but i just received my first (cheap) multimeter. actually, i received two, but one of them was in about 20 pieces, so they are sending another. anyway, so i don't have to search all the info, can someone brieflly tell me how to measure amp draw so i can compare mine? thank you.
I'm actually using it inside. I notice having difficulity switching mode after 5 minutes when the head and neck parts of the flashlight become hot (not too hot where you can't comfortably grap it) under high mode.
@cabfrank: Hope you can see it:
p.s. "wires" are now soldered directly in multimeter^^
My KD C8 arrived Friday. As has already been mentioned, this is impressively bright. There seems to be no loss of quality compared with the original review. Threads are good, finish is good, on a par with maglight finish. Plastic washer not paper under reflector, the reflector itself is clean and produces a perfect beam.
I got 49min runtime on high with an ultrafire 3600 (yeah, I know). Will try some better cells in due course.
Honestly, can't think of a reason not to own this torch. In fact it now seems that I am an importer of these torches for my family and friends, everybody who sees it just has to have one !
Set meter to amps range. Put the red lead - in this case some house wiring cable I happened to have lying around - into the socket labelled amps, or A. Other end of red lead goes to unanodised part of the light body.
Since I had to do use one hand to hold the camera, the next picture isn't so clear. The red lead is still in contact with the unanodised part of the body. The black lead is connected to the negative end of the meter - usually marked COM - and then connected to the negative end of the cell.
The reason I use such heavy gauge wire for measuring current is that above a couple of amps, the resistance of the meter leads becomes significant. The stuff I'm using is OK for 15A at 240V.
The difference on heavy draw lights can be significant. On my Varapower (a 30W light), I measured 4.85A with the heavy wires, with nasty cheapies that came with it I got 3.9A. At full power, this is drawing more like 12A which is way more than most sanely priced multimeters can cope with.
being a fellow flashaholic i should have bought one long ago, just never got around to it. now i can report some objective measurements, but not today, its almost super bowl time. thanks again.
being a fellow flashaholic i should have bought one long ago, just never got around to it. now i can report some objective measurements, but not today, its almost super bowl time. thanks again.
I just spent the weekend out at my cottage, and with me on my snowy night time walk on the lake and through the bush, I took my KD C8, and my UF-H3 headlamp. I must say I am VERY happy with the purchase of both. My KD C8 blew my friends skyray sr-5 out of the water in brightness, and the headlamp gives such a perfect flood that its like daylight in front of me. No hotspot or anything. Just beautiful even light. Very happy with my purchases :D
with a panasonic ncr I get a steady current draw of 3.56A after a minute or so, this is a big improvement over the ultrafire 3600mah which gave me a draw of around 1.6A. The whole torch body does get rather hot however, after 10min I really want to put it down.
Its great to see that most of us have had great consistency with our C8 XM-L's. It remains by far my brightest and most useful 1 x 18650 outdoor light, thanks to the high amperage in which it is driven. In fact, Ive been neglecting most of my other lights since I got it... which is rather unlike me. Yeah, its that good. Im always pleased to use it, and it never ceases to amaze me that it costs only $28 delivered to my door. The heat sinking continues to do its job in distributing heat throughout the entire host and I havent detected any problems yet. I probably have about 15+ hours of use so far, most of which were while using it outdoors in the night air for 30 minutes during each use. This is the compact reliable wall of light Ive been looking for.
this just made me order 6 last night. Hopefully mine will have similar amperage as others.
Wow. You are jumping right in with both feet! Let us know how the lights turn out and Welcome!
Yeah well , I needed to update my led flaslight collection. 
My P7/MCE ones from 2 years ago arent cutting it for me , and just purchased a 35/50w hid so thought the leds could get some love too. Probably going to use some on my bikes and turn them all on 
.
That's a good sample size. It will be interesting to see what the differences are. With that number there will certainly be a few problems to sort out too.
good review
Please do get back to us with your results and observations. We are all very hopeful that the quality of this light has remained consistent with its first production run. Do you have a DMM and quality 18650's in good condition to test amperage draw at the tail cap of each? If you are equipped but dont know how, just ask and we can help. Good luck and thanks for chiming in.
I don't really have a DMM at the moment . Could ask my brother to borrow his. I'll be using the Trustfire black/red w/ flames batteries, ordered few more sets of those too.
First post. Hi all.
I have been away from hobby @about 1 year now, but all of this XM-L Lights really pull me back into the hobby and got me interested again. After reading some review i decided to get the KD C8 XML. I am sure this will be the one of many thanks to you guys!! 
Well i Just got a shipment of my KD C8 XML today and Really impressed. Definately brighter than my XPG Q5 dropin on Ultrafire 502B and it is not even on fully charged 18650.
Regards
Welcome to BLF Rizky! Im glad you're enjoying your new C8. This probably represents one of the best overall values in high powered flashlights at the moment. Its very hard on LiCo batteries to run them hard when only partially charged, so try to keep them more or less topped off... especially when used in a light with high power requirements.
Hello everyone
Is the KD c8 exacly the same as the 3 mode ultrafire?