new flashlight cree xm-l
won a cree XM-L led flashlight on ebay for mere 11 bucks….waited for about a month for it to show up from china….sigh…but yesterday it got here
holy fucking crap this thing is awesome !
i got a P7 900 lumens flashlight(reviewed before), and this xml led is just a tad more powerful, but it has a lot more throw, (throw=ability to light up distant objects) (spread is what a household bulb does and lights up a room evenly)
P7 gets hot…real hot, and uses a bunch of power, after 15 minutes it burning hot, however the xml does not which is really cool, well it gets hot, just not as fast
these powerful leds have a tendency to spread a lot, and so not be the best for lighting up and object 50-100 yards away…xml fixes this
if your looking for a led for lamping or general use i would highly recommend the xml, its the best throw, stays cooler
the internal of the flashlight contains the reflector and circuitry…same as the r5, s2 and other leds, which means if you buy a cheap gun light with a xenon or something you can probably drop this sucker right in as a replacement and get upgraded from 20-40 lumens to a 1000 !
also if your looking for über leds keep an eye out for sst-50 and sst-90, last one is supposedly capable of 2500 lumen….from a single led…im gonna ask electrolumens if i can get my fire sword converted up to these…imagine…four sst-90 = 10.000 lumen, bet you could cook with that…its current 3000 lumen is not bad, but more is better
anyhow the xm-l led is highly recommended
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The Deft edc uses a XP-C Q4 Bin LED driven at 1.4 amps for 40,000 cp. I have no clue what all of that means, I just know that it is really stupid bright and has a really good tight throw. Michael says that the light only puts out 230-240 lumen. I guess that all of the light is focused foreward because it is brighter, and has better throw, than my 900 lumen Catapult V3. I got rained out of the camping trip today, we are leaving in the early morning. I will take my camera and try to get some beamshots.
I still want to see how the 900 lunen zoomable does.
Working on having a XM-l and a 1.4 amp driver fitted to my Spear clone.
I have seen beamshots of modified Mag lights. Some of them are stupid bright also!
yeah you have probably had an R2 led in it…its still my most center bright flashlight….an no im sorry i should have said…a lot of the lumens you get from these new leds are spill/flood light but the xml doesnt flood as much as the others it still is very bright at the center where as the p7 for example is a huge bright spot….ad so is the mce
i just finished a project today….i got a xml with reflector made to fit a maglite…well allmost had to get the lathe turning to make it really fit..i didnt look a the specs when i bought it but found it needs 5.4v to 12v and my 4 cell maglite would only drive it on low power….so i got me a new 6 cell red flashlight stuffed the xml in there along with 7 rechargeable D’s for 7.2V and 6V when empty
compare to my 502B flashlight the mag has brighter center and just seems more powerful…..now why a red flashlight….well when you walk the dog with a big black maglite people think your up to something….when its red well then they think your harmless (or so i hope)
the maglite is a much bigger project than they make you think on deal extreme…the reflector needs 3mm 1/4″ turned off ….you need to either 1 machine a adaptor doohicky or bend some springs on the head to make it work…i machined…
ohh and new maglites…they use a new setscrew …old days it was an allen setscrew….today its what looks like a torx screw but i didnt have any that would fit…plus it still has to go through the center of the switch, so even if you have a torx bit set..it wont work…it needs to look like an allen key just with torx head….well the old pipe and hammer trick did the job…borke some parts along the way…but its working and is 8 times brughter than what maglite offers (1000 lumen devided by 124 lumen) now its useable for something
have a video and all…but it started raining and lightning…so it got real short….will post tomorrow
I was going to buy the zoomable light, a shooting buddy has one and I will try it out on a camping/shooting/drinking trip we have planned for this weekend.
I bought a 230 lumen light 3 years ago and have been using it on my Edguns. It has a very focused beam and I was using it for 50 and 100 yard night target shooting. I could just barely make out the poi at 100 yards with it.
Cygnus’s post here caused me to buy a UltraFire 502 B 900 lumen XM-L and a couple of other cheap Ebay flashlights. They are bright but, didn’t have the throw that I wanted. I ordered a ThruNight Catapult V3 XM-L 900 lm and it really lights up a 100 yard target. It uses 2 18650 batts so it is, long, heavy and bulky. It added too much weight to the Matador.
I bought this light: https://www.omglumens.com/DEFT-edc.php
OMG is right! The guy that makes these uses a flashlight body that he hogs out for his modified Cree XP-C to set in. He uses a different driver and runs it at 1.4 amps. The LED sits in a masive copper heat sink so it will live, at least for a while! The owner of the company, Michael, told me that the LED would last at least 1,000 hours. The stock XP-C is rated at 10,000. His lens setup throws a square beam that stays square out to 265 yards. 265 is as far as I can go at my local range. I didn’t have my guns with me but, I really think that I could use it to target shoot at that range!
This thing is about the same size as the UltraFire but, Holly Shit it is bright! Go to his website and check out his beam shots.
Just a side note. After work last night I stopped at the local bar. A couple of my buddies were in there and they went out for a smoke break. I went out and got this light out of my truck and my buddies were playing with it. Some drunk dumb ass came out and wanted to see the light. I told him not to shine it in anybodies eyes and not to look in it. Of course, the first thing that he does is look into it! He said that it took about 10 min for the square spot to go away.
No you are not stupid, Cygnus…, uglier than a possum’s ass, yes, but not stupid. I’ve read your other posts, and I assure you there are people on this forum that make you look like Albert Einstein.
First off, boys and girls, I want to advise you that the remote switch I ordered has arrived and it is a really nice remote. Well made, short three coils, well made “clicker” in the remote. One problem, it is apparently not compatible with my 1K light, as it cycles through each of the five modes each time I turn it on. So if I want to go to bright, I have to keep clicking it off/on till I get to that mode.
I know this light will work on one of the other ULtrafires, but I am giving my 200 lumen to my daughter. She had twins four months ago and is up a lot at night. Those LED lights are perfect for such tasks.
Do any of you guys want to try this switch? It fits into the back of your existing back cap. If you look inside, you will note an aluminum ring with a pin-sized hole that you can unscrew ccw and take out the switch, and replace it with the remote.
Harrypairoftestes, did you ever get your light working? There are only two places that you could have broken it, one is the micro-circuit board in the back cap. If you will drop me a PM, I’ll send you this switch so you can change it out and see if that resolves your problem. Let me know. Do you mind if I call you “Balls” for short? No charge, but would appreciate nude pictures of your wife/girfriend, or both, as I am old and don’t get out much anymore.
If Harry doesn’t respond shortly, do any of you other guys want to give it a try? It’s a swell switch and I hate to let it go to waste. It will end up in the TAG recycle bin otherwise.
Kindest regards,
Simple-minded ‘Ol Uncle Hoot 😯
you dont know me….i am that stupid 🙂
ohh i do not have stock…work for any of the products i have talked about…i just have a flashlight fettish
ohh need a flood light for your trailer, camper, redneck night poaching truck?…well we have you covered http://www.dealextreme.com/p/10w-750lm-6500k-high-power-flood-light-projection-lamp-12v-44176
and yes you can not break a LED it self…if something is wrong its a connections somewhere….remember if you dropped a maglite or any other glow bulb flashlight ans the glow wire broke….with LED this wont happen…both lipo protected in the handle of the flashlight, and led also is very sturdy….any problems most likely comes down to a spring or cheap circuitry that fried….if your flashlight head does not get hot something is wrong also, and heat is not being transferred to the flashlight body…the led will overheat and die…so make sure the flashlight body does get hot…then you know heat is being transferred from LED to outside…into your hand…through your blood and disapaited through your body
thanks for the comments….
the cree cml is fucking cool aint it….you can buy cheap china trustfire/ultrafire etc from 10 to 35 $ often for the same product…i have gotten two of the same flashlight one on ebay with “buy it now” for 12$ shipped (ultrafire 501b xml 1000lumen) and i bought one at dealextreme.com for 32$ both are 100% identical !
