Review: Keygos M10

LED Flashlights – General Info 26650 Flashlights
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Keygos M10

Reviewer's Overall Rating: ★★★★☆

Summary:

Battery: 1x 26650 unprotected/protected
Switch: Reverse clicky
Driver: Keygos M10
Modes: 5, no memory: High 100%, Medium 50%, Low 13%, Fast strobe, SOS
LED Type: XM-L T6 1x
(Cool White, seems like 1C to me, no pink, only a hint of a greenish tint)
Lens: Glass, seems uncoated
Reflector: SMO - smooth
Tailstands: Yes
Price Payed: 18.69 AUD / 19.50 USD
From: Ebay - cwtco - M10a (shipped me by mistake an M10)

Dimensions:

Battery: 27.0*70mm minimum.
Protected 26650 with a button top fits no problem.
Switch: 20mm
Tail cap: 17*6mm
Driver: 20mm, with retaining ring (17mm inside diameter), 10-11mm deep
LED: 20mm star, aluminum MCPCB
Lens: 41.4*1.85mm, glass, seems uncoated
Reflector: 41.7*31.6mm, SMO
Pill: 30.6*16.1mm, aluminum
O-rings: 20.5*1.35mm 1 on each end of body. 2 grooves for O-rings toward head.
Too small. Body diameter 29mm deep 1mm.
Lens O-ring 40*1mm, a bit small 42mm would be easier to assembly.
Reflector O-Ring 40*1.5mm, a bit too thin, 40*2mm might make a better seal, it seals an edge so it should be fine.
Body: 155*44.3*31.5mm, aluminum, seems like durable black finish

Pros:

  • High PVM, seems higher than Nanjg 105c
  • Does not overheat quickly (yet = modding here we go!)
  • Light weight, compact for a 26650
  • Great flawless finish, smooth threads
  • 2 attachment holes, does not interrupt tailstand
  • Nice throw, tight small spot, plus decent spill

Cons:

  • Driver sucks, period, 5 modes, Strobe + SOS, no memory, means one has to cycle through modes and also through the blinkies
  • It is unknown to me if it monitors the battery to prevent over discharge
  • Apart from the reflector O-Ring and working lens O-Ring the rest is too small and IMHO won't seal well
  • There is space for a deeper reflector which is exactly the size difference between M10 and M10a reflector

Features / Value: ★★★★☆

Comes in a bubblewrap, paper box put in a plastic envelope for transport. It has black O-rings on body and GITDs on the reflector. Tailcap is low and light will tailstand by default. Driver is a piece of annoying crap. It has 5 modes, 2 are useless, need to cycle due to no memory. PVM is high maybe 6kHz. Groups are in this order: 13/50/100%/FastStrobe/SOS. Tail side of the body has 1 O-ring the head side has 2. It also comes with a cheap lanyard. Emitter is an XM-L T6 1x cool white on a 20mm aluminum star MCPCB.
It is a good value for the money when additional modding is intended.

Given price and features it competes very well with other flashlights. For 20 USD there is hardly any competition for it when it comes to single 26650 lights.

Design / Build Quality: ★★★★☆

Manufacturing is reasonable, standard chinese lack of attention to detail and quality means rough edges on a pill and holes with sharp edges, threads seem thin, color finish is flawless though. Design is good and so is manufacturing of the parts except for sharper edges on a pill and tail to attach lanyard. Assembly is decent. Body O-rings are too small. Reflector does use centering isolator and does not touch the emitter board. Body is aluminum without any dents or nicks with a nice matte black finish. Body has checkered texture and provides a good grip. Tailcap is low and light will tailstand. MCPCB is "hammered into the pill" and has some white hopefully thermal paste under it. Biggest issue are the small O-rings. Reflector has small imperfections, hardly noticeable, glass lens could have better transmittance, it's either dust that can't be cleaned on it or it's in the glass.

Battery compartment is big enough for protected button topped 26650s. Batteries rattle a little when the light is shaken but an electrical tape around the battery solves it nicely.

Upon arrival there was some dust on the emitter and the pill might not have been tightened, dust removed with a lens cloth and tightened the pill.

Battery Life: ★★★★★

For my usage it should be enough. Maximum output is 1.8A. Measured with a DMM and a new TrustFire Flame 5000mAh 26650, freshly charged, approximately: 1.8A, 0.9A, 0.24A. Likes to drop a little so it won't do these max values all the time. I have not noticed it getting too hot, just warming up all the way to comfortably warm while on high. Holding the light and being outside, moving will dump even more heat. Changing the driver is almost a must but the output is decent stock as well.

