In-depth vid review: Manker Quinlan T01 Compact Thrower (XP-L HI | 1 x AA / 14500)

Wow! What a great little thrower with flexible battery options. LOTS of material covered in my in-depth review of this light including throw measurements with my new Sper Scientific NIST calibrated light meter. More written material to come but hit up this vid for now:

https://www.youtube.com/embed/AEUHHcBvVM0

SPECS

UI - GENERAL & PRO MODES

THROW SUMMARY

STANDBY DRAIN

The standby drain with NiMh is so miniscule at 6μA so as to be truly inconsequential. With a LiIon cell, it's slightly more @ 18.4μA but again just as inconsequential.

RUNTIME

UPDATE 5/20: Manker disclosed that there is a hidden Engineering Mode that one can use to help match the Vf of the LED so as to prevent the pre-flash issues that occur on some units. Here's a vid on how to access that mode on the T01 as well as U11:

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Disclosure: T01 provided by Manker for review.

Hum…500 lumens for 1 hour sustained and no step down on one eneloop?

On Eneloop XX and yeah reasonably "sustained". Doesn't get all that hot either, great efficient circuit in there.

EDIT: The factory specs/UI modes added along with charts of various measurements I recorded.

Good review man although the explanation on the XP-L stuffs and naming of the other flashlights could be skipped/speeded to reduce the review time.

Now to the thing that leaves me perplexed. Why has it to be ‘manker’ and no other big names (excluding zebralight) to come with a 500 lumens 1AA flashlight?

To me it really looks like a copy of the ZL. Not that I mind but I find the head bulky and I dont really like throwy lights in this category. If only Manker would make a Neutral tint AND a flood model, I would be in for one. As it stands, throw + cool emitter bulky head, I’ll pass.

Can you guess at the tint? Is it the typical 1A cool white?

@MountainKing - thx, I cater to a broad range of viewers so usually take time to explain things but I'll separate that out into primer vids in the future. Appreciate the constructive feedback!

I'm sure other mfg's will be out with similar models soon enough. Have been waiting for an heir to the XR-E's of yore and can finally say it's here! Will pass on your suggestions to Manker.

@1dash1 - I'd say my particular sample is right around there but closer to the lower left of 1A on the ANSI White chart. It's definitely a cool tint with a very light purplish tinge to the hotspot.

Thanks!

TurboBB,

If you programmed the modes you wanted in pro mode, if you switch back to gerneral mode; will the programmed mode carry over to the general mode?

@dG2K2 - Yes and vice versa.

G'Day turboBB,

Greatly enjoyed review with a lot of Valuable info.

Thank you Very Much,

George

Edit:

Pity about the battery length limitation

OMG is this review a lot of data!

@keengeorge - You're welcome! I've suggested to Manker to make tube ~1-2mm longer to account for longer batteries.

@Ronin42 - but we like that don't we? I'm a data geek at heart... ^_^

I’ve seen it for $70 or so on amazon and ebay…… it’s right up there with the zebralight, so I’ll stick with a zebra until I can get this for $35 or so.

Any price comments?

I can’t believe I ate the whole thing. I mean I can’t believe I watched the whole thing! A 47 min light review. Must have been something in there that kept my interest. Well done! Great light. Not sure why I haven’t purchased one yet. This video alone is a strong selling point. Yes, it’s nice looking, great UI/programmable, king of the AA lights, etc…… but ultimately just another light that does what my other 60+ already do - shine light. I suppose if I got rid of my computer/internet I wouldn’t buy any more lights :bigsmile:

this one is beckoning strongly.

thanks for an amazing review turboBB. That’s one NICE test room you have there!

@wishiwereaskibum - in case you didn't see M4D M4X's thread, apparently he's able to get these at a pretty decent price (I'm not related to him nor do I make any referrals off this, just passing along as PSA).

@saypat - Thx! It's really important that I'm able to reproduce the results consistently so I'm very happy I have this space in the attic for that. I'll be putting anno's in my vid's from now for easier navigation between the sections.

From the figure but I didn’t see 500 lm for one hour with one Emerlop AA. The figure shows it lasted less than 30 minutes from 500 lm to 200 lm. (The dark purple curve). This is more reasonable by simple math.
Considering the flashlight loss and according to XP-L Hi spec., it probably take 1.5A at 3v. Assume the average voltage of the Enerlop is 1.25v, the time it can last is equal to (1.25*2.5/1.5/3) x efficiency = 0.694 x efficiency (hours). Lasting 0.5 hours corresponds to efficiency of 72%. I think it is pretty good for such 1.2 to 3.x v converter.
Did I missed anything?

@twinclouds - the mfg quote of 1hr is for the non- Constant Current run (the dark purple curve with a step down). I my reply to MK, I missed the "no step down" part of his comment and only focused on the sustained part.

I see. That makes sense to me now. Thanks for your clarification.
Another question I want to ask is: From your experience, how accurate are the Cree’s specs? As discussed previously, it appears to me that XP-L V5 is not as bright as XM-L2 U3, but it was list slightly higher than the latter in the spec. The bin number V5 and U3 are misleading also.

Sorry I've not specifically tested any lights with the two emitters you mentioned (nor am I in the habit of testing bare emitters) but based on the lights I've tested, I'd say they're reasonably accurate (of course take this with grain of salt since I don't have a professional IS but I'm reasonably confident with consistency of my PVC LMD). I think we need to keep in mind that Cree's specs are under optimal conditions (think stable power supply with sufficient heat sinking) and under those scenarios and based on what I've see of the tests some folks have conducted here, I've no reason to doubt the accuracy of their bare emitter claims.

Hello great review, I have a question about the programmable mode.

When your on the programmable side does it remember (memory) the blinky section ?

Can I be in programmed Medium and double click to the Turbo (without step down). And the double click back to Level 2 ???

Chad