What mods did you do?
I need more horsepower!
Thanks,
Keith
I described it earlier.. but you can use a driver like this:
http://www.kaidomain.com/Product/Details.S020073
or the famous Nanjg 105:
http://www.intl-outdoor.com/amc71358-5mode-circuit-board-nanjg-105-p-216.html
File the driver down to 16mm and open up the brass ring in the pill to 16mm, press all together, drop an IMR cell in and off you go. Should take 30-60minutes. Opening up the brass ring is pretty delicate work.
I killed my XML trying to dedome it. I ordered an XP G2 star for it. Will the stock driver suffice? I believe it put out about 1.5a at the tc before I killed the LED.
Yeah, stock driver will be fine for XP-G2. Although those can be driven at about 2.5A, too.
Don’t understand the interest of de-doming a zoomie since it has no reflector.
Take a look at this post: X-ML de-doming method with 100% success?
Actually in a light with an aspheric/convex lens, you want as much light to be emitted in the forward direction as possible, since there’s no reflector to collimate it.
I’m not an optical-specialist but this is not what I understood.
A dome is convex (as aspheric lenses) in order to straight the beam (convergent beam).
Then de-doming reduces the light focused straight out the top and increases the light spread at greater angles. As there is no reflector to return light back to the optical, these photons are simply lost.
Therefore de-doming a zoomie seems useless and even counter-productive to me.
Just my 2 cents…
The convex-ness will focus the light, but only at the right distance. With the dome right on top of the emitter, this is minimal. (you can see the same effect for yourself in any zoom light). The Xr-e’s seem to have a bit more distance than the xp’s, which is probably part of why the output curves are more pronounced in the center whereas the latter is more or less the same as nothing at all.
I think this makes for an odd effect where the die image is magnified (and therefore dimmer) without really focusing more light forward, which is why dedoming works. Not intuitive with a very naive understanding.
If you think of throw in terms of how much light makes it out of the lens, sure, I agree with you. More gets wasted without a dome behind an aspheric lens. But that doesn’t automatically equate to less throw. More light is shed on this (pun intended) here: Dedoming XR-E R2 in aspheric Solarforce L2 for more throw? | Candle Power Flashlight Forum
In any case, lumens are lost.
Whatever some lux are earned in the center is not evident. It may be measured by a luxmeter.
I did not experiment that on myself (since I don’t earn any torch on myself :bigsmile: ) but I think the narrow spot could have been considered brighter by some in contrast to darker wide beam.
Interesting post taken from cainn link : Dedoming XR-E R2 in aspheric Solarforce L2 for more throw? | Candle Power Flashlight Forum
I don't like the beam of Z8
2 spots come from holes in white plastic around emitter.
Flood is squere-ish.
Tint is bad, throw sucks and light gets warm very fast (much much faster than Sipik SK68 with 14500).
Only thing good is overall build quality.
The fact that it’s getting warm means the host is doing it’s job and dissipating the heat generated by the emitter. It’s not a bad thing in and of itself. The only way to fix something like that is to reduce the effectiveness of the heat sinking, or drive the emitter more conservatively.
It doesn’t get too hot to hold does it?
Other than that, yeah, I don’t like the beam either. The XM-L die size is too big for a light with such a small head/lens. I’ve been meaning for put an XP-G2 in mine, but the project keeps going on the back burner in favour of other projects.
Or just adding cooling fins. SS body and very small cooling fins are bad for cooling.
Sure, it helps, but without making the head bigger, it’s not going to be a big difference.
Nicely done Mr.Mac ! I’m loving this zoomie .
Thank you! You are quite welcome. 
I know I’m late to the party on this one but thanks JohnnyMac for the great review as always. I bought my Z8 back in September based on this review along with an Ultrafire HD2010 that I also decided to buy based on it’s great review by JohnnyMac. Bought both from Tmart. This was my 1st foray into zoomies, never had an SK68, (was thinking about one but got this instead). BTW Johnny thanks for the tip on the Bacardi Mojito! Love it. So far a total of 3 great lights purchased and one tasty mixed drink recipe from JohnnyMacs reviews (Z8, HD2010 & 2 BlackShadow Terminators)
My Z8 also arrived with the twisty zoom very tight and hard to turn, I disassembled it and lubed all threads with SuperLube Synthetic Grease, and after some use it now turns easier. As reported in the review the build quality on my sample was spectacular for the price paid (Can’t remember exactly but I think it was around $13).
My copy puts out a ton of flood light for close range use and has excellent throw. It by far out throws my Xeno Eo3 NW on high, even when the Xeno has a less charged battery. Compared to my UltraFire C20 U2 1x18650 (Crelant 7G3CS clone) it has equal or better throw with a more intense hotspot on the Z8. I’m running it on a 14500 Li-ion (cheap unprotected “1200”mAh 
;)).
I’m going to have to do some research to find out why some people on here recommend using IMR batteries instead of Li-ions, maybe I will experiment with some of those if I can use my same chargers.
It’s has an “elegant” look and feel to it, and makes for a nice “collection” light almost a “shelf queen”, but very functional for use in the real world. The description currently on Tmart says it’s constructed of Aerospace aluminum alloy but at least the battery tube is solid stainless steel making it quite heavy as reported in the review.
For me it’s way too heavy to carry around on person so I thought it would make a nice bedside light and it does currently reside on my nightstand for lack of anything more appropriate there at the present time, but the low is not as low as I would like for that purpose, and it always comes on in high mode.
It does have a large flood beam but with a square-ish profile. When beamed on a white wall it has rings that look like a target with alternating cream-whiteish and purpleish bands. However I don’t use it to look at white walls and nitpick tint and profile, I don’t notice any of that in real life use.
One thing I don’t understand is the Mode Memory, mine doesn’t seem to have any …except that it just goes to the next mode, if the light has been off for 3 minutes it just re-sets and starts on High again. IMO next mode memory seems useless and silly if it times out after a few minutes.
At this point I’m finally going to try a few SK68’s just to see what all the rave is about with them and compare them myself to the Z8. I have a TOMTOP single mode on order and am trying to decide on a good choice for a 3-mode version.
Overall I’m very impressed and happy with my Z8 and recommend it for the price. Eventually I may try to mod this light to a NW and a different driver as described on here by NightCrawl, but there’s really nothing wrong with it the way it came.
I just read this review last night and couldn’t resist the idea of well formed square threads on stainless steel for under $15, so I ordered one from TMart.
Is it really the heat that makes the output droop, or is it that the 14500s can’t sustain the output? Does the current droop also? I don’t think I have the right meter to measure the current.
It appears that, the threads being well cut, the heat should conduct through the pill threads, the body and the zoom threads into the head fairly well, since it only has to cross the thickness of the stainless. There are then little fins on the head. Heat getting to the little fins along the body is another matter.
Stainless steel is a poor conductor. The stock version of the light wont drop much, because its not that bright out of the box. Driven at about 1.5A if I remember correctly. A true pocket rocket if you throw in a better driver and use IMR cells.