# I am impressed! Solarforce L2i, wow, more than expected!



## Brian10962001 (Oct 28, 2010)

First off I had some issues with my first ever Solarforce L2 that I purchased (namely the retainer screw inside the switch was missing). This light is nice, but it had a few bad qualities. One was the silly switch with 1/4in of switch cover sticking out of it, no chance of tail standing this. The other was the general finish, the knurling was weak feeling, and there were some imperfections in the CNC cut SOLARFORCE logo. These wouldn't keep me from purchasing another L2, but honestly I would spend the 5 extra on the L2P (better finish, less crenelation etc.). 

Well today I received my Solarforce L2i. This light is made for 3 AAA's and I purchased it because I wasn't ready to jump into the Li Ion game just yet. This light is AMAZING compared to the regular L2. Mine is sand color, and first off, the finish is amazing, very deep and nice coloration throughout. The knurling on this thing is awesome, very deep, uniform, and clean. The switch, though reverse click, will tail stand! This light is also a bit shorter than the regular L2. Overall there is quite a large margin as far as fit/finish goes on these 2 lights. I have the 3 mode, higher voltage memory module in my L2i right now and it rocks! 

The best part is I paid less for my L2i than my L2! ITC-shop has them on sale even cheaper than I paid right now in his store, I got mine for 12.06 and they're marked down to 7.99, plus 2 shipping for gray or sand color.


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## Ecolang (Oct 28, 2010)

I certainly prefer it to the L2r which I feel is too thin. The L2i just feels better in the hand and the low voltage Solarforce dropins work far better for me with 3 NiMh than 2.

It will also take an 18650 perfectly happily without any wrapping of the cell or other nuisances.

My only dislike is the crenelated bezel that gets shipped with the lights.


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## Brian10962001 (Oct 28, 2010)

I agree, these bezel's are deep, and VERY sharp. I purchased 2 stainless steel flat bezels, and another gray L2i for my g/f tonight :thumbsup: 15 shipped for everything!


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## march.brown (Oct 28, 2010)

Brian10962001 said:


> First off I had some issues with my first ever Solarforce L2 that I purchased (namely the retainer screw inside the switch was missing). This light is nice, but it had a few bad qualities. One was the silly switch with 1/4in of switch cover sticking out of it, no chance of tail standing this. The other was the general finish, the knurling was weak feeling, and there were some imperfections in the CNC cut SOLARFORCE logo. These wouldn't keep me from purchasing another L2, but honestly I would spend the 5 extra on the L2P (better finish, less crenelation etc.).
> 
> Well today I received my Solarforce L2i. This light is made for 3 AAA's and I purchased it because I wasn't ready to jump into the Li Ion game just yet. This light is AMAZING compared to the regular L2. Mine is sand color, and first off, the finish is amazing, very deep and nice coloration throughout. The knurling on this thing is awesome, very deep, uniform, and clean. The switch, though reverse click, will tail stand! This light is also a bit shorter than the regular L2. Overall there is quite a large margin as far as fit/finish goes on these 2 lights. I have the 3 mode, higher voltage memory module in my L2i right now and it rocks!
> 
> The best part is I paid less for my L2i than my L2! ITC-shop has them on sale even cheaper than I paid right now in his store, I got mine for 12.06 and they're marked down to 7.99, plus 2 shipping for gray or sand color.


 I have two L2's and two L2i's and I also prefer the L2i's ... Three of my torches are in the gorgeous sand colour plus the one in black.

The L2i can easily be converted to use a 18650 battery ... I have done both of mine so that now , all my Solarforces use the same type of battery ... I certainly prefer the tailswitch on the L2i as it is nicely recessed into the cap allowing the torch to tailstand easily.

I don't think that the L2i is any better finished than the L2 ... Mine are all excellent ... The knurling is identical though there is more of it on the L2i's ... The body is thicker on the L2i's which probably gives a better grip ... 28.29mm diameter against 25.44mm and the knurling length is 65mm against 40mm.

I have five mode , three mode and single mode dropins (low voltage) and my personal preference is the three mode , though for a house-torch the single mode is great ... The five modes are just a gimic as I certainly won't use the strobe and the SOS modes and it's a pain to have to cycle through the unwanted modes to get back to high ... Unfortunately two of the torches that I bought came with the five mode dropins so I was forced to buy two of the three mode dropins.

I have a stainless flat bezel on one of my L2i's which makes it better for pocket carrying ... I must get another bezel one day.

I think that the genuine Solarforces are the best value for money torches available as are the drop-ins ... For me , there is no reason to buy a more expensive torch than the Solarforce , but then again , I say the same about my ITP's.
.


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## OCD (Oct 28, 2010)

Are the black L2i's the glossy finish like the standard L2 or a matte like the L2P? Tomorrow I pull the trigger on my 1st Solarforce and an still undecided on the body and drop-in!


