[Review] Skilhunt M150 LH351D ( 1 x 14500, Rechargeable ) - Found a new EDC :)

The M150 was sent to me by Skilhunt for review.
Here's the flashlight's website: Skilhunt M150 LH351D

The M150 arrived in a standard cardboard box.



The flashlight comes seated onto a plastic tray, while the accessories are placed inside a separate box underneath the tray.



Other than the flashlight, one also gets the following accessories.
An adjustable wrist lanyard, a pocket clip, a charging cable and two replacement o-rings.



The flashlight comes with a black anodization and its design is subtle yet aggressive.



Its body and tail contains a few very fine grooves that allow better grip to the user.



The head integrates some fins for better heat management.



The M150 is e-switch operated.
Its switch also contains an indicator LED while there's a metal ring placed around it.




The indicator LED can be used to either indicate the battery's charge lever or as a night beacon.



Opposite to the e-switch, one finds Skilhunt's charging system which is consisted of two concentric copper disks.



Thanks to the included magnets, the charging cable is automatically attached to the flashlight.



As can be seen, the charging cable also include a separate indicator LED for showing the charge's state.



As advertised, this specific variant of the M150 comes with an LH351D emitter.
The emitter is perfectly centered thanks to the plastic ring, while the reflector has a light orange-peel texture.



The front part the head is protected via an anodized blue metal bezel.



Unscrewing the metal bezel allows access to the head's internals.
Here's the parts housed in the front part of the head.



And here's a closer look at the emitter and its PCB.



The driver seems to be press fit or glued into the head.
Skilhunt is using a brass tab as the positive terminal in order to minimise overall resistance.



The bottom part of the flashlight is completely flat, which allows it to tailstand.
There's also a ring slot cut into the tail, which allows the attachment of lanyards.



The inner side of the tail contains a bronze spring.



The flashlight can be easily taken apart in its basic pieces.
Both the tail and head threads are very clean and are anodized, which allows the flashlight to be mechanically locked out.



As already said, there's also a metal clip included with the flashlight.



The clip can be attached both ways and its retainment pretty strong.
It has a very slim profile and doesn't bulk up the flashlight at all.



Continuing the tradition, the M150 comes with a 14500 Skillhunt branded battery.



The battery has 800mAh of capacity, comes with built in protection and is button-top.



Bonus photo: The Skilhunt M150 along with the Skilhunt M200 "modded" with a shorty-tube (18350).



User Interface

I found the User Interface of the M150 to be very versatile and fitting for an EDC flashlight.
There are basically 2 mode groups that the user can select.
Group A: Single press to switch modes, long press for off, user can select between the sub-levels per output ( L1-L2 , M1-M2, H1-H2, T1-T2)
Group B: long press to change modes, single press for off, user can set which levels are accessible (e.g I've chosen L1, M2, H2 and T2 to be available during mode cycle)

Of course, the user-interface has a long list of features built-in, so here's a few flow diagrams taken directly from Skilhunt's website to help you better understand the firmware:

Group A


Group B


Output

I measured the output using the include 14500 cell that the manufacturer includes with the flashlight.
Here's a list of the default modes of Group B along with the respective current draw:



As you can see, at its maximum output the M150 puts out 745 Lumen of output, which is great for an 14500 light.
Also worth mentioning is the ultra low output of mode Low 2.

Power regulation

I've created the following power regulation graph for the M150.



What we can see in the graph:

  • Turbo1 is fully regulated down to 3.6V.
  • Turbo2 is fully regualted down to 3.3V.
  • Once the regulation for Turbo1 and Turbo2 is over, the V/A ratio becomes linear
  • All the other levels (H2, M2, L2) are fully regulated for the whole span of the battery's life
  • Low voltage protection starts kicking in at around 3.0 - 3.1 V


Bottom line

I've found my new EDC flashlight
I'm a big fan of the M150's User Interface (I use Group-B), the great regulation across modes and of-course the 90CRI emitter in it!

how strong is the magnetic tail cap?

