There has been a proliferation of 3 x XM-L lights released recently from some of the biggest names in the flashlight industry. Sunwayman had been conspicuously absent from that list but no longer, they have now entered the fray with the release of their T60CS:
The sample I received is from their very first production run but there should be little to no changes from officially released versions (I'll report back in case there are any).
MFG SPECS
MSRP: $205 USD
● CREE XM-L U2 LED, with a lifetime of up to 50,000 hours;
● Soft-contact Side Switch:
One Turbo mode, Three modes constant output and hidden Strobe, SOS (below are output and runtime details by using 3*18650 2600mAh batteries):
Turbo Mode: 2100 Lumens (for safety’s sake, after 5 minutes’ turbo mode, the light will go to High mode automatically to avoid over-heat)
Three constant output modes: 1680Lumens (2hrs) – 360Lumens (9hrs) - 20Lumens (60hrs)
Strobe: 2100 Lumens
SOS
● Constant current circuit, constant output
● Effective range of 372.5 meters
● Uses three 18650 or six CR123A (16340) batteries
● Working voltage: 12.6~25.2
● Low-voltage indicator lamp
● Three-hole high quality metal smooth reflector maintains great throw distance and spread with an ideal beam pattern
● Dimensions: mm (length) x mm (head diameter) x mm (tail diameter)
● Weight:（battery excluded）
● Aerospace-grade aluminum alloy, stainless steel retaining ring on the head
● Military Specification Type III- hard anodized body
● Waterproof, in accordance with IPX-8 standard
● Ultra-clear tempered glass lens resists scratches and impacts
● Accessories: holster, O-ring, lanyard
PACKAGING / CONTENTS
The T60CS arrived in the same sized box as the V60C w/a non-finalized sticker affixed:
Additional accessories included were a holster, lanyard and two spare o-rings:
CONDENSED VIDEO SUMMARY
Here is a quick high-level video summary of the T60CS while I work on fleshing out this review:
http://www.youtube.com/embed/iDbvsQescJA
DESIGN / FEATURES
The T60CS can be thought of as a hybrid; it features the Smart Switch and UI from the T40CS but with the V60C's overall form factor. Sunwayman has however embarked on a completely new design theme that really distinguishes itself from their existing line of lights. Starting at the head, there is a removable SS bezel that holds down the double-sided coated AR lens:
It can be used for strike or glass breakage purposes and also allows one to easily see if the light is on when stood bezel down.
It is also easily removable allowing access to the lens, reflector and emitters:
The lens itself is reasonably thick and while the threads aren't square-cut, the bezel threads on smoothly. Note the little black washer in the first pic (more on that later).
The reflector measures 51.9mm in diam. by 20mm in depth:
As it's milled as a solid piece, the reflector actually has some heft to it (33.7g / 1.19oz).
The emitters are mounted on a custom PCB held in place by three screws with ample heat sink compound evident. The black washer I pointed out in one of the earlier pics is used to center the reflector but note that there is a ledge on one side and must be reinstalled facing up:
The shot on the right shows the wires leading to the Smart Switch.
This is now the third light* that Sunwayman has endowed with the Smart Switch. Looks like an effort is being made to market it as this one actually has a laser engraving on the ring identifying it whereas the one on the T40CS/T20CS are unadorned.
*As of the time of this writing as the C10R and C20C are not yet released.
Unlike the T40CS & T20CS, it is the sole switch on the light and will always draw a very negligble amount of current which I measured to be 2.21mA when the circuit first initiates (receives voltage) and then will drop to 20μA shortly after:
To put things into perspective, using three 2600 mAh 18650 batteries (and leaving the batteries' self-discharge and leap years out of the pic), it would take 44.5 years to drain them (28.86 Wh / .000074Wh = 390K hours / 16250 days / 44.5 yrs).
Adjacent to the Smart Switch is a low voltage indicator LED that will light up when the voltage drops to xxx volts:
[pic]
The cooling fins help shed heat and are definitely needed as it can get pretty warm (see runtime section for more details):
The machined edge also acts as an anti-roll ring.
