20mm
This light looked interesting to me. So I bought one today at Lowes to use as a glovebox light in my car. Here are my thoughts on it:
Pros:
1. At a little less than $10, the price is right
2. Uses a modern emitter (some here say XP-E2, but comparing to other lights, looks like an XP-G2).
3. At 300 lumens, it’s pretty bright for the price. Compared to other lights, the 300 lumen rating seems pretty accurate.
4. Build quality of the body is fairly solid
5. Beam quality is pretty good, especially for the price point
6. 4xAAA rather than 3xAAA. This increases power AND means you don’t have that one, odd battery in a four pack. It also means you don’t have to mix rechargeables from different packs.
Cons:
1. Short battery life (what do you expect from 4xAAA?)
2. No modes, which means there is no way to extend battery life
3. Plastic lens and reflector. My lens was scratched out of the package
4. Battery holder of questionable quality
5. Looks to be no real driver - no regulation. Use NiMH for relatively constant brightness
Good find! Nice price too!
-Garry
Awesome shot. I got a couple XP-G2 in my hand and they also have the square dot in the top left corner, and that dot right where the dome starts rising up in the right side of the LED. I still suspect it's an XP-G2.
Thanks for the driver measurement, OL. 
Now to find a 20mm, 4-6v boost driver that puts out ~1000mA…
Why a boost driver? You don't really need a boost (or a buck) driver. My SkyEye F13 happily runs on an 18650, 26650, 3AAA's, or 4AAA's. 3AAA NiMh's put out 1.10A (though looking back at that review I never tail cap current on 4AAA's, but I did record a ceiling bounce measurement showing it was much brighter than on 3AAA's).
-Garry
I like the idea of lights that maintain constant brightness until the batteries go poof. Plus it’s just more interesting than direct drive.
See my YouTube channel... in my Sig, for a couple different methods
Now it has an XP-E2 (new one), led on a 20mm sinkpad, on a copper disc, on top of copper pipe fittings.
The copper disc is about 30mm in diameter. I laid it down on my soldering stone and put together a piece of 1/2" copper coupling and a piece of 1/2" copper pipe. Then I centered the pipe on the disc and soldered it all together. I turned it beck upright and I tinned the sinkpad and set the sinkpad and led on top. I reheated the assembly till the led flowed onto the pad and used my finger to press on the dome, to squeeze out and excess solder between the led & pad and between the star and disc.
That stack up is taller than the stock one, so I filed some off the top of the aluminum pill, so it would maintain the same OAL when I put the copper insert in.
It's not a press fit, so I will use a film of AA all over the mating surfaces to help fill in any air gap.
I will be using a NANJG driver in the other end and a 20mm contact plate over the top of the driver.
I took all the contacts off the battery holder. I decided to go mod it into a 4xParallel holder and use 4x10440 IMR batteries in it.
The clicky assembly was press fit into the tail cap, so I pushed it out and I will do the copper braid mod to the spring, to help with resistance and with the heat the spring will see from 3 amps. The switch might not make it, but I have found that usually they will take 3 amps with the braid mod done to the spring.
The pill is done.
Battery holder now takes 4x10440. I made it for Efest IMR. I think only those or AW should be used, due to the amps.
Ther amp draw now with the 10440s in parallel was 2.8A on high.
The lux went from 11200 with the stock light,
to 22900 with the XP-E2 and the new driver+10440s.
Copper braid mod in the driver spring and the tail cap spring. The battery springs were so small I couldn't do that in them.
Not too shabby for an inexpensive light. It has a tighter spot now too.
Yes, it’s an XP-G2. After I ripped off the dome accidentally, I figured it out…
OL, that’s pretty cool I gotta say. 8) I’m wondering though, at my hardware store copper pipe is…expensive to say the least and I’d have to buy a foot of it at minimum, the disk also presents problems for me. How much issue would I have just soldering a copper star onto a 1/2” coupling and slipping that into the pill with silver paste? Theoretically I was thinking of a 4x7135 Nanjg to power it…maybe add a chip to it, but this would be a NiMH-powered light so I’d keep driving modest.
Darn! Couldn't find it at my Lowes! Is it in the normal flashlight area (near registers in my store) or in a seasonal display area (I checked most of those too)?
I also went across the street to Home Depot which had the new triple "1000 Lumen" 3D light, 2 DST's, and the 2 pack of 3AAA XB-D (or whatever they are) lights. I walked out with none of them (yes, I resisted them all).
-Garry
Online it said my local Lowes was OOS on the new lights but they had a display 3/4 full of them by the self-checkouts. In person they’re nice, a decent bit of heft to them and even through the packaging the lens and reflector look flawless, even if they’re plastic.
Unrelated they had a Cobalt-brand 3xCR123 light for $60…with a very off-center emitter. 
Although this light is by no means the best out there, you can certainly do ALOT worse for the price. For just a little more than many garbage, 9 LED lights with an awful tint and low output, you can actually get a fairly solid light with one of the latest Cree emitters available. I should also note that some of the other lights they had available from Utilitech were multiple emitter lights that costed the same or more than this one, yet had less than half the output!
4x7135, you could just use the copper star by itself. Get a 1/2" copper pipe cap and use it. Instant disc and pipe together. All you need is a socket or something that fits the id of the cap, so you can whack it on a solid surface, to flatten the end of the cap, (they are domed) and then a little sandpaper to smooth it. Then solder the star to the cap.
I found them down by the nuts and bolts aisle.
When I went, they were over in the seasonal items. So they can literally be anywhere. It may take some time to find them.
I found it in front of the bathrooms near the registers, up front. They had TONS of cardboard display racks with random tools/lights/whatnot strewn throughout the front 1/3 of the store.
I’m not a big fan of the pill threads. I’m sure there’s a benefit, but one I’m not aware of. It can be threaded from the top or through the bottom, it never tightens up until it meets up with the reflector.
Beats out my 3xAAA L2i by a small margin (weak module).
25% more spill, slightly tighter hotspot.
A littler warmer tint than my 3C C8.
OOOh, didn’t think of a cap! Thanks OL! :bigsmile: Maybe go with a 6x7135 then if that will give a bit more thermal path than just the star.
[And sorry, but just to be clear, 20mm star, right?)
Mod finished, see the bottom of this post https://budgetlightforum.com/t/-/22288#comment-486641
double the lux reading at 1 meter.
Well, the stock star is a little smaller than a 20mm, but bigger than a 16mm. I think either file down the edges of the star to fit (don’t like that), or file down the top of the aluminum pill, to compensate for the additional height the 20mm star would create if it sat on top of the aluminum. That should be the thickness of the star to remove off the top of the Aluminum pill.