"Hi, my name is Robert... and I'm a torchaholic."
How long have you been falling down that rabbit hole?
Lol!I know, use them in a flashlight. *wife rolls eyes*
The Convoy S2+ is a fairly floody light, simple to use. I would suggest getting the 3B tint (neutral white), with 7135x4 (resistors). The fewer the less power but more run time. The 7135x8 gets pretty hot but is brighter and less run time. The 7135x6 is a good compromise also. It uses the Cree XM-L2 emitter.You guys haven't happened to try any mounted lights? I'm trying to find something to slap on my bike to light up the trails.
The Convoy S2+ is a fairly floody light, simple to use. I would suggest getting the 3B tint (neutral white), with 7135x4 (resistors). The fewer the less power but more run time. The 7135x8 gets pretty hot but is brighter and less run time. The 7135x6 is a good compromise also. It uses the Cree XM-L2 emitter.
The S2+ will easily light up 150 ft of trail in front of you. The big plus is, you can use your existing 18650's, and also use it as a conventional flashlight. Waterproof, nicely machined, and 16 bucks. There are dozens of handlebar mounts available for conventional lights.
The link has a bunch of beamshots, plus examples of the different tints. Owner of the store is Simon. Very good guy to deal with and honest.
I wouldn't mind having a couple of modestly priced but good value singles, I'll be having to retire some vape cells soon I'm sure.
But I don't have a clue what specs I should expect at what price/quality point, so I've just not bothered getting into it.
Yet.
You have link to the shop? I keep getting taken to AliExpress. The design looks similar to my O-light S30.
Ah, didn't realize that. I'm on a tablet and it kept wanting to install an Ali app, and I was like WTF!Yes, that is Simon's Aliexpress shop. Here's the link to his home page on Aliexpress. Aliexpress hosts thousand of web stores. Those Olight's are nice. I have a solid copper Olight S1 Baton and a black aluminum S1.
Ah, didn't realize that. I'm on a tablet and it kept wanting to install an Ali app, and I was like WTF!
Thanks
You can get the same ones from Fasttech, not branded, but same manufacturer for less than $30That's awesome. Thanks for the info Robert.
With all these great options out there it's hard to believe the bike industry can get away with selling high end trail lights for $200+
Lol!Makes me want to start using my WL Torch again...almost burnt the house down last time I used it...
Yeah I noticed that when I did my initial search.
Just curious. What kind of run time do you get on the S2+ on a single battery? I would imagine i'd probably run it at or close to 100%
And if you don't mind me picking your brain a bit more. What would you recommend as a headlamp. I imagine it would have to have a pretty good head strap so I don't have to worry about it flying off my helmet. External batter pack wouldn't be an issue I don't think as I could slip it into my camel back.
Yeah, that was me . I needed a torch, and ended up getting one of those demon blinders that run on 18650 batteries. (A Convoy S2+ with a cree X-ML emitter, my memory is terrible, it has 6 erm, things, each at 350MA if I remember correctly, that power it-they do it in a 2, 4 , 6 and 8 option, each more powerful-the one I own is the brightest flashlight I have seen, I even got another one for my Bike in the winter, can actually see where you are going in the dark on mid mode).I think @conanthewarrior has some experience with that.
I might be thinking of someone else for cycle mounts, but I know Conan played with the torch crowd for a bit.
Don't get me started on the trouble I caused when I mentioned Efest over there-they see them as the best batteries, bar none.
Yeah, that was me . I needed a torch, and ended up getting one of those demon blinders that run on 18650 batteries. (A Convoy S2+ with a cree X-ML emitter, my memory is terrible, it has 6 erm, things, each at 350MA if I remember correctly, that power it-they do it in a 2, 4 , 6 and 8 option, each more powerful-the one I own is the brightest flashlight I have seen, I even got another one for my Bike in the winter, can actually see where you are going in the dark on mid mode).
Don't get me started on the trouble I caused when I mentioned Efest over there-they see them as the best batteries, bar none. Even the people who are pulling serious amps with some crazy, stadium style lighting use Efest batteries-and seemed to hate me when I mentioned they are re-wraps that lie quite a lot about their actual amp rating-which I found odd, as we get a lot of our graphs and tests from torch guys and girls :/.
The main problem with high powered flashlights is heat. The more 7135 resistors installed on the driver, the more current that is allowed to the LED, thus more heat and less runtime. I've never timed them, but I imagine a S2+ with 7135x4 or 6, would be a good compromise between run time and the light not getting too hot. A couple hours run time on turbo?. You'd want to carry a spare battery. You might be surprised, running the light on medium instead of turbo is still a lot of light, and could give you many more hours of run time. You don't need a huge amount of light when your eyes are used to the dark, to see where you're going.
As far as headlamps, Nitecore makes some good ones like the HC30. There is also Armytek, & Zebralight. I am personally thinking about a Zebralight H600fd III. Pretty much everyone who owns a Zebralight raves about the quality and how good the mode spacing, and user interface is.
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The one thing to think about using a headlamp is, the beam jerking around. I would imagine wearing one on a bike, you would want something more of a flood than a focused beam. The Nitecores seem to have more of a hot spot beam, where Zebralight has many different models to suit your purpose. The H600fd is one of those floody lights with a nice smooth beam and no real hotspot. The nice thing about these types of head lamps, is they can be used as a regular hand held light with a pocket clip, or mounted to the handlebars with a swivel clamp.
