Need help with 18650 thrower

Hey guys, I am new to these forums and need your help.

I rely on a flashlight for work and have decided to buy a decent one but not sure where to start.
I am only after a flashlight with excellent throw. I am currently using a Ultrafire C10 which is pretty good but I am constantly recharging my batteries (which are cheap knock offs) and it seems under powered in terms of throw compared to my departments standard issue light which is a Pelican 7060.

I am very happy with the Pelican 7060 throw and would like something the same, if not able to throw further. Only thing I don’t like about the 7060 is its size…otherwise id just book one out each shift.

Is there such a light that will out throw the 7060 that is around the size of an Ultrafire C10 ? I have been using the Ultrafire C10 and C8 and haven’t had any dramas and have been fairly happy with the throw. Just feel I need to invest a bit more into the light and am willing to spend more now.

So, is there such a light ? If so, please direct me to it.

Thanks a lot !

http://m.banggood.com/Olight-M2X-UT-Javelot-CREE-XM-L2-810M-Tactical-LED-Flashlight-p-954561.html
Use coupon m2x to bring the price down

The C8 is a great size and can throw pretty well all things considered, while remaining fairly pocket sized.

Two big things that affect throw are:

-reflector diameter
-size of reflector in relation to the size of the LED

In simple terms, the larger the reflector the better the throw for a given LED/output.

But also a smaller LED in the same size reflector will throw better, e.g. An XP-G2 instead of an XM-L2 in a C8 will throw further. The trade off is, smaller LED’s produce a smaller hot spot and don’t pump the lumens out, so the spill beam is dimmer.

That said, to get this benefit you need to drive the light hard enough.

I have a Convoy C8 with an XP-G2 in and a 3amp Qlite driver. It’s really very nice.

If you want Int’l Outdoor sell one:
http://intl-outdoor.com/xintd-c8-v5-xpg2-s2-multioption-18650-flashlight-p-789.html

Or it’s very easy to build one by just buying the LED and driver. Or an even more potent driver.

Next up you might want to consider de-doming. It’s actually quite easy. If you de-dome an XM-L2 you’ll get way more throw from it, but still retain quite a high lumen output, although the spill beam will dim slightly. You’ll also get a warmer tint, so you need to de-dome the right tint LED to end up with something that looks nice.

Again either build from parts, or modify yourself.

If you are in the USA you could easily modifiy one of your current C8’s, although the Convoy ones are nice quality if you want to start fresh.

Get an LED on a DTP copper star (makes a huge difference to just mounted on aluminium).

And a 3amp Qlite driver as a starting place or visit Mtn Electronics and get a driver capable of 4- 5 amps or direct drive and it’ll really perform, while still being compact.

TIP:

You must use good batteries, even now, crappy batteries are crappy and will offer lousy performance and runtime.

Good 18650’s have 2500-3400mAh depending on type. Cheap **fire branded ones might only have 300-500mAh and suffer massive voltage sag (yes even the ones listed as 4000-5000mAh, it’s all lies!).

Panasonic 3400mAh are a good general use battery and will offer long runtime when not pushed really hard.

If you want max output on a high amp setup you’ll need some high performance IMR or INR batteries. Purple Efests are good, as are Samsung 25R’s. But you might have to drop to 2500mAh. The difference is, these batteries can offer more current and sustain their voltage better than things like the 3400mAh ICR’s. So runtime will be less on lower modes, but on high/max outputs these cells will offer the highest PEAK outputs and the best sustained stable outputs.

If you want to buy de-domed ready to go, then the only one available is the Olight M2X Javelot. But it’s obviously more money than building a C8.

If you just want throw on a budget, the Jacob A60 is still very good. But it produces a narrow pencil beam and very little spill. Basically it shines a real long way, but only lights up a very small area.

Is there a budget you are staying under? There are tons of great throwers out there.
I have a ZY-T08 and it us amazing how well it throws, and with a pretty simple mod can really reach out there. I have a convoy c8 and it gets smoked.

You stated you had cheap batteries, that will kill your run time. The batteries mentioned above will really help your run times.

According to the Amazon page, Pelican 7060 is only 160 lumens:
Amazon Pelican 7060

In that case 1100 lumen YEZL Y3 will certainly out throw it:
Gearbest Yezl Y3

Get an Extension tube from there, and get good [Protected] 26650 batteries and a charger from:
http://www.mtnelectronics.com/index.php

The total will be far less than Pelican’s $145.

The C10 should be a decent light; my first thought would be to invest in some quality cells. If you have some cheap UltraFire or similar, both brightness and runtime will suffer.

If that's not sufficient, you could go with some other options:

ZY-T08 - great thrower, 2x cells in parallel, so double runtime, and safety of parallel config.

http://www.fasttech.com/products/0/10002537/1188301-small-sun-zy-t08-cree-xm-l-t6-635lm-5-mode-white-l

SupFire L6, C8/10 type of throw, but uses 26650 cells for improved runtime.

http://www.fasttech.com/products/0/10009384/1830204-authentic-supfire-l6-1-cree-xm-l2-t6-1100-lumen-5

thanks heaps for the replies guys. I will be looking into all suggestions. Thanks!

Before I posted on the forum, I was trying to do my own homework and find one myself. As i keep mentioning, the Pelican 7060 at work throw really impressed me so I had a look on the Pelican website to see if they made a similar light that was smaller in size. I really want to keep it around the same size as a C8/10. I can probably go a TINY bit bigger but as it will be used for work, I need to carry it with me and something too big will just be too uncomfortable.

