New EDC 18650, the first flashlight using the new CREE XP-G2 LED @ Intl-outdoor.com

I ordered it a few days ago, with XM-L T6 3C. I took the golden one.

I personally don’t like the KD V2 driver, because I can’t reprogram it (and I’ve not heard of anyone being able to) :frowning:

As soon as the light arrives, I’ll put my custom firmware into the driver and have all the modes I want :bigsmile:

I ordered and received the bare host. It looks exactly like on the pics, the reflector is very very light OP and about 11.7mm high, pill is screw in with a retaining ring for the driver. Looks good. Specs on the site are correct.

Nightcrawl, what size star does it take? 16mm or 20mm. I may have a star and driver that would be more worth while in here than in a c8.

16mm. Driver retaining ring is not needed btw, its a brass pill after all..^^

Excellent, I have a u2 on a 16mm star and ld25 (current controlled) driver, I think they would be very nice in this host and I just wasn’t feeling it when I trialled them in my c8, I’d rather just get an xintd c8 to fill that hole.

Thanks for the quick response, means that since I have a spare few minutes at work, i’m going to end up ordering this now :expressionless: :bigsmile: :wink:

I also received a bare host, looks pretty good! It’s small but has a substantial enough mass that it should be pretty decent at dissipating heat.

Funny everybody received hosts and nobody ordered the XP-G2 which was the most notable novelty, IMHO!

I only ordered a host to use up the components I had, otherwise I may not have ordered anything, at near $30 I was not in the market for s light this month, but a little inexpensive project won’t hurt.

If I had ordered a light, it would have been the xpg-2, just to have the new led, but perhaps a c8 with a 2.2a driver would better show off the new led?

Agree!

Hope someone would produce one soon! If a C8 with XP-G2 was in store, I would have bought it without questions!

Ok now lets see the first xp g2 light with a clip

Hank - I got my EDC 18650 today, ordered on 9/1. Overall, it's good, but a little less bright than I though it might be. I ordered a 5 mode U2 and here are questions/issues:

- the medium low has a hum to it - wondering if this is common?

- Also you changed the specs on this from 2.8A to 2.5A? So, I thought I ordered a 2.8A. Which one did you send me? How can I tell?

- I can't remove the bezel so can't see the driver to count the all the 7135's. from the battery compartment, it looks like 3 7135's so does that mean it's a 2.5A version?

I can answer the first question for sure. 3-5 mode Nanjg drivers emit an audible whine on medium. If you listen close, you'll hear a faint whine on low also. It's normal.

For the other questions, removing the bezel won't really help you see the top side of the driver unless you then go ahead and remove the driver from the pill also which you probably don't want to do. But, if you see only 3 AMC chips on the bottom of the driver board, it's likely a 2.5A version.

Regarding brightness, if this is your first XML light with a 20mm or smaller reflector, it makes sense that it doesn't look as bright as you might expect. The combination of a large emitting surface and a small reflector does not "look" as bright as the total output values would suggest. The XML really needs a bigger reflector. And I don't think you would notice much of an improvement at 2.8A vs 2.5A. I think the difference works out to less than 10% increase in output which is going to be hard to notice.

Plus the size of the host may lend itself to managing the heat at 2.5a better than at 2.8a. Overheating may have been a problem.

3 on the back suggests 2.5A doesn’t it? I thought 2.8A was with 8 AMC7135s with 4 on each side.

Yep. So 3 on the backside + 4 on the top = 7 -> 2450mA.

Yes - 2.5A it is, sounds like. I was expecting something like the mod'ed UF-2100, but the UF-2100 is still a little bigger (longer) than this light. Even as the EDC is now @2.5A, it gets hot pretty quick.

Suspect Hank was having/seeing worse heating issues @2.8A and that's why he backed off, dunno. He also dropped the specs from 900lms max to 850.

I’m quite happy at that, I’d somehow not ordered the host I thought I’d ordered earlier in the month, so I corrected that tonight.

I have a 3 mode 2.6a ld25 driver (current controlled, no pwm, no whining on lower modes) and a u2 emitter that need a home. This looks ideal, as I don’t currently have an edc friendly light. Looks like mine will be close to the manufactured specs, but I get the fun of building it myself. Ace! 8)

Can you confirm the host will take a protected 2800mah cell? That’d be perfect as I have a surplus of them.

Is that an unbranded Roche F12?

Can you confirm the host will take a protected 2800mah cell? That’d be perfect as I have a surplus of them.

I'm running a Pana NCR18650 (2900, unprotected) and tried an EagleTac 3100 protected and both work fine.

Is that an unbranded Roche F12?

Not exactly. from the Intl-Outdoor site, there are subtle differences in the case - the EDC 18650 has a smooth SS bezel, different outer style, but they seem very similar in size, though the stock Roche ie heavier than the EDC 18650.

Overall, I'm pretty happy with it. Rojos made good pts - other 18650's I got that are non-zoom are C2 or C8 style with bigger reflectors. I think the host is a good quality - I got the gray version. Two issues:

- It does heat up fast - I just compared it with a Sipik 73 (cheap T6 zoom) and it gets hotter faster then the Sipik, thought the head on the Sipik it slightly bigger but they are identical in length and width (accept the head). Maybe this can be improved on doing it yourself.

- the button is pretty stiff - takes some effort in one hand