Need some help regarding Convoy S2 choices

Hi,

I am pretty new to the flashlight game, I just recently got some nice 2xAA lights form JetBeam and Nitecore, and I love them. My personality is such that I want more and different flashlights now. I have been looking at getting into 18650 sized lights, my preference is still for lights that fall in the EDC category, nothing too big. I looked at the Roche F12, and may still get one of them but the Convoy S2 stood out as having a nice design and a wider range of compatibility with protected 18650 cells. This would be my first time getting into li-ion rechargeable and i think id like to go with protected cells if i can. (any good recommendation for high mAh batteries that would work well for this light would be welcome as well)

My issue has been that many vendors seem to have some different options regarding this flashlight. plenty of LED choices, and even some driver choices depending on where you look. Later i may be a bit more picky about color tones and such, but as of now i like things in the cool white to neutral white range, i just am not a fan of lights that are too warm.

There are so many choices, not just of LEDs and color tones, but also of vendors. I have looked at a few, BG and FT being the top two. BG has an option for an XML2 LED whereas FT has only XML options (so it seems) FT has some options on driver though.

then of course i was looking at some of the custom build options when i found Mountain Electronics LLC, but that gets into a ot of stuff i dont know enough about yet to make good choices as to components…

if you guys can offer some advice on where to look and maybe what models to look at, it would be appreciated. also, if there are other vendors i havent looked at that are good and reputable, feel free to suggest some.

thanks

My personality is such that I want more and different flashlights now

…and another one bites the dust….

There’s a guy on the board that posts as RMM; he’s an American seller, and probably your best bet to get started. Good stuff at respectable prices.

First-timers who order from China have been known to have mental breakdowns - you MIGHT save a few cents, but the frustration, slow delivery and chance of not getting what you ordered (if in fact you get anything) is often not a good place to start. It’s the ‘deep end of the swimming pool’, so to speak.

You have my sympathy, Grasshopper. Soon you’ll be outside on dark cold nights, shining flashlights at distant trees, and it will be too late.

Pssst! Hey, kid! You wanna buy 18650? Straight from China. 8,000 mAh, easy. Make you shine long time. Fiteen dallah.

I bought my S2 from FastTech. I got the 2.1A model with the U2 1B along with the clip to add on. I hated the U2 1B; it was too purplish for me. I then ordered an XM-L T6 4C from FT and simply swapped it out. (Note, I ordered before FT added the XML2 T6 4C.) It is now a great light and perfect EDC for me! I'm using laptop pulls in mine as the driver has real working low voltage detection. The clip could be better; it tends to bend up and need rebent downward and doesn't clip to my pocket really tight (easily pulls out if something snags it).

Oh, and if you didn't see my post, my S2 recently went through my snowblower! Great testimony to it's quality!

-Garry

Mountain Electronics doesn't sell a complete ready to use S2, but Illumination Supply does (they are US based and post here on BLF - great bunch of guys). Here is the S2 you want. XM-L2 in neutral white. Personally I think 2.8A is a bit too much for the S2, but it'll handle it ok if you don't leave it sit on high long. Even mine at 2.1A will get really hot if it just sits on high.

-Garry

We do now! Choose your host, add your chosen components into the cart (LED, driver) and check the "custom build & test" option on the host page. However, we are out of drivers until hopefully later this week.

Ah, ok, I missed that. I now see the text on your site. Sorry about that.

-Garry

Both Mountain Electronics and Illumination Supply are superb places to buy lights. Both are located in the US and both have excellent service with great prices.

Regarding driver power output: A higher power driver gives more light, but may create excessive heat. Also runtimes at max will be lower.

  • 2.8 amps - In a small light like the S2 or Roche F12, the light will get hot fast on maximum power. If you’re running the light on max, hold it in your hand rather than standing on a table. Your hand will help wick off excess heat and will help you tell when it’s getting too hot. If the head of the light gets too hot to touch, turn the light to a lower power setting or turn it off. The upside is if you want a pocket-rocket to wow your friends, this may be for you.
  • 2.1 amps - A more reasonable driver for the non-flashaholic. You’re less likely to start a fire and runtimes will be longer. Less wow factor though.
  • 1.5 amps - no heat issues at all for an 18650 light of any size and you’ll get long runtimes. Won’t be as bright as many other lights though.
  • Specialty lights - at Mountain Electronics you can order custom-made lights with extremely high output… 1 or 2 cell lights operating at 4.5 amps or higher in very small sizes. As a new flashlight enthusiast I recommend steering clear of these until you educate yourself on the proper use and care of such lights. An overpowered small light won’t be able to shed heat well and if used for anything more than very short bursts at max can be a fire hazard. Such lights may require special high-discharge batteries, and it gets even riskier in multicell lights with no undervoltage protection. There is a risk that if the light is run until the batteries run dry, one battery may empty slightly faster than the other and then be reverse charged … causing an immediate rapid discharge of highly toxic smoke and flame. Basically your flashlight could turn into a pipe bomb and explode in your hand.

