Review: Digital Projector LED Spotlight Cree T6


Produces 110K Lux @ 10 meters thanks to a huge 95mm reflector

Hey folks,

I’m not exactly sure if this type of light is very popular around here, but I thought I’d post about my new addition to my light collection. Perhaps someone may be interested in this.

In addition to the more traditional flashlights I like to purchase, I also like hand-held spotlights, so I’m always looking around for something new and interesting, and most importantly, affordable.

For me, this new Digital Projector Spotlight was something I loved the look of and simply had to have it. Seeing the huge SMO 95mm diameter aluminum deep reflector designed for throw, with a Cree XM-L T6 sitting behind it, a battery pack wired in parallel yielding 7500mAh of long lasting power (I hope), and an anodized aluminum body, I had to purchase not just one in this gold color, but I also purchased one in red color from a different retailer which I haven’t received yet.

This one shown was purchased from Banggood.com from this link: http://www.banggood.com/Wholesale-Cree-T6-Super-Digital-Projector-Rechargerable-Miner-Lamp-Diving-Flashlight-p-55884.html

I’ve never purchased from them before, but I can tell you if there service is always this good and fast, I’ll be buying from them again, I assure you. I ordered this light on 12/31/2012, and it arrived today 1/14/2013. On this particular sale, they didn’t offer tracking, so I never actually knew when it would show up. But a total of 15 days is pretty good if you ask me. So the slow boat really wasn’t so slow afterall…LOL

The spotlight was shipped in the original retail box, the box was well wrapped in foam, and that was then covered with two separate plastic bags. The light arrived in flawless mint condition, the SMO reflector is beautiful with no finger prints or anything with a real glass lens. As far as I can tell, this light may have just hit the market in late November 2012, but I know they are very freshly new because the proprietary battery pack was fully charged when I received it. Typically, I stopped purchasing any lights with proprietary battery packs, but with this one, it’s wired in parallel, so if the pack starts to give out, it’ll be a breeze for me to change it out with some Redilast batteries or something.

I suspect this hasn’t been a popular light due to the fact they have it listed, among other things, as a diving light, which it is NOT, but it’s great for anything else requiring a tight spot beam.

Listed below are the manufacturer specs:

Specification:
Product Name: CREE T6 Miner Lamp Diving Flashlight
Model of LED: CREE XML T6 LED
Material: Aluminum alloy
3 Modes: high / low / strobe
Straps: Yes
Charger: YES
Color: grey+gloden
Size: 20.4cm lenght x 12cm diameter
Weight: 1300g
Capacity:7500mAh
Charging time:8-12H
Charging voltage:5.5V
Working time:8-10H

Features:
The altitude does not exceed 3000m
The ambient temperature 25 +40
The average relative humidity of not more than 95%
Super bright CREEXL-M T6 LED flashlight.
Heavy duty & durable, impact resistant.
High tech bright LED with extremely long working life.
High quality can be used for more than 100,000 hours, which eliminates the trouble of replacing the lamp

Charge:
When the luminance decreased obviously,please use the light distribution for the lamp charger with charge.
The first charging plug is inserted into the lamp charging socket,and then access the 110-220V city electric.
When the charger is the corresponding instructions from bright red to bright green battery is enough,can remove the charger to stop charging,charging time is about 10-12 hours.
Must be in accordance with the outer packing tips of the proper charging method for charging.

Note:
It’s not professional diving torch,which is tested no exposed to more than 3meters under water.
Common used in water downpour, jungle searching,shallow water work,etc.

Package Included:
1 x CREE T6 Miner Lamp Diving Flashlight
1 x Charger


Banggood was also nice to include the charger adapter for USA.


I always like to include a hand-hold for scale purposes when showing a new light to the forum.


The light has an ever slightly rounded base, but still tail-stands great. You can also see the
red “Thumb” power/mode button. Modes are Low-High-SOS, no mode memory and you must
cycle through all modes to turn off.


Standing on its bezel to show the rear charging port with the soft silicone cap flipped open.


For the reflector size scale, from left to right, Skyray 9x T6, Digital Projector 95mm, Small Sun Zy-T16, Fandyfire HD-2010


Yeah, the Vector Power On Board has it beat in the bigger catagory.

Here are some beam shots against a couple of decent lights most can relate to.
Camera settings were as follows: Manual exposure, 1 sec, f/2.8, ISO 80. Other than size, no manipulation was done.
Distance is approximately 80-90 feet.


Small Sun ZY-T16, 2 x 26650 Trustfire batteries configuration.


Fandyfire HD-2010, 1 x 26650 Trustfire battery.


Digital Projector Spotlight - That’s what I call a spot beam.

interesting light!

does that handle adjust? is there a path for heat to reach the body/outside?

judging by the photos, that measurement is much too low (looks twice as bright as hd2010, which people have measured somewhere close to the reading you got for this spotlight)

I’d try measuring at ~10 meters and then calculating 1m for reference

lux = (lux at 1 meter) * distance ^ –2

Hey Dthrckt,

The handle doesn’t adjust at all. I noticed when I removed the reflector, the LED is connected to the back of it and and directly behind the LED has some type of heatsink that is in the same shape as the rear of the reflector sitting in mid air. But from what I can tell, the heat isn’t transferred anywhere and not connected to the aluminum body. A strange design, but it seems to operate very well. I’d say the heat is obsorbed into the reflector and this heat sink. I’m curious to see how it performs if the becomes saturated with heat. I’ll give that lux measurement another try and see what I can come up with. Thanks.

