I took a gamble and ordered a couple of these weapon lights to see what they were all about. I had no plans to mount them on a weapon but my main interest was to see the light itself. My friends ending up liking them so much that they took them to mount on their rifles. I see this light as more of a larger size edc light.
I was surprised how well this light was made. It has a very solid feel and the knurling is aggressive/deep like the more expensive lights(very grippy). The anodizing is also rather matte or low gloss. it is Ha2 but it looks more like ha3. The reflector is also perfect and well made. The tail cap spring under the brass piece for the flashlight is high quality with low resistance. The spring on the pressure switch sucks and has high resistance. But my point wasn’t to use this as a weapon light.
Here is a link to the driver that is inside this light. It is a press fit driver but one that I have never seen before. I measured 2.9 amps with a typical LG laptop 18650. And I got 3.7 amps with a Samsung 25R high output 18650. This light has very good throw for it’s size.
Here is the light by itself but they didn’t have a solo light listing with an XM-L2.
They also make a big head thrower version. I may order that next to see what it’s like.
I was playing with the ra-601 some more and soldered some copper braid on the tail cap spring just to see if i could get more amps to the led. It now reads 3.95A with a Samsung 25r battery. The spring is decent quality but the copper braid took me from 3.7A to 3.95. I’m not sure if this XM-l2 can handle this. There is thermal paste under the star and the star is also glued down on the sides.
I really like the solid heavy feel of this ra-601 light so I ordered the RA-602 bigger version (pictured above) to see how it compares to a C8 size flashlight. I’m just getting tired of looking at all the C8 lights and wanted something different.
It is a screw in type on both 601 and 602. The pill is very solid and has thermal paste on the threads. There is no hole drilled below the led shelf like I have seen on some other lights. The main Led star is also screwed down and has a fair amount of thermal paste plus adhesive on the sides. The driver is very easy to pop out for inspection. I am not a fan of press fit drivers but this 20mm press fit is different. The main wires to the led are rather thick and have silicone insulation.
Overall, these lights are extremely bright as stock. Built like a tank and feel solid/heavy in the hand. The knurling is actually very aggressive and gives good grip. The 602 model has a reflector similar to a typical c8 in width. But the 602 reflector is deeper than a C8 reflector. The 602 out throws my stock Convoy and Tangsfire C8’s. The led is also mounted properly in relation to the bottom of the relfector. It sits up further into the reflector and does not have light blocked by the centering ring.
The 601 is nice. It’s about the size of a convoy m2 but better looks. The look of the 602 is growing on me. Especially when it sits next to a common C8. Did you get the normal reflector or zoom? I’m not a big fan of the zoom lens 601 version.
I ordered the normal reflector version. Thought about ordering an additional orange peel reflector, but just ordered the light as it is finally. Smooth reflector, red XP-E, high-low-driver. Can’t wait to get it. Should look pretty nice next to my Solarforce lights.
Yeah, I had a hard time deciding on the emitter. But since it’ll be my first red LED light, I went that way. I’ll have a close look at it when it’s here and if I like what see, maybe I’ll give that XM-L2 a try. I also went with the red one, because there was an option for 2-mode-driver without blinky modes.
Thank you for the additional info. Are these XML or XML2? Both the pictures of the 601 and 602 seem to show XML LEDs. Any idea if these torches have low voltage protection?
I had to ask the seller for xm-l2. These listings are xml but they do have xm-l2 with the weapon mount set up. I ordered the version without weapon set up. This driver is new to me. I havent ran across anything like it. The driver appears to have 4 linear regulators. I do not know if there ia low voltage warning. I hope that some of the driver experts can chime in.
I grabbed a 602 to compare. For the price difference and better performance, I went with the XML version and will swap it out for an XM-L2 on noctigon.
Am thinking of getting a 602 with XPE Q5 and swapping it with an XPL LED. But not sure if the driver for the XPE version will be the same as for the XML version that you had reported to be good at stock. Kind of afraid to get a low-powered driver for the XPE.
I lost my reply due to the forum auto-logout, but here it is again:
This driver does not use linear regulators. Those are 4x MOSFETs.
The MOSFETs have a low current rating, <3A. They appear from the picture to be in a pointless series configuration. Maybe that’s just how it looks in the pictures, but I don’t see the Drain tabs connected together. (Drain is the tab which is by itself on one side of the MOSFET.)
The driver is using a ‘modes IC’ (CX2817) rather than an MCU.
I’m not aware of any modes IC with LVP or Low Voltage warning, this one included.
I’m also not aware of any modes IC with functioning offtime memory, they are all either setup for “next mode memory” or in better configurations they are setup with “no memory”.
A picture which more clearly showed the traces for those 4x MOSFETs would be nice to see.
