Review: MaxToch Mission M12

Of course I couldn't leave it alone. There were obvious candidates for a resistor mod on the driver. The driver is pretty nicely done - thermal pads, thermal epoxy, thick board, sweetest retainer ring I've seen in a while - heavy, large brass.

I could not tell what the limiting resistors are, but there are two large ones in parallel labeled R1. Tried measuring resistance over it, think possible it measured 0.1 ohms, but not sure. So figured I'd try an R100, as shown below:

Well on 2 cells, it sure made a hugh difference!

On 2 protected KP's at ~4.0V, the tail amps on a clamp DMM showed 4.45A, and lumens:

2,050 @start, 1,940 @30 secs

throw: 158 kcd taken at 5m (795 meters)

That's a big bump. In amps it went from 2.55A to 4.45A. It might be a little beyond the peak of the XPL, depending on how much amps is really getting to the LED. 7A to 8A is about peak.

On one cell, it bumped it up but not much. Tial amps went from 3.44A to 3.85A on a LK cell, lumens:

1,350 @start, 1,323 @30 secs

I'm thinking bypassing the springs should help in the single cell configuration, and probably make no difference with 2 cells, where it's well buck regulated.

That is interesting Tom, found out that most issues I’m having with this driver only happen while running it with 2 cells, running it with a single cell the tactical turbo will finally stay on as long as I hold the switch, sounds similar to our German friends issues and who’s replacing the driver, I think it was the two cells he was saying gave him problems also. Amanda said they are having driver issues but wouldn’t say what exactly so that’s not much help really… ha ha

Ok, with two cells, now I'm seeing some flaky behavior, maybe exactly or similar to T18's. The tactical/momentary does shut itself off shortly, other odd behaviors. Mainly the big issue is the flashing red LED that indicates low battery when in fact the batteries are close to fully charged. I'm thinking the false hit on LVP is the cause of all these problems. I can see the output kick down by itself, and the red flashing going from slow flashes to fast flashes, which means the output will be cut down or cut off altogether.

However since I have my light aggressively resistor modded, I can't be sure my problems are related to the mod or not. I'm willing to take the risk, since my long term plan is to replace the driver with a custom one anyway.

Since T18 is describing something similar to what mine does, and he's referencing other unknown owners (German friends?), and said Amanda admits there's a driver problem, I would not recommend this XPL (HD or HI) version of the light until we can find out more

I would like to know if T18, or anyone else is seeing the blinking red LED around the switch when the cells are not low - if so, then I would feel more confident it's the same problem, and not related to my resistor mod.

I would like to see Amanda respond to this issue directly though, or directly quoted.

Is it possible to do a resistor mod on Maxtoch Shooter 2x XM-L2 U4 LED also?

It is possible yes…….I would advise that you don’t though unless you are going to put a different emitter in the light.
The reason I say this is that the 2X with the U4 1A is performing at about the best it can the way it is from the factory and the U4 emitters will start frying at just above 5 amps from all I have seen on them. The driver is already making about 4.5 amps as it is so any increase will be putting it at the threshold of what it can handle.

I have the old, maybe original 2X and resistor modded it wayyy back. Also did one for jmpaul320 back then. Most likely the new ones could be resistor modded the same way. They will get hot though, and not sure if the Maxtoch's have any timed or temperature step down.

Ohhh - just saw robo's post - true, the original ones were probably U2's so could take more amps. I've blown dedomed U4's before. XPL's would do much better as well. Didn't measure it, but I'm thinking mine is getting 7.5 - 8.5A to the LED.

Tom, you and T18 have got me wondering now.

I just ordered a Sniper M24 yesterday.

Do they have these symptoms or known issues?

Oh joy. Both the wife and I are home with an intestinal bug of some sort.

Very doubtful. The M12 is new territory for Maxtoch - e-switch drivers are quite different, probably a different design, different firmware.

I wanted the M12 only because of the e-switches, so I can get ramping Narsil in it. Will try to go with a XHP50.2 if I can fit it with a centering piece.