As far as batteries go, the Samsung 30Q are 15amp 3000 mah, or the LG MJ1's which are 10amp 3500mah. Most all these single battery lights are pulling less than 4amps at the tail cap on turbo mode. You will need to find out if the light takes button top or flat top batteries. Most Nitecore's take button tops. Lights like the Convoy's can take either. Not sure about Zebralight or Armytek. If you have a charger like the Opus BT3100, you can use LG D1 3000mah which charge to 4.35volts for extra run time.
Lights like these soup can or beer can lights, require button top, since the positive end of the battery has to make contact with the inner ring. Convoy's have copper springs on both ends, thus can take either. Nitecores have a copper contact on the positive end, and a spring on the tail cap thus requiring button tops.
Just like vape products, there are youtube reviews of most every light. Finding beamshot comparisons is the hard part.
Sorry about the long winded reply, but I enjoy talking about this stuff
Looking at your first set of pictures, it looks like you have both the S3 and S2+, Did you notice any real difference aside from the slightly different size?
The more I look at into convoys the more I want them all.
That would be the name lol-I could not remember what they were. I knew they affected brightness and runtime though-I can't really use mine on full power for too long, it gets very hot at the emitter end, anyways mid is still bright enough to light up the whole road, plus run's for a fair few hours-even the lowest power mode is handy, if you ever got lost (not that I would where I live-but nice for if you live in more rural areas, I gather the battery would last for ages).Those "6 erm things" are the 7135 resistors.. lol
The BLF guys are coming around, but still quite a few shitFest lovers though. The reddit guys sound like sales & marketing employees for Keeppower and ILumn
I may have this the wrong way round, but when I was on the BLF more, I understood that the Convoy with 8 emitters was brighter/used more power than the ones with less resistors? Just trying to remember if I am correct or not.No need to make another thread, this one is fine. yeah, Russians & Europeans are vapers & torchaholics too !!
First off, I can only comment specifically on the S2+, S3. My C8 has been modified by Mt. Electronics by having the silicon dome on the emitter (LED) removed to enhance the throw. So the beam on that would be much different than stock.
All the convoy S models are 24mm tubes and basically the same length within a few millimeters. All of them are quite floody and seem to have the same reflectors. That said, my S3 seems to be a little more floody than my S2+, but I don't know if that is because of the tint and resistor packs installed or if the reflector is slightly different. So I think it comes down to style of the machining more than anything.
Both can be bought with the same combinations of resistors and color tints. If it were me, I would stick to the 3b tint with the 7135x6 resistors. From what I gather, the x4 is going to be about 400 lumens (on highest mode) and the x8 about 900 lumens. Those numbers would be higher with the cooler tints, and lower with the warmer tints. My S2+ was bought for the purpose of cutting through moisture in the air (mounted on snowblower). The warmer tints won't reflect off ice crystals or moisture droplets like the cooler tints will. Hence, I ordered it with the 5B tint and x4 resistors.
S2+ is 5B tint with x4 resistors (left)
S3 is a 3B tint with x8 resistors (right)
Picture taken about 8 feet away from the wall. It doesn't show too well in the picture, but the sheer amount of light on the S3 is more.
Here's my de-domed C8 thrower from the same distance, just for comparison. The bright spot circle is about 3 inches in diameter
The M series with larger reflectors will throw further given equal emitters. The C8 is a model on it's own. The M series are considerably larger with a 31mm head, about an inch longer and heavier. Might be kind of clumsy mounted to a helmet.
You may want to order an S2+ or S3, mount it on your handlebars and test it out. You may find you don't need one on your helmet. Heck, buy two or three of them with different configurations. You'll find a use for all of them. If you don't, then you have a nice Christmas gift for someone !!
edit... Simon also sells handlebar clamps and helmet headbands. Cheap enough to order one of each to test out too.
Heck, buy two or three of them with different configurations.
I may have this the wrong way round, but when I was on the BLF more, I understood that the Convoy with 8 emitters was brighter/used more power than the ones with less resistors? Just trying to remember if I am correct or not.
I have a handlebar clamp for my S2+, I have to dip it and down to the left, otherwise I am pretty sure drivers would be quite angry with me at night lol.
I have the S2+ (Well 2-I tried to mod the first and accidentally destroyed the emitter with my soldering iron lol)-I can't actually remember what tint it has, it is quite a whitish blue light, do you think it is worth getting an S3 or is there not much difference between the two?
uh oh... this my friend, is a very slippery slope... you're going to get me in trouble.
I'll probably start with a couple S3's of the x6 3B variety and see how they go. All my batteries are 25R's so they should get decent longevity.
I really like the form factor of the S line, I might give the S5 or S8 a try at some point
http://www.bhphotovideo.com/c/search?atclk=Power+Supply_18650&ci=27793&N=3732776044+4103140528You guys haven't happened to try any mounted lights? I'm trying to find something to slap on my bike to light up the trails.
While your at it, grab one of the S2+ 18350 lights. Handy to carry in your pocket. About the size of a SMPL mod
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A lot of people don't like the thought of an 18650 battery for a flashlight. But if they thought about it, an 18650 has about 4 times the energy a AA battery has. Couple that with being able to charge it 300 times. One 7 dollar 18650 is the equivalent of 1200 AA batteries. How much do 1200 AA batteries cost?
I carried on that discussion with a guy from the Fire Department. He said their one small fire station goes through over a thousand alkaline batteries a year What started the conversation was, he said he didn't need 18650's because he gets "free AA batteries" from his fire station to use in his flashlights at home. I said "your welcome". He said "about what?". I said, why don't you buy your own batteries so I don't have to pay for them...