic
THe lens is glass, the O-Ring is square
And the mighty LED that I couldn’t get out of the pill
Resistor-Board with 4 1Ohm resistors in parallel and Wifi-Cooling for the LED
Something that both did and didn’t surprise me - blemishes were “fixed” with permanent marker
It did surprise me because it means there is more QC going on than I expected.
The beam isn’t nearly as bad as I thought it will be. Perfectly usable until the LED dies of heat.
Overall, not good enough for modding, you would need to buy a new reflector, lens, driver and you would have to modify the pill to have the LED cooled.
And then you still have the switch that you can’t replace.
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I know someone who (very recently) bought the exact same Alonefire C8s, for exactly the same 2 reasons and who had the same experience/conclusions as you did! 
Also bought a Vastfire C8, because it was even a bit cheaper and I could get it with a blue LED. 
It was almost just as worse, except that it had a better/easier to remove gasket around the LED and it did NOT have a pressed in tail switch, but it had a metal retaining ring.
This is basicly the same conclusion I had almost every time in the past, when buying those really cheap (C8) lights, with the idea of maybe modding one; in the end, when you calculate in all the extra parts/money that you have to put in, to make it a decent light, it’s basicly is almost just as cheap/expensive as buying a C8(+) host from Simon/Convoy directly, or the price difference is so small, that’s basicly not worth/reasonable anymore to go for such a cheap flashlight.
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I’m so glad you did this–I was pretty tempted by these generic C8’s for $5 but held off because I was concerned about being unable to replace the driver+switch with better-quality ones, not to mention poor thermal design. Your review justifies all of my worries.
Indeed. When you buy Convoy lights, it’s very telling that the bulk of a light’s cost is accounted for by the host alone–it is the part that is most important and costly to manufacture, so it is not reasonable to expect good, modable hosts in extremely cheap lights.
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I believe I’ve now bought 5 or 6 cheap/generic C8’s (2 recently, 3 or 4 (way) in the past) and every single one had the same, completely hollow, screw in pill, where the MCPCB only makes minor (thermal) contact on its outer edge. That alone instantly disqualifies it as being useful for modding, unless you want to put in waaaaay too much time on a custom solution/pill and still end up with an inferior quality flashlight.
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There’s brass pill on AliExpress. Convoy C8 host costs very close to the cheap C8 Q5+this pill
Black case Manta ray C8 host with Reflector Glass lens ,not include LED and driver - AliExpress 39?
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I’m not sure which is the ‘C8 Q5’ you’re referring to, but when I take the Alonefire C8s (which @L4M4 and I bought), I’ve paid around € 5,50 for that I believe. If I combine that with the € 6,19 for the pill that you linked to, the total would already be € 11,69 and I still would have a plastic reflector cup and a non-AR-coated lens. I can order the regular C8 host for € 12,09 and the C8+ host for € 13,66.
Besides that, I would want to know for sure that the copper pill you linked to would actually fit into one of those cheap C8’s, before spending 6+ euro on it.
And even if everything would fit, I would rather spend that tiny bit more (with such a small price difference), knowing what quality I could expect from Convoy, rather than take a gamble on what quality host one of those cheap C8’s might be.
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Because I couldn’t sleep last night and I was a bit bored, I decided to take out the pill and remove the LED from it:
Clearly visible is the completely hollow pill and the unusual gasket. What surprised me was that the extremely thin MCPCB the LED was soldered on, had an identically shaped thicker aluminium disc underneath it, with thermal paste inbetween. But besides that, the contact with the pill would still be very minimal.
By the way, my sample had the exact same issue you mentioned:
I have to say that I only noticed it after you mentioned/showed it here in this topic. I probably stopped paying attention the moment I realized it was yet another “useless” cheap C8! 
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Here it is. Title says L2, description says T6 and Q5 is shown on pictures. Received Ultrafire C8 “Cree Q5”. Negative side threads are half as thick as Convoy C8+, positive ones are super thin and the dimensions seem to fit that pill
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the cheap ones are bought for that reason to scavenge and figure out parts, modify something unique to have in the collection.
the Convoy ones are plug n play for when you want reliability and usefulness
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