Hey guys I just bought this light off of Ebay:
http://www.ebay.com/itm/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=300607577193&ssPageName=ADME:L:OC:US:3160
Hopefully it’s a newer version and not old stock. Anyhow, how many actual lumens will this thing put out on high with a trustfire flame 14500?? And what type of run time on high?
Thanks!
Is this still one of the best $12 AA lights on FT? I’m also looking at the newer G2 based Sunwayman R10A and ThruNite Saber A1 but they both cost twice as much.
I found a seller that replied to my question to say that this does ship with an XM-L T6
http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=200960736317
But I would also ask for close pictures of the LED in it, to confirm before ordering as you can get these for ~$11 with an XP-G R5 now.
I would order one, but I’m already seriously considering turning mine into a PWM driven XM-L2 U2 6000K. I’d like to get a perceptive ~800 lumen out of it. With a decent PWM speed/length that wouldn’t even use half of that, and it should run cooler than the stock driver & XP-G R5 on high. I’d like to have a perceptive medium 200 lumen, and a near-moonlight low like perceptive 2-4 lumen.
Anyone have recommendations on drivers that would work for something like that?
I recently took delivery of one of these torches and I’d thought I’d post my impressions of it.
I have found it to be an excellent light with a very precise, uniform and intense beam. The cells I’m using are TrustFire 14500 900mAh and Eneloops.
The runtimes are as follows:
Trustfire ‘High’: 40mins.
Trustfire ‘Low’: 5hr 50mins.
Eneloop ‘High’: Approx 1hr (at this point the beam is degrading considerably).
Eneloop ‘Low’: Didn’t bother, but it would no doubt be a long time.
My only criticisms are; the knurling needs to be more aggressive (why can’t people do it properly these days?), I would prefer courser/heavier threads on the tail cap and, even though the torch was only submerged in a glass of water, there is an air leak from the button rubber/tail cap interface.
However, I still like the torch and it has a heck of a powerful beam on 3.7V.
Tom.
Wow, this must be the oldest thread on BLF ever revived! :-)
Thanks for the impression Tommygunn. I think after 5 years this still is a light worth buying, also suitable for 'hotrodding'.
Not quite. ;)
I forgot about that one :-)
I see btw that the second poster on BLF ever, after sb, cccpull has been seen 9 hours ago, although I can not remember him from any post in the 3 years that I'm a member.
Newest member, first post, ancient thread! But with the last posts in mind, it kind of feels right. 
I’ve been using the R5-A3 as my EDC for many years now (if it was released in 2010, i probably got my first within a year). I’m on my sixth, but only one has failed on me, after taking a Long drop onto concrete (5th floor), the rest I’ve lost. And at less than $10 a piece, a more expensive light wouldn’t have been less lost!
Battery life may well be atrocious, but it’s all down to what you need!
I’ve been moving around the suburbs of Stockholm, Sweden. Where most walkways are lit, but there’s also fairly large swathes of forest, unlit and unkept for centuries.
My permanent companion has been my dog. Jacqueline, a Pitbull with a touch of Rottweiler, built like a Whippet on steroids. (20”, 50 lbs).
With time I got her to stop chasing Hare and Roedeer, but it didn’t come naturally and it wasn’t perfect…
So now and then I needed to be able to; 1: see where she’d gone of to, and 2: check a large area for game. (And on occasion, find a turd to pick up).
Neither of these applications require a lot of time, but a throw of a hundred metres (or more, when eye-shine is enough) from something as small as this, has served me admirably well!
On top of that I’ve been able to make security guards and police almost shit themselves by helping them light up whatever their flashlights wouldn’t, from several times the distance. Get a friend into a club by “helping” the bouncer see my stamp, and then waving my friend by since all he could see was a pink/orange afterimage of my pasty white wrist. Surprising the dancefloor of a small underground rave, or four, with a strobe that shouldn’t be. And helping more than a few people scale some damn treacherous cliffs when at a mini-festival in Croatia, where the party was on the beach and the camping ground some 50 ft above. Although on that journey I did feel the lack of longevity and a decent Low mode…
I absolutely love the intense beam, with just the right amount of bleed/flood to light the path, while still reaching deep into the woods.
