KaiDomain 5-mode Cree XM-L P60 drop-in
Reviewer's Overall Rating: ★★★★★
Summary:
| Battery: | 1x18650 |
| Switch: | n/a |
| Modes: | 5 |
| Memory: | Yes |
| LED: | Cree XM-L T6 |
| Tailstands: | n/a |
| Price Paid: | $20.70 |
| From: | KaiDomain |
| Date Ordered: | 30 Nov 2010 |
Pros:
- A lot of light
- Well-driven
- Nice tint
- Good separation of modes
- Very good mode memory
Cons:
- Strobe
- SOS
- Eats up 1 battery pretty fast
- Noticeable PWM on Low
I may do another runtime test and wall shot comparison.
Features / Value: ★★★★★
I was pretty excited to get this drop-in today. Cree announced the XM-L in the Spring and it has been a long wait. When KaiDomain offered a P60 drop-in, I figured I should go ahead and get it. Just to be safe I also bought a couple of their 2.8A 8x7135 drivers in case this driver turns out to be bad. I am thinking eventually I will build my own drop-in from scratch anyway. As it turns out, this driver isn't bad at all. At $20.70, it is pretty expensive for a drop-in, but really only a few more dollars than XP-G's were early on. And the MC-E and P7's it competes with are still around this price.
Most of the pictures posted here can be clicked on for an image twice as large.
Here's a comparison of LED's: Cree MC-E, Cree XM-L, and Cree XP-G:
The modes in this light are High, Medium, Low, Strobe, and SOS. It's kind of an odd choice to start in High, but because the light has memory, it probably doesn't really matter. The Strobe is blinding and fast. The SOS is true S-O-S with a decent pause between the words. The Medium is about 35% and the Low is about 5% of the High which is just about perfect. The memory sets after the light has been off for about 2 seconds, so that is just about perfect as well.
Build Quality: ★★★★☆
The build quality seems pretty decent, though there isn't much to mess up. The reflector and pill are pretty standard. The drop-in hasn't given me any trouble about electrical connections. The LED seemed off-center at first and then later I took another picture and it seemed more centered. It turns out that the LED isn't glued to the pill and instead there seems to be thermal compund under the board instead. This allows the board to slide around some. Once the reflector is screwed down tight, it will hold the board still and snug against the pill, so I guess this okay.
The soldering seems adequate, but on the bottom of the driver board, they decided to put their name, "sheng guong." However they used the isolation between the positive and negative rings of the board and it wouldn't take much solder to short out the little gap that is left. It even looks like they got some excess solder on a couple of the letters when they were affixing the spring. But it works for now just fine.
Battery Life: ★★★★☆
The battery life is actually decent considering the high draw. I was surprised to get 40 minutes of good light. Even though the current draw was dropping, the light is a T6 bin (supposedly, the lowest bin Cree makes is a T5 so it can't be any lower than that), so even at 1.7A, it is still putting out more light than a R5 XP-G. I measure the battery voltage at rest and the current at the tailcap. This doesn't tell you how much current is actually getting to the LED, but it is better than nothing. I can't measure light output, but Don is estimating 560 lumens or more. Because I was stopping every 5 minutes to take measurements, the light didn't get as hot as it would if it were on continuously, but it still got quite warm, though not hot. This was in my silver 504B host with aluminum strips in the head to give the P60 a snug fit.
| Time (min) | Volts (V) | High (mA) | Med (mA) | Low (mA |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 00 | 4.17 | 2630 | 990 | 100 |
| 05 | 3.91 | 2400 | 940 | 90 |
| 10 | 3.86 | 2130 | 830 | 90 |
| 15 | 3.85 | 2400 | 940 | 90 |
| 20 | 3.83 | 2310 | 890 | 90 |
| 25 | 3.79 | 1980 | 710 | 70 |
| 30 | 3.75 | 1980 | 730 | 70 |
| 35 | 3.69 | 1820 | 720 | 70 |
| 40 | 3.62 | 1710 | 630 | 70 |
The OP reflector and LED:
Light Output: ★★★★★
Light output is impressive. There is a big hotspot, as you can imagine with such a big LED. But it's no worse a pattern than an AA-size XP-G light would have. There is still decent spill and throw, but it is mostly flood especially at any distance. The tint is better than I expected. It is a little yellowish or even greenish around the edge of the hotspot, but otherwise just a nice white beam, not really all that cool although the spill is a bit cool. For cool white, this is about as good as it gets.
First I'll do some indoor wall shots to compare the beam against some other lights. Unfortunately, my MC-E drop-in isn't working right now, so I can't compare against that just now. I may add it later. These pictures are taken 0.5m from the wall with the camera on ISO 100 and stepping down the shutter time to get a better idea of the details of the beam. So first up is my Ultrafire WF-502B with XP-G R5 emitter and AK47 driver (1.05A). The XM-L is in my Ultrafire WF-504B host and is always on the left. The XP-G is definitely cool white and you can see the XM-L is less so. First at 1/25th second:
Now at 1/200th second, you can see there is a bigger hotspot and brighter spill:
And at 1/1600th second. Nice beam, no donut hole:
Next, I'll do a comparison with my MC-E P60 drop-in with a 2.8A 8x7135 driver. I only measured a draw of 2.5A with this driver, but both lights have fresh batteries. First here are both at 1/25th second:
Now at 1/200th second (you can see the yellow ring around the hotspot of the XM-L):
And at 1/1600th second, definitely very similar output, though I'd give the edge to the XM-L:
Now to go out on the range. Here I am using a 4-second exposure to get about what I see. The potted plant is 25' away and the fence posts are about 120' away. So first, here is the XP-G R5:
Here is my XR-E R2 drop-in with a smooth reflector which has better throw than any of my XP-G lights, but not as much output:
Now the XM-L drop-in, just a lot of light:
Now my UltraFire MCU WF-1200L with a SSC P7 emitter, driven by 2 18650's and with a bigger reflector. The P7 is set up to really throw, lighting up stuff well beyond the fence, but it doesn't have as much spill as the XM-L:
Now here is the XM-L on Medium:
And on Low. The Low is pretty decent:
Now here's a mishmash of fence post shots so you can compare the throw directly. The first row is the XP-G and XM-L, then the XR-E R2 and the P7. The throw is definitely better than the XP-G, edges out the XR-E, and can't compete with the P7 and its big reflector.
Lastly, here I am swinging the light as fast as I can to capture the PWM. On the left is the XM-L on Low and on the right is the Trustfire XP-E F23 on Low which has noticeable PWM, but at maybe a slightly slower rate. It doesn't bother me that much, but it is definitely there. Most of my other P60 drop-ins give a smooth stream of light with this test.
Summary: ★★★★★
The XM-L seems to be everything we had hoped it would be. There are already lights out with 2 18650's that will probably drive this at the 3A full capacity and this thing will really perform. Even as a drop-in, it puts out significantly more light than XP-G's, but without as tight a hotspot.
Do you have this light? Rate it here.
