I’d seen these on many sites. When I spotted one on offer for $6.85 from BuyInCoins, I thought it may be worth a purchase. The intention was always to mod it.
Well, its not an XML.
I don’t know if you can tell from the photos, but the head is all plastic, only the battery tube is metal. So the only heat sinking is what the LED is mounted to.
Quite a tight beam, but its a shame its plastic, would have made a good thrower. There was no o-ring on the lens and the one on the body was snapped and hanging off. Driver appears to be direct drive on full and PWM for low. On my bench PSU 4.2v drew 1.5A. When lowering the voltage the current dropped sharply with the potential, so no regulation.
Looks pretty much the same as the no name, handled e-switch light from a few years back. Different machining choices here and there. I believe I made a tear down thread on it. They were ~$15 back then, same subpar quality, no fake XML’s back then though.
Just something to write off to experience. We’ve all bought things that turned out to be total rubbish.
I must admit I can’t really see the point of the format. Lantern/spotlights with a stand so they are stable when they are put down and can be set at an angle are things I’ve found useful, but I can’t see what that design offers over a normal flashlight with one or two cells in a tube and it’s much more bulky.
I did search before buying, but couldn’t find any posts on them. However, a quick search now and I found this thread. No mention of a plastic head, so I guess that’s how they reduced the costs.
