Sunwayman D40A (4xAA, XM-L2)
Reviewer's Overall Rating: ★★★★★
Reviewer's Mod Host Rating: ★★★★★
Summary:
| Battery: | 4xAA (Alkaline or NiMH) |
| Switch: | Side, dual electronic switches |
| Modes: | H 100%, M 50%, L 10%, Moon, with memory Hidden: Strobe, SOS, Beacon, Police Strobe |
| LED Type: | Cree XM-L2 unidentified flux bin, est. 1A or 1B tint bin |
| Lens: | AR Coated Glass |
| Tailstands: | Yes |
| Price Paid: | Reduced cost review sample from Wallbuys Reg. price was $77.58, Group Buy price was $58 |
| From: | Wallbuys |
| Date Ordered: | Ordered 5/21, shipped 5/30 (supplier delay), received 6/7 |
Pros:
- Excellent finish
- Excellent machining, perfectly square anodized threads
- Integrated pill, good size with a nice star mounting surface (emitter is not glued down)
- Good heatsinking on head, great for modding
- Excellent reflector, aluminum OP, deep
- Perfectly centered emitter
- Excellent mod host, best in class (compared to EA4 and TR-A9)
- Very well built cell carrier, simple to use
- Directly accessible moon mode! (hold power button when light is off)
Cons:
- Integrated pill is good for thermal transfer, but can make emitter access difficult.
- Buttons could sustain damage from a direct hit (but less likely than on an EA4)
Features / Value: ★★★★★
Design / Build Quality: ★★★★★
Battery Life: ★★★★★
Light Output: ★★★★★
Overview
The Sunwayman caught my eye as soon as I noticed it. I really like the Nitecore EA4W, everything but the delicate button. I fear it getting sheared off. Seeing that Sunwayman went with a lower profile UI, and some snazzy looks, I jumped at the chance to get one.
I usually do not bother reviewing the packaging, but because it was done rather well, I'll post some images.
Opening the box, we find the light well protected on the bottom and sides, not too much on the top though.
Under the light we find the paperwork. The manual is written English (by someone who understands English) and Chinese.
On the final level we have the holster, lanyard, and spare O-ring.
Enough packaging, now let's get on to the light itself.
On the front we can see the Sunwayman alternative to a bi-level switch; two buttons. One power button, one mode button. Their use, together and separate, IMO provides the most flexible UI I have seen so far. More on that later. First, let's take a look.
The buttons have a short travel and give a good positive feedback with a click. I've always found the first level click on the EA4 to be too soft. There is an indicator LED between the two buttons. Perusing the manual provided no information on it. Running down some cells, tells me it is a low battery indicator. The (red) LED comes on when the cells are getting low. As the cells become more depleted, it flashes a few times and turns steps down to the next mode. Once it reaches low, it will not step down anymore and just turns off. The light will not turn back on until you replace the cells (or just loosen and re-tighten the body).
On the other side is the lanyard hole, the light hangs on a slight angle:
Head on. Beauty. No more needs to be said.
The handling is nice, it fits in the hand really well. I find that for my larger hands, I am partially gripping the heatsink area. The knurling is just about perfect and provides a good amount of grip. The buttons are well placed for top-side thumb activation, or bottom-side index finger activation.
The light comes apart between the body and head. The three main parts are the head, body, and battery carrier.
Here we can see to top of the carrier, the tail, and the driver cover plate. The carrier has a novel design; it is polarity insensitive. Both ends of the carrier provide positive at the center and negative on the ring. Of course, the individual cells need to be inserted with polarity in mind. The positive is delivered to the driver via a center spring. Negative is returned via the large metal cover plate. This design seems to work well; there is a slight rattle from within the carrier when shaking the light, even when fully loaded and tightened down on the head. I did not find this bothersome, as it did not occur while handling the light.
The threads on the body and head are perfectly cut, square, smooth, almost totally dry, and anodized. This light does provide a lockout by loosening the body about an eighth of a turn.
In the front end of the head, we find the nicely finished stainless steel bezel, O-rings, AR coated glass lens, a deep aluminum OP reflector, and the XM-L2 emitter on a very large star. The pill area is integrated into the head. The reflector seats onto the star with a plastic emitter centering ring . There are O-rings where they should be and they are perfectly sized. The star is screwed down to the pill surface and has plenty of thermal compound. A quick turbo run verifies that there is a good thermal path to the outside.
The reflector is surprisingly deep.
The driver is retained with a large metal plate, held in with three small Philips screws. After removing the screws, the plate falls out and the driver can be puled out, There are two well sized emitter wires, and a 5-pin bundle that goes to the switches and indicator LED.
The driver itself appears to be well made, and developed by paranoid engineers (chips are de-labeled).
