Want to buy crappiest C8 light on Aliexpress

Henk4U2 · 2022-12-11T12:18:31.000Z

Henk4U2:

Just ordered myself a Litwod (what’s in a name) C8 with T6 emitter.
Probably won’t arrive this year, I hope it will be worth the wait.
Let’s see what I can achieve with the goodies in my spare parts box.

Update

Ordered November 22nd, expected arrival January 2nd. €5.04 incl. S&H and VAT.
Arrived yesterday (December 10th) at my neighbours door, after a mere 18 days.

First impresions: low quality ano (few chips off despite being properly packaged).
Has generic UI: high, med, low, strobe, and SOS. Next mode memory AFAIK.
The driver looks press-fit. Can’t see any threads in that side of the head.
There is no pill or shelf on the business end of the head.
The emitter seems to be press-fit in a ledge in the “floor” of the head.
Looks a bit like the driver side of a regular C8, but without a retaining ring.

Tailcap with press-fit switch, not swappable with a regular Convoy C8 tailcap.
However, the industrial strenght tailcap of my Fandyfire fits quite well.
A hard lockout is not possible because the tube has clean threads on both sides.

The bezel is swappable with all previous Convoy C8 models. Glass lens, not coated.
Plastic reflector, a bit shorter than the usual Convoy C8 reflector.
I you wanna use a regular Convoy reflector, you need a thinner centering ring.

FunkyRider86 · 2022-12-11T20:33:35.000Z

Looks like they managed to cut every corner possible. It’s a lost cause. If you want to make it half way decent you have to spend way more time and money than buying a quality one from the start. Lessen learned. I wanted to do the same, buying a crap light and try to ‘do it up’ just to have some fun. Not so at this time. An old Convoy C8, maybe even a beat up sceond hand would be a better bet.

QReciprocity42 · 2022-12-12T02:30:52.000Z

Wow, it's every bit as janky as you wished for, and then some!

I'd stick a dedomed 3500K 519A in it, put in a super low current driver (maybe 50mA because that's all it can thermally handle), and pretend it's a high-achieving incandescent.

FunkyRider86 · 2022-12-12T03:40:29.000Z

That would be a waste for a good 519A emitter.

Sirius9 · 2022-12-31T20:17:10.000Z

My light arrived December 23 (about 30 day over the world tour) and I can confirm what Henk4U2 described is exactly what I got.
I am impressed

- low quality build materials (cheapest aluminium you can find)
- see through screw on pill
- press-fit driver and led
- fake “Cree” led
- plastic reflector
bonus
- press-fit switch (wasn’t expecting that)

This is exactly what I wanted

zoulas · 2023-01-04T23:33:10.000Z

$4, wow, I would say it’s worth at least $5.

Congratulations

Sirius9 · 2023-01-04T23:49:42.000Z

It blows my mind sometimes.

- all that CNC work to make the host

- anodisation

- molds for all the plastic parts (reflector is plastic but the business end is fairly good looking, nice and shiny with minimal visual imperfections)

- all included manual labor

and shipping all the way from China to me, about 9000 kilometers

all that for $4.10
on top the quality is actually not the worst it could be, threads are not grinding, everything sits well…

Jerommel · 2023-01-05T11:41:41.000Z

Sirius9:

It blows my mind sometimes.

- all that CNC work to make the host

- anodisation

- molds for all the plastic parts (reflector is plastic but the business end is fairly good looking, nice and shiny with minimal visual imperfections)

- all included manual labor

and shipping all the way from China to me, about 9000 kilometers

all that for $4.10
on top the quality is actually not the worst it could be, threads are not grinding, everything sits well…

It may be old stock.
That fake XM-L, the ‘driver’ and that metal cover over the tail spring llook like 2015 or so to me.

gravelmonkey · 2023-01-05T11:48:59.000Z

Sirius9:

It blows my mind sometimes.

- all that CNC work to make the host

- anodisation

- molds for all the plastic parts (reflector is plastic but the business end is fairly good looking, nice and shiny with minimal visual imperfections)

- all included manual labor

and shipping all the way from China to me, about 9000 kilometers

all that for $4.10
on top the quality is actually not the worst it could be, threads are not grinding, everything sits well…

At risk of drifting into politics, to my mind, the phrase that comes to mind is: “if something seems to good to be true, then it probably is”.

