Meritline has the Focus Zoom Lens Cree Q3 Flashlight for $10 with free shipping. Not as clumsy or random as a blaster, it features advanced focus system with a fisheye lens, 200 Lumens of output power from a white LED Cree Q3 bulb, and a black aluminum body.
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This is a nice light; I like and use mine often. So far so good.
Some other sites have this light (search Sipik-SK68 on DX) listed, and say it can use 14500 batteries. Has anyone tried it on the light from Meritline? They surely look the same.
Yes/no/maybe, but usually no. Ignore the DX specs, DX specs are a joke. Here's the scoop:
DX lights that claim they can use both 1 x ~1.5V alkaline or 1.2V NiMH AND 3.7V Li-Ion (4.2V peak) too have a basic boost circuit. That circuit cannot limit output voltage more than the inherant drop across the mosfet transistor it uses to switch for current regulation.
Above the forward drop of the LED @ spec'd drive current these driver boards direct drive the LED at excessive current, not only excessive for the LED but also because the light housing and pill the LED is heatsunk to are not capable of keeping it cool enough for more than a very short period, and in many cases the driver itself can't handle the current level either as they tend to use 1A, sometimes 1.5A or 2A at most transistor with minimal heatsinking itself on the tiny driver PCB.
The result is that since LED forward voltage is only an average among all specimens produced, individual specimens of LED will have a forward voltage a little higher or lower than the rest. Those with lower voltage will fail right away direct driven from Li-Ion cells, or fry the driver board. Those with average will degrade in output, eventually frying the LED or driver board. A select few with unusually high forward voltage will tolerate it and work fine though only if ran for short periods.
In other words when you see a light spec'd like that, if you buy 100 of them you might get 20 that can run ok off Li-Ion long term, might get 40 that can run short term and die early, and 40 that won't last more than a few hours of intermittent use before failing, if not failing immediately.
One alternative is to not fully recharge the Li-Ion battery so it doesn't start at 4.2V. Every tenth of a vo