one thing i see is battery confusion so i will try and clear that up a bit
you need a 18650 lipo battery….lithium batteries are very different from your everyday ni-cd or ni-mh AA batteries
THE SHORT you need a specific lipo charger and 18650 lipo battery…lipo chargers are 100% automatic…even the cheap crappy ones….fully automatic, you cant do anything wrong….lipo batteries prefer to be topped up frequently, and will last longer if kept charged and topped up when down about 50% left, as opposed to running them down to empty (3v)
THATS IT….. THATS THE SHORT VERSION jump to the end for my recomendation in batteries
lithium comes in many flavors and safety levels. i will only discuss the ones we need to use…lithium polymer also called LiPo …there are two kind….with or without PCB also called protection and other abreviations…its a little circuitry that keeps the battery from over charging
overcharging…if chargers malfunktions or a fuckup try’s to charge with non lipo charger…battery will explode/vent toxic gases/burn/fire etc…..chemistry will be destroyed even if the battery doesnt burn down your house….
over discharge…flashlight regulator circuitry keeps the light at a stable level….and you have no idea if you have 100% or 5% left if you havent timed the flashlight or have a volt meter at hand…a battery can power a flashlight great at 3V and if you have nothing to compare with you wont know its running on empty….and once you put a 3Amp load on it drop to under 3V destroying its chemistry…and although less likely same things as overcharge can happen.
pcb (hopefully) keeps the battery from going above 4.2v and below 2.8v….and since you have no way to tell how much power you have in your flashlight its nice to have the pcb to save your butt
imagine if your battery is in a flashlight that has a charger plug built in…and you use your kids nimh rc car charger late night after trying to get the kid to go the fuck to sleep for the last 2 hours…….the battery vent building up pressure…these flashlights are water/airtight….well at some point kabooom..in the rc industry several people have burnt down the cars, houses etc because of poor lipo handling
if a cell looks damaged in any way discard of it…dont take a chance for a measly 8$ battery….dump in saltwater for 14 days and give it to your local battery recycling place (Target has containers specifically for batteries, but each country, state etc has different ways…BTW lipo is much more environmentally friendly than nimh and nicd….just a bit more volatile if not cared for properly
currently lipo 18650 batteries are around 2.6Ah if more like 3000mah your probably being scammed they do exist but are very costly we are talking 30-50$ a pop..the regular 2.6ah is about 8 bucks…and can be found a bit cheaper or expensive…theres many levels of quality of them out there, a bunch of people like me have found that ….
BATTERY RECOMMENDATION
I RECOMMEND TERNERGY lipo batteries 3.7V 2.6Ah with pcb they are light blue with green bottom, these are what electrolumens recommend, and if he says good for them then they are good.
Tenergy also makes a cheap charger….and theres a kit with charger and two batteries….
i use them my self and have found them to have longer runtime than simelar specced ultrafire grey 3.7v 2.6Ah pcp
i use this charger
http://www.ebay.com/itm/Tenergy-2-Channel-18650-14500-Li-ion-Battery-Charger-/290522527002?pt=LH_DefaultDomain_0&hash=item43a47df51a#ht_2483wt_1396
and heres battery
http://www.ebay.com/itm/Tenergy-18650-3-7V-2600mAh-Rechargeable-Battery-w-PCB-/290489435781?pt=US_Batteries&hash=item43a2850685#ht_3401wt_1139
there are combo deal on ebay…like this
http://www.ebay.com/itm/TENERGY-TL-100-CHARGER-2-CR123A-2-18650-BATTERIES-/350489438500?pt=LH_DefaultDomain_0&hash=item519acc6924#ht_2509wt_1163
these are just what i found by a quick search you can find better deals with some searching
the batteries also some times come without top like theres on the plus side of a AA…should have bought the wrong thing, need a spacer or something a magnet can be used like this http://www.dealextreme.com/p/super-strong-rare-earth-re-magnets-8mm-20-pack-4248
now you have all spent your money on flashlights and then i find this one
http://www.dealextreme.com/p/fandyfire-stl-v2-cree-xm-lt6-5-mode-1000-lumen-white-3-led-flashlight-black-2-x-18650-91136 three XML each can do 1000 lumen…if the circuitry can etc etc…then this might be a super flashlight….3000 lumen for 47$ mailed….unheard of
i just spent 32$ on a xml and reflector for my maglite….i so regret that…i could have had the above instead….damn…ohh well i got my fire sword 3K lumen…should be happy….
