my x3 arrived back from my stepson’s scout camp last night. I bought the 80cri version and am more than happy with it. He took it away with 3aa generic rechargeable batteries, he came back with a request from his scout leaders for me to have a word with them about the costs for some for themselves.
Thats what I like about this light, its great as a flashaholics light in whichever configuration suits your flashaholic tendencies but its also great for civilians on readily available cells, at $45 its also less than I’ve seen the d40a or ea4 but I’m happy to be corrected on that.
Got my ea4w for $47 and change. Think that's the cheapest it's ever been offered at. Need to get some of banks 26650 for this so I can use some lithium juice in it
I had been using mine with an unprotected 18650 and sleeve, its not seen much outdoor use as mrs gords loves it as a night light lol, I’ve put together a few other lights with similar emitters and drivers as I didn’t want to be without, I think its probably my favourite set up, 4 mode moon to high and I’m really liking the warmer high cri emitters, so much that I’m in the process of changing all the mr16 halogen bulbs for phillips gu10 warm led bulbs, they are also reported to be 80+cri and I’m finding it just so much more pleasant, can’t see me going back to cw anymore unless its for dedoming
X3 using the U2 1A will start out bright at around 1000 OTF lumens and when 1 hour has passed it will reach 600 OTF lumens, imagine a falling curve. The idea is to know after 1 hour of runtime how many lumens you have and vēer wanted at least 600-650lumens for an hour. Based on the black Eneloops performance.
I ordered D40A NW, I also have Jacob A60 on my way, so if it wont be enough with two Jacob’s then I might be getting X3 as well.
One last question - will it(X3) benefit if modded and used only with AA’s? Because it seems like a nice light that can sustain high temps for long period without down-throttling, thus, naturally, I would be interested to boost its output considerably and use it with AA exclusively.
Is that possible?
Hhmm. Need to try in mine mod'ed to 4.5A. Just measured 2.20-2.15A on 3 Eneloop's, with initial lumens at about 900, maybe drops to 850 or so at 30 secs. Just used the stock carrier - not sure if copper braiding the springs would help or not.
I see, thats what I was afraid about - unless its modded to accomodate more batteries, there is no way to significantly boost its output due to characteristics of NiMh batteries?
Hmm, would that make sense to request intl-outdoor to make additional extension tube for X3 to be able to take 6xAA or is it limited in this regard?
If thats impossible, would EA8, despite their fishy business practices, be the best AA based thrower around?
Pack enough AA's in, and you can get a powerfult light. For me, AA's don't make any sense anywhere, anytime in a light you want high power from. I bought this light as a 26650 light. So, if you are looking for the most powerful AA light at any cost, it's obvious the EA8 is far better with it's 8 AA's vs 3 in this one. In lumens, my mod'ed one seems close (800-850 maybe?) compared to 900 for the EA8, but didn't measure throw, but can't be 60 kcd like the EA8, maybe 40-50 or so, not sure.
Overall for it's size and cost and having only 3 AA's, the mod'ed X3 seems mightly close to the EA8 for output.
Stock model? No idea - all up to your preferences.
Hank claims 1,125 lumens, assuming that's the max possible: XM-L2 U2 1A option, running on a Lion cell (26650 or good 18650). Usually his #'s are high, so I'm guessing in the 900 - 1,050 range. Again, have to use a short Lion cell - flat top unprotected KK's fit fine. It's a cry'n shame to be using a nice XM-L2 U2 1A on a crap aluminum star though - wish he'd add $1 and put it on a Noctigon and probably would get about a 50 lumens bump and run longer at high output.
Well, something like this blows me away - Hank has got to be in tight with the XinTD manufacturer and he sells the XM-L2 U2 1A pre-mounted on Noctigons -- why wouldn't you use the Noctigon in a $45 light? There's even a new Crelant model that comes with a Noctigon now - I don't get it??
Really, I don't want to mod forever - and it would be nice for stores like IOS and IS to give us what we want, rather than having to mod it like a $10 piece of #$%^!! This light comes close to ideal with the QLite driver, AR lens, high qual body, choice of modes and emitters, etc. -- glaring omission is copper.
true, but I’m unconvinced copper is necessary at 3a, if he was doing a real hotrod version in the future though, perhaps he has something up his sleeve?