Review: Ultrafire 501B R2 single mode with weapon mount and pressure switch bundled

LED Flashlights – General Info 18650 Flashlights
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Ultrafire 501B R2 single mode + weapon kit

Reviewer's Overall Rating: ★★★★☆


Summary:

Battery: 18650, fits protected np
Switch: tail clicky reverse
Modes: 1
LED Type: Cree R2
Lens: glass
Tailstands: no
Price Payed: * sent for review purposes by Yoki from DD *
From: DinoDirect
Date Ordered: 03/21/2011

About the review:

I would like to thank Yoki from DD for the semple sent free of charge on the condition to make a review on DD. That said... let's go on objectively.

Pros:

  • Compact sized (the most compact sized P60 host for 18650 cells i'm aware of)
  • Came free of visual defects (not that i detected any others)
  • Very well driven R2 emitter
  • Very good pressure switch (required less force to activate than most others i'm used to)
  • Very good universal weapon mount bundled with the appropriate hex tool
  • Protected 18650 fits well, tried the XTAR 2400mAh 18700 without issues
  • Above average switch assembly

Cons:

  • The emitter is a bit on the cold side but that's standard for normal R2 in XR-E package
  • Does not tailstand, changing ad fiddling with the tailcap silicone cap might solve the issue
  • Host not suitable for higher powered emitters but for this one is about ok
  • I don't like much the switch silicone caps without grip which most 501B comes with
  • Wider gap than usually present in P60 hosts that needs to be filled with aluminum to help transfer the heat to the body

Features / Value: ★★★★☆

It is a 501B flashlight body with an added single mode XR-E R2 dropin. It's strength lies in the compact size. By being small, heatsinking suffers a bit but for such an emitter it gets the job done. Since we are talking about a flashlight bundle aimed for those who want to use it on a firearm the acessories are worth a comment or two. A spare tailcap with pressure switch is bundled together with a very decent universal weapon mount. Hex tool for the weapon mount was to my surprise present in the package. Thre pressure switch is unbranded and does not feel like a tiny tiny click when pressed which im used to with ultrafire branded ones. This one is very responsive but not overly. Involuntary presses are probably rare.

Design / Build Quality: ★★★☆☆

Build quality wise is not comparable with "premium budget" hosts like solarforce. Almost an oxymoron term?!? It is however fair for the price. Glass mounting and interchangeability is made in a way i will not bother fiddling with. Tailcap side threads are a bit too few for my liking but does the job anyway. I suspect it has to do with keeping it compact. Aesthetically speaking i'm not a huge fan at all. Looks very nice on a weapon but in hand a more polished look is desired. I guess we all have a P60 host we like more than others. Free of machining defects and even anodizing was present althrough the tailcap was a bit on the shiny side for a otherwise matte style body. The tailcap silicone switch cover without grip is what i don't like on any flashlight. It's an easy fix but i would have preferred it came with a better one in stock form. With the few 501B i had neither one came with a decent tailcap silicone button cover. Orings are present where needed, counting 4 in total and to my surprise even lubed.

Battery Life: ★★★★☆

Battery life is gonna be good on this one. Current draw at tailcap is 1150mA with a freshly charged 18700 XTAR 2400mA which is getting good reviews lately (i suspected but never really knew it was that awesome ). With such current draw we can expect a good 2h of good brightness and probably another one with significantly reduced output. Being single mode i'm afraid there is nothing much more to be said on the subject. Why not 5 stars? Don't really know, but the driver circuit should be doing a few more usefull things to be a contendat for 5 star award.

Light Output: ★★★★★

The emitter does get pushed well enough. Driving the emitter probably well arround 1A if we consider some circuit board losses which i will not gonna measure since it is probably not worth doing. This is 4.5 stars to my book. Emitter tint is rather cold and on par with a few other R2 i have. The reflector is adequately chosen for the emitter type and artifacts are really hard to spot by white walling. I had a few Q5 dropins and none of them had such a nice beam. But looking at the picture below judge yourself.

