Review: YEZL T9 "Flood to Throw" Zooming XML Light

LED Flashlights – General Info 18650 Flashlights
12

I should have read this review first...

I bought the T9 thinking it would have been cool to have this zoomie thing throw to flood with the power of XM-L.

I was wrong. Unimpressive at best.

I also have the same Ultrafire Uf-009 which KLowD9x tested the T9 against, and reached the same conclusions, the Ultrafire is better overall.

The throw is almost the same, the T9 projected a slightly bigger square hotspot at distance, but the Ultrafire reach a bit farther. Ultrafire do not warm at all, T9 heats up rapidly. So the overall efficiency is better for Ultrafire.

The flood of T9 is good and bright, brighter than Uf009 flood, but T9 is a very large hotspot (darken in the middle) meanwhile Uf009 is a full flood which is like a worklight, very useful for short distance working. You can hang it from the hood and lighten up the whole engine bay plus the ground around where you left all the tools!

(it may be usefull to explain for those who does not know it, that Uf-009 has two leds, an XR-E recoil for throw, and an XP-G front mounted for flood. See review here: https://budgetlightforum.com/t/-/2720 )

Also, given the zoom construction, Yezl T9 cannot be considered really waterproof, because zooming out will suck air (or water) into the body.

Also dislike the plastic lense, too easy to scratch. Even fingerprints can scratch it.

So at the end after playing with it for a few days, I resold it.

13

That will be the one you have touched you in series, making him the improvements that willbetter show below twice, then it would happen for quite to that comment.

http://www.forolinternasled.com/bricolaje/la-canon-cree-xm-l-u2-1a-1050-lumexx-1x18650-zoom-t172.html

14

Sorry man, but can't understand what you are saying...

Google translator at it's worst, maybe?

15

Ok thank you.

My model is very good t9 modified.

16

With a better lens, it is one of my favourites with its size.

17

I've got one, but for a good price I would get a second haha, I am waiting to see a comparison with the TR Z6 too.

18

Hello Gorann,

Here you got my impressions of this light:

Pros:

You can zoom in and out with one hand easily.

For short distances, the flood is great ( 180cm@1m with a very homogeneous spot).

For long distances, it throws quite good, not as much as a XR-E with the same lens, but more than smaller lenses (X2000.MXDL etc).

It is compact enoght to be on a pocket, it is not the typical light you leave at home (at least me, I leave the TR1200 and others with similar dimensions normally).

Cons:

Not all drivers are the same on this light, it might come close to 3A on high or not (mine wasn't and it is DD now).

There is an o-ring on the head, and other on the pill, it makes it more "weatherproof" but, it adds the "bellows" effect, that is to say, it doesn't stay where you leave the head position, you can solve it just making a little mark on the lens edge, or removing the front o-ring.

The lens could be better, it is good for flood, but on throw, the image of the die could be sharper, getting a bit more of throw, you can improve it replacing it by the one on the SMALL SUN ZY-C10-S, which is the only one I know off available now (there used to be a better one on a X2000 with 2*16500 at Ultraok.

Some people had problems with the switch, it is more or less easy to be repaired just dissasembling and assembling it again.

Well, that is all I can tell about this light, even with the cons, I like it a lot as all of them can be fixed so far.

As far as I know, the only competitor is the TR Z6, but it has a smaller lens with less throw, and I don't know yet about the flood, I am waiting response from a friend who has both, but he told me it does throw less, but in the other hand it is better built.

*And the EDI-T P15, but that one is far from this prices, and I believe it has the same lens,switch and driver, as the driver is already marked by EDI-T on the Yezl, has the same lens diameter, and exactly the same switch, and just to add something like a proove of it, I asked the dealer of EDI-T in Spain and couldn't say it didn't come from their factory..

Sorry for the long brick I have written hahaha.

19

The switch in mine began to fail and I pretty much destroyed the tailcap getting the switch out. It was some really crappy designed pressed/locked in switch. It was the first light I ever had with this type of switch.

20

To dissasemble it, the best way is making two small holes on the plastic ring that retains the switch, and then unscrewing it.

21

Unfortunately it has now become a donor light. I really liked the light for its flood. I ended up taking the XML and driver and swapped it into a really cheap Tractor Supply 3xAA light. It now runs on a 26650. Its kinda of a poor mans JM07 lol.

22

I just got mine. I may look for a Fresnel or thicker lens for it.

23

It gave out after a few minutes of testing, before I figured out the modes. Probably the electronic driver failed, but I am not sure it was not the led or connections. Maybe the driver could not take the rapid switching when I turned the tail cap. The treads are anodized but a bit rough.
Now I have replaced the led with a warm white T5 XM-L2, and the driver with a 7135 x 8. I smoothed the tail cap threads and wrapped a bit of paper around them to make it work as a twisty, replaced with duct tape. The tail button switch only momentarily interrupts to switch modes.
It does out throw my Raysoon TD-398 SK-98 clone with the same driver and its original T6, with a much smaller and moderately brighter spot, as expected from the first order optics. (The optics logic goes as follows: If you scale up the lens with the same focal length to diameter ratio, the throw increases because it catches the same amount of light but focuses it to a smaller sport. The Yezl has a longer focal length than that, which, in the limit of small diameter to focal length, does not change the throw but only makes the spot smaller.) Flood is right about the same.
I have a thicker lens of the right diameter, but it is too thick at the edge for the bezel to hold it on. As expected, it gives similar throw with a larger spot, on the ceiling because the bezel does not hold it in place. If I had a lathe, I could extend the step back farther into the moving head to make room for the thicker outer edge of the lens.
I was not able to find a short focal length Fresnel lens of near the right size. Apparently stage lighting is the only thing they are used for, and those are too big. Based on my earlier tests, that would be the ideal solution.
I still love the shape and most of the workmanship. I feel I have made enough pottery and jewelery to know a nice shape when I feel and see it. Fins would be silly on a light with such a big head. I ordered a UniqueFire UF-T20, which according to Any info about UniqueFire UF-T20?, performs better, but from the pictures it looks ugly. Maybe I can cannibalise its lens.

