I bought this new Jetbeam T6 and it arrived yesterday. I wanted to share my thoughts about it. It is similar to the Tk75 and TM16 in that it is 4 emitter, 4 18650, with reasonable throw. Whilst it doesn’t have throw like the recent TM16GT group buy it is a little smaller.
Manufacturers Specs -
Specifications:
•LED: 4 x CREE XP-L LED
•Power Source: 4 x 18650
•IPX Rating: IPX-8 (waterproof and submersible up to 2 meters underwater)
•Impact Resistance: 1.5 meters
•Brightness Outputs:
◦Turbo - 4350 Lumens - 1 Hour 48 Min.
◦High - 1500 Lumens - 4 Hours 30 Min.
◦Medium - 350 Lumens - 21 Hours
◦Low - 30 Lumens - 300 Hours
•Peak Beam Intensity: 119500 cd
•Peak Beam Distance: 750 meters
•Dimensions:
◦Length - 6.42”
◦Body Diameter - 2.05”
◦Head Diameter - 3.46”
•Weight: 19.15 oz. (excluding batteries)
So it comes in a fancy box inside a box with a rope hanging out the end. Has a spare o-ring, lanyard, manual and warranty card (not shown in pic). I also got one of those little xtar keychain lights as a gift from the seller.
First impressions are it looks well made. Though some of the emitters are not perfectly centred. The lens is 3mm AR coated. It can head and tail stand no problem. It has anti-roll flat spots around the head but they are so small that they hardly stop it from rolling. I’ll try to remember to get a video of that later.
The batteries are run in series hence the tail cap has alignment pins for the contact plate. It doesn’t matter which pin goes to which side i.e.- the contact plate can be spun 180 and still work correctly. There is plenty of space for using protected cells and as a result magnets are needed for shorter unprotected cells.
The light has thermal step down which kicked in pretty quick as it was still over 30C in my garage in the evening. I ran it under some cold water to cool it and blew it off with an air gun. In this process I accidently nicked the anodizing with the air gun. After that I noticed scratches in the battery tube. This is disappointing. The anodizing looks good and is not patchy but seems thin and not really durable.
I took a quick lux measurement at turn on. With the reclaimed sony cells I got 135kcd (calculated from 10m and cells fresh off the charger). I don’t know how much extra cd I’m getting from shooting down a narrow alley??
I tried to disassemble the light but all I managed to do was take off the bezel. It felt like it was glued but there didn’t seem to be any glue on the threads when I looked at them. There didn’t appear to be any lube on the o-ring either, which might explain why it was stiff to screw over the o-ring. I assumed the reflector has a screw in the rear holding it in place as that seemed fairly solid too. I couldn’t remove the battery tube with my hands so I let it be.
Size comparison to the TK75. It is easily smaller when compared side by side but most of the reduced size (OK all of it) comes from the smaller battery tube and not needing a battery carrier. The head is much the same diameter, if anything it’s a fraction bigger but not noticeably. The head is however deeper than the TK75 but only the head, the reflector seems to be a similar depth though I can’t be sure of that since I couldn’t remove the reflector.
A quick beam shot. Left is the T6, right is the TK75vn. I measured the lux on the TK75 to be 207kcd (the batteries were not fresh off the charger like when I tested the T6). The tint is cool white and the beam pattern relatively smooth. I did have plans to change or dedome the emitters but after seeing the beam I may just keep it stock (besides I already have throwers). I’ll try to get some better beam shots in the coming days.
One extra thing I did was check the current at the tail. At first I didn’t understand why I wasn’t getting a consistent reading then worked out the current would change according to how much pressure I pushed the batteries into the springs. Light pressure = 6 amps, heavy pressure = 4 amps. I’ll have to get a video of this to show you guys. It sort of indicates to me that this light would benefit from a spring bypass mod.
Regulation is good. I couldn’t see any pwm on any modes Hi to low.
One thing about the UI is having to hold the button for on/off. I’m maybe a bit fussy but I think all lights should turn on/off with a single press/click. Once the light is on a single press moves to the next mode T/H/M/L. Double click the main power switch takes it to turbo from any mode/on/off. Double click the second button takes it to low from any mode/on/off. Hold the second switch for strobe a quick press goes to the next spastic mode - SOS and signal. SOS is sos-sos not sosos. Signal is cycling through high to low modes and back. I like the last mode memory and the ability to bypass the the spastic modes though.
Overall it’s good. It has some down points (like the anodizing) but I’m happy with my purchase.