JAYKI

Yeah. But I'm waiting for some more XPG lights before I pull the trigger and buy one. hehe.

I'm also waiting for more affordable Luminous SST-50 or SST-90 lights to light up the sky. =P

The SST emitters are expensive , I think it will be a while before the price comes down on those , SSC P7 will need to increase output quite a bit to offer competition .  There D Bin ATM , we may need to see F bin for that to happen .  I ordered a C1 with Xp-G R5 , and Im waiting for cutter to get the S2 

 I hope to get a lathe this year , Id just love to build a triple XP-G , possibly 600+ Lumen in a P60 drop in . 

Arrived this morning. First impressions, nicely made. I really bought it for the dropin as the styling doesn't much appeal to me. However, the body is pretty well made, there are double O rings at the tailcap end. 

The dropin can and has, survived being dropped from chest height  and have a couple of RCR123s land on it. The threads are lubed, both body and head. The switch is firm and positive. Nice fat O rings - single O ring at the head end. These are tight enough that there is a little difficulty getting the head and tail ends screwed back on. I'd not be worried about water resistance. It tailstands. I think I like it.

The grooves in the body are just crying out for some nice fat O rings to fill them. Will look in the box when I get home.

The dropin was evidently assembled in a workshop for the blind - pretty it is not. There is battery rattle with RCRs, but then that is almost inevitable if the 2mm fatter 18650s are to fit in it at all.

Tight and very bright spot so it ought to throw. Beam shape is hexagonal. Reflector is solid metal and the pill screws into it. Pity the LED not perfectly centred on the pill. I'd guess the reflector is not designed for the XP-G as the base aperture is quite large - looks like it might throw like crazy with an XP-E R2 - or at least as crazy as a P60 dropin allows.

I've far too many reviews to finish off so it'll be a while till it gets properly reviewed.

Second impressions: It is pulling 2.8A from a pair of RCR123s. This is crazy! That is pulling up to 24W from the poor little things. On an 18650 it is pulling up to 6W which is more sensible. It isn't going to work with protected RCR cells at those currents. Throw at 1 metre with unprotected RCRs is 11600. That is a lot! With an 18650 it appears to be a little brighter at 11750 but the difference is within the errors of measurement so is effectively none. From the throw figure, there is no reason to run this on RCR cells. Lightbox:

18650         1970

RCR           2390 but dropping like a stone - within 10s was below 1900 RCR123s were never intended for 2+amp loads.

Don't use this dropin with RCR. All that extra energy is not becoming light, but heat which is going to kill the driver and LED in short order.

Since the body is airtight, any cheapo RCR that decides to vent under such abuse is going to get nasty indeed.

Beamshots /  That must have a good hotspot to have 11000 Lux ? + throw ...  I only get that much with an aspheric lens .

Suspect our measurements vary - differing techniques etc. I line up the LED with my desktop which is almost exactly 1m from the floor and then move the meter around the in hotspot till I get the highest reading. Mine are absolute peak readings - an XR-E R2 5 mode beat that though less total output (and a smaller hotspot). http://www.jayki.com/flashlight_review_board/5659 which gave 14940 under the same regime with the same meter.

I'll get to beamshots when the weather stops dropping stuff from the sky on me - went out to check and discovered that the sky was bored with rain and decided it was time to snow on us again. This makes the test range somewhat more reflective.

It's now a single mode. Pulled out the dropin which now has that smell of electronics that have let out the magic blue smoke. No smell till I opened the head - the light clearly is airtight. Good points, no silly flashing modes to worry about, still as bright on high as before. Bad thing, no medium or low. It will run for around an hour on high -unattended on a 18650, it was hot, but not too hot to hold when I remembered and picked it up. Clearly the driver is junk though the pill and reflector are quite nice.

DX says the 1-mode is okay with 2x16340, but not the 5-mode which is 4.2V max. I guess they mean it.

Seems so - but in the line directly above the maximum voltage it says 2xRCR is a usable configuration. Guess I didn't read far enough. I should know by now not to trust the DX blurbs.

It even says 2x16340 in the name of the product! Thanks for testing it out so people will know.

When playing, I notice that the parts from this are more or less completely interchangeable with the Uniquefire L2 (Which is identical to the Ultrafire WF-504B). The R5 tailcap doesn't work on the WF-504B as it is too short, (A couple of small magnets would fix this) but the WF-504B tail does work on the R5. Here's the pics. Used the silver one to make the contrast greater.

It works!

Does indeed. But mine has mode memory now -it remembers whether it is on or off:) And it inevitably goes from one to the other. The Skyray dropin sounds like the one I put in the light after the original one got mode memory...

I see Cree now spec the R5 at up to 1.5A. Would need serious heat sinking, but interesting nevertheless. Efficiency will go down a bit but the light output should be impressive.

My condolences to all customers that had to find out the description errors of DX the hard way. RIP emitters, drivers and modes.

@owners of UniqueFires and Skyrays:

How sharp is the crenelation and do other (flat) bezel rings fit on the head of of the Uniqufire? Maybe Don can try if the threads of the flat bezel of his 504b fit in the Uniquefire? I'm about to order a Skyray, but I hate sharp , pocket destroying crenelations.

The Uniquefire crenellations feel smooth edged to me. Can't say they've bothered me and it has spent the last week in my pocket as the dog walking light - we are a long way north here and it's dark by the time I get changed and take the dog out.

It looks like the 504B/L2 bezel ring might just fit but I can't find the tools right now to get one of them out, they appear to have been tightened down by a gorilla (Or maybe me on a bad day). My watch opener has gone AWOL but given the mess in here, this is not surprising or unusual. My circlip pliers which usually do the trick won't open wide enough and ordinary pliers won't engage with the recesses in the bezel ring.

About 30 seconds on a bench grinder would sort it out anyway. But I wouldn't bother, it's fine the way it is - and that is speaking as someone who did grind the silly teeth off his Uniquefire S10

Thanks, I think I will order the Skyray this week, if no one objects. Or is there a better deal out there (P60, 1*18650)?

http://www.dealextreme.com/details.dx/sku.33549  Better deal ???????  

Hmmm, DX claims the Skyray at 1.2 A and the L2 at 1.0 A but I don't know if these numbers can be trusted, also no memory, OP, a little bulkier body, can't take 2*123 (as backup)... the positive things are the already flat bezel and the high likeliness that my existing Solarforce heads would fit nicely. The L2 is essentially the same light as the UF 504B, if I am not mistaken?  Hmm, back to square one.... too many options, too many similar lights.

504B with R5

http://kaidomain.com/ProductDetails.aspx?ProductId=10345

Is it save to say the Skyray has a buck circuit because of the wide input range (3.2-9 V ,1 or 2 cells) and therefore is not direct driven?

I guess this answers my own question:

http://www.dealextreme.com/forums/Forums.dx/Forum.32749~threadid.524504

If this is a perfect copy of the Seraph, bezels should be interchangeable. Just as suspected.

http://www.candlepowerforums.com/vb/showpost.php?p=3001000&postcount=13

I tried to do the bezel ring swap , but the Solarforce tool won't fit in the grooves of the UF WF-504B (tool being too long).

SF L2R UF504

But the bezels are swappable and are a perfect fit.

BTW the 504B has very nice built quality, much nicer than any other light from UF I've seen. The 501B feels cheap compared to the 504B.