Review: warm white Q series XR-E P60 dropin

Flashlight Modding and DIY Parts
1

WARM WHITE XR-E Q series emitter drop-in for P60 hosts.

Reviewer rating: ★★★★★


Pro's:

  • Well driven
  • Good mode memory
  • beautifull beam
  • Color temperature is very pleasant reminds of incandescent bulbs
  • Versatile input voltage range
  • Inexpensive

Con's:

  • Unknown XR-E emitter, Q series probably
  • Soldering job was aesthetically messy but adequate
  • Blinky modes i do not like, but many apperently do

This is a review of a warm white dropin for P60 hosts.

It is my first experience with a warm white dropin. It is decently made but the soldering was a mess. Pretty it is not but it works and there is no risk for bad contacts.

The description says it is a 3 mdoe but i recieved a 5 mode H-M-L-STR-SOS one.

Down to the business!

Battery 18700 2400mAh XTAR 4.17V - Q5 Warm white Manafont dropin:

  • High - 1250 mA
  • Med - 450 mA
  • Low - 80 mA

Fetures a good mode memory that works nicely. Current draw might be a little on the high side but we all love non underdriven emitters. This one clearly is not.

Voltage range: 4.2V-18V.

I would believe it works as the driver in it is a two pcb sandwich type. Common design for "high" voltage drivers. Taking a picture would do no good probably as not much can be seen.

How does it look? FANTASTIC! Really. It looks so nice that i'm probably going to want more warm white and neutral emitter in future.

This is High 150cm away from ceiling in a 100% dark enviroment.

This is low 150cm away from ceiling in a 100% dark enviroment. It is here just to remind me a point and shoot pocket camera can't be used to do such things.

I used a Ultrafire 504B host for the dropin.

Summary:

I Like it very much! It has it all and very minimal almost nonexisting drawbacks. For the price it is a must have if you have not experienced warm white emitters yet.

Again i would like to thank manafont for sending me this evaluation sample. It's one of my favorite dropins. Looking forward to try it outside in a forrest.

This is one of the few reviews that i can truly give the 5 star rating without having second toughts.

2

Decently made ?

3

Nice find, I've been looking for something for my unbored 6P. I bet it is even brighter on two RCR123's.

Edit: How quick does the memory kick in? Thinking of how well this would work with a stock 6p tail.

I haven't found a budget XML yet that can handle the extra voltage.

4

Yeah but 4.2 min. voltage ?

5

Very nice! Frontpage'd and Sticky'd. I really like that warm color also, I wish it was more common.

Suggestion: Have you thought about putting the Pros and Cons more towards the top so they are visible in the teaser on the frontpage?

Thanks for the review!

6

I have a Jade Master bought from KD with warm tint and an XR-E led. It realy has a pleasing warm colour and much brighter than I thought a warm tinted XR-E would be. These definitely aren't warm P4s everyone calling just too dim. Or are they? Solarforce has a warm drop-in even with a lower price than this but it could be something with a lower bin too.

7

Too bad I bought the KD Q35A drop-in some weeks ago, it doesn't have proper mode memory. But I wasn't that impressed of warm white anyway, atleast that one was very yellow/brown, neutral would probably be nicer.

8

1.25a on the usually makes a 1A (80% efficiency) or 1.06A (85% efficiency) on the led so very much in the defined range for an XR-E.

9

A little bit but if you take into account driver losses not much overdriven i guess.

Memory sets quickly. It works similarly than a Ak-47 would.

10

Yes, apart for the henious soldering job the assembly and the emitter base centering and so on was A+.

11

OK, you're right about this. I should have used the power output/input efficiency. But we still can't know the output current because of the buck circuitry. It may be loosing its %30 power in the coils and not giving any more than %80 of the input current afterall.

A totally ideal buck driver should give 1.42Amps on the led for 4.2V input, on the other hand :)

12

I wish I had confidence that it would actually come in as a 3-mode, not a 5-mode setup.

When you are "playing" with your flashlights, those blinky modes are just an annoyance to get past.

But I like the low cost options of non-XM-L emmitters, I've ordered a couple of XP-G's, wish I knew more about the specs on all the available dropins.

Is there a thread somewhere that summarizes the strength's and weaknesses of different dropins?

13

I swapped the driver later today to a Ak-47 in Lo-Hi mode only. I hope it will hold fine at 1040mA as that's what i'm drivng it now.

14

So many interesting emitters out there, I feel like I need to take an engineering course on them...

Lately I've been fascinated by the OSRAM LED, ordered my first light with that one in it yesterday.

I started a new thread requesting information about various emitters, if you are interested you can find it here:

http://budgetlightforum.cz.cc/node/2019

15

PWM visible on mid/low?

16

I hardly notice PWM and surely did not on this one. Can't tell anymore since i swapped the driver to an Ak-47 which i modified to 700mA (killed a 7135amc chip) and brdiged to 2 mode low and hi. Less bright but still nice. Probably just playing it safe but i had a feeling it would survive at 1A but then i gain i have nothing to back that up scientifically. I wish more emitters were available in warm white and neutral.

17
wrote:

"Nice find, I've been looking for something for my unbored 6P. I bet it is even brighter on two RCR123'


I haven't found a budget XML yet that can handle the extra voltage."

Solarforce do a 6V XM-L drop in.

http://www.solarforce-sales.com/product_detail.php?t=RB&s=40&id=191

18

True, but I bet a XML could yank three or four dollars of batteries out of you pocket in an hour pretty quick on primaries.

19

Retail price for CR123's in the UK is about £8 each so about $13... you could by a new XM-L flashlight every hour instread if you were foolish enough to pay those prices :P

Of course anyone with any sence just orders them online...still it works out much better to use rechargables.

20

Aren't supposedly all the budget drivers crammed with the linear regulatorc AMC7139 tolerant for up to 6V? I've read that somewhere for the AK-47 at least... Heavily unconfirmed!