Tom, I hope you’re kidding with FT. This whole lithium battery shipping kerfluffle has me feeling VERY cautious about ordering batteries from China for a while! I’ve got some NCR18650B’s sitting in Hong Kong…somewhere. For a while. 
Once you get confident about doing stuff, it kind of gets to the point where you WANT something to go wrong - so you can fix it.
Also, believe me, I’ve asked a LOT (probably too many) of foolish questions, but (most) folks here are very tolerant…
there’s no point being on a forum if you don’t ask questions, how else would you learn?
Thanks guys, you’re freaking AWEsome! :party: :shy:
I don’t pursue most things that I’m this bad at, but for some reason…I Shall Continue.
Didn't know - looks like FT has changed to work around it though - posted on their site. Is everyone bailing on China/HK Lions? From reading, I'd just split my orders out, making the cells separate so it doesn't delay my other order items. No extra cost...
Yes, if they’ve seen this…have a read:
FastTech finally acknowledged my order being detained…indefinitely. I think all the different Chinese ‘Posts’ are upside down right now.
I just ordered a couple of 20R’s from a US Ebayer.
I’m thinking about putting this light back together and waiting for the Samsung 20R’s to get here. They might provide the extra juice without tearing the whole thing apart!
I just put a unprotected Trustfire Flame 2400mah in it, and it draws 3A...
I really thought that the wires were holding the Amps down, but they don`t.. just recharging the battery helps..
(of course after connecting it direct drive)
Update: the Samsung 20R’s did in fact make the light brighter and throw farther. Want scientific proof? Don’t have it…my eyes say it is brighter, that’s all I got.
Of course now I’m thinking about making it direct drive anyway to see if it would be brighter still…wish there was a ‘rolling eyes’ emoticon.
I wasn’t sure what I was going to do with this light. Maybe XRE on copper, or XPE2. The fact is, the only reason for me to have a pencil beam thrower is out on the big water in my boat for picking out distant buoys and landmarks without a lot of reflection off the water. The season is over, and I can pick up another at any time.
A friend asked me if I could make him a light for walking his dog in the ravine. He only has a 3xAAA defiant, and he wanted to be able to see farther because of skunks. He isn’t any kind of a flashlight person, so I figured this A60 might be perfect. I put in an XPG2 neutral on copper with a Qlite driver. I figured he’d want some throw balanced with flood. I built it, and it will be great for his needs.
It has rings, but it had rings with the XRE. Out in the wild they don’t matter because there aren’t many white walls in nature. It cost me $12, and he loves it.
Overall, I’m not that impressed with the light. Don’t jump on me! I know its a $12 light. With the addition of a 20mm partition board tight up against the Qlite, its jammed right up against the top of the pill. No room at all, and protected batteries are too long to fit without damaging them. Maybe get rid of the brass spring cap and use a shorter switch spring. I also hate those aluminum retaining rings on both ends. Rough aluminum chaffing against rough aluminum jams up and cross threads too easily. Ringy beam. As far as a stock budget thrower, it’s a nice light. As far as modding it goes, I’ll wait for something that I can do more with instead of something so limiting.
I kind of agree, though I'm quite spoiled working on the big boys lately with nice qual parts through-out. But the A60 is what it is for $12. The cheapest lights need the most amount of work and TLC it seems like to me, but if you make a mistake or strip out a thread, oh well, $12 rather than $150...
After the direct-drive mod (original LED wires retained), mine pulls almost exactly 2 amps from a Solarforce 2600 mAH protected cell.
IMO, the direct drive mod is worthwhile just to eliminate the annoying LOW and STROBE settings. In a thrower, HIGH is what you need - first press of the switch, every time.
TIP: If you can’t pop the plastic retainer off the top of the LED star with a knife or ice pick, it’s also possible to push it out from the back side with a small drill bit or hex wrench:
1. Unscrew the battery case from the reflector housing.
2. Use the tips of small needle-nose pliers to unscrew the bottom of the battery [+] contact, exposing the LED driver PCB underneath it.
3. Use the needle-nose pliers to pull the LED driver PCB far enough out to insert a small drill bit through one of the 2 holes where the wires from the driver pass through the LED mounting base to the LED star on the other side.
4. Push on the drill bit until the plastic retainer pops off.
I agree about the protected batteries. I removed (and discarded) the spring cap at the driver end and chopped a few mm’s off the bare spring in order to accomodate my PCB Panasonic 3400’s and/or Sanyo 2600’s
OK, finally got a reliable tailcap reading on mine…~2A w/fresh Samsung 20R. Looks like the DD mod will probably happen.
BTW, no need to feel bad about not liking this light. It’s nowhere close to the TN31, K40, etc…but then…it…cost…$12. It’s the best thrower I’ve owned so far, so don’t p%p on muh party! :party:
Actually, it’s pretty good with an XP-G2 in it, for those that want more usable spill. I mostly use unprotected cells, but since I’m giving it to someone, I’ve got to modify that tailcap so it’ll take protected cells. I don’t think the rings will disappear no matter what LED goes into it. Not a big deal in wooded areas though.
thats strange, mine takes any cell I can throw at it and I’ve done nothing to accommodate cell length, I like it because it cost less than $12 and still has tailcap lock out, Ideal when little fingers could get hold of it, they’ve not sussed out lock out……yet
Today I modded the 2 i got from wallbuys. One got a green xr-e, the other one just a cw xp-e. I’m not sure the xp-e i correct focused, but it’s less lumen and lux than original xr-e. So i’ll try dedoming the xp-e later some day.
The brass spring cover on mine is crushed in from trying use protected cells. I just finished removing the switch. I threw away the brass cover, kept the nylon bushing, and cut down the spring. Now it accepts the long cells easily. The tailcap now threads on smoothly without having to exert the same kind of pressure I reserve for opening my mothers new pickle jars.
This light is designed for a thin single board driver. I put a 3.04A NANJG driver in mine. You need a 20mm partition board. I used the kind with a hole in the middle so the NANJG fits flush against it. The driver is hard against the bottom of the pill, and the partition board is not quite seated where the original is press fitted into. I was having problems with the light acting sporadically, because the edge of the board would lose contact with the side of the pill. I remedied this by soldering some little flaps of copper braid to the top edge of the board, so when the board is pressed into the pill, the copper braid flaps would curl around the edge of the board against the wall of the pill making snug ground contact.
It’s working good now. Let’s see how the driver makes out being in full contact against the underside of the pill.
I also cut down the spring, and removed the brass cover...
using a protected cell now, without any problems.
hmm, i don’t know if i’ve had problems with protected cells, might need to look that up. i saw that they didn’t have 17mm drivers, so i just tried to do the resistor mod.
but i must have failed because the one with a 100k (104) resistor still has next mode memory. the one with 10k (103) works but is almost impossible to enter next mode, but i didn’t find any smd-resistor with higher value.