I’m thinking now that there might have been a special on when he first introduced this light. Or I’m once again totally remembering something wrong. This get’s really old, I know it’s both sides, but having faulty recall is a pita.
Haha, no biggy. I just wanted to make sure I wasn’t missing something. Prices are changing all the time and really it’s not a big difference. Just curious more than anything on the $45 light.
I’ll probably end up going with a Convoy of some sort.
Richard get’s his lights (Convoy anyway) directly from Simon. AND Richard further QC’s EVERYTHING! So if it came with a blemish, he pulls it. You might actually ask for a blem model for a discount if a scratch here or there doesn’t bother you any. Richard is very much a perfectionist. It will be right, or he will make it so.
The S70 and L6 both are series lights. Is that really a good start?
Besides the ~$50-55 cost for either of one, two cells, a charger for two and more care (actually a DMM too) is all needed.
I’d go for a C8 1 cell and a charger like that single cell star thingy for about $5
Good to go, good start, less to think about and less $$$
You are getting recommendations from little to large lights.We know you want brighter but do you want the same size and weight? What are your plans for usage?
The discount code for the S70 was working about 2 days ago 
Fill me in on what the need is for more than a single 18650 and XML that many places sell shipped for $13 is?
What is the XML? Is that the LED itself?
As far as what I’m looking for, something big and bright to replace the old 3D maglite. The brightest light for the least $$ would be great.
I don’t mind bypassing protection/current limiting devices and really I don’t need multiple settings. Just On and ON all the way. I’ve got my pocket thrunite Ti if I need a firefly mode.
Coming from an older mag a convoy c8 will blow you away!
I d start there and it is a nice modding light as well
The OP states there are already Li-ion lights in possession and he’s versed in soldering, not necessarily “starting out” so there’s not a thing wrong with 2 cell series lights. Remember, these people live and drive among us! 
Same charger is needed for the C8, same price cells. Cost is still much cheaper for the lumens produced to go with an L6 or S70.
+1 on the L6 and the C8 with XP-L HI emitter.
Both best performers on their category for the price… Simply can’t go wrong.
I just discovered the CREE LED chips themselves (XHP35, XHP50, or XHP70). Maybe I will just try to put one in my maglite and use a few 18650’s behind it direct drive.
And yes DB, as mentioned, I’m well versed in soldering (solder most days at work) so that part doesn’t scare me. I’m NOT experienced in battery or LED technology but I have rebuilt Li Ion packs for my Bosch Impact and they work better than stock. I have multimeters and don’t mind watching individual charging voltages.
Maybe my existing Maglite is the housing for my new “most powerful light for least amount of money”.
Cool project
Do take cooling needs into account t
I’ve got lots of junk heat sinks laying around. Maybe those will come in handy for this.
I’ve been reading on here from the beginning and now I’m sure my first thought is proven right:
I think we got a semantic problem here. Optimization processes don’t work this way!
You can
EITHER: Look for a defined level of performance for the best (variable) price
OR: Look for maximum (variable) performance at a fixed price level
To optimize both variables in the same equation is simply impossible. So you have to define at least one of the two possible variables to get useful results!
… just my experience with optimization
(Please excuse my English, I’m really beyond the limits of my foreign language skills with this topic)
Hi,
my tip would be to get one of the already recommended lights Nitenumen NE01 (20 bucks on sale at GearBest) or Manker U11 (sale at 33 bucks at Banggood). Both are powerful pocketable lights with a USB charger included so you´d only need a 18650 battery and a USB cable… Those lights also have the advantage to be quite floody, that means such a light will me much more usable at close range (home indoors, garage…) than a C8 sized light. While a pimped C8 might be much brighter (and maybe even cheaper) than the aforementioned lights, they are little THROWERS, that means they are very good to light far away objects, but (as I found) not the best choice for close range searches and indoors.
Edit: Thorfire S70 or Convoy L6 offer of course the “most lumens for the money” at the moment, but these lights are BIG and need 2 26650 li-ion batteries.
Just a tought.
K.
Wolf, first of all your linguistic skills look fine to me!
Second, you merge the two by recreating the parameter, how many lumens are you getting for the dollar you’re spending? Looked at in the big picture, meaning cells and charger and everything that goes with having a particular light, what is the total cost for the output garnered?
Then you just build a light and carry on.
It’s fairly simple to shove a bar of aluminum down into a Maglite tube for heat sinking, put a 32mm Noctigon on top of it with 3 XM-L2 emitters and use a 50mm Optic. Instant (well, you know) wall of light.
Yes Dale, I hear you! Thanks for the answer.
I just confused “lumens” with “performance”
FYI, the SK 68/98 lights are nice little lights to practice modding on. The quality varies greatly on these, but some are reasonably decent. You can assume that what you receive will have counterfeit LatticeBright emitters, but those can be easily replaced with Cree emitters to vastly improve the light.
The SK68 used a 15mm (IIRC) driver which is less common, but you can easily replace the emitter with a quality Cree XP-E2 for a good bump in performance.
I prefer the larger SK98; it uses a 20mm driver and this Nanjg 105e (http://www.kaidomain.com/product/details.S023811) is a direct drop-in replacement. It’s a regulated 3A driver which I find to be a good match for the SK98 host. Pair this driver with a quality XP-G2 for a great little zoomie. (http://www.mtnelectronics.com/index.php?route=product/product&path=60_62&product_id=163) This combination is FAR superior to the factory driver/emitter combo, but it does more than double (maybe triple) the cost of the light. I found a decent $5 SK98 on eBay, added the Nanjg driver (another $5) and the mounted XP-G2 (another $4) but I think the finished light is worth the updates.
For these smaller zoomies, I prefer the smaller die emitters. I initially built my SK98 up with an XP-L HI but wasn’t happy with that. I tried a couple of different emitter options, but finally settled on the XP-G2 @ 3A as my preference.
One thing to notice is the hollow pill on these lights. Although 3A is not a severe load, a light will still heat up quickly at this level. You can improve the heatsinking of the pill by adding some JB-Weld to fill the space under the emitter PCB, but this is a rather permanent modification…