What kind of reflector typically does this? Enough light to light the way is very little, but to be able to look ahead properly, you need most of what’s available focused. This goes especially for bike lights and such! (This kind of beam won’t blind as much either, as the majority of the reflected light will be far away).
I’ve been using 14500’s. First UltraFire, as I didn’t know better, then TrustFire Flame, and lastly Keeppowers, with the Sanyo cells which were said to be top of the line for the purpose back in 2015.
Now the dog is dead since a year and some, she got to be twelve years old, still fit as a fiddle, but succumbed to leptospirosis… After killing hundreds of rats, a rat finally got her, indirectly.
And I’m looking for some more serious lights. I’m still mostly after the “LET THERE BE LIGHT” type beasts, in as small a package as possible (I mostly dress in a three piece suit, kind of, and don’t have anywhere to put something much larger than a 18650 battery, or an R5-A3).
Welcome to the forum. Looking for a small 14500 or 18650 powered flashlight or either?
Welcome to BLF, Imp! Thanks for the story of your R5-A3 
I think that there are lights out there that will outperform your R5-A3 with the same size. They are usually quite floody, like the Emisar D4. It will give you about 20 times the amount of light. If the beam must be tighter (like the R5-A3), perhaps the Emisar D1 is an option, but it is slightly larger. Both are very well built flashlights. A flashlight with about the same performance as the R5-A3, and that runs on AA and 14500, is the Utorch UT01, it is usually on sale somewhere, this one is a good price at the moment.
And there’s many more options…
Howdy! Welcome.
Check out the Sofirn SP10b and the UTorch UT01. The Sofirn goes for $13US from their AliExpress shop. Coupon codes to get the UT01 for$10US show up with some frequency in the various deals forums here.
Both work with unprotected 14500s (protected cells are too long for the UT01, and if you try to make it fit without using suitable spacers, you can, um, enable, some flakeyness with the driver forever after). They also work, thought not as bright, with AA NiMH, and even alkaline, in a pinch. The UT01 is a brighter light, but it is also floodier. The Sofirn throws better, with more light in the hotspot. I think though that the UT01 has ~equal reach just by virtue of being brighter.
There are probably some other inexpensive lights that would fill the bill, but I don’t know about them There are probably lights that might better fit your needs, but are 2x the price.
Yeah. Been looking at the Emisar D4 and Convoy models among others.
The D4 looks extremely nice, and with that kind of output a floodier beam seems appropriate. And there’s always the HI version for extra throw, although I believe that a warmer XP-G2 or the Nichia, with its high CRI, would suit my taste better.
I’ve tried a number of very cheap lights with a variety of emitters, and always found the warmer tint of the XP-G R5 preferable, as I experience better detail with more colour, even if a couple of 18650 lights have produced a higher output.
I’m kind of poor at the moment though, and just managed to loose a friends power sander on the tube, so there’s another $100 gone to replace it… :person_facepalming:
Need some batteries anyway, and preferably a better charger that can do LiFePO, and lower current than the Soshine S7 I’ve been using (1A only, although it ramps down with increasing V when on 1A USB power in). And with a maximum of four cells per package, I’ll need to get two orders to fill my needs. (Any possibility that this can be stretched a bit by shipping one cell inside a flashlight? Or, with the short tube as an extension, even two short ones, with room over for some padding/insulation in between?) :innocent:
So I might start with ordering a cheaper Convoy S2+ with an XP-L HI emitter and a shorty tube, which should make a quite decent mini-thrower @ half the price of a D4, let me try the HI/domeless variety, and leave money for the charger! (XTAR WP2H looks very nice, especially as I have a display for some “diagnostics” on the Soshine).
Then I can get a D4 and more batteries next month. And if I get some bikes sold come spring, I might just get me one of them “Nuclear Detonation Flash simulators”! 
As might be obvious I’ve been browsing MtnE and really like the selection of batteries in stock, and a lot of the rest looks hard to beat as well!
(This may well be the wrong place for this post, but as I got answers here I chose to continue. Please move it to the proper category or thread if necessary!)