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## march.brown (Oct 28, 2010)

OCD said:


> Are the black L2i's the glossy finish like the standard L2 or a matte like the L2P? Tomorrow I pull the trigger on my 1st Solarforce and an still undecided on the body and drop-in!


I would class it as glossy.

Go for the Sand coloured with a low voltage , three mode dropin ... My favourite combination ... You can slightly modify the L2i to take a 18650 battery if you want to ... The mod is reversible , so you can still use three AAA's at any time as it just means that you remove the 5mm spacer between the head and the body plus a piece of plastic tubing that holds the 18650 ... The spacer needs to be painted the same colour as the body ... That is why my second L2i is the black colour ... The sand colour isn't easy to match when you paint the spacer ... Maybe a matt stainless spacer would be better.

Also , possibly get the stainless flush fitting bezel if the torch is going to be carried in your pocket.

Whichever you choose , you can't go wrong !
.


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## rekd0514 (Oct 28, 2010)

Does the L2i come with a spacer that allows you to use the cr123 or 18650? If not what do you make one out of?


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## march.brown (Oct 28, 2010)

rekd0514 said:


> Does the L2i come with a spacer that allows you to use the cr123 or 18650? If not what do you make one out of?


The L2i comes with an adaptor that takes three AAA batteries.

If you want to modify it to take a 18650 battery , you have to make a spacer out of the correct size of tubing ... This spacer is only to stop you tightening too much onto the 18650 battery ... It goes between the body and the head and mine is about 5mm long ... Then inside the body you need a piece of tubing that the 18650 fits into to stop it rattling ... If you wanted to use a single CR123 battery then you wouldn't need the spacer ... However you would need a small home-made dummy battery because the CR123 is shorter than the adaptor that takes the three AAA batteries ... I already was using 18650's in the Solarforce L2's so I didn't bother trying to get the CR123's to fit ... The CR123 would still need to be in a piece of tubing to stop it rattling inside the L2i body as the diameter of the CR123 is less than the diameter of the AAA adaptor.

p.s. The spacer can be plastic or metal , whatever you have that fits.
.


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## Ecolang (Oct 28, 2010)

rekd0514 said:


> Does the L2i come with a spacer that allows you to use the cr123 or 18650? If not what do you make one out of?



Mine doesn't appear to need one - the head and tailcap centre the cell and it doesn't rattle in my one with no spacer at all.


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## Brian10962001 (Oct 28, 2010)

I don't own a black Solarforce light, but I do own a grey, and a sand color. The sand is very matte, the grey looks to be a glossy clear over the aluminum. I've read on here that the L2i's are the battery kings and can be converted to take everything from 1 AA to an 18650. I myself am just sticking to the AAA's for now, I just picked up 2 more 4 packs of Rayovac hybrids on eBay. These seem to work well for me, plus I can buy a 15 pack of primaries at any Wal Mart for 6 bucks.


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## OCD (Oct 28, 2010)

The reason I asked if it was glossy or matte is I intend to get a MPP-1 head which is more matte...like the L2P. I want the MPP-1 to match as close as possible.


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## qguy (Oct 29, 2010)

Newbie alert

These are just bodies right ? Can you direct me to link of bulbs that I can mate this with ?

thanks


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## Brian10962001 (Oct 29, 2010)

Any "P60" style drop in for surefire, etc. will fit these lights. I got mine at the same time I purchased the lights. You can get them from DX, from ITC_shop on eBay or directly from him, or from many vendors in the marketplace. You just have to decide what you want. I personally like the new 3 mode module's with the memory. If you're planning on purchasing an L2i I would say go for the low voltage (.8 to 4.5 or something like that) drop in. But the higher voltage modules will work.


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## SirJohn (Oct 29, 2010)

qguy said:


> Newbie alert
> 
> These are just bodies right ? Can you direct me to link of bulbs that I can mate this with ?
> 
> thanks


 
ITC (International Trading Company) sells the drop-ins as well as the bodies as well as the complete flashlights on both their ITC_shop ebay listing and their own website. You can also get these at Lighthound and sbflashlights . If you plan on using a NiMH set-up, you should look at the low voltage drop-ins which are XR-E and now a new XP-G. If you go with 18650 or CR123, you should take a look at some of the higher voltage drop-ins which besides the XR-E and XP-G, also now come in SST-50, P7, MC-E, as well as Xenon.


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## qguy (Oct 29, 2010)

SirJohn said:


> ITC (International Trading Company) sells the drop-ins as well as the bodies as well as the complete flashlights on both their ITC_shop ebay listing and their own website. You can also get these at Lighthound and sbflashlights . If you plan on using a NiMH set-up, you should look at the low voltage drop-ins which are XR-E and now a new XP-G. If you go with 18650 or CR123, you should take a look at some of the higher voltage drop-ins which besides the XR-E and XP-G, also now come in SST-50, P7, MC-E, as well as Xenon.