The threads are square-cut and there are springs underneath the head and at the end of the tube:
The tube is nearly identical in size to the V60C's and uses the same (square-cut) thread size so they are interchangeable:
Gone is the texturing which is now replaced by grooves. I find they collect dirt and grime easily and are a little difficult to clean out once embedded. There are six machined grooves of which only one features engraving which is the typical Sunwayman logo, company name and model no:
Absent also are the circular motifs that uniquely identified Sunwayman's lights. Overall it's a more staid and edgier theme.
The tail end of the light now has a dedicated lanyard attachment machined into it in such a way that it helps prevent interference when tailstanding the light:
I feel it's a great design that obviates the need to fiddle with the lobster claw thus keeping the other hand free when setting down the light.
The end again features exposed positive/negative connection points for easy docking onto the charging base:
It is however tapered slightly and protrudes from the base thus it's not as stable as the V60C is when tailstanding.
For those not familiar w/the V60C, what I mean by exposed positive/negative connection points is that the ends are literally a direct conduit for the battery/charging path. Here I am taking a voltage reading directly off the end of the T60CS:
As w/theV60C, there remains a concern for a short in case the negative/positive paths are closed. The likelihood should however be reduced as the positive path is recessed.
[NEW 7/22: The charging conduits are made possible due to the redundant pos/neg paths built into the battery carrier that allows it to be inserted either way without regard for polarity (the batteries themselves still need to be inserted into the carrier in the correct polarity though). Here is the exterior "face" of the battery carrier and it looks identical on the other end. The center brass contact point is the positive path with a center "leg" (lying underneath this face that isn't visible in this pic) that connects to the other end of the carrier and the outter aluminum rim carries the negative path:
The three screws hold three "legs" that in addition to providing structural support for the batterier carrier, also doubles as the "negative" paths and routes it through to the other face thus creating the redudancy.
The three batteries are wired in series formation; starting with the #3 negative spring (top-left pic), it is directly connected to the PCB and the three outter legs that repeats the negative path to both exterior faces of the carrier. When a battery is inserted, the positive tip then makes contact w/the #3 positive nodule on the opposite-end which is directly connected to the #2 negative spring (top-right pic):
The second battery completes the path between the #2 neg. spring (top-right pic) and the #2 pos. nodule (bottom-left pic). Inserting the final battery completes the path between the #1 neg. spring and the #1 pos. nodule (bottom-right pic). This nodule is directly connected to the center leg and carries the positive path. I suspect the "fuse" is built into the connection between the nodule and PCB.
Here is a close-up of the center leg that carries the positive path from the #1 pos. nodule on the other end:
The battery carrier has recieved some subtle cosmetics changes but remains the same functionality-wise:
The old carrier is on the left and new carrier on the right in both pics.
The T60CS can run off of 6 x CR123's or 6 x RCR123's in which case while the Tenergy LiFePO4's (@ 33.6mm ea.) fit fine, the XTAR 16340's (@35.6mm ea) are overly long and wouldn't fit:
However it runs best off of 3 x 18650's...
In which case I didn't encounter any issues with either my shortest or longest cells:
L: AW IMR 1600 @ 65.2mm | R: XTAR 18700 @ 69.2mm
The XTAR 18700's were however a very tight fit. While the pos. nodule's allow the use of flat top cells, it may catch on the shrink wrap during removal so care must be taken to first depress the cells towards the spring before removing it:
]
The T60CS is completely compatible w/the optional AP06 charger (model shown below is an older version):
Given the circuity is solely in the charger and not unique to the light, I will not be covering it in-depth since I have already done so in my V60C review.
SIZE & HANDLING
L to R: RL3100 | NITECORE TM11 | Sunwayman T60CS | Niteye EYE30 | APEX 5T6 | Elektro Lumens Big Bruiser | ThruNite TN30 | XTAR S1
The T60CS is reasonably compact and just slightly longer than the TM11 with a narrower tube given it's 3 cells vs. 4. Here's are shots of it in my medium-sized hand:
[NEW 7/22: FIT & FINISH
The T60CS features a solid build with excellent anodizing. The head is just ever so slightly mismatched (lighter shade) from the body under certain lighting conditions:
The laser engraving is nice and sharp without any blotchiness:
There isn't a tiny gap between the smart switch ring and the body itself like I had noted in my T40CS review:
The switch provides good tactile feedback when depressed and the light just feels very solid and well put together.
