The flashlight was sent to me by Convoy for review.
Here's the product's listing: Convoy M3
As with most Convoys, the packaging is pretty simple, with the M3 containing just 2 thick o-rings that can be used as an 18650 to 26650 adapter.
(My unit came is a thin paper box, but Simon informed me that from now on the M3 ships in a hard craft box)
The M3 comes with excellent matte black anodization and is e-switch operated.
Judging by its chalky feel, the anodization is probably HA III.
The head of the flashlight has some heatsinking grooves, while the body is covered by a squared pattern that helps in grip.
The e-switch is very tactile.
It's protected by a rubber boot and is secured in place via a polished metal retainer.
The XHP70.2 emitter (mine is 5000K) is seated inside an orange peel reflector and is perfectly centered.
Here's a closer look at the disassembled reflector setup.
The emitter is mounted on a copper DTP board.
Two screws make sure that the the PCB doesn't rotate while the reflector is installed.
The tail of the M3 is flat, which allows it to tail stand with no problem.
Thanks to the dual cutout, a lanyard can be installed.
Of course, the rear end houses the spring assembly.
Keeping up with the tradition, the M3 comes with spring bypasses for maximum power efficiency.
The head houses the 6V boost driver which is secured in place via a brass retainer.
Just like with the tail spring, the driver is also spring bypassed.
The tail comes with thick, square cut, anodized threads.
Great lubrication from the factory.
The head side threads are identical to the tail's minus the missing anodization.
User Interface
The M3 uses a simple and easy to remember UI.
Here's all the supported actions by the flashlight's firmware.
Turn on/off: Single press.
Mode cycle: Long press (Low > Medium > High > Turbo > Low > ...)
Turbo: Double press while off
Low: Long press while off.
The driver comes with mode memory and LVP.
Output
In order to get my measurements I used my DPS5020 bench power supply set at 4.1V.
Here's the output of each mode along with the respective current draw.
Turbo gave me 4203 lumen which is quite close to the advertised 4300Lumen rating and it's an impressive number for a single cell flashlight.
I also measured the parasitic drain at 184μΑ.
Output and Thermal Regulation
Here's the output regulation graph I created for all the available modes.
What we can see in the graph:
- Turbo is fully regulated down to 3.7V
- Once the battery drops below 3.7V, Turbo is no longer accessible and will stepdown immediately.
- High mode is fully regulated down to 3.2V
- Medium is fully regulated down to 3.0V
- Low is fully regulation for the whole span of the battery.
- (Not shown in graph) LVP kick in at 2.7V
Based on my graph, I am really impressed with the power regulation achieved by the M3.
Good job Simon :)
And here's a 15min thermal regulation graph.
What we can see from the graph:
- Turbo is sustainable for 96secs. After that, the light will stepdown to 1650 lumen.
- At any point ( did that 3 times during testing), Turbo can be invoked.
- The duration of the re-invoked Turbo will depend on the flashlight's temperature.
- The stepdown mode is fully sustainable and regulated.
As you can see, the thermal regulation of the flashlight is also excellent.
The head's temperature never got too hot to handle, even after 3 consequent Turbo re-invocations.
Outdoor Beamshots
Tree at 30m
White house at 75m
And the entire road lit up
As you might can guess, this is another great flashlight from Convoy.
It pretty match matches the L6's performance (in terms of output - the beam is of course floodier in the M3) at a more compact form factor.
Update: 01.02.2020
Thermal Pad Mod
Today I decided to do a little Mod on the M3.
I received a thermal pad from eBay (they are sold for dirt cheap).
Cut two strips, split the strips in squares, stacked them and placed them inside the driver's groove.
I made sure to align everything so that the conductor sits directly on top of the thermal pads.
And the results.
This time stepdown occured at 2:40, which means that I got an extra minute of Turbo sustainability :)