Well I wasn’t really into this until 2018 when I built the 100W COB light. Before that in 2005 or so I had Maglites (mini with 2AA) and did an led conversion to give it a whopping 125lm maybe? On from there I got a semi-serious Nebo Redline zoomie with 3AAA and a XR-E. That was amazingly bright (to me in 2014). I didn’t know bright until I messed with xhp70.2’s in 2019! I didn’t think it was possible to throw that much light that far without an HID lamp, but led tech has gotten to that point (and more (for small HID lamps anyway).
I joined cpf in 2008. My first big light was triple Cree MCE drop in for a c cell Mag that ran on 3 18650. The light was from Electrolumens. I got my first AW protected 2200s and Trustfire charger from lighthound.com. I believe the drop in was 169.00 the cells were 12.99 each and the charger was like 15 plus I had to get a c cell mag. But that light changed what I knew about how bright flashlights could be I think it was claimed around 1800 or 2000L. Never before had I ever had a light that would show pollen in the air in the summer where I never had seen like that before. Then after getting the monster flooded I needed the best thrower. So I got a DEFT with the whole Pelican case and extra frosted lens that had never been taken out of the case. The DEFT had a whopping 100 to 120 klux. But no spill. It was insane how it
Had what seemed like unlimited range. Now it had later been sent back and upgraded to 250 klux. But I liked the original for its somewhat historical significance So whenI had the chance to purchase a stock one and did.
People still remember those lights because they were so far beyond what mainstream lights were at the time. Now they are smoked by d4 lights and reflectored K1s. Amazing how far things have come since way back then.
Nope, it runs on four 26650s. Other than the business end (6 XM-L) it looks stock in appearance, but it can run full blast without stepdown until the cells get low. (I don’t recall the runtime though.) The UI is H6flex 2.05.
Photos of which? Maglite? DEFT? Something else? I sold the DEFT and no longer have it, btw.
The Maglite. I know what a modern high lumen Maglite mod looks like, but I’d love to see how it was done back in 2011.
The SupFire M6 was the king of the triple kings, maybe back in 2013-2014 era. The BLF Q8 was modeled after it, but with the SkyRay Kung feature of 4 LED's. The M6 had a rock solid shell, solid shelf, etc. The early SRK's were XML T6's typically on alum non-DTP MCPCB's, one per LED, not one massive MCPCB they had later. It was not made to handle high amps. Richard was one of the first in M6 modding here: https://budgetlightforum.com/t/-/25716. He offered the modded M6's til the Q8's came out -- I feel bad bout that one, the Q8 kind of put him out of the M6 mod biz.
After the SRK (triple), they had the 4 LED version (Kung), https://budgetlightforum.com/t/-/19191, then after that, it grew exponentially in fake LED counts.
The original SRK was actually pretty good quality, real stainless steel bezel, nice finish: https://budgetlightforum.com/t/-/7224?destination=node/8435&420d_name=d9. The cnqualitygoods.com store had the best one at the time, referenced in this review.
I have one of the better SRK clones probably 2013 vintage and the thermal path is so-so. Has a thin shelf. It’s better than some of the other clones with just a lip to hold the mcpcb but I’d be leery running anything over 3A per emitter. It has xm-l U2’s CW in it. As is, it’s real bright. With some added copper under the shelf and an upgraded driver and emitters, it would be truly modernized for 2020, but unless you get it from China, after buying the emitters and driver and mod materials, it’s cheaper to buy a Q8.
Like the TK70 but in a compact formfacter and lots of mods like Tom E’s was the BTU Shocker. I never owned one but was always impressed with the numbers that light produced. I was thinking it was greater than 4000L and around 500K lux. It seems like a recent light, but it’s been long ago that many may not have been here to experience it. I have a ThruNite TN40 and I like to think that it’s like the evolutionary step after the BTU Shocker, what a name for a light as well.
I didn’t own a soda-can light until the BLF Q8 (now I have 2 of those, and a Sofirn SP36), so I can’t help with the history there. Didn’t sign up here until 2013, even though I started EDC-ing a light in about 2008.
I carried a TerraLux LightStar 220 in 2009 for a few years until I lost it.
In 2013 I did a bunch of BTU Shocker mods - yes, made 5000 lumens and with dedomed XM-L2's think I hit 500 kcd with it. Awesome light, still is! I really, really wanted ThorFire/Sofirn to make a Shocker head for a Q8 base. Well, we went in the opposite direction with the LT1 but that turned out pretty good.