So, on the Pelican website I found the Pelican 7000. Only throws 10m less than the 7060 and is much smaller and will fit nicely on my belt. anyone had any experience with these ?
Pelican 7000

Whilst searching I came across some others that had pretty good reports.
What do you guys think about:
Armytek Predator Pro v2.5 XP-G2

Fenix TK32

Eagletac G25C2

Thrunite TN11s V2

I also wanted to keep it fairly basic. I dont want lots of different modes. My current C10 has on and off which I like. I have had C8’s in the past which have 5 modes with no memory and just gets annoying. I htink if it has memory it would probably be ok. I dont like cycling through each mode to make sure im always on the highest setting. I dont really like the idea of having to twist the head to change modes either.

What do you guys think ?

Depends how much you want to pay tbh. But remember even expensive brands still use the same LED emitters and very similar/same electronics in the driver.

If you are spending a lot of money and want throw, the Olight M2X-UT is the answer:

http://olightworld.com/product/m2x-utjavelot/?bc=5

That said, I think a good C8 would work well.

Get the XinTD XP-G2 from Int’l Outdoor for $30.00
http://intl-outdoor.com/xintd-c8-v5-xpg2-s2-multioption-18650-flashlight-p-789.html

And get some purple Efest 3100mAh 20A IMR batteries (ebay).

I think you’ll be massively impressed.

Yeah ive looked at both and the head (is that what its called?) on the Olight M2x-UT is a bit too big.

Ive been sussing out the C8 from Int’l outdoor also. How would that compare to something like the Armytek Predator ?

The Armytek looks nice. It too uses an XP-G2 and a 40mm reflector. So I suspect will throw very similar to the XP-G2 XinTD.

I think the Armytek looks to have a deep reflector and deep bezel, so this makes the spill beam appear narrower, but I doubt any brighter.

I don’t know what the Armytek is driven like.

Honestly I suspect the Armytek is nicer and has a more advanced UI, but I’m willing to bet the XinTD is just as capable when it comes to lighting stuff up.

If you like the G25C2, take a look at the Foursevens Maelstrom X7. They are very similar and have a great interface and size for military and LEO. You just twist the head to the level you want - while the light is on or off. The Foursevens was recently discontinued but is still available.

I just want to second what keltex78 mentioned. If a 160 lumen Pelican is out-throwing a C10 it seems like something _may _be wrong with your C10. Step 1 is probably to get good 18650’s and a good charger.

“Out throwing” sort of depends on the scenario though… at such a low output I must assume that the Pelican comes with an XR-E / XP-E / XP-E2 which is a very small-die emitter. If you really just need a needle beam and extreme throw, a small-die emitter is what you want. XP-G2 or XP-E2 probably, with XP-E2 being the smaller emitter. Many folks here seem happiest with the XP-G2 since it puts out a lot more light than the XP-E2 while still achieving high surface brightness due to it’s small emitting area vs an XM-L or XM-L2 (which is probably what’s in your C10, I don’t know?).

Doing a little work on the C10 could be a good way to go. Maybe swap the emitter for an XP-G2 premounted on a Noctigon and a 1-mode driver from RMM?

I don’t know much about the Pelican, but my 180 led lumen Maglite XP-E out throws many of my XM-L lights. And the little A60 humbles many a lumen monster.

I agree: my XP-E / Rebel Maglite throws very well for such a low powered light. It’s using a big 50mm Maglite LED reflector though. The Pelican is using something like a 38-42mm reflector I think.

I’d assume that it would struggle vs an XM-L or XM-L2 at 3 amps in a similarly sized reflector (C8 / C10), but I’m not sure about that. …?

Im not sure what LED the Pelican at work has bit it is TINY. I dont know what kind of LED my C10 has either. I dont really know enough about this kind of stuff to be able to answer all of your questions correctly.

When I have fresh charged batteries, the throw on my C10 looks pretty similar but drops of very quickly.

So no experience here with the new Pelican 7000 ?

Small and throws well? You may want the JAX Z1.

It runs on one or two 18650 and works better with two. It can put out about 46kcd (approx. 420m) in complete stock form.

If you can do soldering you can just buy the host itself at much cheaper price and use a dedomed XP-G2 and a LD-29 driver. This way you can achieve 120-150kcd, depending on your modding skill.

If you want to buy it you can look for a coupon code to bring the price down further.

I don’t think a lot of BLF users are anxious to go out and pickup the Pelican 7000, considering the price tag vs what you get. Eventually someone may pick it up, but at that pricetag most will pickup a P60 host and a dropin or maybe a Convoy M1 or M2.

(Also note that the 7000 has an OP (orange peel) reflector.)

If the Pelican 7000 includes a buck-boost driver that changes the playing field considerably though. That would enable it to battle the high-Vf of some modern emitters and maintain maximum brightness for as long as possible.

The Z1 is pretty chunky. It’s larger in diameter than the ‘big’ Pelican in the OP and much larger than the 6P sized Pelican 7000.

I'm sure people are very curious what kind of batteries you're using . The difference could be dramatic.

I used to use just cheap ultrafire and trustfire 18650 batteries.
I have since bought some 18650 Panasonic 3100mah (matte green in color) and some GTL 18650s. To be honest, I didnt notice a difference between the Panasonics and Ultrafire at all…

Im also charging them with a cheap ebay ultrafire 18650 charger.

I know I have been skimping with the ultrafire products…and I am not prepared to spend more on quality.

What would you guys recommend for batteries then ? They MUST be rechargeable as I am constantly using my light at work.