Lux reading at exactly 1m emitter to sensor: 8990 lux

For comparison a Q5 driven at 1040mA: 7950 lux

Beamshot taken at 120cm distance from wall to camera. The flashlight was 230cm away from wall.

The picture above shows a very nice tint but in reality was slightly colder, still good looking tho.

Summary: ★★★★☆

All put together the whole package is a good (althrough not awesome) deal for those who want a one package deal. The 501B host is not my favorite but it does look nice on a firearm. Unfortunately that cannot be said for handheld "mode" where it lacks the fine details of other P60 hosts around. For what it costs it is well featured. The battery tube is actually very close to my XTAR 18700 thickness so it does not rattle inside which is often not the case with other p60 hosts. The R2 dropin is the star of the show here. Very well driven and with a nicely picked reflector that really brings a nice hotspot with hardly any artifacts. The bundled weapon mount and pressure switch are also excellent. The weapon mount looks a very professionally made one. I'm not an expert on those but since the whole package will be gifted to a friend who will appreciate such a package it does at least look very decent.

I would like to thank Yoki from DD again for the free sample. Shipping was exceptional. 10 days after confirmed shipped, untracked. (Still waiting a ton of other stuff from other dealers that are being way overdue) Yoki requested just a review on DD for sending me this package for free. The review on BLF was my call and since this package was the only one i recieved recently worth of reviewing i had to write something to not lose the grip.

EndofreviewFoy! Whats a review nowadays without writing at least a random Foy somewhere.

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Good job budget, this looks great.

Foy

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Great review Budgeteer!

I also took the offer to do a review on their site. One reason being, I don't have any experience with the 501b host, and wanted to see what all the fuss was about - and of course see what can be done to improve it. From the looks of the nice pics you took, looks like the best thing to do is the foil trick.

I'm also curious to see how well that mount handles recoil. I've got a spendier mount for my Tiablo that I use on my varmit rig, so I have something to compare it to. Holding up to a .22 would be a given, and probably the .223, but when we get into the 30-06 or 300WSM then things may change. Since that's the lights intended use, I'm also curious how the torch itself will hold up.

When it arrives, it'll give me an excuse to go to the range and play a bit . I'll report back here since you've got the review thread going already.

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Great review Budgeteer, very concise and objective, thanks a lot! Frontpage'd and Sticky'd.

I would definitely agree with your opinion, we seem to have very similar asthetic tastes. That thing really got hit with an ugly stick.

On the other hand, I would also agree that the beam is admirably pretty. I tend to do the same thing on my reviews, even if it's relatively a bit dimmer, I would give it extra points for having a nice, smooth beam. Sometimes the cheapest lights surprise me most with their smooth beams. The $3 Powerlight 1xAA is a perfect example of this. Prettiest beam in my collection almost.

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I've been using one of those mounts on a 22 LR, and a 22 WMR for a couple of years. they're pretty sturdy, but only useable as a barrel mount. I suspect that the only problem with higher recoil weapons would be the thumb screw attachment to the mount base may loosen.

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Not having experience with those but i think the weapon mount is ridicolously good for the price it usually sells.

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Budgeteer!

All you need now is a weapon to mount it on.

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Kind of looks like it's designed to mount on a barrel , I hope it can be mounted to the scope tube rather ...

Was half expecting a full review = you went small game hunting [ ill borrow that image thank you ]

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one thing that sucks with the 501b is a 28mm lens doesn't fit..it's more like 26-27mm..my UCL lens is just way too big for it..

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I turned down Yoki's review offer because I already have a 501B (actually a single-mode R2 too), and told her I couldn't write a positive review of it. My 501b now lives with my Significant Other. Nothing really 'wrong' with it, but nothing really 'right' about it either, in my book. My biggest beef is the single-piece bezel/lens assembly. No ability to put other lenses in there, or sans lens like I often do (if I recall correctly, the drop-in won't stay in unless you have that bezel/lens assembly on).

