I’ve been away for a few years from the flashlight/torch scene. Don’t worry, not banged up or fleeing justice, just absorbed with family life.
Anyway, just ordered a Lumintop worm as a gift for one of my colleagues who commented that my very old Thrunite AAA was a useful thing to have. It got me to remembering the Hugsby XP-1 that did the rounds for a ridiculously low price several years ago.
Being as I’m well out of the loop of the latest torchy goodness, what sort of ultra budget but still capable AAA’s are now around?
Blast from the past! Hi Paul, not sure but I think we may be the only 2 ex BB members here. Different username here, but Nice65 over on the sadly missed BB.
Your Thrunite, is that the Tool AAA? I carry a copper version daily as I like a tailcap clicky, they’re still highly regarded. I’m not sure how many clickys there are, but you’re certainly in the right place to find out.
Welcome back! I searched on the paramatrek site for 1xAAA and <$16, nothing is in the database that struck me as outstanding value, also, bare in mind a couple are discontinued (sofien C01s).
Bloody Hell Rich. That takes me back. I’m in a Whatsapp group with a few of the old BB members. Doc Forinor, Pomello, couple of others. - all of them are in a popular FB group called EDC Cooperative - you could join up, I dare say you’d digitally bump into some old faces. I’m a member but I don’t really use FB much. Shame about the demise of that BB site. I enjoyed it a lot. My Thrunite is, as far as I can tell, a Ti3. Twisty, three modes. It looks really wrecked. The lanyard hole bit the dust a long time ago so I just filed it away so it wasn’t sharp. A proper trusty little torch that has served me well.
Knife-wise, I’m back in the world of work so it’s always my Enzo PK70 for slicing my daily apple.
Clearly I haven’t uploaded my pics… Ah well, never mind. Actually, there you go.
My modded Thrunite Ti3 with 4500k 219b lives on my key chain. It did have a recent remodel but it’s essentially the same light.
AAA lights seemed to have peaked at the time of the L3, Maratac, Ti3 series. AFAIK nothing particularly interesting has come out lately except for the BLF C01/C01S which has discontinued twice.
It’s really strange how some of these companies have stopped producing decent modern AAA lights.
You’d think companies like wurkkos or sofirn would continue making at least some form of AAA light, but no. AAA’s are still pretty ubiquitous, last I checked.
I asked wurkkos, and they said that there were a lot of QC issues and complaints with the wk01/02 models, so they decided to discontinue it. Maybe the parts are really small and it’s not worth the hassle to them?
I asked sofirn too and they just said “we stop producing” and gave no reason.
I myself still have the c01s and currently I carry a Skilhunt E2A on my Keychain. Single-mode only is a slight annoyance, esp since it’s 100 lumens, but I’ve been liking the size and build so far. Quite affordable too.
I wish they would drop the output down a little, maybe to the region of 60lumens, runtime would be much better.
I’m surprised there’s not enough demand for a run of C01S with Nichia 519a. Alternatively, a selection of colours of the cree XGE series, in colour-matched anodised bodies would be quite cool.
I dropped a 519A into a few C01S lights. Went from around 100 lumens, 550 candela to around 70 lumens and 200 candela. Perfect for my indoor close-range use. I wanted 5000K for more accurate color representation. Example use case: I have one in the bathroom for looking inside your mouth, etc. Perfect CCT, tint, and smooth floody beam.
I suspect the reduced lumens, and especially the candela, would not make a 519A C01S popular.
Damn, the reduced lumens is a real bummer–according to emitter tests the 519A should have more output than SST20 at all power levels and drive currents. Must be the small TIR failing to collimate the large die.
I replaced a 4000K SST-20. 519A was domed. However, I did have to add some Kapton tape around the based of the LED so that the TIR would not squish the dome of the LED. Since the dome is not situated totally inside the TIR opening I’m probably losing some light.
Without the Kapton tape the dome squishes which changes the CCT and makes weird artifacts. I suspect it starts to lift the dome up off the glass.
I should try and drill out the TIR opening a bit but this might make it even worse.
I stand corrected…
A domed 519A should have slightly more output than SST-20 4000k hi CRI.
I agree that the TIR is part of the problem. You could try to drill it out. I would shave the dome of the 519 slightly. A 1.4mm shave might be enough and that doesn’t drop the CCT much. It does drop the duv AND the output though, so you might end up back to where you are on output.
I have several C01s with many different LEDs (including 519A and LH351D) and didn’t have the “squishing” LED problem. They all have shaved LEDs now. Maybe I never tried a full dome with the stock TIR?
I wonder if it might be due to people simply not knowing it exists. I didn’t know about it until this post and I definitely want one now.
I suppose the Emisar KC1 might be the closest you can currently get, it has a similar TIR, with around 100lm with 519a on a NiMH cell (and 400lm on li-ion )
It’s pretty cheap too, between $13 and $17 depending on emitter.
I carry a 16340 light on my keychain, but if I went to AAA it would definitely be a KC1 with a 519a and a NiMH cell
Not sure if being serious or sarcastic, but I was given one of those as a freebie at a convention. It is absolutely terrible, it only worked 1 time off a AAA and then it died. It might legitimately be the worst flashlight I have.
I’m sure the build quality of the original XP-1 was better, but that one was far from good.
I’ve only ever had hugs by people, perhaps a couple of animals could count but not by XP-1. Were they particularly comforting?
Sincere apologies, I’ll show myself out.
I’ve tried 219C Astrolux A01 and a total of 5 just died, several on our keychains, one on standby duty in my bag, all with Eneloops in them, no alkaleakage events. Thinking about the KC1 but something about it just doesn’t give me the warm fuzzies.
)