For review I have the Prairie Fire T6-D7 XM-L 1x18650 5 mode flashlight ... From DX
Now it only took some 4 months or so for DX to get this light out the door , so not impressed with the delivery time at all . Other online dealers seem to be doing much better , so vote with your $$ cash .
Anyhow , getting past DX .
Surprisingly nice little light I must say , little , well its not much bigger than a p60
And there are some very nice XM-L lights out there that could replace a p60 host if you wanted a XM-L that ran 18650 ...
My only (2) complaint , well there are two of them , is the insanely low PWM on low , I measured some 61.2Hz , thats so low you can see it pulsing with the naked eye .
The other is , you cant get the emitter centred in the reflector as one side of the reflector pushes off the neg wire , so as you tighten , the reflector gets pushed slightly to one side , ouch !
Other than that :
The light is built as 3 major components , the Head , the body , and the tailcap . Everything screws together well , very nice tolerances , very nice fits , generally this light is put together above average , and I must say , in the last year , budget lights have been much better made than say 2 or 3 years ago .
The battery fits really well
Here you can see the interesting way the tailcap was put together ...
Here is the head : The emitter and driver are in a pill that screws out
Now I kind of like this arrangement , as it makes life easy if you want to mod etc .
I have to say Im very pleased with the build quality of this light , some one went to at least some effort to manufacture a good product ..
There is nothing shoddy about this light , though some may make light of the name , this product has impressed with the build quality .
Lets check out the performance:
Fireworm 18650
First measurements were with the MM and light box at the same time , then I did light box + with the tailcap on so you can see how the tailcap affects performance .
High - 2.6A - 850L...........Lets do it with the Tailcap on = 735L
Med - 1.433A - 480L........" + Tailcap " = 394L
Low - 0.72A - 250L.........." + Tailcap " = 214L
Lets check out the Sanyo 2600 , an excellent battery ,
with the Sanyo I saw some 3.7A (thats 1.1A increase over the Fireworm) and some 1100+L which sagged to 1040L and seemed to hold (3.6A) less tailcap .
With the tailcap , I saw some 870+L which sagged to 825L and looked to hold ...
Moving to throw @ 1Meter ...
Fireworm = 20000Lux on High , 11200Lux on Medium and 5100Lux on Low
Sanyo 2600 = 23600Lux on High , 12400 on Medium and 6300Lux on Low
Beam is very typical XM-L , white hotspot , yellow greeny corona , with a sort of blue purple tint spill ... [ depending on how you see color ] , so Im being very general here .
So as one can tell , the tailcap does affect performance a lot , so simply working from current readings alone , would offer a false representation of the lights capability as its an important part of the equation , but one certainly can see there is potential if one were willing to seek a solution to the added resistance of the tailcap .
Beams tonight :
Low - Medium - High .... 3 different angles ...
Took the light for a walk , nice , not overly large or heavy ..
Shinning it into the local park , it threw ok but the beam spreads out a little faster than other lights .. But still a very nice thrower for size .
Low mode is a little on the high side (200L+) , the light does not tailstand well as the tailcap protrudes a little
Glass Lens
Aluminium Reflector (Smooth)
5 modes [ High - Med - Low - Strobe - SOS ]
No mode memory
Well cut threads
Nice even anodizing
Nice tolerances between parts
PWM = YEs , very low 61Hz on Low , around 120Hz on medium