One thing I did notice was that with the battery carrier installed, there is a tiny gap between the head and tube:
L: With battery carrier | R: Sans battery carrier
Also the carrier is a loose fit in the tube so it is possible to induce rattles by shaking the light with a motion that is perpendicular to the tube lenghtwise:
Like the V60C, the light will temporarily disengage if set down hard enough on the base since the spring will compress far enough to lose contact w/the battery carrier. As explained in the V60C review, this was intentional to aid shock absorption to prevent battery damage.
Beyond this, there was nothing else I could find to fault the light with.]
UI
There are a total of four output levels (Turbo, High, Med, Low) and two hidden modes (fixed rate strobe and SOS) that are accessed with the Smart Switch as follows:
Entering lock out mode was a little tricky at first but once I got the hang of it, I was able to easily engage/disengage it.
BEAMSHOTS
Indoors (5m)
Turbo
High
Med
Low
For details of the above indoor shots and comparo vs. many other lights, please check Epic Indoor Shots Trilogy
Whitewall Hunting
Exposure settings in sequential reading-order from top left: 1/25, 1/100, 1/800, 1/1600 @ f2.9 on AWB (light is ~.4m to wall / camera ~.59m):
RUNTIME
The relevant battery stats are provided above each runtime graph along with:
- Voltage of the battery at the start and end of the test
- Current draw as taken right before the test
- Actual runtime using ANSI FL1 (first in HR and then in M so for the AW2600 on High, read this as 1.7hrs OR 102min)
- NEW (as of May 2012): Lumens measured on PVC LMD @ 30 seconds
- Also for High, captured the temperature: ambient, the head at start and the max it reached (fan was used for all bats)
Just wrapped up Runtime on H w/AW's and confirmed that there is a step down of ~400lms after 5 min, after which the T60CS runs in near perfect regulation for around 30 mins before beginning a steady decline. Despite this, since it will increase current draw to maintain regulation there is a corresponding uptick in temp that almost hit 120F w/a fan during testing so one needs to be mindful of that.
[NEW 7/5: Conducted a runtime test w/the RL3100's but invoked Turbo mode again after step down and again about 20 minutes after that and based on the results I would say the step down is purely timer based and not temperature controlled. With that in mind, it's worth noting that Turbo mode is purely just 5 minutes and then it steps down into High mode for the rest of the run. As such, the above runtime graph should really be interpreted as a hybrid runtime of Turbo/High.]
INITIAL CONCLUSION
The T60CS upholds Sunwayman's tradition of releasing solidly crafted lights. The Smart Switch allows easy access to level changes as well as instant strobe if required. The incorporation of an electronic lock-out feature is a nice new feature thus obviating the need to unscrew the tube from the head for physical lockout. The T60CS offers a nice balance between flood and throw with a negligible amount of beam artificats produced from its "triflector" with the second cleanest beam profile of the four tri-XM-L lights using this type of reflector (tops goes to TM11 owing to its very shallow reflectors and super floody beam profile). The artifacts are really only noticeable indoors and likely will blend into the scenery when used outdoors. I will do a deeper dive into the beam profiles in an upcoming multi-emitter shootout thread but for now, here are my thoughts:
turboBB-licious
- Smart Switch allows easy access to output levels or instant strobe
- electronic lock out function
- great balance between flood and throw in a reasonably compact multi-emitter/cell form factor
- excellent build quality and finish
- ease of drop-in charging (with AP06 charger)
turboBB-cautious
- potential for shorts through the open battery paths in the tail
- carrier must be replaced when built-in fuse is blown
turboBB-wishes
- tailcap cover with USB charging port to allow charging of other devices
- revision to carrier and charging system to allow balance charging
T60CS GALLERY
=======
Disclosure: T60CS provided by Sunwayman for review.