There is a catch, probably the downside of offshoring Western Europe’s manufacturing capabilities.

That aside, I’m pleased you’ve recieved a reasonably good host and not just landfill, and I’m looking forward seeing the mods.

zoulas · 2023-01-05T12:06:16.000Z

It was $4, how can he have possibly gotten ripped off. The way I look at it, if you press the button and it turns on, he got a good deal.

Jerommel · 2023-01-05T12:12:12.000Z

Yeah, it has enough potential to turn it into a decent light.
If you have a 20mm copper dtp LED board that fits snugly in the pill either with or without a bead of JB Weld, it should be safe to run up to 10 Watts i.m.o.
Or just run 6 Watts or so with a Nichia 219B or C you may already have in stock.
Stick in a nanjg 105 with 5 or 6 × 7135 driver you probably still have in the spare parts box and the pill is good to go.
The tailswitch may have to be replaced.
Those ultra cheap tail switches can be really bad.
But a press fit switch assembly usually is good enough if it fits snugly enough.
But the plastic reflector is probably good enough for the job and it seems to already have a glass lens.

Muto · 2023-01-05T12:51:35.000Z

Jerommel:

Yeah, it has enough potential to turn it into a decent light.
If you have a 20mm copper dtp LED board that fits snugly in the pill either with or without a bead of JB Weld, it should be safe to run up to 10 Watts i.m.o.
Or just run 6 Watts or so with a Nichia 219B or C you may already have in stock.
Stick in a nanjg 105 with 5 or 6 × 7135 driver you probably still have in the spare parts box and the pill is good to go.
The tailswitch may have to be replaced.
Those ultra cheap tail switches can be really bad.
But a press fit switch assembly usually is good enough if it fits snugly enough.
But the plastic reflector is probably good enough for the job and it seems to already have a glass lens.

Copper board isn’t going to help much with a hollow pill.
With low enough power it won’t matter much either way.

QReciprocity42 · 2023-01-05T21:06:11.000Z

Put in a warm, high CRI emitter and a low power driver (100mA or less). You now have a high-performing incandescent!

Jerommel · 2023-01-05T22:55:18.000Z

Muto:

Copper board isn’t going to help much with a hollow pill.
With low enough power it won’t matter much either way.

It will definitely help, compared to an aluminium board.
I doubt a 1mm thick aluminium shelf in the pill (like in not hollow pills) will make a whole lot of difference.
[EDIT]Maybe i’m wrong.
Looking at the pics, the ledge the LED board rests on is really narrow… [/EDIT]
It is important though, that there is a decent thermal path from the copper board to the pill.
But the surface area of the board in contact with the hollow pill is easily larger than the thermal pad of a 3535 LED to the DTP board.
A bit of JB Weld will help improve things a bit more, or some thermal glue if you have any.
Ideally one press fits a round 20mm dtp board (like Noctigon of Kaidomain boards) into the pill, but perhap the cavity in the pill is too large to press fit it. I don’t know that.
But there are always ways to make it better, but it may take too much time and effort or stuff you don’t have (like aluminium solder and flux).

Sirius9 · 2023-01-06T00:07:54.000Z

Sorry to disappoint you guys but this light is not going to be modded.

Because I do flashlight repair service (it’s a way to financially support my hobby) I am constantly getting (more than I would like) requests to turn these $5 C8 lights (adds are full of them, for $10-15 you get like all-inclusive set, flashlight, battere(s), mains charger + car charger, color filters, remote switch, rifle mount, nice padded box, you can imagine what’s the quality of all this) into Convoy C8/Osram “white flat”/@5A/500+m thrower.
Because, you know, those two flashlights look 99% identical when you look at the photos, you just stick another LED inside (trust me, people really do believe that changing only the LED will make all that difference from $5 to $30+ flashlight) and it will magically become 10 times better.

Then I start explaining about thermal conductivity of hollow pill and conducting heat through the threads and that LEDs also heat up significantly when you push some amps to them, but how could that be when LEDs are advertised as a “coold” source of light, we get to the list of all components that would have to be “upgraded” by changing them with better ones and you already know how much effort it takes to turn nothing into something and it will still not be satisfactory (by my standards) and why it would end up costing more then if they bought a quality light from the start.