Light Output: ★★★★☆

Heat management is good. Head has thick fins to dissipate heat more quickly. It has a screw in pill. Can't measure output but might provide beamshots later. On high and medium it nicely illimunates the whole room when pointed to the ceiling. Have been testing it out the window and it has a decent throw to me. Can reasonably illuminate trees and buildings up to 100m no problem, will have to go outside to find more distant targets. Beam seems normally wide to me and there is a quite small hotspot that can be too much for indoor use on any mode but it works very well to throw the light when outdoors. It has a lot of output for indoor use but works much better outdoors due to it's rather throw beam. It would be better if it came only with M10a reflector. This M10 one has rings and is not as tight as M10a.

You can find beamshots and lots of information here.
A comparison I requested from another owner there:

Summary: ★★★★☆

It is a decent one 26650 light that carries a good power for an outdoor use. Design is good what is lacking is the manufacturing details and proper O-Rings. Finish is flawless. As soon as I received it I did not drop it on the ground/carpet from 70cm - 1m like my previous flashlight. It does roll but attaching some sort of lanyard prevents it and I would recommend that. It is smaller and possible to carry in a pocket or a bag, on the belt. If the tail is water tight it should withstand going underwater to a reasonable pressure once the body O-rings are replaced. Biggest flaw in my humble opinion is the driver that has no memory and 2 annoying modes to cycle through, they using 100% power as welll. Another disadvantage is the M10 reflector that might suit some but some other might prefer the M10a version. Overall it is a good flashlight for a reasonable price, maybe it will be possible to find a similar light for this price but I don't know about any in this form factor. Heat management is good. Switch has very good operation for me. Running it on high, free standing, gets warm but then amperage drops and now it's just warm. I might call it hand warmer now, though a warm cup of tea does a better job :bigsmile:

Try ordering from go_market or redlog if you want an M10a. Cwtco can't tell the difference. Or try emailing Keygos to get it directly from them, they don't have M10a on their webshop though.

Anybody interested in a reflector exchange, M10 for an M10a let me know :)

Recommended mods:

  • Change the driver for better output and modes
  • Change the lens if it bothers you, can find better transmittance one
  • Change MCPCB for a copper SinkPAD
  • Change T6 1x for a newer XM-L2 of preferred tint
  • Put a grease on the threads and O-rings, I used a teflon grease, don't have a silicone grease
  • Change the O-Rings to make it water tight


Bonus picture, Keygos M10 (26650, XM-L T6 1x) vs D4 (18650, XM-L T6 3C):

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I have no 26650s still! Good to know there are inexpensive quality lights of this size. Thanks for the review!

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Nice review :bigsmile:

I have 8 of Keygos M10 :wink:
First one first order direct drive at 5.5A
The others are same like yours.

4

I have a pair of M10s. I like ’em okay for the price. One of them came assembled badly…the leads were severed but it was a simple repair. I use them on my bicycle with one aimed slightly in front of the other so that I have a good view of what’s up ahead.

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It’s been upgraded. A XML-2 U2 wuth a 4a driver set to 3.7a…. These little lights rock…

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OK for the money but I have the driver Dale mentioned above on order, hopefully I will like the light better after the driver upgrade.

7

I am certain you will…
Trees @ 150 feet

8

Yep, but what holder do you use? Are there any for 26650 lights?
I wouldn’t mind having one for this flashlight to mount on my bike.

Thanks.

Indeed I’m going to swap it soon for a Nanjg 105c, Hi/Mi/Lo, 2.8A +0.7A or +1.05A. Eying those XM-L2s but they don’t want to drop in price.

Any body even managed to get M10a here? Or does everybody own M10 only around these lands?

I thought of a mod yesterday that might remove some of the rings maybe.
There is this white emitter isolator and centering plastic piece, I think it is too high and protrudes to the reflector, which means the light gets blocked by it. I will file it down so it does not protrude to the reflector, will see if it makes a difference :slight_smile:

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I was led to believe the only difference between m10 and m10a was a u2 emitter. Certainly there was no difference between the reflectors of the two I ordered and both provide lovely smooth beams.

I also found that the driver’s have very LOW pwm, its very noticable shining on a running engines pulleys.

Imo, the best thing to do with an m10 is plan on a driver swap from the outset, but drive it hard, it can take it. 8)

Nice review. Thankyou for sharing.

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I use a pair of electrical conduit clamps, wrapped with heat-shrink tubing for each light. They’re not pretty and probably a little dangerous should I hit something and go over the handlebars but they work well. I wanted to mount them below the bars to be safer but they’re a little too tall and interfered with the brake cables. They’ll grip tight enough to deform the flashlight tube so you have to be a little careful as you’re tightening the wingnuts but once they’re in place, they don’t come lose accidentally no matter how rough the terrain.

