A lot of good questions and the main answer is we'll just have to wait and see. The XM-L should put P7's and MC-E's out of business. SST's can still put off more light when driven to higher currents than the XM-L will permit (over 3A). At 2A they would probably be about equal, but the smaller LED of the XM-L should throw a little further. We'll have to see how hard the KD drop-ins drive the LED. If they drive it to 2.8A or greater then 1 18650 isn't going to last very long at all, and I suspect you won't see very good regulation (it will start off bright and then dim steadily). If they don't drive the LED as hard, then the brightness isn't going to be all that great. I do think they'll be floody like what you want.
Once good drivers are out there, I expect the XM-L to completely replace the SST-50. I doubt that Luminus will still be making the SST-50 by March. Already existing MC-E driver will make theXM-L beat the SST-50 which needs 5A to give of its best, the XM-L promises the same output at 3A.
But until they are in general circulation this may, or may not, be the case.
Thanks brted and Don for your help. I'm not sure if I'll go ahead and buy the KD XML T6 2x18650 now or wait a few weeks until someone has more info. I wouldn't mind installing a more suitable driver if it is easy and the factory one isn't that good.
From the info here, I'm guessing that having a second 18650 battery (instead of just 1) mainly increases the runtime (not brightness), unless the driver in the 2x18650 body draws more amps than a single batttery can supply? Is that right?
phlowcus, here are the 2x18650 XM-L lights I've come across recently (only the first will be a "budget" light, I assume):
I received my shipping notification last night (2 weeks after ordering). Lets hope the driver and reflector are up to the task. Early flashlight mods indicate that the XML plays nicely with many different reflectors, including XRE, P7/MCE/Rebel.
Sorry for delay. We have a special situation results in a few days delay this week.
I will think about your advice and forward this up. You are right, we should be more careful about this.
Thank you for writing to us. And sorry for any inconvenience.
On Thu, Dec 9, 2010 at 5:14 PM, **** <> wrote:
Thank you for your reply. I appreciate your professionalism and extra effort.
I do not believe it ever asked me to login when I placed the order.
What do you mean it will be shipped within a few days?
Your website shows:
Availability:
ship right away
Why did this not ship 6 days ago?
Thank you.
Sincerely,
----- Original Message -----
From: Kaidomain.com (Sales)
To: ***
Sent: Wednesday, December 08, 2010 7:57 PM
Subject: Re: Receipt for Your Payment to Kaidomain.com
Your order number is 1012030096. According to our system, it's collected and should be shipped within a few days.
Did you login your KD account before checkout? If not, you can't track this order status in your account.
Anyway, you should feel free to email me about your order status.
I could not help myself, so on December 9, 2010, I ordered one of these too. However, 6 days later my order status still shows BACKORDERED! KD website still shows “Availability: ship in 1-3 business days”
Hopefully mine will get here today and I can then pick it up at the post office on Friday morning. Looking forward to hearing what you think about it. It's not like the KD XP-G drop-in where the reflector partially blocked the LED, is it?
Went home at lunchtime to empty the assistant before she emptied herself on the carpet.
So, as you do, I picked up a few P60 hosts and some charged 18650s
Don't have the lightbox and meters here but, at first sight it is brighter tan my previous brightest P60, the M-bin MC-E that came with the WF-501 from DX. Since this dropin cost more than that light and its dropin it ought to be good.
I put it in a new-style WF-504B body i got from the Manafont offer. It is a very poor design on heat-sinking grounds, the old 504B was better. As usual I wrapped the dropin in enough aluminium foil to make it difficult to push the thing into the throat of the light.
There are some artefacts at the edge of the beam from the bezel ring - I'll try it in a Solarforce body with a flat bezel ring for the tests.
Beam colour is my favourite vanilla colour, maybe a tiny fraction bluer than my all-time favourite in the (lost :( ) Trustfire F22. It is certainly a nicer colour than the M bin MC-E.
strange... new-style WF-504B body and bad heatsinking. I got two along with 2 fake solarforce L2's and a few other (the commonly called skyray) and it seems it does the job somehow equally good. It does look worse for heatsinking i would agree but the body temperature with foil is on par with fake solarfarces. Upon disassembling the heated dropin's there was no way to tell which one was warmer. Maybe you got a old style 504B that is way better than all my p60 hosts combined. One wonders...
Not trying to defend manafont but i got the body purely based on aeasthetcs because it is more appealing to L2 and clones to me. Have not found a flaw yet. Perhaps antiroll capability...
Ceiling beamshot in new style 504B. The XM-L is on the left, the right hand one is a low voltage Solarforce single mode R2 dropin in an L2i with an 18650. Yes, the hotspots are burned out - this is just a quick shot before I take the dog out.
The odd shape of the XM-L beam is due to the bezel ring on the 504B.
Throw at 1 metre is 5250 - you can see from the beamshot how huge the hotspot is.
), I don't expect to get it soon. I hope you will post a short review.
KD website still shows “Availability: 
