Olight M3X clone : Fandyfire STL-V6 is good! Measurements inside

Prelim : 8.33V unloaded. 1.32A draw (not sure of voltage sag during that). This light is regulated. 2 x IMR 18500 from Bestinone.net.

You can operate on 2 x 18650 or 2 x 18500 (minus the extension). The 2 x 18500 turns this into a 200mm long power house.

Lux reading : 690 lux @ 8.17m, 46k lux @ 1m.

Wow, this little bugger matches my Solarforce Masterpiece Pro-1 figures! And on distant objects like 200m, they do seem to be equal. The XM-L has a larger hotspot, of course.

LED is perfectly centered, using the same mechanism as the Sky Ray STL-V2 and Oligt M3X. Hotspot has absolutely ZERO donut hole in the middle.

XM-L seems to be directly mounted on 3mm thick aluminum circular plate, the wiring probably runs within conduit cuttings cut on the aluminum plate, on the top part you see white plastic covering the alu. Well i don't know, but it seems high in quality. 3mm plate is screwed via 2 screws to the host tube mounting surface. 2 Screws are present, usual white thermal compound gunk used. Surfaces are smooth, so if you are anal you can use some artic silver here. Driver inside has PCB which touches the host, so no surprises here.

Light quality is very high for budgetlight levels. Reflector is smooth. Well I don't know....I only have a dereelight but next week I am gonna have a TK70, and week after next i shall have a Polarion PH40 coming for testing....well the PH40 is not mine its for a meetup at my place. LOL!

Very very satisfied with the light. I shall be buying a UCL AR coated lens to make the big reflector stand out, like the Solarforce Masterpiece Pro-1 which already has good AR coated lens fitted as stock.

This Fandyfire is definitely no junk at $46 (!!) shipped. With the low USD as the prices are pegged, BUY!

Panasonic NCR18650 2900s.

74.3 lux reflected, start time 0:10.

74.2 lux time 1 min 20 sec...starting to have localised heat saturation and starting to move

71.3 lux time 5 mins

5 mins = 4.2% drop in light. This mainly due to heat. The light is regulated. Ambient air temp is 29 deg C, HOT! Most of you will fare better.

The Ultrafire U-80 42mm reflectored XM-L 1x8650 got 65 lux initially here, same location. Drops gradually though from time 0 seconds and never holds steady. Prob a mixture of battery drop and heat.

BTW, how do you get rid of the white letterings on the body? Acetone?

Bought it the day before. Can't wait...

...

... to get a drop-in version.

What drop-in, this one is not drop in. Not 3 x XM-L. Fandyfire 3 x XM-L is called STL-V2.

Fandyfire 1 x XM-L big reflector aka Olight M3X clone = STL-V6

Fandyfire 3 x XM-L = STL-V2.

Sky Ray 1 x XM-L big reflector aka Olight M3X clone = STL-V2

Sky Ray 3 x XM-L = Sky Ray 3 x T6. No such thing as STL-V6 for Sky Ray.

Have to hand it to the China's Chinese.

This is my impression. I cannot guarantee what the Chinese would do for both the Sky Ray and Fandyfire 2 weeks later. LOL!

Well, if we learned anything from the STL-V6, the first batch isn't....

:bigsmile:

I don't think the usual 52.5/52.6/52.7mm drop ins fit in this. So NO WORRIES! This is EXACTLY the same light as the Sky Ray STL-V2. Confirm....and the built is pretty good, in fact EXCELLENT for budget light standards. Even the lanyard for both versions is the same, same colour same design etc. BTW this light is pretty clean when i received it, much better than the Sky Ray SR3800 which i had to de-oil. No shavings, no nothing. Pop in batts and start the measurements and fun!

Again, i do not know what would happen if CPF budgetlight corner starts to post this and we have 30 orders per week from all over the world going to the factory.....plus the orders for the 3 x T6 added in. Probably same old story.......

Just kidding, man, no drop-in. Someone else got his w/ glued pcb instead of screws, so I'll be lucky if the pcb is even attached. But knowing DX, they'll send the later orders first so I'll end up with one with no pcb because they ran out at the factory. :D

Yeah, they could run out of screws and use Fujik glue instead. That is a plausible outcome!