The M24’s have been pretty much problem free with the new design.

I researched the M24 and 2x Shooter quite a lot and did not find any recent (last 6 months) issues.

It seem, you, T18, and robo are the main users of Maxtoch here on the forum that I've seen most. So figured to ask.

Did not mean to get headed off topic!

There are a number of people in the forum who have had a good many dealings with Maxtoch over time actually , TomE has in the past and recently also and he is also well informed with the Maxtoch brand.

I am not affiliated with them as far as any kind of pay or monetary reimbursement though as it may seem I might be at times……lol

I have just always really liked their products and feel they make some very good quality lights and they always stand behind their product. One of the few that really listen to what is said in the forum and try to work with us as much as they can.

Have you heard anything much more bout the M12 issues? She had 2 posts here, but otherwise hasn't been active for 11 months.

I'll try pm'ing her, but understand there's the May Day Chinese holiday from 4/29 to May 1st.

I have actually sent her an email about the driver on the M12 to see if she has any news about it already Tom.

EDIT: forgot about the holiday…………

Ohh - ok, shoot - just pm'ed her. Well we got her covered by email and pm then

I am sure she will get back to one , or both of us ASAP then.

The main reason the XM-L2 U4 1A was chosen for the newer 2X was that we tried the XP-L HI in it first. It took 6 amps to get almost identical K Lux from the Hi emitter as the U4 1A was doing at 4.5 amps.

It just made sense at that time to go with the emitter that was running much more efficiently with same output and get the run times on up as much as possible , especially since the 2X was being targeted at the hunting community mainly and the longer run times were preferred , so they didn’t have to worry about battery changes as often in the field.

Oh yea, totally agree - that would be expected. But... dedome a V6 binned XPL HD, and you got something decent there. Find a W2 bin, even better. Not all XPL HD's dedome easy though. I think the U4's dedome fairly easy from what I recall. To me right now, the XPL HD dedoming is the best choice out there - super high amps can be achieved, on a V6 or W2 bin, outstanding results.

Of course XP-G2's are another option, specially with a nice high amp buck driver (ideal for dedomed XP-G2's btw) but not everyone cares for the small tight beam and lower lumens.

For Maxtoch though, if they want to stay under 5A, the dedomed U4 still is the best option. According to the CREE datasheets, a XM-L2 U4 is about equal to a XPL W2 bin, so if you are using XPL V5 or V6, it's not as good. a V6 is about equal to a U3.

There are ways now guys are finding to dedome XPL's with not much loss of lumens or the nasty tint shift. I'm not sure I understand the how of it. Mitko has described/listed the chemicals he uses, but they aren't available in most countries/states. I'm experimenting with racing fuel now - still need to test results. It does not make dedoming XPL's any easier though, least so far, from traditional gas from the pump.

Hi guys

Since the topic has quiet down, I would like to share my predicament with Maxtoch M12 XPL HI version. The first day I received this flashlight, I noticed bad coronas around the hotspot. Upon closer examination, I can see that the entire bottom part of the reflector, around 2 to 3 cm is littered with some sort of film deposition.

Pictures shown below:

“Open image in new tab to enlarge”

Video:

video 20170521 172104 - YouTube (View in 720p resolution)

I tried washing it off using water but to my dismay I created some fine lines even when I didnt use any medium to clean it other than my fingers.

Long story short, Amanda refused to replace the reflector for me, pushed the blame to banggood (still bitter over banggood slight discount I guess) and when banggood tried to help me (super helpful people there, two thumbs up for them for now) they said the manufacturer refused to send a replacement, citing no availability of spare parts.

What say you guys? Maxtoch quality? Maxtoch customer service? Seriously, Amanda. :person_facepalming:

That sound pretty bad. these aren't cheap lights.

Sorry to hear that.

My SHOOTER 2X from 2014 year has that kind of film on the reflector too. Thanks I haven’t tried to clean it up.

It’s not a good sign in these class of flashlights.