Very interesting light!

Can you say ~diameter of the reflector in mm/cm ?!

Hi Andi,

Reflector diameter is 95 mm.

Perfect, thanks.

Thanks very much! Frontpage’d and Sticky’d.

and….ordered to mod. :party:

Thank you SB!

I’m modding one right now with Redilast 18650 batteries.

Great review, thanks!

What are you planning to do with it? :slight_smile:
cough mt-g2 cough…. J)

Yeah Andi, what is your plan for it??

I’d love to see how the mtg2 works with a 95mm reflector. The star for the XM-L in it now looks 20mm to me. The internal setup of this light is different than I’m used to seeing, how the LED connects to the driver and such. Perhaps I’ll post some photos later today. I was a bit surprised this light is powered by a 4 volt, 7500mAh lead acid battery. A bit higher capacity than the 6500mAh in the description, but that’s fine. It actually never said anything about it having a Li-ion, so at least it’s a very safe light to use as is. But it’s going to get 4 x 18650 Redilast 3100’s wired in parallel as the first mod for it and see how that works.

I will build a superthrower….

XP-G2 direct on copper, dedomed with ~5A

In a X7 a XP-G2 with this settings give ~450KLux

With this reflector i think it could be 600-800KLux. :bigsmile:

That’s excellent, but I don’t know if it’ll handle the heat generated. I’ll get the internal photos posted later on for you to see.

I will try to make a Heatsink with contact to the outer alu. :wink:

Andi, then you’ll want to see these photos of the internals.

Evidently, this light uses a different way of conducting heat by conducting it into the large cavity behind the reflector. Not a great way to do it especially since the body is aluminum and could have aided in heat dissipation. But from using the light, I’d say the manufacturer decided to take advantage of this very large aluminum reflector in addition to that heat sink mounted at the rear of the reflector, and both serve to absorb heat. I have used the light on high mode for a while, but didn’t notice the reflector becoming saturated with heat at all.

I’m sure that’ll change once I get to upgrading the driver to turn it into even more of a thrower. I’m hoping you’ll be able to come up with an idea that’ll work well. It’s a great little light and very well made, including very nice silicone wiring of sufficient gauge that does not require replacement.


Driver attached to rear heat sink.


Underside view of heat sink. NOTE: there are two types of heat sinks floating around on these lights. Second version is a
closed design, unlike this flared version.


Circuit board that controls all functions, including connection to battery, On/Off switch, and charge functions.

Thanks, really like such a format light. Could you measure at 15-20 metres and see what’s the lux reading? (I can convert it for ya) That’d give us a more accurate figure.

I wanted to get this 19.5cm ext diameter T6, but i am not sure if the reflector is optimised. Not cheap too, so decided not to take the risk.

http://www.aliexpress.com/item/2933-10w-led-searchlight-flashlight-light-outdoor/665070420.html

Take your HD2010 and ceiling bounce it. Take the lux reading.

Take this light and ceiling bounce it. Take the lux reading.

Not sure what’s the OTF output lumens of the HD2010 though. You have other lights like SWM T40CS? You can get a pretty ok OTF lumens by relatively comparing them.

I’ll get the lux reading tonight for you. As for this 7.5 inch reflectored light, I’d say it’s driven the same as the Projector light, but has an even larger reflector. Damn that’s big…LOL. Good candidate to upgrade the lead acid battery in it for a nice li-ion too. I saved that link for a future purchase.

I really love the light and build quality inside and out is really amazing considering the price. They actually used the same large diameter silicone wiring I use to upgrade the lousy 30 gauge wiring in most all my Chinese lights. One upside of the lead acid battery is you get proper output from the XM-L, but you don’t have to worry about any unsafe battery conditions. But as I mentioned in an earlier post, I’m still upgrading the battery to some Redilast cells.

I originally purchased 2 of these light, one from BangGood.com (gold color) and one Red one from an Ebay seller. Not having dealt with either vendor before, I just assumed they’d both be damaged when arrived, but having two, I’d be able to fix one with parts from both and the reason for having two of them. As it turned out, the one from BangGood was shipped in the original box and very well packaged and arrived MINT. However, the Red version from the Ebay seller was taken out of its original box and placed in a box smaller than what the light required. Although it somehow didn’t arrive damaged, when I opened the box, it was in some sort of moon-light mode, which it doesn’t have. It could have even left the factory in this malfunctioning condition. It was the lowest moon-light mode I’ve even seen. So it obiously had or developed a short somewhere.

It wouldn’t turn off and could actually have been in this mode for weeks, so the red one I needed to take apart and fix the issue, which I did. So it’s the red version that’s getting some upgrades while it’s apart.

To play it safe, just purchase from BangGood, they seem very into having some BLF business.