Hi All,
I bought a handful of solarforce flashlights a long time ago and love everything about them (brightness, durability and price point). Now that they no longer exist, do you all have any recommendations on what is todays version of the solarforce line?
If you’re specifically looking for a P60 host, Kaidomain has their KDLitker line of lights, and also carry drop-ins, though I’ve no experience with them. I do miss Solarforce dearly, and recently sold an old L2M with extension tube not too long ago. Fun light.
Old-timey '501s and '502s, 'though you roll yer own drop-ins if you want reliability.
I know someone selling legit L2Ms and parts, and… yow. I like mine, but I wouldn’t spend as much on a tailcap as I would on a whole functional light.
There is nothing really directly comparable to Solarforce lights anymore.
These:
The E6 models are decent lights. Plenty strong enough, good threads, anodizing nice, especially for cheap lights. Switches good enough for P60 drop-ins. (any that I have, besides you really don’t want to go nuts with current in P60s anyway. I have some of their 219 quads in a couple of them ~1000 lumens max. The host works fine with them). If you buy one of their Drop-ins, you can get the host for something like $7.
I have one in 18650 and 3 in 21700 formats. I have not had any problems with any of them. No way to tell if they would survive like the Solarforce lights that I have used and abused for a long time. But if you just want a new host for P60s, I think you would be pleased. AND, your cheap options are very limited.
Yeah, the Solorforce lights were the only ones I recall which had forward-clicky (momentary-on) switches, and stood proud with none of those goofball “thumb guards” to dig into your thumb if you try turning it on a bit “crooked”.
The '501s still had a bit of a guard, but you could press through easily without digging gouges in your thumb, and the rounded button of the '502 stood out a bit and let you press down even more easily.
I had a few '501s (somewhere…) where I replaced the RC switch for a FC. Soooooooo nice.
As for drop-ins, I had a bunch of those 7135s-only boards (on/off, not even a µC on it), which could very easily be potted. I had a teeny can of potting material, but you could squish some JB Weld in there.
If it’s running a bit hot and you want some thermal mass behind the LED, cut some heavy-gauge Cu wire into fine gravel, mix that with Fujik. and pack the crap outta the brass base behind the LED and leave only a smidgen of room between that and where the driver would sit. Let that dry, pack the rest with plain Fujik and tamp down the driver on top of that, wipe any excess that squishes out.
That beastie will be nigh indestructible after that. People used those for shotgun lights.