TangsFire C8, Yezl T9 with XM-L2 and 7135 x 8, Raysoon TD-398 with 7135 x 8.

24

Here is the knurling, using the light’s own lens to shorten the focus of my digital camera.

25

I seem to be finally making progress. The “38 mm.” lens from DX is 38.3 mm and does not fit, but the very similar lens from a UniqueFire UF-T20 does fit, and the DX lens fits in the UF and works. The problem now is that the bezel of the Yezl won’t fit over the UF lens, but I can get a half round file and make it fit. The UF is pug ugly and has very poor flood, but it is nice not to have to degrade it to get its lens.
(An expensive lens I ordered does not fit because it is too thick at the rim, and a lens blank I got from a surplus store is not even short focal length.)
Added: The reason the expensive lens does not fit well is that instead of having a flange around the outside, it has a (sort of dead) 38 mm. cylindrical thickness next to the flat face. So its usable area is a couple of mm. larger than that of the others. If I attach it to the sliding head with solvent glue and no bezel, I will have a slightly larger area of lens with an only slightly longer focal length than with the UF-T20 lens.

26

I filed the bezel and it works.

The Yezl with the UniqueFire lens, right, vs. the UniqueFire with the DX lens, left.

The long zoom movement with the short focal length lens makes very small spots at close range possible, but I can’t think of a use of it.

Only the reverse intermittent tail switch remains an imperfection. It works fine as a twisty, but duct tape is not an elegant solution. Maybe I will wait till I get the second one I have ordered before fooling with the tail.

Added: I filed about a mm. off the back of the sliding head to increase the flood.

27

My second one finally arrived. There was a brief period when it didn’t work. Maybe the tail wasn’t connecting. I have still not figured out the modes of the electronic switch driver controlled by momentary interruptions in the power. The build seems even better than that of the first one, because the tail cap threads don’t have projections that bypass the switch when it is being screwed on.
Added: This one is from Computer T’s store on AliExpress, http://www.aliexpress.com/item/Yezl-T9-CREE-XM-L-T6-1x18650-Zoomable-Flashlight-Big-Head-Flashlight/1520701179.html. It is cheaper than the one from CNQ and also a better example, because of the tail threads. They do make contact when the head is being screwed on, but not as much. It can be locked out by unscrewing the tail cap.

28

There should be more documentation on the mode control. All I have been able to find is four stars of decreasing brightness under “on” and ” 1 / 3 / 9 Hz / SOS ” under “off”, engraved near the switch. That seems correct but doesn’t tell me everything. There is a user selectable level, where it gradually changes brightness until the switch is pressed to select a level. If it keeps working long enough for me to figure it out this time, I think I will like it. Unscrewing the tail does lock it out on this one.
It does not fit protected cells, and I don’t know if it has low voltage protection in the driver. I didn’t see a coil on the broken driver from the first one, so the battery is protected by the led’s forward voltage.

29

As the tail cap says, the steady modes are reached from on and the blinky ones from off. It seems to have no memory. One click from off turns it on high. One click from any on state turns it off. Two clicks from high turns it to medium. Two clicks from any other on state turns it on high. Three clicks from high turns it to low. Four clicks from high cycles the brightness, and a click selects a brightness from there. This does not seem to be remembered.
Two clicks from off turns it to 1 Hz. blink, 3 clicks from off to 3 Hz., 4 to 9 Hz. and 5 clicks to SOS.
In case we are bored with this simple behavior, three clicks from medium or low turns it to 1 Hz., 4 clicks to 3 Hz. and 5 clicks to 9 Hz. There seems to be no way to reach the low steady modes from any state without going through high, not good for retaining night vision.
With an old Tenergy cell charged to 3.9 V, I read 1.8 A, 0.8 A, 0.4 A and cycling.
When I focus it to a small spot and wave it in circles on the ceiling in low mode, I see dots from pulse width modulation, but this has not been noticeable until I looked for it. I don’t hear any noise.
So this is a very versatile driver, but probably too complicated for most users, especially with only the documentation etched on the tail cap. I like it and don’t expect to replace it unless it brakes, as the first one apparently did. I only plan to change the lens (though it does have better flood than the one with the short focal length lens).
This is the best flashlight I have ever bought and about the second best I have.
Added: It does have some memory. The only thing I have found it remembering is the pick-your-own brightness mode. It doesn’t remember the choice, but it goes back to cycling when I turn it back on.
Added later: The driver’s user interface is documented in the description of the Yezl T91 Loading.... The only difference appears to be a charging port, but there might be quality control differences.

30

> Two clicks from high turns it to medium.
> Two clicks from any on state turns it on high.

Does that mean “Two clicks from on-anything-but-high turns it on high” ?

31

Yes, thanks, I fixed that.