Deliveries from China...

[Radagast]

Aspherics arrived from DX today.
Found one of my bare hosts lacked the lens locking ring and the other lacks the partition (dunno the correct term) between the pill and the battery. Good job DX! There are a few other indications that these are built by the lowest bidder. Threads are rough, no silicone lube, etc.
I'm wondering if the empty hosts they send out are seconds.

[some bloke]

I suspect the partition thing is only there to make up the length of a non protected battery. To be fair they are cheaper than a bag of fish and chips.

The Ahorton lens is cheaper over there than here - did you get a couple with the spacers?

[Radagast]

Not yet, I spent more than I should have in the last two weeks, lots of batteries, dozen torches, DSA & scope, E700 & screen.. then my laptop started to die so a new one too. Have to top up the wallet before I buy some more toys.

Back to the 501Bs.
One of the hosts was also missing the O ring at the lens, and the internal locking ring for the tail cap was the wrong size. Bottom line? The black DX 501B hosts are crap, would not buy another.

To be fair the white light torches were OK, one has become my sisters bump in the night torch, the other rides in the console of my car.

The red Cree / natural aluminum torch fit and finish is excellent, knurling pattern is sharp, lockings rings large and well fitted, well cut large threads. But the output is nothing compared to the T20. Tried one DX Aspheric, did get a die pattern, but it appeared to be several die patterns laid over each other and a lot of spill rings. Internal reflection maybe? Using a blacked out reflector it was worse. So I've put it back together as a standard red 501B.

I'll wait till I've got some more spare cash, then buy two more red torches as donor bodies and then go the A Horten route. Will probably get a couple of pills off you when I'm ready.
Just a thought, your aspheric Snidelight conversion? Have you thought of selling pills & spacers for those?

[Radagast]

Banggood order from the 19th now shows as shipped. Not the fastest, but they seem to be a fairly reliable supplier.

[Radagast]

Ordered oversize O-rings for the T20 from Ebay dealers au.deal & solaluna88 on the 27th. Delivered 9th for both packages. Both came from MRD & Industrial Supply.

Ordered 16mm F1.2 M12 board lens for the E700, as recommended by Michael40, from Ebay dealer gadgetextreme on the 28th. Delivered on the 9th.

[some bloke]

3 memory mode drivers arrived from banggood today - and anther package from fasttech too. Looks like the issues were indeed just a glitch in the X-ray dept at the export depo.

[Radagast]

FastTech order from 25th arrived 10th. Getting better.

[Radagast]

Ordered a 12 volt lipo battery from these guys: http://www.ebay.com.au/usr/electronic.wholesale365
Ordered 28th, delivered 16th. 18 days turn around. Haven't checked if its any good yet.

CS mount conversion. Again 18 days turn around.
http://www.ebay.com.au/itm/121202643148 ... 1497.l2649

Torch mount. Again 18 days.
http://www.ebay.com.au/itm/171129476864 ... 1497.l2649

Panasonic 18650 batteries from Banggood.com
Ordered 21/11/ arrived 16/12. 26 days.

All my orders from China on 18/11 arrived today, except for a 5 inch screen from Ebayer Eachdesk. Will be interesting to see if they fail to deliver as they have for other members.

[22-250jock]

fastech order arrived saturday..........order placed on 26th...........18 days, not bad at all

seems they may have caught up with the backlog

cheers jock

[Radagast]

http://www.hongkongpost.hk/eng/publicat ... /index.htm

This pretty much explains the backlog.