Help find-best "cheap" led flashlight !

[Toke]

... TOKE: Thanks for your help and the links that you have supplied. Let me know what happens when the lens supplier thing gets straightened out ... .

I have just received the aspheric lens , it gives an odd picture on the wall.
A lot of spill, a dark ring, and an out of focus picture of the diode face in the centre.

There is no real room to change the focus length, but it might still be an improvement in throw overall.
I will try check again when it gets darker.

 

[sandidgepatrick]

recieved lightake flashlights 2day ( 2 p7 ultrafire 18650 3mode flashlights))...wow best 40.00 ive spent in awhile....900lumens in a pocket carring flashlight....small compact and brighter than my 3d maglite conversion.... 20.00 each u cant go wrong..love them

 

[lightake]

Thanks very much for you satisfy with our products, Enjoy yourself !
Please feel free to ask me if you have any question !

Best Regards,
Daniel

 

[randomlugia]

recieved lightake flashlights 2day ( 2 p7 ultrafire 18650 3mode flashlights))...wow best 40.00 ive spent in awhile....900lumens in a pocket carring flashlight....small compact and brighter than my 3d maglite conversion.... 20.00 each u cant go wrong..love them

Just curious which lights did you get?

 

[Prototype]

I have just received the aspheric lens , it gives an odd picture on the wall.
A lot of spill, a dark ring, and an out of focus picture of the diode face in the centre.

There is no real room to change the focus length, but it might still be an improvement in throw overall.
I will try check again when it gets darker.

Are you still using the reflector (probably a dumb question but have to be sure)?

 

[Toke]

Are you still using the reflector (probably a dumb question but have to be sure)?

Yes, I just removed the front glass and replaced it with the aspheric lens.
The reflector is holding the drop-in pill in place so I can't simply remove it.
I am pretty sure it would cost me a lot of light too.

 

[Prototype]

That's most likely why, reflector + aspheric is a bad combo, are you getting something like this?

^That's from this thread here: DealExtreme Product Forum: Review and Pics of Modded Flashlight

One option is (is it a smooth reflector or orange peel/light texture?) is if it's a really smooth one is to black out the reflector in some way (I would think matte black paint would work fairly well) and you should get a normal die shaped output.

 

[Toke]

Yes, pretty close.
It seems to me that blackening the reflector would just remove the spill, not improve the centre light cone?

 

[Prototype]

I don't think you'll get just a die output using a reflector and aspheric, but you can get close doing that? (not really sure) Friend of mine (and old member, CompWiz) has DealExtreme: $23.32 Ultrafire WF-008 Recoil Thrower Cree Q5-WC 230-Lumen LED Flashlight (1*18650/2*CR123A), and said it's a pretty great thrower, has a pic of it putting a nice spot on his garage from a pretty good ways, can't remember just how far though, sorry.

 

[Toke]

Well, I am actually quite happy with this.
I might get some improvement by grinding a bit off the reflector or bezel ring to adjust focus length.

 

[BShanahan14rulz]

Order LED Kit
^interesting concept for increasing die luminance and therefore, spot brightness. Instead of the reflector reflecting light forwards, it reflects unusable light directly back to the LED chip.