All of my 18650 lights combined ;)

BlueSwordM

BlueSwordM

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Jul 5, 2017
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Now, as you might know, there are 18650 flashlights floating around on the internet.

If you look around on sites like most of eBay and Aliexpress, quite a bit of them have bogus brightness ratings(exaggerated lumens), have poor efficiency, bad user interface, and bad color rendition and color temperature.

So, I decided to look around, and I found r/flashlight and BudgetLightForum. This is where you find extremely good flashlights for low prices. With their help and with some Googling, I was able to buy 5 flashlights, with 3 that I use everyday.

They all use recycled, tested 18650s found from powertool/vaccum battery packs, and are running wonderfully at max power.

5700 lumens, 1300 lumens of long range throw, and 1600 lumens everyday carry.

They are called the BLF Q8, Astrolux C8, and Astrolux S42. They are just so much better than generic zoomies, and there are even more varieties than you could even think of.

If you have any questions, just let me know.


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Yes, they are very nice lights.
Especially at the prices I paid them for.

46.50$ for the Q8, 20$ for the C8 and the S42.
 
Thanks to this post I tried out a whole bunch of flashlights, Nitecore, Convoy S2+, and a whole bunch of cheap ones. The one I liked best so far is actually the cheapest of the bunch. I thought it would be a good idea to get some cheap flashlights to give away to friends. Not to mention to have them in cars or infrequently used places where a fully charged light might last up to a year easy. Also it has to include a USB charger since most regular folks don't have a opus charger laying around.

This is a $8.50 light and has a good decent wide throw with a decent spot. It's lens is a reflector type so it throws a nice even beam. The most important for me is that the button turn on and off. Others usually cycle through the modes which drives me nuts. It does have other modes, you double press it for strobe and hold down the button it will dim gradually. Charges through a built in usb port.

https://www.aliexpress.com/item/-/32771226332.html


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So 5700 lumens got me thinking about laser pointers

The laser pointers that can light a match are pretty cool.
 
@not2bme, if you think that light is good, oh boy do you have a lot to discover!

If you liked this ramping UI, you will live this one:
https://intl-outdoor.com/emisar-d1-mini-thrower-p-922.html?zenid=38d30464c08a33413bd5306d91ff59b7

It can go much higher in brightness, can go much lower. And the ramping is even better and smoother, and you can configure to be momentary.

And, then there is this one:
https://www.gearbest.com/led-flashlights/pp_674251.html?wid=1433363
Magnetic tail, included 18650, micro-USB rechargeable. What is not to like?
 
[quote='"]
Yes, they are very nice lights.
Especially at the prices I paid them for.

46.50$ for the Q8, 20$ for the C8 and the S42.
[/quote]

These prices seem quiet unnecessarily high .... I've bought a lot of these and never paid over$8 ...

Bottom line on these (single chip) torches is the led chip... nearly always genuine cree , it seems there are three main types .... focus the beam onto a wall 2 meters away if the image is round this is the lowest power , about a 1Watt .... if the image is square this means the led chip is a square array could either be 3 Watts or 10 Watts, but the chips don't come muchbigger so neither can the output ... these 10W chips can be bought separately for a few $each.

Multiple chip torches maybe good for general use but don't focus well

These single chip zoom torches have remarkable focus , at 20 meters they give a square of light one meter square , I've thought about buying a 100 of them to make an array all focused together

http://https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=G1W5Am8dNqA[/video]

While on the subject of led's powerwallers have the ability to deliver devastating light power ....100W led chips can be bought for $2 , wire up a thousand of these and you have 100Kw of raw light power totally disabling if directed at anyone (probably 5kw would be enough) a good size powerwall could pulse 100kw , and very cheap to make a strobe from these .... no heat sink needed for leds if pulsed .


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These are really not good though. They have crappy tint and very bad color reproduction, and really not efficient at full power(6000 lumens at 100W). You can do the same thing with an XHP70.2 LED at 55W:
http://budgetlightforum.com/node/57715

They have been known to fail out of misery. Bad quality control is what kills them. Also, trying to get a lot of throw from such a massive LED array is really hard, while using a 7mmx7mm LED is quite easy.

Finally, the lights under 8$ you bought, even the one not2beme linked, are probably crap. They have very low efficiency, have bad color reproduction, have very bad user interfaces, can die out of no where since the LED heats up, and the LED PCB is floating in the air with no heatsink, often use fake LEDs, and have bad build quality.


To add to that, in the flashlight world, we have LEDs that can push even to a 100W of pure power through a single LED chip, like the XHP70.2 I mentioned before.

We also have ones that have extremely good color reproduction that can reproduce the sun, ones that have good brightness, but so tiny it throws extremely far out in the open, like a mini spotlight, build flashlights that can reach the 30k lumen mark, or 4000 lumens(40-70W!) out of a single 18650 flashlight, and ones that can ramp up, have multiple programmable modes, headlamps, keychain lights that can reach 1000 lumens, lights that can throw 2km, ones than can burn easily though stuff, and so on.

Go look on Budget Light Forum, and you will understand:
http://budgetlightforum.com/

BTW, you say you want to build a focused array of flashlights?

Say no more:
http://budgetlightforum.com/node/54650
 
BlueSwordM said:
Finally, the lights under 8$ you bought, even the one not2beme linked, are probably crap. They have very low efficiency, have bad color reproduction, have very bad user interfaces, can die out of no where since the LED heats up, and the LED PCB is floating in the air with no heatsink, often use fake LEDs, and have bad build quality.
Click to expand...


Hey I like my cheap flashlight thank you very much! :D Yeah I have no idea how long it will last but for now it performs well. I went through a lot of cheap ones under $10 and I found that this was the best of the lot. L2 LED so it's bright white, brighter than any of the other cheapies and seems brighter than the convoy S2+. If it's a fake CREE then its a good fake. No S-O-S mode (why does every flashlight deems necessary to have this stupid mode?). Probably not waterproofbut will probably handle a rain or two. Can't say how long it runs vs the most efficient flashlight, but that's why the built in usb charger's for :) Plus great to give away to friends.

I see it on amazon but includes a crap battery and more expensive.
https://www.amazon.com/Tactical-Flashlight-Rechargeable-Zoomable-Stepless/dp/B07B7MK5PK
 
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