Happy to report it’s a glass lens. I only wish the UI were better. Anyone know of a driver available that would fit for a quick and dirty swap?
LD series driver maybe fit,just need to find who sell them 
Hard to say what a better driver would be if you don't say what kind of UI you're looking for. In any case, RacerR86 just did a write up on how to swap a driver into the Solarstorm/Fandyfire K2. Since both these lights use an electronic switch, the swap should be similar.
Can you make a photo of the driver compartment? Maybe a NANJG105C would fit into there...
i’ll do what i can.
been busy with my job right now :~
I got mine today. All in all it’s a very nice light. It could be driven harder, but it’s got excellent throw and a nice beam. The only problem is the nasty interface: you have to cycle through med and low before you can switch it off.
I also managed to squeeze 4AA batteries in. When driven at this 4.8V it takes a good 4 amps, and it becomes a rocket. Not sure how badly this is stressing the driver though.
I would like to see more reports on how well this runs on either 3AA batteries or 4AA batteries and how well they fit, whats their Amp draw as well as how long NiMh batteries can power this thing before they start to sagg?
As usual, comparison beamshots with other popular 3/4AA lights would be great :D!
I did some tailcap reading. From a 26650 on high it takes 2A. From a 3xAA in a good quality battery carrier it does pretty much the same.
4aa don’t fit straight away, but there’s a thin plastic tube glued in the inside of the body. After you take that off (I just used sandpaper and a lot of patience), 4xAA become a very tight fit but they fit. At first I used the cheap FT 4S1P carrier (I had to file it a bit too), and I got a disappointing 1.8A because of the high internal resistance. So I rewired the carrier and popped it back in and I read a whopping 4A. replacing the cheap positive spring in the head of the flashlight could take this number even higher but I’m fine with that.
One more cons that has not been mentioned in this thread yet is the high parasitic drain when the flashlight is switched off. I measured 1.2ma, which means that a 26650 could be depleted in around 4 months. Also consider that there’s no way to lock it but removing the battery, because the threads are not anodized.
I still like it though :-).
Thanks superpila.
I got mine today but don’t have time right now.
The spring at tail cap is very thin. I changed to a short thick one.
Thats good to hear, now can you commnent on voltage sag and perhaps comparison in output between lithium and 3xAA/4xAA batteries?
I measured maximum brightness with the various setups, these are estimated lumens that I computed using a ceiling bounce test and a fenix tk75 on medium (known to be ~1100 lumens) as a reference. I took lumens reading at startup and after 1 minute. Throw is measured at startup only.
Both the 26650 and the AA were fresh off of the charger
| Battery conf | switch on | 60 seconds | Lux @1m |
| 26650 | 620 | 620 | 17000 |
| 3xAA | 620 | 610 | 17000 |
| 4xAA | 1100 | 880 | 27500 |
So 4xaa gives the best output, but it drops quite soon to less impressive numbers. I have used eneloops for my tests, so I wouldn’t blame the batteries. It’s probably the driver here that is not designed to handle this voltage. Not sure if the hand-wired battery carrier here plays a role either, it’s definitely not the best holder mankind ever built. Anyway, at almost 4amps out of the 4xAA batteries I don’t expect a great runtime either, whereas the intended 1x26650 or 1x32650 gives you a steady 620lumens output and on a good battery and it should keep it for well over 2 hours, making this setup the best one for this flashlight imho.
Thank you very much for your detailed information, much appreciated ;)!
I might buy this light if I come accross price thats as close to 20$ as possible, WB had them week ago for 22$.
A week ago I didnt want to buy this light because I didnt have big batteries like 26650 or 32650…
… Now I have TF 32650 on it’s way but the A9-2 is not on sale anymore 
bummer, so vēer, if you find one that is “as close to 20$ as possible” pls, let me know 
P.S. are there any photos of this light disassembly, where I can see driver and what’s under the emitter and the rest of the guts?…
This flashlight is quite easy to open. I actually spent some time on it as I wanted to put a NW XP-G2 on noctigon, as that would make a beast of a thrower. Unfortunately, as you can see in the pictures, there’s no thermal path whatsoever from the pill to the body. The star is sitting on a plastic (!) ring that is glued to the driver. This assembly just loosely drops in the massive body, and it’s screwed down by a metallic ring that only touches the plastic part of it. Also, the star is glued down. I decided it’s no worth wasting a noctigon in it and I just put it back together. Too bad: this massive body screams for modding and this nice reflector and the 2.5A driver a clear call for an xp-g2. But unless you are up for a serious redesign of the flashlight’s guts, this to me should stays as is.
Thanks superpila, that looks bad. I don't see a straightforward way of fixing that, do you?
Oh man, that looks disappointing, I guess that someone who has a lathe can make new
pill easily but for the rest of us without proper tools it’s better to avoid this one.
Thanks for the warning superpila.
I don't see the point in redesigning the pill. As bad as it is, here's what I'd do if I could.
Cut off the reflector section and put threads into the bottom.
Remake the part with the pill so that the pill is integrated, that is, it'd have a direct thermal path. Several manufacturers are already doing this, including Trustfire. That's how this light should have been made.
It’s much easier to make new pill than cutting the body, threading etc. You turn OD for tight fit inside the tube body, make a place for emitter, just enough place for driver (preferably mobydrv) and drill couple of holes, press fit whole thing and it’s done. Ofcourse we are talking about aluminum or copper, 10 minutes job on a lathe for much better results than stock plastic solution…
superpila When I saw your pic I open my A9-2 now.
Yes It’s bad thermal pill, I feel disappoint too.
Thanks for info, guys! I guess some sort of ring around star made out of conductive material would suffice, no? Just modify that plastic ring by cutting away some of it.