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Haha, thanks for the note about tightening :smiley:
Yeah it seems very rock solid, more likely to lose the steering before the flashlights fall off.

GORDS! What do you have then? There is only one difference, M10 has a shallower reflector, the M10a has a deeper one. There is no U2s or what nots, some pics of other users had U2 marked on the MCPCB but the emitter was T6 anyway. At least I got that reply on the German site.

Right now I really hate how expensive Illumination Supply is :frowning: the emitters + the shipping is not cheap either, more expensive than a single emitter actually. Disappointed. Gotta wait for FastTech to get XM-L2s and XP-G2s. Should ask them about Nichia 219s too? XD

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Driver changed for Nanjg 105C 4 group, added 2*7135, should be pushing 3.5A but with my DMM and standard leads the highest I got was 2.94A or so with a fresh TF Flames 26650 5000mAh. But here goes the pictures since I managed be outside today after dawn and took my M10 with me to shoot this. Battery almost charged, 4.0-4.1V, might be a bit cold for it but shouldn't have dropped temperature too low.

High 100%, Medium 30%, Low 5%, Control shot.

Low seems fine for walking outdoors at night. Though I rather like to use my "natural nightvision".

Medium is decent for anything, even to look into distance.

High pushes the max out of it and will illuminate far objects brightly.

It seems a bit dark in the pictures, could have used longer time, but I didn't want it to be blurry. You can see in the control shots it's pretty much pitch black, away from artificial lighting just the stars on the sky illuminating the ground. Didn't notice a moon. Enjoy.









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I fianlly made my M10 a useful light. Changed out the stock under-driven disco mode driver with a KD 8x7135 with only med and hi. Great light with better runtime than my 18650 lights. This one is a keper now. I liked my HD2010 but not the most pocket friendly. My favorite pocket light is my SF L2 and the M10 is not much bigger and a way longer runtime.

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Why did you have to file down the driver so much? I only removed the bits in sides so it is round. Is that KD v2 driver? It looks like it. Set to High/Med/2Hz blink and no memory? Doesn’t look like much of an improvement to me LarryB.

Here is my Nanjg 105C, Lo/Me/Hi, 10*7135/350mA.

Also using the stock 105C spring meant when I shake the light it would disconnect and switch modes so I put back the longer spring so it has nice contact with all batteries.

Maybe some 18650s might not like the reversed spring but mine work fine. It’s important that their minus on the top side of battery is well isolated.

15

If you carefully bend the top coil of the spring across the diameter if the circle, any cell will make contact :wink:

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Done :bigsmile:

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Glad you understood what I meant, couldn’t think how to put it to be honest. Nice looking installation on a great light. 8)

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Thanx for your review!
I have a M10a (supposedly), but I am very disapointed with its hotspot’s beam, honestly I dont know if its a M10 or M10a but from what I heard from others with M10’s it should have a nice clean hotspot.

Look at this:
At about 2 meters from white wall, in high with 2.8A Nanjg 105C

This is at about 20m (65ft) to a white wall:

My reflector, looks to be the same as yours, a bit less than 32mm

I am trying to find out why my beam is so fuzzy, maybe its a M10a and this is normal :~

Can someone please take a shot at 2 meters from white wall, to see if its very diferent from mine??

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I can't take a s hot that far, but I may try take a shot at the ceiling, hey that should be a little over 2m :) It just won't be completely clean area. Yes yours SolarStorm is also M10. 31.x mm, the M10a has the deeper 36.x mm reflector. I find the M10 ok, it is fine for walking outside, the M10a has tighter beam and a soft wide ring around it, like a low light spill. Where as the M10 has those rings on the edge of the beam, M10a does not. Filing down the emitter centering plastic thingy did not help. To me it looks completely normal SS, it has the bright spot in the middle that is tight and gives you distance, then follows the throw-spill the bright tight gradient that gives you spill in distance and after that you have the spill that is usable for short distance and is wide. At the end is the edge with some rings that appear at different distances from a wall. After that it's considered pitch black for me. You have to remember this is not an aspheric or this who knows what's the name flashlight that probably shines the emitter inward and reflects the output out from a mirror reflector. Those have a tight spot mostly and nothing else. Useless. Get a spotlight instead 0:)

Ceiling, High, auto exposure,daylight, 28mm lens, camera held next to the flashlight's reflector on the floor.

-2eV

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Completely diferent from mine. I suspect that I have a defective reflector, there is some kind of flower effect on the outside of the hotspot…. I think I will order another M10 directly from Keygos website…
Yours is perfectly circular, look at my beam:

PS- What is “–2eV”?