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Amazing light, looks like it should cost few hundred dollars. I have 8 amp buck and it gets very hot very fast. I would like to get clip for it but does not seem to be available.
I’m not trying to be THAT guy, but it’s clickbait titles like this that make larger companies raise prices on things that are good value to the consumer…
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Its a $20 flashlight not a $100K AMG Mercedes.
Give Simon the credit he deserves for not only building a quality light but also contributing to the community.
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It’s great for us that Simon isn’t a large company. Sysmax would’ve taken one look at this type of title and been like, “hmm…large influx of influenced customers sharing the same mentality that it’s TOO good for its price point, we aren’t charging enough.”
Nice video review @darrenyeo.
The S7 is not a new model, it first came out around 10 years ago. I had asked Simon about it when I stumbled upon it last year. And others here on BLF also asked to bring it back.
It is a great looking flashlight and I’m so happy to finally have one in my collection!
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Thanks for the background info mate, I had no idea 
I like the design a lot, and unbranded like the S6.
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I like the Convoy S7. It’s pretty, and I modded mine in 2014 to give it a Nichia 219B 4500K and a 4x7135 driver with custom firmware. It can’t handle much power due to the steel retaining heat, and due to the relatively weak LED I put in it, but it’s plenty bright for my purposes and has a great-looking beam.
I don’t think it’s too premium for the price. It’s a nice but simple host with some really cheap but versatile parts inside. The polished stainless steel host is unusual for a torch, but that isn’t an expensive material… it’s commonly used for a wide variety of cheap household items. The main reason it’s not used more for torches is because steel is heavy and doesn’t shed heat very well.
Looking at Convoy’s site now, it looks like it ships with a driver based on Biscotti. The lineage for that is…
- Long ago, BLF member JonnyC made the “STAR” firmware, which is how a bunch of us here learned how to start making avr code.
- Using some bits of STAR as a reference, I made my “s7” firmware back in 2014 or so, for my own use, with all the features I wanted and could fit into the tiny ROM. It does a bunch of stuff, but it’s all hard-coded since I’m the only user.
- Then I made the blf-a6 firmware based on that, for more general public use… so it had far fewer features and instead was configurable. It was the first big BLF project where we got a manufacturer to produce a circuit and firmware designed by the community.
- Then for the next BLF project, I made the Bistro firmware as an upgraded version of blf-a6, adding more config options and some other extras… but it still didn’t have as many features as the original “s7” firmware.
- Convoy asked me to make a trimmed down version of Bistro to run on less-capable drivers, so I made Biscotti. The full Bistro menu couldn’t fit, so Biscotti is more bite-sized. It’s missing a lot, but it’s still okay-ish.
- Simon later had his engineer clone Biscotti to run on a different type of MCU, and that’s what he’s using now.
I still have the original S7 from 2014 which started all this, and it still works great. But I haven’t actually seen it in a while, because it’s currently inside of the lightsaber I use for practicing. I put it there because I wanted something heavy which emits light, to light up the blade while keeping the center of mass relatively far back. The steel S7 ended up being perfect for the job, since it’s heavy enough to balance the saber hilt for easy spins. The custom lighting patterns also make it look cool while it’s in motion.
It’s kind of a shame to put such a pretty light where it can’t be seen, but nothing else was heavy enough. At least this keeps it in regular use, unlike most of my other clicky-switch lights… and it turns a flaw (the weight) into a feature.
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I kinda got on a tangent there… but making good cheap stuff is why Convoy got so popular. Simon has a knack for getting inexpensive parts together into a nice package, ensuring the quality is good, and selling it for very reasonable prices.
There have been a ton of low-end brands which came and went, mostly doing lower-quality clones of other lights. Sometimes they even cloned Convoy’s lights and tried to pass them off as originals. But those clones haven’t really stuck around, because the difference in quality is usually obvious, and not many people would bother getting a low-quality clone when they could pay a couple bucks extra to get something nice from Convoy. He has provided pretty consistently good quality, for over a decade, and it’s just not worthwhile to go for something slightly cheaper and have to gamble about whether it’ll be any good.
Anyway, out of all my Convoy lights, the old S7 is still my favorite. It never got as popular as the S2+, probably because it’s a lot less practical, but I’m very fond of the unusual steel host.
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The comment “too premium” applies to SS version. It really does look high end.
I have the Convoy screw-on clip on mine.
Does not look so good. Its too fat. My opinion.
100% better.
I have a pile of those Convoy clips. I found them to be thin and sharp and kind of weak. Maybe they’re better now, but at the time, it was Simon’s first batch I think, and they weren’t so great.
So on mine, I used a SolarForce L2 clip.
I eventually gave it a black button instead of neon green. The new metal button seems nice, assuming it doesn’t stick out.
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Nice
The stainless steel S7 is one of my first flashlights that I decided not to put a clip on. I have several with the screw on clip, but I don’t think they are that secure. They seem to eventually move to the left or right regardless of how much I tighten the screws. I much prefer a clamp on clip, but it doesn’t fit some of the Convoy flashlights, like the S7, S6, S3, etc.
I did include a screw on clip when I bought the S7 so I may eventually put it on. At minimum the clip would help it from rolling around.
I’ve been there. Try to squeeze the part of the screw on clip where the the screw holes are with pliers, to bend it a little more. It will fit the curvature of flashlight better and stop it from moving around. Works great with Simon’s stonewashed clips, the SS and black ones are too hardened and will easily break when doing that. Doing this i’ve managed to adjust the curvature of the clip to nicely fit a T3, as well as S7, and they are not moving around.
I’ll try bending the clip the next time to see if that helps.
I think the issue is mostly from putting a smooth surface next to a smooth surface and expecting it to not move. Some anodizing is less smooth than others, like flat black, and there it seems to move less.
I’ve thought about putting something between the clip and flashlight to keep it in place (like sandpaper), but never pursued it any further. And about roughing up the surface behind the clip to create more friction, but same thing, never tried it.
My guess is that’s why the stonewashed clip would be more secure is that the back of the clip is essentially roughed up to provide more friction when it’s tightened.
And just a thought is that one could try using some blue Loctite behind the clip. I would expect that would make it very secure.