Not necessarily as a negative, but as a 'note', it also won't take Solarforce-compatible tailcaps (incompatible threading). Mine (not from DinoDirect) draws 1.0 amps at the tail (about 4 watts) by the way, which I think is exactly at Cree's maximum rating, so that's nice. With the tailcap resistance it may be a bit less, but I didn't test. Any tailcap accessories (like pressure pad) will pretty much just be for your 501b. (If the 501b is compatible with other tailcaps, please list them.)

Thanks to BLF members, I also recently learned of the Ultrafire "501A", which is shorter, using 16340 cells (I think I remember someone saying it'll take 18350 cells too, which is a bonus--seems to use the same tailcap). Kind of like a 'budgetier' L2m. For a weapons light which is only intended for short bursts, needs to be light, and may need to be pointed quickly, a small-cell flashlight seems to make more sense, and would have no problem driving the 1A of the R2, even for a pretty good runtime. By 'short bursts', I mean you really shouldn't be pointing a gun around unless you're prepared to fire. So taking a walk at night pointing your gun down your path is not recommended. That said, the 501b is probably the lightest (at least thinnest-feeling) 18650-sized P60-compatible hosts out there (which is usually not seen as a plus, but could be here).

Good review though, glad you like yours. Would like to see it mounted. What kind of weapons do they let you have in your country? Sometimes the anti-gun-rights folks here try to make people think that NO ONE outside of the United States is allowed to own guns (somehow, bad guys still seem to get them though--kind of like narcotics).

I've also always found it odd how countries which don't allow people to have certain things, still often have businesses which produce things for people in other countries who are allowed to have them. One retailer on BLF stated he didn't sell knives because "knives are not allowed in China", which I found odd in the general way he put it (and transmitted the probably somewhat lost-in-translation quote to a weapons-enthusiast friend of mine). Not just weapons, but I think of religious ornaments and items from communist countries. That's not a joke, either. I knew a Vietnamese guy who said his family back in 'nam had to register and get a PERMIT from the government to celebrate Christmas and have a Christmas tree. Not a direct example, since the tree was still allowed, but learning that made me appreciate my country more. I do find it odd that most religious ornaments sold now seem to be made in China.

I also wish our congress would repeal Clinton's edict-ban on importation of Chinese ammunition and firearms, which it looks like he personally did to take attention off his involvement in an illegal arms importation deal which got exposed and stopped. He denied, covered up, and then went the opposite way on it to emphasize the point. There is a bit of good information out there on it (at least there was in the late 90's when I learned of it), but in terms of mainstream play, it got covered up and forgotten pretty well. Other arms mfr's had no problem with that of course, because that was a huge amount of competition which they no longer had to contend with. So in the U.S., the only arms-related stuff from China we get to play with are accessories, like mounts and lasers. I'll never forget a magazine article I read on the building of the controversial Yangtze river dam, where a Chinese tour guide told the reporter (posing as a tourist), "I like your president [Clinton]. He doesn't care so much about human rights".

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Have to check when i'm home. It might be difficult till sunday because i'm having my wife parents visiting here for 2 days and i'm already trying to figure what drugs have to take to resist being a smiling tourist guide and entertainer for them.

Being an atheist i can't really say: Please god... give me the mental strength to survive these two days...

It is a good thing that my wife does not read this forum!

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I'm so sorry for your pain Budgeteer and don't worry because I'll say a lot of prayers for you.

Any kind of tranquilizer should work just fine or lots and lots of alcohol.

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Hey Guys...

As I mentioned earlier in this thread, I was sent this same package by Yoki. It arrived a few days ago, and instead of creating a new thread, I thought it better to add on where I can to Budgeteer's already excellent review. To mix it up, I'll add what info/opinion I can to each main component:

The Drop-in: Having just recently finally finished my intergrating sphere, I can add a bit here. A fresh Sanyo 18650 yeilded the following results:

R2 with stock tailcap = 200.7 lumens and 12,100 lux

R2 with pressure-switch = 156 lumens and 10,100 lux

Open tailcap current draw was 1.3A.

