You could do far worse than picking this light. I’ve got one on the way and I’m liking the idea of 26650 lights for around the house. I’ve used my Convoy BD06 and Haikelite SC26 quite often in the last year. The battery capacity, solid lumen output and the larger size all work toward having a light that is as bright as you’d most likely need and will run a long time without scorching your mitts. I can’t wait to receive mine and put it into the rotation.
Thanks for sharing your story and for the link! Added to favorites. I'll be sure to check it before my future battery purchases.
vimana, it’s really dependent on the flashlight and it’s capability as to what your cell choice should be. Also your intended usage, you might opt for a high capacity cell over a high discharge one to keep run times at an optimum, or a high discharge to run max output with less concern towards length of time it will run.
A single emitter flashlight with a standard driver that doesn’t allow more than 3A can be run by almost any cell out there. Get a Sofirn C8F with 3 emitters and the demand is quite different, the current draw potential eliminates a lot of lesser cells. So while a cell may be “junk” for one use, it could be perfectly acceptable for another. 
I ordered 2x SP33 after Nov1st @Sofirn/Aliexpress… Today the first arrived… I should not doubt that it has the new LED inside… But… is there an easy ‘idiot’ way to check, whether it is really the ‘new’ XHP50.2 LED?
It’s bigger than the XP footprint. Do you have any XPL or XLP-hi lights to look at it side-by-side with?
I got mine yesterday, from the 11/11 sale. I like it so far. Only got about 2200 lumens at turbo with a fresh liitokala black. Might need to do a little tweaking.
Yes, I just compared it with a Convoy C8 with Cree XPL HI… At least the Sofirn SP33 LED is much much bigger and more ‘yellowish’… So it really seems to be a XHP50.2 inside…
If you look really close you can see a fine line dividing the 4 dies of the 50.2. The original 50 and 70 had a wider line that was easier to see, it also made a big dark hole in the center of the hot spot. The .2 series are flip chip technology and the dies are closer together, much better for us for the beam profile.
2200 is correct. Everyone gets this. Unfortunately the driver is glued in so no one has been able the tweak it or even look at it yet.
Mine is supposedly on the way, still no tracking information… in the wind somewhere. If someone hasn’t cracked theirs open by the time I get mine I’ll have a look and show what’s inside…
So far I’ve tried heating the driver and head and scraped at the glue. It does not get soft. I think it will have to be tapped out from the led wire holes. You would have to feel around blindly to try and not crush a component. Seems tricky.
Mine hit ISC New York this morn. And it’s ahead of the C01 ordered couple days prior 
…So, won’t be long… :partying_face:
There are other ways than through the wire holes.
Well what are they?
I was thinking about soldering a loop of wire or similar to the battery tube pad so it can be pried outward, but it might rip the pad off the pcb.
I wish I had something capable of disolving or softening the glue. Maybe I’ll try a tiny bit of acetone.
A lathe comes in handy for a lot of jobs. Even still, sometimes I do off the wall hand work the hard way as it can be simpler than going out to the shop and uncovering, setting up, cleaning up, recovering… and sometimes, like right now at this moment, I really need to go out there but just can’t. And it sucks. But I have a kid and nobody at the moment to watch him…
I don’t see how a lathe would figure in. I mean, if you want to destroy the driver, sure, but I’m trying to save it.
I don’t have the light, I don’t know what can and can’t be done, but I’ll open it when it gets here, that much is for sure.
There is a good chance this stuff will disolve the driver glue. Just be very careful where you put it; I had it eat away a plastic side switch bushing accidentally.
I got it out. I’ll post pics soon. Lots of 0402 in this driver.
Driver pics are here.
The head of the flashlight looks exactly the same, minus the threads for a retaining ring.
I decided to try pushing out the driver through the anti rotation screw holes. I used a tiny Allen key and a hammer to lightly tap it out.
By the way… one of my SP33 I ordered together with the Sofirn 26650 5500mAh Battery… here are the test results according to my MC3000:
(Dis-) Charge Current: 1A
Termination Voltage: 4.20V
Termination Current: 0.1A
Cut-Off Voltage: 2.8V
Cut-Off Current (D.Reduce): OFF
Capacity: 5215mAh
Imho a very good result.