3000 lumen will cause permanent eye damage in 20 seconds of direct staring into the light….the center of a power led like the xml can cause permanent eye damage just as fast or faster should you be up close and stare directly into the center….be careful …these are not your granpa’s maglite which by the way did 80-90 lumen in the 6 cell with glow bulb….and now 114lumen with their crappy led….so having a flashlight 5″ long outputting 9 x as much light (xml) is quite fantastic…not to mention with a 3000 lumen 26 times as much light in a smaller lighter form factor…amazing…over and out
this was written with a a baby in one arm…excuse spelling errors, incomplete nonsense etc…but i hope it cleared up some stuff
Yes, replacements are available on Ebay. I saw them last night.
You have to search under the name of the light and somewhere in the listings will be the replacement LED and reflectors.
Not all that expensive, so all is not lost.
(Club-fisted Ox…:lol:)
Kindest Regards,
Your ‘Ol Uncle Hoot
PS: Strange that an LED, of all things would break. I bet there is nothing more than a seperation somewhere preventing battery contact. Be sure to check the springs, screw-on parts including the LED head, in fact, take it out and check out behind the reflector to ensure contact is being made. These things are not that fragile!
PS: PS: Try recharging the batteries. You may have broken Ohm’s Law!
I dropped my flashlight the other day and now it doesn’t work… It went form Champ to Chump in less then 2 ft!!!!!! are the bulbs replaceable? I can’t seem to find anywhere were it is broken and everything seem to be intact. I am so bummed… I was really digging this light!!!!
Very nice light. 😀
I have 2 fenix lights, the tk11 and the tk35. The 35 uses 4 cr123 batteries, and puts out 800-something lumens. It’s ultra bright. And the strobe feature is the best, good way to give someone a stroke. 😀
It’s OK for a trickle charge to be on.
My battery charger for my pontoon boat is on full time and drops off to a 1 amp trickle charge after the battery is full.
The Li-ion batteries hold a charge so long that it’s probably not necessary to use a trickle charger full time, as I had to do on my Nickle Metal Hydride and Alkaline batteries.
My LED does the same color changes yours does, Lurker, thanks for pointing that out. I figured I’d have to just time them each charge so they don’t over charge, but the digital charger seems to take care of all that.
All the same, I’m removing the battery after it’s fully charged. I can always pop them in from time to time to bring them all the way up. I do that with my Li batteries for my cordless drill. If left unused, those batteries seem to stay at 90% to 95% for months on end. I’m sure these are the same nature.
Hoot
Regarding charger supplied for CREE XM-L Torchs:
Much to my surprise one of my 3 “DIGITAL BATTERY CHARGER, 18650” chargers went from RED to GREEN and finally ORANGE. It repeated this a second time with the same batteries but hasn’t yet with other near fully charged batteries. My other 2 identical chargers have yet to go past GREEN.
AT ORANGE both batteries tested a solid 4.20V and both charger and batteries were cool.
I’m thinking RED is CHARGING, GREEN is Nearly Full TRICKLE CHARGING, and ORANGE is FULLY CHARGED.
These are definitely a medium to slow charger that doesn’t harm the batteries when working and used properly.
But, is it OK if they stay at trickle charge ❓ They don’t run hot.
I had a chance to do some night 100 yard target shooting with the ThruNight Catapult V3 last night. I was using a 6.5-20 X 42 1/2 mil dot Hawke Tactical. At 20 X, it was at least as easy to see the 25 cal pellet holes as in the daytime! I was impressed! 😀
I bought this remote switch so I could use my 1K LED on my bullpup. It works fine. All you have to do is take off the bottom switch, unscrew the innards with a .050 hex key, or a needle file to fit the small hole. Take out the guts, drop in the replacement remote switch, screw in the aluminum holder and bingo….you now have a remote switch with coiled cord for your light. Cost w/shipping was around $5.50, kinda hard to beat.
It can be changed back and forth, takes about 5 minutes.
Here’s the item on Ebay:
Regards,
Hoot 😯
Lurker, you must be a lot smarter than you are good looking because that is exactly how mine works.
I’ve been struggling with it trying to figure out how many hard clicks I needed to be sure I was on high power. This makes it easy!!!
Thanks!
Kindly ‘Ol Uncle Hoot 😯
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i got my maglite video done….crappy video as it was lightning and starting to rain….dont know if you can see it youtube….at at one point i have the camera at a stupid angle to pick up the flashlight…and it catches a lightning
anyway here it is