Tear Down of the 2AA Defiant light - Question about driver

LED Flashlights – General Info Multiple AA / 14500 Flashlights
1

I stopped at Home Depot today and they had some Defiant flashlights in the main aisle. I bought a few of the two packs of the 3AA lights that I love to mod and I bought one of the two packs of the 2AA light.

1a

You get two lights and batteries for under $10 USD. I'm sorry $11.98 was what they rang up as. That's not bad. $6 per light is budget as it gets.

1b

The light is rated at 120 lumens and I would say it does all of that on the alkalines, on high.

OAL - Overall length is about 160mm

1c

I know it's a Cree, but which one? I don't know and don't care. The plastic reflector is OP.

1d

Tail cap.

1e

Nice heavy clip on the body

1f

Tail cap inside

1g

Bezel, plastic lens and plastic reflector. The lens measures 23.5 mm. The reflector is 23.5mm x 17.8mm. The ID of the lip on the bezel (that holds the lens in), is 20.5mm. I could see a TIR optic in here maybe.

1h

There is a screw in pill

1i

The lad has a centering ring for the reflector. Nice touch for a $5 light.

1l

1k

Underneath the pill is a plastic ring that holds a metal cup which the driver spring fits into. That is the contact point for the positive battery terminal. It comes right out.

1o

The driver is 17mm. The pill is hollow. The led is on a 16mm star. It's similar to a P-60 drop-in

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1q

The modes are High/ Medium/ Strobe. This is HIGH

1w

High again

1t

Medium

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The beam is tight for such a small reflector and there's not a lot of spill. I would prefer more flood, but I think an XM-L would make it floody. The Nichia would be about the same as this as far as the size of the hot spot.

It would be easy enough to change the led out for an XP-G2 or a Nichia 219 and keep the stock driver. Since the driver is 17mm, you could also put in an XM-L or L2 and use a three amp 7135 driver with a single 14500 and a dummy cell.

For $5 each, these would be great to give away to non-flashaholics, since they run on alkalines. Overall fit and finish is better than what I feel is a $5 light. I plan to mod two of them.

2

What a good looking well built light in the context off how much it cost. I’m surprised especially with the quality of the pill with what you get for 5 bucks. It sounds like but wait theres more, it even comes with batteries. But this time you actually may be getting a bargain. This should make for quite a little hot rod with a little modding. Plastic lenses. With the few I’ve had I’m actually becoming a bit off a fan off them. Generally the beam pattern is ok which could be dumb luck and there is absolutely no chance off a short. I’m looking forward as usual to how these little lights turn out after you have waved your magic file over them.

3

That looks really impressive for the money. Shame I don’t think anything remotely similar exist with easy availability in the UK.

4

What is the SKU? I can’t make out the last digit in the photo…

5

what is “OAL”?

6

On Average Length (?) And thanks for the write up OL.

7

My guess was Over All Length

8

I saw these for $11.88 at my Home Depot. Old-Lumens - do these have next mode memory? Does it always start on high? The "low" mode (you call "medium") doesn't look much lower than high from your photos - is this true?

-Garry

9

I bought a couple the other day as well. Mine pull 1.5 amps on high and 0.4 amps on ‘low’.

Lucky us Canucks - we get to pay almost double the U.S. price at Home Depot.

Darned if I know how OL got his apart, I twisted until I was sure something would break and finally gave up, thinking they were glued solid.

10

@ MRsDNF - I think a Mini-Maglite glass lens "might" fit. I haven't measured yet.

@ texaspyro - 737019

OAL = Overall length

@ garrybunk - I corrected the OP. I had the wrong price there.

@ Tumbleweed48 - Mine have no kind of glue on them. They come apart at the tail cap and at the bezel, but the rest is one piece, which I was not surprised at, considering the price point.

11

I’ll give it another shot, maybe there’s a way to kill the blinky. :wink:

I figure they’ll make good ‘loaners’. Dead simple UI, and if they get wrecked or lost it’s no big deal - everybody needs a few like that!

12

Per CarpentryHero, it has next mode memory:

13

Ah thanks! Forgot that post.

-Garry

14

Mine always starts on high and the low/medium mode is almost as bright as the high mode.

15

Hmmm . . . quality control issues? Chinese lottery?

-Garry

16

Chinese quality control. Similar to shooting craps.

17

I don't like these ..

It makes a fenix e21 look like a snobs light .Too many of these and the nonaholic will never understand spending 30$ for a light

18

2 lifepo4s and mtg2 direct drive J)

19

I just picked up a pack of these for my son to play with and they start on high after 3-4 seconds off from any mode.-Rick

20

Emitter is either XB-D or XT-E. XT-E being the more efficient of the two.
My HD 3aaa’s came with XB-D’s in them, very imperssive little emitters for being SO CHEAP.

HD also has some home lights that have “X” leds in them for like 12 bucks with tons of them in there! Thought about buying one to use for a little the rip it apart and make a new contraption. :bigsmile:

EDIT: looked at the 60w and there are 20leds in it!