Regarding tint: White LEDs used in all LED flashlights are composed of a blue LED with a yellow phosphor layer on top. When the blue light hits the phosphor the phosphor emits red and green light. The light mixes and the output appears white. By varying the amount of phosphor, LED manufacturers can change the tint of the light. Less phosphor gives a bluish white tint. More phosphor can give a brownish, yellow or orange tint. Since the phosphor is never as efficient as unconverted light coming directly from the blue LED, lights with warmer tints will tend to be slightly less bright compared to cool tints, all other things being equal.

  • 6000-6500 kelvin color temperature cool white - a very cool bluish-white light. Can be quite harsh and not very pleasing to look at. Good for looking at things in doors but may be harsh looking and give poor depth perception and color rendition outdoors. However, these do tend to be slightly brighter so if you’re looking for the maximum output and wow factor this may be for you.
  • 5000k neutral white - slightly brownish or yellowish. Much less harsh than 6000k. One of the most preferred tints. Provides a good balance of brightness without being harsh.
  • 4500k neutral white - slightly orange or brown white. Quite pleasing to the eye. One of the LEDs reknowned for having one of the best tints, the Nichia 219, has this tint.
  • 4000k neutral white - orange white. Same as above but even warmer. Very pleasant to use outdoors with good depth perception. Doesn’t look harsh.
  • 3000k warm white - very orange. Indoors, things may look quite orange and cooler colors may be hard to make out.
  • 2700-2900k warm white - this is the color temp of a typical incandescent lightbulb.

Brightness

  • Lumens - a measure of the total amount of light coming out of the light. More lumens means more light. However, our eyes see light in a non-linear scale. You need around a 20% increase in lumens to even notice a difference. And an increase of double the lumens may only appear to be 20% brighter. Lumens includes the total output of both the spot and the spill.
  • Lux - a measure of how well a light shines on things in the distance. This is typically measured at the center of the spot.
  • Relationship between lux and lumens - bigger LEDs produce more lumens, but tend to be harder to focus and often produce less lux. Getting high lux often requires a small LED and/or a large reflector or aspheric lens to focus the light. Lights with very small reflectors and large LEDs tend to be short-range floodlights.

CRI - color rendering index - separate from tint is the quality of light. The typical measure of this is CRI, which goes on a scale up to 100. Lights with high CRI tend to render colors better than lights with lower CRI at the same tint. Many enthusiasts prefer high CRI lights, but emitters with high CRI tend to either be very warm or produce much less output than other emitters.

  • 100 CRI - My understanding is that incandescent lights, candles and the sun all have 100 CRI.
  • The best CRI LEDs are around 90-92 CRI. Others billed as high CRI tend to be 85 CRI or higher.
  • Cool white non-high CRI XMLs may be around 65-70 CRI.

Thanks Firelight for the most informative post! There is also another good option for these small lights: the new optional NLITE firmware from DrJones with a turbo timer. It allows you to choose a higher current level without worrying about meltdown from accidentally turning on the light or leaving it unattended on high. It will automatically step the light down to medium power after 90 or 120 seconds, the light can be kicked back up to high if needed. This firmware was developed with these high-powered small lights in mind.

Well said .

I have a Convoy S2 T5-5C 1.4A that I like a lot. It’s not as bright as a 2.1A or 2.8A light but it’s plenty bright enough for any of my uses. I used it in the Amazon basin and Ugandan forests this past year and for me the minor decrease in brightness was more than compensated for by the increased run-time and lack of heat buildup.

The brightness difference between my S2 and my Convoy S6 T5-5C 2.1A light is not noticeable at all unless I’m doing a side-by-side comparison. In fact my Shiningbeam Caveman (around 280 lumens) was sufficient for anything I needed a light for in Uganda.

SigShooter Wow such exotic places. You must have amazing photographs and stories of your experiences. You care to share some? It would make a great read.

Hello Garry. You said you simply swapped out the LED? Is this something someone with no modding experience could do? Any special tools required, soldering?

modding is beckoning…

thanks Garry,
patrick

My youngest daughter is uploading the pics from both vacations to photobucket. When she’s done I’ll post the links if anyone is interested.

We spent several days in the Amazon basin looking at the wildlife. Mostly monkey and birds (with a few caimans) as it turns out. It’s a canopy jungle and it gets totally dark as soon as the sun sets. I had my Convoy S2, Shiningbeam Spark, ZL SC52, and Tank007 E09 on me. A bit paranoid (so the wife said), but better safe than sorry. As it turns out I lent the Tank to another couple that didn’t bother to bring a light. The S2 at 1.4A was more than bright enough to light the trail for everyone else (I was in the trail position). It was an interesting vacation but I wished we had seen more animals, and those we saw were relatively far away.

