Quick impressions of Cyansky M1R

Here are some quick impressions about a Cyansky M1R that I just won in their GAW.

In no particular order:

The light is physically small as can be seen below. On top of it is an Olight i3E and on the bottom a Ladda AAA battery.

It is also a bit thinner than the i3E but not significantly so.

Here are beam shots of the M1R on high and i3E (M1R on the left). The M1R is cooler than the i3E but isn’t unpleasant to look at (as a caveat I prefer neutral tints).

Initially I didn’t think I would like it given its rectangular shape as opposed to the traditional cylindrical shape of most flashlights. However I find that it’s extremely easy to operate and also feels good in my hand.

The light can be locked out with 2 clicks from OFF. Although the switch is slightly raised it takes a fairly firm press to activate. I’ve carried it for several days in my pants pocket and it never accidently turned on but today it while in my jacket.

The switch is fairly large and has a good feel to it.

It automatically steps down from high to low when the battery is drained. At the same time the switch will flash red.

It got slightly warm on high when I had it running in my jacket pocket but nothing to write home about.

It comes with a USB A to USB C cable and will also charge with a USB C to USB C cable. The light functions when charging.

The light drew .22mA on my USB power meter when charging.

The charging port is accessed underneath a rubber cap on the side of the light. I have concerns about the robustness of the rubber cap, and given that you have to constantly lift it to charge the light, I wouldn’t be surprised if it tears off after a bit of use. I wish that another method could be used to seal the port, maybe a sliding metal cover?

Based on my eyes alone the light on high doesn’t seem any brighter than my Olight i3E (90 lumens per Olight). Low is supposed to be 1 lumen and it does seem to be as dim as my FW3A on its lowest setting. In any case on high it’s bright enough to see well in a dark room and dim enough on low to probably satisfy most people (I really don’t care for or have much use for moonlight levels so take that for what it’s worth).

Given that how people perceive brightness in light levels the M1R very well be 200 lumens. I did measure the lux on a phone app and the M1R was twice that of the i3E so you can take as a data point.

Red/flashing red/blue is easily accessible and since the light has memory it will go back to the prior setting from OFF. I can easily navigate in a dark room with the red beam.

The light seems to be well made and feels good in my hand. As long as the charging port seal is present I think it will be highly water resistant.

As I said I like the M1R. That being said, it’s 3 times the price of the i3E. For someone who wants the red or blue light it might be worth buying. However I carry a keychain flashlight just to have one in case of an emergency, so unless it was significantly cheaper, I have a hard time justifying buying one for myself.

Hi, SIGShooter,

Thank you for your excellent reviews. :+1:

I will pass your feedback on the product to our R&D engineers and make improvements. Thank you for your feedback, so that we will be better. :smiley:

you said “The light drew .22mA The light drew .22mA ”

do you mean 220mA?

i ask because the m1r they sent me, uses 60ma for 1 hour and stops after 60mah of charge

that is wrong!

i am telling / asking cyansky what is going on currently

do you know how much total current [mah] yours used?

yes this was starting from full discharge according to the LEDs and the stepdown behavior

Oops sorry. That decimal shouldn’t have been there of course :person_facepalming:

I have another meter that tells me the total going into it and will charge it again after I run the light down.

After a full discharge my meter recorded 201mAH pumped into the M1R. How long does yours run on full brightness before it steps down?

around 1 hour

which is weird

they only spec it for 1.2

still not sure what is going on

i am ‘taking pictures of my current meter while charging’ to send to them

how long did yours run on ‘high’ before stepping down?

I think it was close to an hour but 1) I wasn’t paying attention to it when running the battery down, and 2) I had already used it some beforehand. I’ll run it down today or tomorrow and see how long it goes.

my defective light seems to charge only 60mah, but it runs an hour on high

if yours actually goes 2 hours or more, i will understand - yours takes more charge and runs longer

otherwise i am still stumped
the cyansky people are not really understanding my issue, so far

i am doing the same test on my trustfire minix
its level 3 seems about the same light level as m1r on its level 3 [high]
and it does take 200mah of charge
so if it runs 2.5 hours or more, that will make sense
it would be the same test you will try

wle

It ran for 1hr 10 minutes (which is their specs) before the switch flashed red and the light stepped down. Not sure why you’re only seeing 60mAH going into your night, any chance your meter is off?

If your high and my high are different it could account for why yours runs for an hour. But without knowing what the respective outputs are it’s all speculation of course.

yeah i know it;s all kind of speculative

my trustfire minix ran its ‘high’ for 2:15, and it does take 200mAH from the same charger/monitor

so the fact that the m1r takes 60mah, and runs for 1 hour, sort of makes sense, though it would make more sense if it ran 1hr x 200/60 = 3:20

i am sure the setup is working, the monitor/meter

because it makes sense every other time i used it

so cyansky is telling me i am wrong, and just live with it

i said i would add this to my review

oh well.

wle

ok
still a mystery
yours takes more current, more energy, and still runs the same time on the same setting

wle

I do not own this particular light, but my understanding is that the light will charge with either a USB-A to USB-C cable or with a USB-C to USB-C cable.

Since "SIGShooter" and "wle" are obtaining different mA and mAh while charging, I am wondering if they are both charging at the same voltage, since charging at a higher voltage using a charger's USB-C port instead a USB-A port would require less mAh to obtain the same Wh (watt hours) and explain the differences in the observed mAh and mA readings during charging.

Using Wh to compare "units of energy" and assuming "SIGShooter" is using a "5 V USB-A" charging port and "wie" is using a "20 V USB-C" charging port yields:

(220 mAh x 5 V) / (1,000 mAh per Ah) = 1.1 Wh of energy for "SIGShooter"
(60 mAh x 20 V) / (1,000 mAh per Ah) = 1.2 Wh of energy for "wie"

yeah but i think all usb monitors ( what i used - i think sigshooter also …? ) monitor what goes out of THEM
which they show
and should be [mine was] 5.00V

also i have a trustfire minix, which is almost the same light, and it DOES show 200ma and 200 mah, like sigshooter
it also runs 2.5 hours, vs 1 hour, on the same setting

it;s not all adding up, which is so troubling

wle

My readings are from 5v power supplies. I’m thinking that your battery isn’t getting what it should be, and that your light also isn’t outputting what it should be. If your output is only 80 to 100 lumens then the runtime on “high” would be close to what I’m getting. Unless you have something to compare it to then it would appear that the output is what is stated by Cysansky.

You mentioned in your thread that the light isn’t bright enough. I don’t have that impression with mine so I’m wondering if your light output isn’t also an issue.

what i said was, the trustfire minix has a 4th level, but the 3rd one is within 10% of the same lumens
so should be same current more or less
and same run time
it isn;t
something wrong

I offered my hypothesis concerning this issue because the charging voltages were not indicated in the previous posts and USB-C can be 5 , 9 , 12 , 15 or 20 V depending on the voltage negotiated between the devices.

If "SIGShooter" and "wle" both have access to a light meter it would be interesting to compare the lux readings of each light over time at the same common distance with a fully charged battery.

what i do to compare is, turn both lights on, move in or out from a white surface, until the brightness is the same

then if the spot A is 20% bigger than spot B, i conclude A has 20% more lumens

[easier to guess area percents than brightness]

i have the USB-C cable attached to a regular 5V usb supply, and going through the monitor, which also tells me it is 5V