The most compact 18650 flashlight ? (Brass beauty from CNQG)

LED Flashlights – General Info 18650 Flashlights
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I have an older neutral white XPG S-mini. The light has a great feel and clean cylindrical look.

However, it does have one big problem for pocket EDC… the knurling is actually too aggressive. It was tearing up the inside of my pocket when I tried EDC’ing it.

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FWIW, this shows some common lights together for size reference. From left to right they are: XinTD C8 (1x18650), SolarForce L2M (1x18650), Convoy S7 (1x18650), CNQG Brass Beauty (1x18650), Thrunite T10T (1xAA), Zebralight SC52 (1xAA), L3 Illuminations L10 (1xAA).

The CNQG brass beauty is significantly smaller than almost everything else mentioned in this thread. The ZL SC62w is the only other decent-quality small 1x18650 light I’m aware of. Most of the “small” 18650 lights are at least as big as the Convoy S7.

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One disadvantage of the brass beauty is it’s made of brass.

It weights 75g compared to 40g for the SC62w. And it doesn’t conduct heat as well as the aluminum in the other lights.

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Here’s the smallest ones I own, with the headlamp for comparison:

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http://www.solarforceflashlight-sales.com/product_detail.php?id=569&s=26&t=LF

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Some size comparisons, 14500, RCR and 18650 lights.

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This looks to be a fine edc pocketable light. Thanks, Warmurf! I especially like the attachment of the clip.

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First of all, thanks everyone for the responses !

Unfortunately I don’t have access to lathe/mill, only small tools like soldering iron, Dremel, pliers… somehow basic ones.
That QTC seems interesting but a little bit expensive in your link, will try to find some cheaper :slight_smile:

I’ve also looked a bit more about the S-mini from Shiningbeam but it looks like it’s hard to find…Only one I found is on ebay and cannot ship to France…

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Yeah I saw this thread a few days ago, unfortunately I can’t do such mods…Still, the craftmanship is great on this one !

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http://www.shiningbeam.com/servlet/the-208/ShiningBeam-S-dsh-mini-XM-dsh-L-T6/Detail
or
http://www.shiningbeam.com/servlet/the-152/ShiningBeam-S-dsh-mini-XP-dsh-G-R5/Detail

Although I haven’t ordered lately, Bryan of Shiningbeam has been great in the past. He shipped to the UK quickly and at a reasonable price. If the webpage doesn’t want to ship to France, drop him a line and see if there’s anything he can do.

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Thank you for the info, I’m more interested in the S-mini that “brass beauty” now because of aluminium (weight + thermal management) but it raises the price to 40USD with shipping… :frowning:

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Thanks, here’s a similar lineup with the brass light included:

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I hadn’t heard of the S-mini before, so I looked it up along with some others. Sorted by length:

  • Nitecore HC50: 86.2mm x 33mm (max) x 29mm (min)
  • DQG Tiny 18650 II: 87mm x 25mm (head) x 22mm (body)
  • ZL SC62: 96.5mm x 24.4mm (head) x ??mm (body)
  • Brass beauty: 97mm x 21mm
  • Roche F6: 112mm x 27.5mm
  • S-mini: 114mm x 22mm
  • Convoy S4: 115mm x 23mm
  • Convoy S3: 115mm x 24mm
  • Roche F12: 115mm x 24mm
  • Convoy S7: 116mm x 23.6mm
  • Ultrafire HD2011: 117mm x 24mm
  • Solarforce T1: 123.5mm x 24mm (head) x 22mm (body)
  • Convoy S2: 124mm x 24mm
  • Solarforce L2m: 136mm x 32mm (head) x 25.4mm (body)

These are all “small” 18650 lights, but the definition of small seems to vary quite a bit.

If I sort them by approximate volume (length * head diameter * tail diameter), the brass beauty comes out as the smallest (at 42.7 cm^3) and the HC50 is the second-biggest (at 82.5 cm^3). The L2m is, of course, the biggest (110.5 cm^3).

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Nice work TK

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I have a nice compact zoom that’s not too much bigger than the Cree 7W 300 single AA. Heats up fast, but very pocketable, and doesn’t seem to heat up on low which I think is maybe 0.7 A?

It is smaller than the 18650 light that looks like a Cree 7W 300.

But I can’t seem to post a photo and couldn’t find one on eBay earlier :frowning:

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FWIW, that light is called the SK-68, originally made by Sipik but cloned many many times. The SK-98 is the 18650 version.

The SK-68 is 92 to 100mm long and 25mm in diameter. So, it’s actually bigger than some of the 18650 lights being discussed here.

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Those are tiny, mine is 110x25, with the zoom in. I think it was $12-13 with a battery and charger

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Hi all, just wanted to let you know I finally bought a brass CNQ flashlight with XP-G2 neutral emitter from Banggood.
Paid 18,44€ including shipping.
I’m really happy with it, it’s really compact and the weight give a good quality impression !
I soldered the third star to keep only H/M/L modes, without memory.
Did someone succeed to tear apart the switch assembly ?

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The switch on the model I got was really easy to take apart by unscrewing it. Also, the driver was held in by a retaining ring only, so it was easy to pull out and reflash with better firmware.

Mine has a few pieces: head (~10mm), body, (~80mm), tail (~5mm), and the pill comes entirely out for modding.