This is a light that, as far as I know, has not been marketed in the West.
It should be.
★ ★ ★ ★ ★
Pros:
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Beautiful: smooth curves of shiny stainless steel
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Bright for a 1.5 V light
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Unusually compact for its battery size, because of careful use of the material and shape
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Well built and sealed
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Easy to take apart and put together, though it takes some care
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It works with a 14500 lithium ion cell, as well as with a 1.5 V AA.
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All three examples worked fine out of the box.
Cons:
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The long jade inspection bezel will usually not be used in the West. Narrowing the spill could be considered good or bad, but it wastes a little length. It does protect the window well.
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The pill is hollow, and it came with no heat sink compound between the star and pill. (In this price range, we can be glad that all is metal and glass, excepting only the switch and seals.) The thin stainless steel body also reduces the heat dissipation. These are not serious limitations for the power available from an alkaline AA cell.
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Its smooth curves are quieter than those of the Smiling Shark SS-5039 or a RoMiSen RC A-8, but they effectively minimize the bulk. The threaded joints are thick enough for strength, and it nicely tapers down elsewhere.
Click for full size.
The bezel and battery tube are neatly threaded onto a brass pill, providing good heat transfer in both directions and helping to spread the heat over the surface. It makes a pretty yellow stripe that isn’t just a decoration. The pill also contributes to the mechanical strength. The window (“lens” in common flashlight usage) is glass and has an o-ring.
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Maybe someone better at it than I can tell whether this is a real XP-E, but it works well.
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The reflector is metal with orange peal.
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To me, it looks and acts about like an ordinary boost driver. It has the usual modes of small cheap lights: high, low, strobe. It starts in high with no memory. However, switching from high to low the first time after it has been off requires four half clicks instead of the usual one, for those of us who use mostly high mode.
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Beam shots
Here is the spot compared to my Ultra OK SK-68 clone in throw and in flood mode, on similarly charged Eneloops. They each draw a little over an amp.
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It takes 14500 cells, but protected ones are too long for it. With an IMR cell charged to 4.0 V it draws just under 1.0 A and is comparable in brightness to my highly modified SS-5039 that is regulated at 1. A. Both the spot and the spill are narrower.
Smiling Shark in regulation at 1.05 A on left, Feng charged to 4.0 V on right, exposure set on spot and on spill:
The Feng’s spill is smaller because of the jade inspection bezel. Its spot is smaller and brighter because it has a smaller LED and a larger reflector. It has a dim and very broad secondary spill of the light that is diffused by the tool marks inside the bezel.
Here I try out the Jade function. I don’t have any jade, but this glass and stone are translucent.
It is interesting holding it against my wrist, but that is hard to take a picture of. The flesh is translucent, blood is dark and tendons are more translucent than flesh.
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Partly because I make pottery, I like smooth curves. Numerically controlled lathes can make compound curves as easily as more geometric shapes, it is just more thought and work for the designer and perhaps better software. The curvature also reduces the total bulk, makes it lighter and makes it easier to hold. The small ends fit in a pocket well, and the narrow center helps keep it from slipping out of a hand.
This is from Taobao.com taobao | 淘寶. I used Google Chrome to translate the page and the agent TaobaoRing.com to order it (along with three other types). The price is listed as ¥ 25.00, which is around $4, with mainland China free shipping, but I had to pay a fee to TaobaoRing and shipping from TaobaoRing to the US, and I neglected to remind them about the free domestic shipping. So maybe I paid twice that, which is still awfully cheap for what I got.
On the light it says in Roman letters “Feng Xing Hu Wai”. The Web page heading is 风行户外5号照玉石强光手电筒不锈钢迷你Q5LED正品批发厂家直销, which Google translates as “5, according to the popular outdoor jade Flashlight Stainless Steel Mini Q5LED authentic wholesale factory direct”. I don’t recognize any brand or model name in that. “5” seems to mean AA.
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Modification potential
This is somewhat limited until there is a better 15 mm. boost driver available. A lower forward voltage LED and thick copper star would help but not make a huge difference. It isn’t ideal for an IMR 14500, even with a thick star, because the thin nearly un-finned stainless has limited heat sinking capability. Since protected cells don’t fit and it has a boost driver, it should have a driver for Li ion only swapped in for heavy or careless use with lithium ion cells. But there is no driver spring, so only a single sided board will fit without shortening the spring or switch.