Pill disassembly showed fujik thermal glue used under the emitter, and the driver was installed by someone who's quite familiar with the old saying "Bigger the blob, better the job"... Considering the intended use, I'm OK with a little extra to keep things in place under recoil.

The Host: Like Budgeteer's, mine also came well lubed with all O-rings, decent machining, and better than expected anodizing (more on this in a minute).

Being my first time messing with a 501b, I was suprised by the compactness and light weight, which is even more apparent when compared side-by-side with other P60 hosts.

The light weight may not inspire build quality confidence, but is a good attribute when considering a weapon mounted light. Less mass leads to less inertia and strain applied to the mount/barrel/weaver base.

A note on the 501b's heat dissipation: I've heard this is a bad host for high power leds, so I thought I'd do a quick test and see if simply removing the anodizing from inside the head and adding a band of copper would help.

I was suprised the internal anodizing put up as much of a fight as it did against the 120 grit! After longer than I planned, I had it sanded down and fitted with the copper ring. Test lumen results were taken 5sec after turn-on and at the 2 minute mark.

Stock: 200.7lumens and 173.1lumens after 2 minutes for a 27.6lumen drop

Head w/ copper mod: 200.2lumens and 188.3lumens after 2 minutes for a 11.9lumen drop

Granted, this was done with the R2 pill that came with the light and not with anything higher wattage. This should be more than adequate for xp-g and older emitters though.

Pressure switch and mount: Smooth finish and good threads were also present on these items. The anodizing was a glossier black on the pressure switch than host. With the included allen key, it took only a minute to have the light mounted. The light mount can be either clamped to the barrel or fastened directly to a weaver type accessory rail. I'm not a fan of anything clamping to my barrels, shotguns beign the exception. Pressed for time, I mounted the light on my 460 Rowland carbine (1911 upper style...good hog medicine) and headed outside. After sending @ 100 255gr slugs downrange, the light still functioned and never shifted in the base. Worked as intended, and the pressure switch is as good as any others I've used (no complaints).

Final Thoughts: I'm pretty much in complete agreement with Budgeteer on this package, which has made trying to add anything worthwile to his review difficult! It's a nice bundle with everything performing as well or better than intended. Since this package is geared toward shooters I'd have liked to seen a red lens thrown into the deal for night hunting, or possibly 2 cells and a charger as well (and always, lower price). Tune in next week when I test the host's ability to resist 168gr BTHP's

Thanks Yoki for letting me review a light I would have otherwise never experienced.

(Offtopic, but I feel the need to mention this: Yoki, I'm sure you're aware of DinoDirect's less than stellar reputaion here, and asking members to promote specials isn't helping dino's cause.

Fast shipping, Good Customer Service, and a fair price....that's all I really ask out of a seller.)

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.

Also, nice addition to Budgeteers review Match.

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Don't you agree that on a weapon it does look rather good?

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Nay, it is something 101.

1.5A and 250V also. Looks almost identical to me.

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I'm tempted to buy it just for the mount and pressure switch. I have a G2 that was purchased for my 12 gauge plus an L2P and a couple of bodies in the mail.

A couple of concerns:

Will it fit and survive a 12 gauge?

An 18650 is a 4.2 volt rechargeable right? I don't want to go there. 2 CR123s is 6 volts. Will the drop in survive 6 volts?

Joel

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I ordered mine and got it in 12 days from Dino Direct. I took it to work and everyone wants one. When I ordered mine on Jan 1 it was $13.99 + $2.00 insurance now its $22.39 + $2.00 insurance. I hope the price comes back down so I can place an order for my co-workers.

By the way The light is an awesome value....even when its not on sale. It is just the right amount of light for a weapon mounted light.

I really like the option it gives you of barrel or rail mounting.

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For $15 bucks it's a great deal and an awesome weapon light but for $22 bucks you can piece together something better and cheaper. Check DX for a better price and separate pieces: a host, switches, mounts and a drop in.