Uganda was much different. We went on hikes literally hacking through the jungle to find gorillas and chimps. Some of the gorillas were acclimated to people and we got as close as 10 feet to them. It was amazing being so close to them. We got to around 10 yards from the chimps but they didn’t seem as tolerant towards people as the gorillas.

We had armed guards on both those treks due to the unpredictable nature of the wildlife (chimps are potentially very dangerous), but more so for protection against poachers and bandits. At first I wished I had my AR and pistol but I would probably have thrown them away due to exhaustion.

We also went on some car safaris looking for, and finding, zebras, elephants, lions, leopards, etc. The closest we got to lions was about 20 feet. But we were in a vehicle and he wasn’t so I felt fairly safe :slight_smile:

The wildlife in Uganda are amazing, and plentiful to see. Those in the Amazon basin pale by comparison. Then again, there were plenty of bugs in both places.

Power is unpredictable in Uganda and normally is out at night. So we used flashlights/headlamps at night at the places we stayed at. I had a Shiningbeam Caveman, Convoy S2, Tank007 tk566, and Tank007 E09 on me. The Caveman was more than bright enough at night. In fact I rarely used the high setting, the lowest setting being way more useful. No doubt this was due to not being on night walks looking for animals (unlike the Amazon) because of the danger of being out after dark.

For people in both Peru and Uganda, the high setting are WOOOOOW!!! :slight_smile: In both places they only had dim incan lights so the leds were like Star Wars technology for them. I wish I had brought a C8 to show them.

For anyone who has the inclination to do so, I highly recommend going to Africa to see the wildlife. Remember to bring lights and batteries because you won’t be able to get anything decent there. Btw…one of my most important “lights” in both Peru and Uganda was my Steripen. Maybe not bright, but definitely good for the body and soul :slight_smile:

Performing a basic emitter swap in most lights is pretty simple. You’ll need a soldering iron and basic soldering skills. Unscrew and remove the bezel and reflector. The LED will be on a small disk called a “star”. Desolder the 2 wires connecting to the star and remove the star.

Insert a replacement star with your new LED on it and solder the wires to the pads on the star. If the light is going to be heavily driven, I recommend spreading a thin layer of thermal grease or thermal compound below the new star to improve heat transfer.

You can buy new emitters premounted to stars. However, you can also buy unmounted emitters that you can then mount yourself on your own stars. This allows you to reuse old stars or use higher quality stars. Soldering an emitter to a star is also pretty simple, but requires slightly different soldering skills. I recommend buying a soldering paste. Spread the paste on the pads on the star, place the LED into position, then cook the star until the paste melts and the LED jumps into position. If you’re brand new to soldering, I recommend starting with replacement LEDs premounted to stars.

As with all soldering, you should probably use solder flux to improve the quality of the bond.

Tools you may find helpful for emitter swaps:

  1. Soldering iron with a fine tip.
  2. Good quality solder
  3. For mounting unmounted emitters, low temp solder paste.
  4. Fine steel tweezers for picking up emitters
  5. A small dental pic or equivalent. Helps in lifting stars out of their socket.
  6. Needle nose pliers
  7. Solder flux
  8. Small disposable alcohol lens wipes. Use these to wipe off the dome on the top of the emitter if you accidentally touched it or got it dirty during the operation.

Firelight2 got my back. It's really simple if you can use a simple soldering iron to remove the two wires from the old star, remove star, clean & apply new thermal compound (recommended, though you could reuse the old), place new star, solder the two wires to the new star (in the correct + and - locations). A 5 to 10 minute job.

-Garry

Thanks Firelight2 that is a very helpful and informative post!

Subscribed. Great thread.

@SigShooter,
Thanks for the trip report and sharing. I enjoyed reading your post. Africa sounds amazing. I’ve never taken a trip like that. I look forward to seeing your photos.

Steripen is a product I wasn’t aware of. I think that could be very useful in many situations. I’ll read up on it.

@Firelight2
A great post! very useful, nicely done.

@duokun
Thanks for posting your question. It lead up to some very interesting responses.

And yes. Firelight2, that’s the beginners modding tutorial that I’ve been wanting to ask for. Big help answering “obvious” questions that I’ve been trying to figure out on my own….searching….reading….searching……

Now it needs it’s own thread. Get that sucker stickied. First part in a continuing series. Pleeeeeez?

EDIT : Apologies to the OP for thread-jacking!! All the more reason for it to have it’s own thread. Hint, Firelight2. HINT.

Im not necessarily opposed to ordering from China, i have some experience with ordering stuff from overseas, my recent experiences with China based eBay sellers has been pretty good, i just ordered two Tank007 E09 flashlights and was surprised how quickly they shipped. Also my Solarforce X2 shipped from HK rather fast. Although right now I know nothing will be going out of China or HK till after the Lunar New Year, so that gives me a while to think about if i want to go with a Chinese retailer or not. I have read some posts on here regarding the variance in shipping times from several of the Chinese retailers, so i know that sometimes it can be more of an issue than others.

I was however looking at RMM’s store and am still deciding what i want to go for…