Ergotelis got some lux readings here

http://www.candlepowerforums.com/vb/showthread.php?319141-Beamshots-of-14-powerful-xm-l-flashlights(including-TK70)-1-xp-g-for-comparison.

His Sky Ray is 17790. My SR is 16680. That's a 7% diff. Let normalise our lux meter readings. (due to meter differences, distance differences etc)

My STL-V6 is 46k. So it would translate to be 1.07*46 = 49.2k.

His Olight M3X is 58k and draws 1.33A and dumps 2.93A to the XM-L. Same as mine 1.32A. Driver could be more efficient due to better components, who knows. Not too bad!

To add here, the 7% variation is well within the Xm-l bin performance variation. So, i might have a very good sample and yours might not be that good. Though, hope this is not the case here!

Also, my lux measurements are taken@3meters, they are just converted back to 1M.

What is the lux meter you are using?

I am waiting too for the same Fandyfire,(dx slow dispatch-delivery times) so i will make a direct comparison against M3X with current measurements on the led and on the same batteries!

Ergotelis, you seem to be always online and capture whatever is being said about you! Can't escape!

Yep, well within the lumen variations within the same bin as specced by Cree, seriously you wouldn't know what Fandyfire/Chinese OEM used, for all you know they just pick the T5 but cool white. Cheap....i mean this is a 46 bucks shipped light with a reflector that is good.

Also M3X could have used a 98% glass. I am sure this is a 92-94% glass. Shucks no pretty UCL lens for this 59mm size!

I am using the under-reading DX meter. LOL!

Also have to factor in driver efficiencies, components....all variations here and there. And also temperature differences, easily another 5%. It is 30 deg C now at night!

I managed to net a 6.5% gain in light by just cooling the head with ice. Ambient 30 deg C here.

I have the sky ray version coming on the slow boat. I was hoping it would clearly out perform the solar force MPP-1. But from your comments it seems about the same as the MPP-1. If you have any beam shots of the two please post.

Interesting, at longer ranges like > 100m, it seems that visually the MPP-1 is casting a slightly brighter spot on a 100% white surface, even though at my 8m measurement range both are around the same. I guess for such tight beams, you'd need at least 20m measurements. In 2 weeks there will be a meetup with some flashaholics and we'll be doing 50m measurements, but i'll be measuring the HIDs and my friend's Polarion PH40. 50m measurements are great but are tiring. Short-arcs are recommended to do 100-200m range!

I'm sorry but distant beamshots on buildings = very time consuming setup of cam/tripod and insert CF card, upload etc., you'd just have to take my word for it.

No problem, in a couple days I should have the sky ray and I can compare it to my MPP-1, its just the wait is killing me

You will find that the Fandyfire has a much more useful beam, with just a wee bit less throw on distant objects that are near the fringe line of throw, eg 1 lux @ target. No replacement for lumens.

It has 2 groups of modes, a 3 mode and a 5 mode. How it does this is that the head takes -ve from both the body tube as well as from the top of the tube. The driver has a ring of contact which sense the top part of the ring. If just unscrewed a bit (the top part of the tube) the driver ring loses contact and changes into another mode. Cool.

150mm super shorty mode, with 2 x 18350 IMRs inside. Measurement 1.35A, so the IMRs do not really sag. This is probably the shortest non-custom thrower with the highest lumen around. As you can see, the Ultrafire has HA and the Fandyfire head has no HA. No issue, they feel the same, such is the quality. It is no Surefire, but not sure what would you wanna complain for 46 bucks shipped. So it can run 2 x 18350 super shorty, 2 x 18500 shorty and 2 x 18650 normal.

BTW, Dereelight DBS V3 tube and tailcap also fits, but gotta take out the clip.

That looks really nice with the two 18350!

2100, i have eyes everywhere :P :lol:

We have the same problem with heat here,in Crete(Greece) we have 30-35 C ! :S

When mine comes, i will be comparing it directly against! I will test some technical features, such as swapping the lenses/reflectors and measuring led currents. Also, i might test the led too, might swap a good U2 bin from cutter!

@2100: Maybe a C8 tube will fit in the Fandyfire STL-V6 head ?

that would be so cool.