 
Is there a significant difference in brightness from the low voltage to a higher voltage one or this just lets me use a bigger battery for longer runtime ?


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## rekd0514 (Oct 29, 2010)

The higher voltage driver allows you to run different kinds of batteries. Each AA or AA is 1.2-1.4v and lithium batteries are 4.2v each. It doesn't necessarily mean more run time.


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## ChibiM (Oct 30, 2010)

Thanks for posting this thread Brian.. you got me to get a L2i myself.. no upgrade for my luxeon led anymore


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## A[L]C (Oct 30, 2010)

Any beamshots? And anything to compare it to?

ebay item 280409450046....500 lumens...really?


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## shipwreck (Oct 30, 2010)

So, would 3 rechargeable AAAs, which are 1.2 a piece (so, 3.6 volts) work with the following drop in:

Solarforce 320Lms R5 XP-G Cree Led 3 Mode 0.8V-4.2V Bulb

It only lists the following battery compatibility:

- Battery configuration :
18650 3.7v x 1pc
CR123A 3.0v or 3.7v x 1 pc

But it should also work with rechargeable AAs, right?


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## odd (Oct 31, 2010)

shipwreck said:


> So, would 3 rechargeable AAAs, which are 1.2 a piece (so, 3.6 volts) work with the following drop in:
> 
> Solarforce 320Lms R5 XP-G Cree Led 3 Mode 0.8V-4.2V Bulb
> 
> ...



It works with with 3, 2 or even 1 AA/AAA.
However, the lower the voltage, the less runtime&brightness you will get.


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## shipwreck (Oct 31, 2010)

odd said:


> It works with with 3, 2 or even 1 AA/AAA.
> However, the lower the voltage, the less runtime&brightness you will get.



Ok,and yea, I knew about that with the lower voltage. Thanks


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## A[L]C (Oct 31, 2010)

Is item 270656973107 likely to be brighter/better throw than my nitecore D20?

Thanks
Paul


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## rekd0514 (Oct 31, 2010)

It looks like the D20 has an R2. The R2 has better throw by a bit, but the XP-G R5 has great throw and flood. I like the R5 a lot better personally.


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## Swedpat (Oct 31, 2010)

Hi Brian10962001,

Until a few days ago I had the L2i (gave it to a friend) and really liked the design and format. The stabile tailstanding was also an advantage. 
The only serious drawback was the very noticable (low frequency) PWM at low and mid modes with Solarforce 3 modes dropin. I noticed it all the time and it was for me very annoying.
If there had been a dropin with lower brightness(for better runtime) and without PWM (or much higher frequency) I had kept the light. The highest mode is without PWM but provides only around 45 minutes stable runtime with NiMh cells. Didn't measured with alkalines but I guess it isn't more than 15-20 minutes or so. Way too short time in my opinion. 

Anyway; enjoy your Solarforce! I still have Solarforce L2r and use it with Malkoff M31LL dropin. 

Regards, Patric


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## A[L]C (Oct 31, 2010)

rekd0514 said:


> It looks like the D20 has an R2. The R2 has better throw by a bit, but the XP-G R5 has great throw and flood. I like the R5 a lot better personally.


Mine is the older version with the Q5


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## Brian10962001 (Apr 21, 2011)

UPDATE: I finally brought my L2i up to par. I acquired some 18650's from an old laptop battery pack (panasonics) and a charger from a friend who only uses AAA's at this point. The L2i screws down fully on these with no problems (non protected of course). The R2 drop in was nice but I've purchased an XML and an XPG since then and the L2i was lagging behind my l2m (second favorite solarforce light!) and even the ugly l2. 

Last night I decided to fix up the gem of the collection. I pulled the Manafont XML out of the L2, pulled the R2 drop in from the L2i, swapped the OP bezel onto the XML and placed it in the L2i. WOW! This thing is a light cannon and the OP reflector cleans up the XML so very much! It also seems to have improved the tint of the thing, the light is very white now. There really isn't much of a hot spot, it's basically a big flooder, but for the sheer quantity of light it puts out that doesn't seem to matter much! 

I also have some pics of the light pre last night mods. I was looking to purchase another L2i in sand for my dad, but they don't have them in stock now! I bought a silver color one for my g/f that she carries every day, I just might steal her OP reflector and give her the smooth one from the XML  Wonder if she'll notice the cree ring in the beam LOL.


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## Blitzwing (Apr 21, 2011)

I got the black L2i to go with my Pro-1 - the deal that Solarforcesales does. The thicker body makes it feel more substantial in the hand and yes, I think the knurling feels better than on any of my four L2's (I have three in the sand colour and one natural silver). I like the tailstand switch of the L2i also.

