MXDL SA-76 "Turbohead" (PICS warning)

What else (light-wise) are the tailcap threads compatible to? I like the tailcap-wouldn't mind having just it on some of my lights.

Rich

thanks for all the details and pics.

this light looks HUGE (at least to me) until I actually saw it in your hand...

The first thing I did when I got it was try it on my 6P/M2/L2... no dice there. Thats as far as I tried though.

How did I miss this thread initially?

Anyway enough about me. Thank you for the review kramer5150. That is an attractive mini thrower. Nice big head. If the reflector was a little deeper then it might really rock and make super mega big candela scores. I wonder if you have a lux meter? Or acces to one. I am sooo curious about it.

I really like that very small form factor. It is soo tiny in your hands! Comparing to your watch makes it look itty bitty tiny miny :-)

I think I'll buy one of these for my single 18650 thrower needs. (Like I have that)

Did you ever get around to making a better heat sinking solution? Or have you decided it is not worth it? Does it heat up fast and evenly when turned on?

Ohh I cannot get this right now. But I would throw a 3,8 A driver in there faster than you could say let there be light!

TY for the review and the nice pictures. And for documenting how nice a mod host it really is. Those tailcap issues you mention I consider to be very small. Thanks to your pictures it seems I have a new target to aquire :-) (My wife may still kill me though!)

Its probably an easy thread to miss. MXDL has been around forever. I first remembered reading about this brand in the BessieBenny thread that CPF moderators butchered. So MXDL goes back to ~2005 time frame... most of their lights are what I would consider poor designs, with a LOT of DOA reports on CPF. So its easy to disregard the brand as a whole.

Nope I am still working on the heatsinking improvements. I need some help from a local machinist on that one. But I'll update my thread when its ready. I'll probably stay with the 2.8A driver, the truth is its just not a very big/heavy light. I don't think it has the heatsinking mass to sink that much heat away from the LED... even after the heatsink improvements.

Thanks for the kind words too!! Oh one more thing, the macro setting on my camera distorts the scaling of the images... my watch is not really THAT big.

Is that the same light that is on ebay here, for $22.90 incl shipping?

Curious if anyone has the ebay version

Mine is on the way, 1-3 weeks, hopefully...

I just pulled the trigger on this as well.

I would venture to guess they are identical. 20mm boards with L-M-H-DISCO-SOS are not very common, so theres a good chance the driver and IU are identical too. $22 is a really good price for this light too.

a new clone is available on manafont for $25.9: http://www.manafont.com/product_info.php/wb666-stainless-steel-aluminum-alloy-t6-1200lumen-5mode-led-flashlight-gun-color-18650-p-10029

Just a little update.... I am really happy with this light. I have had it now for 3 or so weeks and it's performed flawlessly, taken 2-3 hard drops to the floor completely in stride. I am using it this weekend at my cousins house, heonly uses trust fire gray protected cells and my suspicions are confirmed... The tail cap mods I did do not work with protected cells. The extra 4-5mm is to long to make battery tube contact.

Kramer, I got mine a couple days ago and yesterday I put in a Nanjg 105 v2 in it with moon, med, & high modes. I like it a lot!! I don't know what high measures because the only reading I get from it is low but that is .007A. I have to assume it,s getting the full 3A on high. It's still not as good as the HD2010 but the reflector is smaller by a few mm and not as deep (also by a few mm) but I did manage to turn off a street lamp once while my HD2010 does it every time.

My original driver looked nothing like yours but did put out the identical 2.16A. It manages heat extremely well and is super nice to hold and looks pretty awesome IMO. Thanks for the heads up on this one.

EDIT: Forgot to add that I installed a spring on the driver to fix the horrid mode changes with the slightest bumps.

A clone with side switch, beside that it's cheaper than the others:

http://www.ebay.com/itm/1600-Lumen-CREE-XM-L-T6-LED-Bike-Bicycle-Light-Flashlight-Torch-/170844182651?pt=LH_DefaultDomain_0&hash=item27c71b587b

I got an ebay version today. It's exactly the same, as the mxdl.

Surprisingly good quality, much better than a common C8 etc...

Tailcap current is ~2.5A with a sanyo cell, and at this current it throws out a nice 36kcd. Not so bad, but will be better with a little more current.

There is now a blank driver adaptor available which will make putting new drivers in this light very easy.

See here.

Nice blank dummy board. Although there is a risk using it in this light because the battery tube needs to touch the -B pad on the board.

Then this slightly larger one filed down should sort that.

Just use the original board as your base. That's what I did. Just put electrical tape over the components so nothing shorts out but be sure to leave the outer ring exposed where it contacts the inside of the pill. Works great for me. I love this little light. Not the biggest or baddest thrower but really comfortable in a cigar hold, throws very well, manages heat better than most lights and, with a KD V2 driver in it, has great moon mode and crazy brightness. All that and it looks awesome and tough, too. Love the head on this thing.

Hard to say... you can see the score line left by the battery tube in the picture below. This is the area that needs to make contact with the tube. At any rate, its easy enough to de-pop the SMT components and use the OEM board as a dummy like JohnnyMac describes. Its definitely a different looking light. I was showing some lights to my cousin and her kids over the holiday and this is the one that got the most Ooh-aahs from people.

here are my mods:

There isn't any coil on it (yeah, difference driver).
But good news, very easy to modify this kind of driver. The resistors -which have been bridged over with a wire by me - are not current sense resistors, but only current limiters, as I see. With this bridge, the current has gone up to 3.8A. (easier without the bridge, if the red wire is soldered to the other side... :) )

tailcap mod: the spring has almost 100mOhm, so with this mod I got a 0.1ohm advantage. Tailcap resistance decreased from 130mohm to 30-40mohm.

a little tin on the positive end of the driver solved the connection problem with unprotected cells

And the result, 44-45kcd in the first 5sec. :) Never will reach the "hottest" throwers, but in this size this is one of the best I think. On mid mode (which means 1.6-1.7A in my case ) it throws like a jetbeam bc40, or almost like a C8 at 3A.