Before the onset of affordable of led, all the guys in my industry (live sound) used mini mags and solitaires.
That’s the key…affordable. The led conversion I bought for my minimag cost twice as much as the light (around $40). I got it around 2003 or 2005? I forget. The led upgrade for the Streamlight Stinger was around $50, but for that, I can get 2 Convoy C8+’s with sst40 that make 1600lm, and take 18650 vs a 3.6v nimh battery and 450lm for the upgrade. Plus, you can mod it to an xhp50.2 3v amd make 2800lm.
Yeh, I got a coupla Mag LED bulbs (fat base) to retrofit a nice Taskforce light. 20bux a pop, and I bought the light for something like 8. 
Well worth it, though. More light, consistent output, at least 4× the runtime on a pair of AAs.
Just had to shave the inside of the reflector to press-fit the bulb into it. Pretty simple. Pretty nice, too.
Another killer light at the time was the Neoseikan Legion II. Back in 2008-2009 it was the brightest single LED light at the time at 742 Lumens. They later came out with a SST-50 version that was brighter. This light uses a buttery smooth thumb controlled brightness selector that made it fun to select modes. This is still one of my most favorite lights of all time and one of the most beautiful lights imo. If you forgot this one here is a link BLF link to mine and original on CPF. Mine were both changed to 90 CRI xml-2.
This one was done with nothing but hand tools.
With the 2D maglights, you could buy a machined heatsink and install a xml led with a buck driver and run either 2 18650’s with a sleeve adapter or use 2 32650’s.
I use to make my own heatsinks and use modifed buck drivers or stack two together with a xml led and run 32650’s.
Another way we did it back then was to buy triple, quad or quin reflectors from Kaidomain or DX and modify them to fit.
You could also cut down the 2D, rethreadng the tailcap end of the tube making it a 1D and use amc7135 drivers with one 18650 or 32650 or 26650.
I was mainly building maglite conversions around that time. They made a hefty solid host with good mass that could be finned to help dissipate more heat.
Here’s a pic of the business end; the rest looks bone stock. Sorry for the dirt around the edge, I didn’t think to wipe it off first.
I’m not inclined to disassemble it in any way, not sure how that might affect it.
I moved up from a Surefire hot wire light to the Fenix LD40 about then.
285 Lumens Whoo-Hoo, 4xAA
Still have it. Built like a tank.
All the Best,
Jeff
Me. I still have 3 Kings, one not modded and kept original. From CNqualitygoods they started out at $100. (!?) You could get a cool and a neutral. There are a couple resistors you can change to get more output but made too much heat to be practical.
CNqualitygoods out of business?
The original price of the TM11-I have two-was $299. Some online gun store had a special, which they got in trouble for, for $150, so I snagged two. The tints were horrible BTW. The led's are mounted on a square pcb so I had to reflow new emitters which improved things somewhat. Time for a repeat performance I think.
The bitch with these lights, and the reason they are shelf queens, is that they only take protected cells and that's a PIA having to mess with spacers etc if I want to use 30q's or whatever. So they sit. Why bother with all that?
I still have my precious ARC's, all 3 modded into xp-g triples.
Oh, CPF! No, they don't like budget lights. The money over there is unbelievable. I'm on a disability income and obviously I never fit in. One guy bragged about spending $30,000 on lights while people are living in the streets. Got a major problem with that. I let them know that, made one too many snide remarks about the rich and predictably-permabanned.
Thought you might like that tidbit! Hope this helps your research.
Rich
Just fyi, websites may come and go, but often the people behind them re-brand. RIC, of CNQualityGoods, and other websites, I believe was also behind the BTU brand, ex: Shocker, but in case you didn't notice, the strong resemblance in HaikeLite to the more recent BTU offerings like the PK26. I know RIC was involved in HaikeLite at the beginning, not sure if he is one of those behind the HL curtain or not today.
- What would its competition have been?
Like others wrote, the DRY was one of the first of that type and shape. I got mine in Aug. 2011. Ric, mentioned above, worked with us to make improvements, such as making available different colour-temperature LEDs (I got warm white), and selling an improved driver.
Before that, I had an UltraFire WF-500, which came with a xenon bulb, but there was a 5x Cree XR-E drop-in available so I put one of those in. My first multi-LED light.
- What were people EDCing back then, if that was a thing?
I was EDC’ing a Fenix LD01 (gave away), MTE M3-2 (still using it today!), and various P60 drop-ins (all died or retired).