@ led4power: That is normal for an lens system. Sort of equates to the effect of having a donut hole in the beam @ 3 meters and none @ 10 meters with a reflector light. It is about where the perfect focus is.
File dispute in PayPal, get the refund, and use the refunded money to buy the real 1405.
Keep your free 1406 or make it a giveaway in BLF lol.
I am in no hurry, keeping Bonnie busy, she does all kinds of unacceptable offers at the moment trying to sell me the 1406 at almost retail price, and I keep telling her that she is being unreasonable and that I want the flashlight delivered that I ordered, not a different one. If the ticket ever gets resolved, I will post the whole hilarious conversation. I will tell you now that it is not to the credit of Fasttech! (well, at least they have some unreasonable employee talking to you, that may be better than no answer at all, like what happens with several other chinese vendors 
)
If anyone in Australia is interested in one of these lights with plans to mod it. Let me know.
I have pulled it apart and the LED is gone but I still have the original untouched driver and I have replaced the O’ring which seems to be breaking whenever anyone undoes the bezel. I was going to modify it with an MT-G2 as I said previously and have been waiting for the driver to arrive but I think I would prefer to go for the Jax Z1 now.
I have modified the switch as per post #159 above. It is a far superior set up now as the original one had shocking contacts. This has been verified as working as I did the mod prior to stripping the rest of the light down and tested the switch.
Does anyone has the Convoy L5? Looks like it takes 2*18650 so it should have buck driver inside isn’t it? And I guess it is 17mm as well?
I think this is the driver in the L5
Edit: Here is an HKJ review. Looks like a 20mm contact board mated to a 18.5mm driver. Probably too big?
Edit again: Does anyone have a source for” this driver”:http://www.fasttech.com/products/1612/10001753/1127409-3v-8-4v-5-mode-0-7a-led-flashlight-driver-circuit? Check out the reviews and the Fast Tech results on the linked page. Looks like their getting 3A with 2 lithiums, even though it’s supposedly a .7A driver. I can’t find a source for it though. I’d love to get a solid 3A in a 17mm package that can take 2 lithiums.
The contact board doesn’t look like LD-29 though… or is it just the contact board?
I didn’t notice there is such 17mm buck driver in Fasttech, good find. 
It looks like other everyone is getting 3A or above with this driver, which is actually good for our case. For under $3 it worth a shot.
But sadly, FastTech lists it as discontinued...
Lol, why always the good stuffs that we need discontinued too soon?
Managed to negotiate a good price for this light, see here: https://budgetlightforum.com/t/-/27290#comment-654552
any one got it from Gearbest ?
i just want someone to confirm this is a yes to buy light
I said I would report back on the JGF-DT63 63mm Optical Glass Plano-convex lens once it arrived.
FT product link in picture.
I don't have a UF-1405, but this lens seems to be a no go for it. Focal length is a whooping 15cm.
It measured 155kcd with an domed XM-L2 T6 3C running around 6.5 amps. Maybe a dedomed XP-L would get into the 300's. All measurements were done by hand just holding the lens in front of an emitter. They are not precise, but I think they tell us enough.
EDIT: Fixed typos and clarified.
EDIT2: Sorry guys. Picture wouldn't load so I got one from an Amazon ad.
Just got mine in from Gearbest, and everything looks fine and it works.
I do not know why one would like to swap the lens, it is a great lens!
I think I am going to shorten this one as wel to 1x26650, and see what happens on a 6A rated switch, a dedomed XM-L2, a BLFDD driver and a Keeppower 4200 mAh IMR. This build is not for tomorrow though, too many other things that I want to do.
this seems one of the bigger convex lens flashlight…. i generally see this lens approach on flashlight under 15/10 dollars
can someone estimate the REAL lumens ?
Glad to hear that you receive the right item finally djozz. So how was your battle go with FT?
I just ordered one from Alibaba at $38.60 shipped with FedEx. I know the Gearbest is offering at much cheaper price but I’ve heard too many negative things about Gearbest and that put me off from ordering it from them. I paid more for the peace of mind, and probably receive it much faster with FedEx.
My plan is to put in the 2.4A LD-40 buck driver from IOS and driving an dedomed XP-E2 on Noctigon. Really low lumens output with this combination yes, but the throw ability is what I care after all since there are some distance targets for me to shine at after moving in to my new place lol.
2.4A + dedomed XP-E2 on Noctigon + 67mm aspherical lens - What kind of candela can I expect from this combination? 300kcd?
Wow, that will be as close to a laser that a flashlight can get :bigsmile: Let me do the calculation: in my UF-T20 that dedomed xp-e2 at 2.4A did 125kcd, the surface area of the 1405 divided by the surface area of the T20 is 3.75, 125kcd x 3.75 = 470. But usually when you get bigger you loose some, so perhaps 420kcd?
I love white laser, they are intimidating to people. :bigsmile:
And if there is a good 17mm buck driver available later I can always swap them again. By the way what is the maximum current can one XP-E2 take?
I really hope I can hit the 400kcd realm, but 300kcd would make me happy already. Can you set your 1405 mod in the top priority among your other modding projects djozz? Can’t wait to see what kind of result you can get with it! 
XP-E2 results are in my Luxeon Z thread (https://budgetlightforum.com/t/-/23773) max is around 2.5A, but personally I would not bother going over 2A, with 95% of max output.
I will mod this light with a XM-L2, it will have less throw than a XP-E2. I am not sure I have much time soon.
Ok, I started the mod..
I am going to build a new integrating sphere, but I am a bit hesitant because of the amount of work, so it was easy to postpone that for this :bigsmile:
I went for the 1x26650 chop. Complicating was that I unexpectedly found that the wall thickness of the battery tube was way thinner than the UF-1406 (mod of the UF-1406 is in this thread), so the fixing trick with the nails was not possible. So I went in search of a sock instead, and looking through my junk I came across an old steel high pressure mercury lamp cover that was waiting in a drawer for this mod since 1998. It was a tiny bit too tight, so perfect for this purpose :-) . I cut a ring off and sanded the inside smooth (there was a tiny weld ridge sticking out). I chopped the battery tube of the flashlight and sanded the anodising off the two remaining tube pieces where the sock would go.
Top: tail piece of battery tube, steel sock, top piece of battery tube. Bottom: remains of the lamp cover, middle section of the UF-1405 battery tube, middle section of the UF-1406 battery tube.
The sock was so tight that it could only be hammered in (with a piece of wood between hammer and workpiece). I used Arctic Alumina Adhesive to glue it as well, also good for waterproofing. It worked very well, extremely nice and tight, this will never come apart! I covered the intact ano with masking tape, sanded the surface, gave the surface a few layers of matt black heater paint and heated the tube mildly with a blow torch to harden the paint (and not destroy the adhesive or anodisation).
I also modded the tail of the flashlight with a new 6A rated switch, the same way as my UF-1406 mod.
So here's another shorty, first zoomed in:
You think that looks funny? How about zoomed out? :party:
The light still works the same as the stock light, so the next phase is the driver/emitter work one of the coming days. Hang on!
You did it again djozz!!
The light when zomming out looks cute! It’s cute, but manage to throw a serious distance!!