If you put yourself in the customer’s shoes, I am explaining something they don’t understand using terms they are not familiar with and it all sounds like I am trying to sale them “identically” looking light for 8 times higher price.

Don’t forget, we are still to have the included “8800mAh” 18650 battery talk.

So the main purpose of this light is to be visual educational tool.

But it’s totally moddable. Plastic reflector is usable, glass lense I would replace just because I have nicer ones from Simon, driver - well this depends what would you like to do with the light but what I would do is to meka a low power lantern that could give a diffused light for entire night (or more) in case of power outage (or you can pretend its power outage, it works :D) you could basically get away with one 7135 AMC for this (and protected cell).

Some of you may remember these screw-in pills that Convoy used when they started, I just tested one and it fits, screws ok, so there’s a 1 minute solution plus, you are avoiding dealing with press fitting the driver. Coupled with copper dtp board and some thermal paste on the pill threads I believe it would be good for 2.5-3A.
Hardest part to deal with would be that press fited switch. There are no threads inside to screw the retaining ring that would hold “normal” switch. To solve this you would either have to have lathe, rely on the glue or just keep it as is (it’s in there tightly and not going out without the fight).

Jerommel · 2023-01-06T02:01:56.000Z

I’m not sure if i would mod it either.
Just saying that it can be done and you only need to sort out the pill and probably the tailswitch, but that could wait until you’re sure it’s crap.
I understand why you won’t mod it but rather use it for educational purposes for ‘the uninitiate’.
When i was new to the Chrinese 18650 flashlight phenomenon i bought 2 C8’s.
An Ultrafire and later on a Thorfire.
They’re not as bad as this specimen you bought, but still a much lower quality than the Convoy C8 with pill which i bought not that long after the Thorfire.
The 2 ——fire ones i have in a drawer with hosts and other gutted lights.
But both have rather loose tailcap threading, so maybe i’ll make some half decent lights out of them “some day”, maybe not…
One has a hollow pill but with a wide enough ledge to put the LED board on with confidence, the other has a Convoy pill, because i put a brass pill in the Convoy.
…and a battery extention tube and a stacked and zener modded Nanjg 105 driving an MT-G2, should do about 2700 Lumen or so.
With a firmly tightened pill the thermal path to the head is fine, the whole thing gets hot fast !

Sirius9 · 2023-01-06T11:47:23.000Z

Ah yes, the famous UltraFire WF-501B or TrustFire 3T6

I had many of those, I remember forum members here were reporting when they purchased the good ones and where they purchased so we could avoid bad quality ones, because in those days each flashlight factory made “UltraFire” and “TrustFire” lights.
I am sad now that I did not keep one of each for my personal collection, that TrustFire 3T6 was the first 3xLED flashlight I owned, it was like traveling the warp speed going from incandescent bulb to thousends of lumens in CW tint just mind blowing

Jerommel · 2023-01-09T01:08:42.000Z

I have a 501B in use.
I shortened the head to delete the spring and give the drop in a thermal path to the battery tube and to the head near the lens.
Recently popped in a 2700 or 3000K SST-20.
It has a modest 5× 7135 driver, is’s a nice mundain little light.

Henk4U2 · 2023-02-02T15:32:31.000Z

Inspired by the ideas of my predecessors in this thread I thought I give it a go.

So I started with the hollow (e.i. shelfless) pill. And found that this could be fixed by throwing good money to bad …… I flattened the other side before I hammered it in. Talking about press-fit. At the driver side I used a “20mm to 17mm brass ring adpater forS21A, M21A, S11” as Simon elocquently called it. Now I can use a “normal sized” driver and PCB+led.

The switch is also press-fit. So I kept the earlier mentioned FandyFire STL-V6 tailcap. As cherry on the cake I topped the whole off with a Foy bezel. And because I had some extra bezels in my spare box, I also made a Semi Foy bezel.

Sirius9 · 2023-02-02T18:05:04.000Z

Can you screw on the bezel all the way or you have a small gap because it look like the LED mcpcb level is raised by coin thickness?