The battery carrier also appears to be well made.
Compared to the Nitecore EA4/EA4W, the size is very similar. The D40A is slightly longer. I prefer the feel of the D40A in the hand, although both are quite easy to handle.
Before I forget, a couple more shots, with the nice lobster-claw lanyard:
and, in the holster. The light easily slides in an out, head up or tail up. The holster features a fixed belt loop, a Velcro belt loop, and a D-ring for fastening options.
User Interface
The user interface of this light may take a little getting used to... if you need to use the 'disco' flashing modes.
To just use the light for the main output modes (plus Moon), it's quite simple:
- To turn on the light, press Power. It will turn on in the last output level used.
- To change the output level, press Mode. It cycles through the four main modes (T, H, M, L).
- To turn the light off, press Power.
- To access Moon mode, while the light is off, press and hold Power. After about 1.5s it will enter moon mode. Turning off in Moon mode memorizes this so the next time, you can just press Power.
- To directly access Turbo mode, while the light is off, quickly press Power twice. When the light is turned off and back on, if the previous mode was moonlight, that mode is restored instead of the Turbo.
To access the additional 'disco' modes:
- For Strobe, with the light in any mode, quickly press Mode twice.
- For SOS, with the light on, press and hold Power for 1.5s.
- For Aviation Strobe (quick pulse every three seconds), with the light off, press and hold Mode.
- For Police Strobe (three strobes every two seconds), with the light on, press and hold Mode.
The 'disco' modes are cancelled with a press of either button. When accessing any 'disco' mode, the light memorizes the last output level used for next time.
Lockout Mode:
- To lockout the light, while on or off, press and hold both buttons for 1.5 seconds. The light will flash very quickly and turn off. Subsequent button presses have no effect.
- To exit lockout, press and hold both buttons for 1.5 seconds. The light will exit lockout and turn on.
Physical lockout can also be achieved by loosening the body about 1/8th of a turn.
For me, I find this UI easier than the EA4 interface. The EA4 does it with one button, but here I cannot accidentally activate turbo when I want low. Also, I really like having a Moon mode.
One extra nice thing; if you press the Mode button to exit Moon mode, the light always enters Low. This saves you from being blasted by Turbo after being dark-adjusted.
Beamshots
The beam is buttery smooth. (Note: these beam shots are too dim. I need to retake them).
Turbo:
High:
Med:
Low:
Moon:
Compared to the EA4W. In all fairness, this light should be compared to the EA4 L2 (both for output and price). I like this light enough that I anticipate it receiving a NW XM-L2 emitter upgrade in the near future.
Measurements
Dimensions:
- Overall Length: 120.7mm
- Bezel Diameter: 40.1mm
- Head diameter (widest point): 42.1mm
- Body Diameter: 39.1mm
- Tail Diameter: 40.0mm
- Reflector Inner Diameter: 33.7mm
- Reflector Outer Diameter: 34.7mm
- Reflector Depth: 34.4mm
- Reflector Emitter hole Diameter: 7.4mm
- Lens Diameter: 37.6mm
- Lens Thickness: 2.04mm
- Emitter star diameter: 28mm
- Driver diameter: 37.5mm
- Carrier diameter: 35.1mm
- Carrier length: 60.9mm
- Longest supported cells: 50.6mm
Weights (without batteries):
- Overall: 166g
- Head: 106g
- Body Tube: 28g
- Carrier: 32g
Performance (stock, 5.5V supply, uncalibrated measurement equipment):
- Light Output: ~875 lumens at start, ~869 after 30s (slightly lower than spec, but note the low thermal sag, very promising)
- Beam Intensity: ~24.7kcd, right on the specification
- High: ~515 lumens
- Med: ~209 lumens
- Low: ~28 lumens
- Moon: ~1 lumen
Power Source Options: 4xAA, Alkaline or NiMH.
Switch type: side, dual electronic switches
Modes: Turbo (2.18A), High (0.95A), Medium (0.33A), Low (0.05A), Moon (0.004A), Strobe, SOS, Aviation Strobe (Beacon), Police Strobe
Mode Memory: Yes, while powered. Resets to Turbo when powered down.
Standby current: ~11uA when off, ~313uA when locked out (What?) The manual stated 30uA, but I measured higher and somewhat confusing results for lockout mode. Not excessive, but when leaving light for weeks at a time, use the physical lockout method or remove the cells.
Conclusions
The Sunwayman D40A may just be the best light available in the 4xAA soda can style format today. I may do an emitter swap in the future; for a tint upgrade, not for output.
As shipped, this light is highly Relic Recommended.
As a mod host, Relic Recommended. Although, most will not feel the need to modify this light at all. It just works great as it is.
Thanks for reading! searchID8934
