KEYGOS M10 26650 FLASHLIGHT-Quick and dirty review

Oh great!!! Started looking at 18650 lights (C8's & C10's), now I am looking at 26650 ones and the choices keep adding!!! Nevermind the Beamtech BT-4000 I saw somewhere else in here... Hope you will do some outdoor beamshots of your new toys once you have the time!!!

I got the BeamTech 4000 coming too!!Wink In fact, the BeamTech 4000 came the other day, before the Keygos M10s. However, it worked for a little bit and then stopped. I got it from Tmart, they are on this board. I contacted customer service, and they QUICKLY sent me a mailer to send it back. Gotta say Tmart's customer service on a scale of 1 to 10, with 10 being the best, they get a 25!!! Anyway, I should have the Beamtech back in about 3 or 4 days. From the little bit I saw of the BeamTech 4000, I don't think it is a bright as the M10. Now, I could be wrong, I will wait until I get it back to do a comparison..BTW, got the BeamTech 4000 from Tmart for $37.75 free shipping, and they in NJ, so I got it in 3 days.. Wink

Ha, your next post is going to be "I went and got all 3"... Wink

I think I will wait a bit longer for a multi XM-L 26650 light then... however I am still wondering what should I go for, the M10 or the HD2010... hope someone will have beamshot comparison soon!!!

I suppose though that the advertised "1600 lumen" is exaggerated for a single XM-L, am I correct?

I found my charger..Wink However, I am really lost working with this camera. Cry I have some shots, but they are way low level. Will try to get some

better shots of the M10 later on. From what I have seen, I am crazy about the Keygos M10.Wink

Here are some pictures of the Keygos M10, along with two fish copies mount and how they look on the bike. IMO, awesome..

From left to right.. Ultrafire, Keygos M10, XinTD clone, Keygos Ke-5

One poster asked about the reflector opposed to other lights. Well, I just took a shot of the reflectors

Ultrafire on the left, Ke-5 on the right, with the M10 up front in the middle

Now, I am trying to learn this camera, so bear with me..So far, just a couple beam shots

I didn't want to get mixed up, and could not go too far with the two tripods, so I just got two shots

one with the M10, the other with the Ke-5. The beam of the M10 goes further than the Ke-5 when I take it out and shine it something far away. I need to learn how to

capture that. You might can see in the picture how the beam from the M10 is tighter and that makes it carry a long way with the throw. Again, I am a newbie on all of this!!Wink

The Keygos M10

The Keygos Ke-5

I will do some more beam shots later. Going to read the camera's manual to learn how to operate it better.

I am using a Nikon D5100, with kit lens. 18-55 F3.5 with control set on A, on a tripod with VR off, and auto focus on..Also, saving everything in jpeg. The camera will do its part, I just can't do mine. Hope to get better. From the early morning ride yesterday in the dark, the M10 is perfect for my application. It seems to be stronger than the great Ke-5, almost the same size, and because of the 26650, more runtime. Also, I have that XinTD clone, which is awesome too. The beam is a tad warmer, but it is good. Will try to do some beam shots in the house in a dark room with them side by side. I might can manage that..Wink

Put your camera to manual mode, set ISO from auto to let's say 400 (or less), set your aperture to a high f value (if you are shooting high mode/bright beams), and then you need to adjust the exposure time accordingly (you need to play a bit with this) so that the end result is close to what you see in real in the dark... of course keep all the camera values the same for all the different modes & flashlights. Oh and set the white balance to manual also, try daylight to see if the colour of the beam is similar to what you see.

Manual mode..ok

ISO, say about 200

F value??? F3.5 or F5.6?? which is the highest f value?

Thanks much...Wink

High f value = small aperture (small hole, a bit confusing, lets less light pass through). Highest value can be f36 or more.

When you have a lot of light you need a higher f. I would suggest you try an f8 to start with and see the results.

With manual mode you get to set everything in the camera, once you get the hang of it, it is not difficult and it is also fun. (Next "fun" level is to take photos in RAW format).

Thanks much, going to try that..Also, I am thinking about getting the F1.8 lens, which I think would make things a lot better too.

On the RAW, I tried that, got some super shots, then everything went south. Went back to jpeg... Cry

Going to take my time and try your steps. This thing got so many choices and options, it is information overload..Smile

Thanks much again..

You can get lens even with f1.2, but it is an overkill usually (and very expensive). You should do a research before you buy, I am saying this because for example with Canons the 50mm f1.8 sucks a bit in terms of performance, so a good value/performer is the f1.4... I have no idea though about the Nikon lenses (not that you have to stick with the same brand).

As for the RAW... what I do is I shoot in both modes (camera takes a jpeg and a raw). Usually outdoors in a sunny day I don't need to play with the raw file. But there are other times that I open the raw file in photoshop and... you just can do magical stuff with it. A RAW file is unprocessed data from the sensor. So you have total control of exposure, white balance, colour etc, AFTER you take the photo... ;)

Any of these available in 3 mode (Keygos or other clones)? Disco modes are a deal breaker for me.

They all 5 mode I am sure..

Mine come today, here my quick test.

I remove +B spring, soldering with lead.

Full charge Trustfire 5000mA protected

@ 4.2V Hi 5.5A WTF

@ 4.08V Hi 5.3A

Keygos 26650mA look like It has PCB , not sure that is PCB protected.

Full charge 4.2V discharge @1A to 3V = 2951mA

Order here

The Uniquefire 2180 that I bought has 3 modes, but only Hi-Lo-Disco. And because it came with a battery and charger it was $20 more. Given a choice, I think I would rather have the 5 modes so that I'd have a medium mode and just click through the disco modes when I had to go back to hi. But, yes, my first choice would be either a 3 or 5 mode with NO disco, only varying outputs.

Problem... Keygos M10 has 20mm driver.

So where can I find 20mm AMC7135 driver? Or how can I fix 17mm driver?

Why do you need an amc7135 driver? Im sure the one it has puts more than 3A to the led.

I will come back with tests soon.

the pill is ridiculously small though..

The driver is 20mm as nekdo12 said. The contact area is 6mm around the pill.

The driver uses this controller and this mosfet. It doesnt run too hot.

Some decent wiring is used to the led.

Test with KK ICR @ 4.08v

HIGH: KK -> 3.495A -> driver -> 3.329A -> LED

-theo_mich

Better regulation, no strobe.

Nobody knows?

Here's an example of how I mounted a 17mm driver to a 26mm (I think) heatsink module. This is the 1.4A Nanjg AMC7135 driver.

It's messy, but works. I had a heck of a time soldering to that brass module! I used pieces of thin copper (cut off an old CPU heatsink) attached to the driver at opposite ends and soldered to the heatsink module. This particular module was filled with pieces of 4 AWG bare copper wire and solder to give the heatsink more mass (Chicago X's idea). I then added Fujik thermal compound between the driver and heatsink. If I could do it for a 26mm hole, you could do it for a 20mm one. probably just solder the edge of the driver to one side and use one piece of copper to bridge the other side (just be careful not to short anything).

-Garry

P.S. This is from my custom 3C Maglite which I should be posting a build post for eventually.

I've just changed a driver to 7135 V2 and XM-L U2.

I used old P6 brass pill that I did a few of my flashlights.

Now waiting for soldering and dry grease.

Old star XM-L with less grease.

Cut brass pill.

Waiting for soldering.