I’ve got a gold and a black one from Wallbuys. The black one works well and pulls about 1.5A from an Eneloop. With a dodgy 14500, I measured about 0.5A, and it did seem a bit brighter.
The gold one has issues, flickering on all modes, probably because of a bad contact somewhere in the head part. At some point it had a consistent output for a while, but it was a bit less bright than the black one. The lens unscrews easily, but I’ve not yet managed to get the pill out. Has anyone managed that? Is it threaded or press fit?
Threaded, same way sith sk68. I opened up quite a few using a tiny screwdriver. I have 10 of these ($1.99 ea) and love them. ESPECIALLY the high pwm. How is it I always get very high pwm on ultra cheap lights like these and the Ultrafire S5… but low lame PWM on more expensive ones (SRK, 3T6, MF drop-in… well expensive for me at least).
To solve flickering issue - the problem is the connection between driver and body. Take the pill out and push/tap the driver in with a small mallet. Works great.
I haven’t managed to get the pill out. Didn’t work with split ring pliers, and didn’t want to force it and damage them. Took a pretty strong U shaped nail and bent that to fit, but it twisted, trying to unscrew the pill, even with the nail put in a vise. In the end I just put a stick in the battery compartment part and tapped the driver board a few times, and that fixed the flickering issue. Thanks for the tip.
Any ideas about the tail cap? One of the boot rubbers isn’t seated quite correctly, and I can’t really push it back in properly from the back. So I guess I’ll need to remove the switch from the inside. But I haven’t found a way to remove the plastic piece with the spring yet (without damaging it).
Just got the boot out by just pushing from the back, after pulling out the switch boot. It’s just a single switch assembly with 2 contacts on the side.
I only measure 10% less current, but it seems to be a bigger difference without the thin leads of my meter. In addition to the lens being smaller and longer focal length, they must have tuned the driver for the smaller cooling area and mass. I think it is a great light for general use, just not for light hogs and collectors.
The other thread on this is 3-mode Zoom AA/1450 EXPIRED ! "Black" $1.99 Max 3ea.
On Amazon it is called “Foxnovo® 508 Focus Adjustable CREE Q5 3-Mode 250-lumen Mini LED Torch Flashlight with Pocket Clip (Black)” and sells for $11. My guess is that all are coming from the same production line and that they are making a lot and therefore marketing them in several ways at once.
This is called “#3” in the topic about AA/AAA lights under $10 — a good and growing compilation.
And if anyone knows a reliable source for these with solid pills — I’m looking.
They happen to perfectly accommodate the 10mm square boards that Luxeonstar sells with all colors of Rebel emitter — drop right in, wire holes are open, four corners of the square center the emitter in the round cutout — and the solid pill (the … one … damn … solid … pill) makes a great heat transfer backing for the board.
(I like dropping Luxeon PC Rebel emitters of various colors into these — I found them from luxeonstar on a square 12mm board, which fits perfectly into the ring for these #3 and SK68 lights — touching at all four corners with the emitter centered. On a soild pill that’s perfect. On a hollow pill it’s almost zero contact for heat transfer)