Last Friday I ordered my first programmable flashlight, the Akoray K-106. This light has a lot of fans at Candlepower Forums and it was the first direct-shipped budget Chinese light I thought about getting back in November when I was thinking about getting some lithium ion batteries. You may recall that the first LED flashlight I got was a Fenix L2D, which could be converted to a L1D that takes 1 AA battery. That light has six modes but is not as bright as the L2D with its 2 AA batteries. However, if you up the ante further by inserting a single 3.6V lithium ion battery, you lose all of the lower modes and the light is stuck on High. For this reason, I wound up buying the budget Uniquefire S10, but I blew it out when I tried a lithium-ion battery. So I was still looking for a 1 AA light that could handle a lithium ion battery properly.
DX and KD reviews
Here is a list of product reviews I have written on DealExtreme and KaiDomain. They don’t have a way of looking them up on their site (or editing them once you have written them, which isn’t so great), unlike Amazon which KaiDomain bases its web design on.
Flashlights
Trustfire XP-E F23 1xAAA flashlight, DX sku.24291
Ultrafire WF-502B 1×18650 flashlight with XP-G R5 drop-in, DX sku.35074
Ultrafire WF-504B 1×18650 flashlight with XR-E R2 drop-in, DX sku.24200
Uniquefire S10 1xAA flashlight, KD ID 10303
Other things
Cheap 18650 Li-ion Charger
I bought a cheap charger from DealExtreme for my 18650-size lithium ion batteries. My other cheap charger will charge most 18650’s (though some are probably too long to fit), but it uses a lower charge rate that would take forever to charge up an empty battery. For instance, the small charger uses a 300mA charge rate and an 18650 battery is 2400mAh, so it would take 8 hours to charge that battery at a constant 300mA. And my big flashlight uses two 18650’s and the little charger can only charge one at a time.
So I found this other charger for $7.92 shipped that has two independent charging bays, supposedly charges at 1000mA, and stops charging at 4.20V like it is supposed to.
Ultrafire MCU WF-1200L
My first impression is that it is smaller than I thought, but also heavier. This is a serious hunk of metal! One nice thing about getting it second hand from a CPF member is the guy I bought it from treated it very well. There aren’t any marks on it that I could see. Plus he made sure to lubricate the o-rings and actually modified the tail switch so that you can halfway press it and the light comes on momentarily (all of my other lights have reverse clickies that you have to click all the way on and then let go before the light comes on; this light has a forward clicky). One of the reasons I got this light is that it had very good heat sinking and comes completely apart. The LED is mounted to a large brass pill that screws into the throat of the flashlight (threaded portion is 29mm diameter and the part that holds the driver is 23mm). The brass carries the heat from the LED directly into the body of the flashlight near its heaviest part. People talk about the light getting fairly hot after using it for a while, and that is a good thing. What would be much worse is the body staying cool while the LED cooks itself. Still, I left the light on for about 15 minutes and it only got warm. It would be pretty neat to be able to buy an extra pill and add my own 21mm driver and LED (maybe a warm P7 or a SST-50), almost like having a drop-in.
Ultrafire WF-504B with XR-E R2 Drop-in Review
I was interested in getting a flashlight that could accept P60 drop-ins. After reading Don’s review at jayki.com it seemed like the 504B (from DealExtreme) would be a good choice for a host because he felt like the heat-sinking was good and he liked the button. It looks good too and it is able to tailstand. I figured since the anodizing on these is Type II instead of the more durable Type III that I would be better off with the natural aluminum version because it wouldn’t show if any of the finish flaked or wore off. I liked the shiny finish in the pictures (looked like stainless steel) more than the shiny black finish (it seems like black should be more of a matte finish than glossy).
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