I found that a red and black Ultrafire protected 18650 was a very tight fit, lengthwise, in the L2i and Pro-1 combo, so used an O ring between the head and the body to give more room. Inserted a short length of poly tube to stop the 18650 skewing in the fat battery tube, and replaced the switch boot with a GITD one from DX. Looks good, works good too. An extension tube for the L2i body would be nice for a 2x 18650 option. 

IMO the L2's are an absolute bargain.


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## velociraptor (Apr 27, 2011)

Can anyone show me where can I purchase the Solarforce setup that mentioned above? Thanks.


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## trooplewis (Apr 27, 2011)

Just go to solarforce-sales dot com


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## odd (Apr 27, 2011)

velociraptor said:


> Can anyone show me where can I purchase the Solarforce setup that mentioned above? Thanks.


 Direct links aren´t allowed afaik, but you´ll find the store when you search for "solarforce sales" on google..


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## chiphead (May 6, 2011)

What sort of drop-in do you have in the head? What kind of batteries are you running in it?
Chiphead, Austin,TX


Brian10962001 said:


> First off I had some issues with my first ever Solarforce L2 that I purchased (namely the retainer screw inside the switch was missing). This light is nice, but it had a few bad qualities. One was the silly switch with 1/4in of switch cover sticking out of it, no chance of tail standing this. The other was the general finish, the knurling was weak feeling, and there were some imperfections in the CNC cut SOLARFORCE logo. These wouldn't keep me from purchasing another L2, but honestly I would spend the 5 extra on the L2P (better finish, less crenelation etc.).
> 
> Well today I received my Solarforce L2i. This light is made for 3 AAA's and I purchased it because I wasn't ready to jump into the Li Ion game just yet. This light is AMAZING compared to the regular L2. Mine is sand color, and first off, the finish is amazing, very deep and nice coloration throughout. The knurling on this thing is awesome, very deep, uniform, and clean. The switch, though reverse click, will tail stand! This light is also a bit shorter than the regular L2. Overall there is quite a large margin as far as fit/finish goes on these 2 lights. I have the 3 mode, higher voltage memory module in my L2i right now and it rocks!
> 
> The best part is I paid less for my L2i than my L2! ITC-shop has them on sale even cheaper than I paid right now in his store, I got mine for 12.06 and they're marked down to 7.99, plus 2 shipping for gray or sand color.


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## Brian10962001 (May 6, 2011)

It's had the 4.2 to 8.4 volt R2 drop in running on AAA's, then it had that running on a laptop scrounged 18650. Next I put an Ultrafire from Manafont XML with the R2's orange peel reflector in it, ran this off of the AAA's and it was pretty weak, ran it on the 18650 and it's crazy. Now I have the Solarforce low voltage XPG with smooth reflector in it running on the 18650 because I took the OP XML and put it in my L2m running an Ultrafire 18350 ") Talk about a surprise, that tiny little thing will light up a room! The XPG in the L2i is the ultimate compromise between stupid light output with a hungry draw, and good light with moderate draw. I have 4 drop ins all together, 3 of them are Solarforces, one of them is the Ultrafire.


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## Tuikku (Jun 24, 2011)

I think I broke my L2i with Solarforce XP-G low voltage dropin 

Weird.
I have used it with 18650, I know it can press clicky and circuit board hard.

BUT:

I was using 3x regular alkies (AAA, draining them). Light was on, put it off -> not turning on anymore 

Fresh Eneloop AAA´s in, no function. Clicky is OK.

Is there a chance, the light did not like very low voltage batts or is it just a coincidence it broke down then? :shrug:


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## Tuikku (Jul 1, 2011)

Yep, driver was busted.

I luckily had a spare, AK-47 1 amp driver from DX.
I soldered it for a good hour, still could not get it into 3-mode state.
Simple reason, some stupid guy didn´t notice he was trying to solder this one instead of AK-47. It was AK-47c... Stars do nothing in it how matter how many you bridge








Soooo....
Finally got it working. 
What can I say, it drives now "only" 1,03A on high. Solarforces original 3-mode low voltage was more powerful.
BUT, you know what? It´s fantastic!!! Absolutely great! *Now I finally have the L2i I was wishing for!* The driver has some advantages (I did not even know these before).
-*Very high PWM*, 5,3KHz, not noticeable at all :thumbsup:
-Now the low mode *IS LOW* (4%) :twothumbs
-I have LOW-MED-HIGH + I can change mode groups if I at some point may need a beacon or strobe or whatever






Day is saved. 3$ investment.
Yep, I will recommend even though you lose some lumens.
I did not even change the R5 led, it happened to have such a nice warmish tint so why try others (got 2 or three at shelf).


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