Any parasitic drain on the batteries? I noticed that with mine

Thanks for the review :wink: The UI is surely better than in the previous version! I also wonder about the parasitic drain, as mine (old version) has some when the led indicator is ON.

Also, how did you mod the M200 and which 18350 tube did you use, if I may ask?
I noticed it is the old version of the M200, is the tube unglued? The new on is glued and even with heat I wasn’t able to move it :zipper_mouth_face:

Oooooh, so no more up’n’down like the original M150?

Damn you, now I probably gotta go get one. :neutral_face:

I quite like my M150 as well. I opened mine up and sliced the dome on the LH351D, and now it’s even better. Perfect beam, more throw, much better tint, slightly warmer. Honestly the main think I dislike on it is just the clip. It’s just too tight to fit jeans easily and not deep carry enough for my preference.

I HIGHLY recommend slicing the dome. It makes it like a mini version of my SC64w HI “CRI”.

sorry what does it mean slicing the dome? and is that the same as “dedome”?

It means literally “slicing” the dome, using a razor. It’s just a different/easier way of going about getting the benefits of dedoming, since there isn’t really a good way to safely dedome the LH351D.

ok then i guess my question is, what is de-doming? what does it do, and what are the benefits?

There are threads that have more detail and measurements than I can give, of course… But the basics is. Dedoming means removing the silicone dome of the led, by different methods, primarily to increase intensity (and therefore throw).

For the LH351D, the best method is to use a razor to carefully slice the doom off above the phosphor, which will lower the duv, increase throw, decrease output a bit, and lower the color temperature. It will also smooth out the beam to remove the yellowish/greenish corona.

Not all LEDs take well to dedoming/slicing, but the LH351D seems to pretty consistently improve in multiple ways (besides output).

wow…interesting…i would need to youtube some instruction videos

Here is the best post about it. This guy did a bunch of testing/slicing and it has lots of good info.

LH351D slicing measurements : output, tint, tint shift, beam profile, intensity.



The tail's magnet is very strong
Here's a pic of the M150 supporting itself, a shorty M200 and a Victorinox Cadet Alox.

oh damn, ya ok thats pretty strong, thanks!


Unfortunately my multi-meter has stopped measuring in the < 2000 μA range - Either it's completely bonked or I need to get a new 9v battery.
I will try to get some measurements of the standby drain as soon as my multimeter is back online!

I've being carrying the M150 in a daily basis and haven't noticed any drain, but of course I'm speaking out of thin air, as I don't have any actual numbers to back my statements.

What tube did you use to make that shorty M200?


I'm probably having one of the older versions of the M200 as there isn't any glue between the head and the body.
I used a shorty tube out of an Astrolux S43.
It's worth noting that the head-side of the tube doesn't screw all the way in ( the S43's threads are longer than the M200 ), but it's not visible and doesn't affect the flashlights at all


Always happy for making Lightbringer consider buying yet another flashlight - if like he hadn't already had too many!

After some heating, some “pliering”, some bruising, I managed to remove the tube from my M200, inspired by yours :wink:
It was glued with red loctite :person_facepalming:
I bruised the head and the tube a little bit but I made some aesthetical modifications that that the scars could look better :smiley:

One thing I noticed is that the battery doesn’t charge with this tube (from an Astrolux light as well).
Does yours charge? I was happy and then got a bummer for this! But…I have a new light :smiley:

BTW, I wonder if a tube from the shorty headlamps can be used in this head
:neutral_face:
Thanks again for the inspiration :+1: :beer:

(Skilhunt, do something like this, shorter if possible, with the same UI!!!)

@MascaratumB nicely done
Mine seems to still charge OK using the S43 tube.



Also, it might be worth to invest in pair of oil filter wrenches.
A few years back I grabbed a pair of them from eBay and they've helped immensely in persuading some flashlights to untighten.

Thanks bilakos 10 :wink:
I guess my tube and yours are different in the edges, so that is what makes mine not being able to charge, while yours does.
I was trying to find some place to buy a short tube of an S43 but they don’t seem to be available separately. I’ll have to live with this or maybe I’ll find a solution later on :wink:

In any case, thanks for the inspiration, the information , and enjoy your light :beer: