Review: Sky Ray King 3xXM-L 4x18650 from Aurabuy

LED Flashlights – General Info 18650 Flashlights
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Skyray King

Rating: ★★★★★

Overview:

Battery: 4 x 18650 in parallel
Switch: Electronic
Modes: 2+1: High, Low + hidden strobe
LED Type: 3 x XM-L (Neutral White)
Lens: Regular Glass
Tailstands: Yes
Waterproof: IPX-7
From/Price: Aurabuy.com $48.99

Pros:

+Good budget multi-emitter light

+Feels solid during use

+Hidden strobe

+4x18650 gives plenty of runtime

+Very bright

+Unscrew body for lock-out

Cons:

-Very loud low mode PWM

-Very distracting low frequency PWM

-Parasitic circuit drain

Yes, this is the 500th review of the Sky Ray King, but hey, it's very popular among us.

Kevin at Aurabuy.com decided to send me the light as a review of both the light itself and the service.

Some available discount codes:

The DHL shipping was extremely fast; the package was picked up on Sunday, arrived at Korea on Monday, and was attempted to be delivered on Tuesday but I was out so I got it Wednesday.

I had a few days to play around with the light, even EDC'ing it for a while to check it out.

Here's the package that I received:

As you could see, it was opened by the customs department...

Unboxing:

The light itself came in a clean white box, suitable for a gift:

The light came with a Chinese manual, spare o-ring, and a lanyard strap:

Some pictures:

The three emitters:

The rear end:

More shots:

The light has a hidden strobe feature that can be activated when the switch is pressed for three seconds when the light is on, both on high and low mode. (6-8Hz)

Opened up:

Tailcap Current measurements:

4.2V: 5.35A

4.0V: 4.89A

3.6V: 3.20A

Not too regulated, but I like the high currents going into the 3xXM-X's.

The 4x18650 battery holder:

Some more pics:

The three emitters again, perfectly centered:

Certainly a managable size, here's the SRK among my collection:

TrustFire X6 HD2010 Sky Ray King 2.3W Laser WF-606A C11 WF-008 C3

Overall, this is a really solid light, and as this is the first multi-emitter light for me, it easily blows away my HD2010 and Crelant 7G9 (Well, maybe not in terms of throw).

I'll add more wallshots and beamshots while I fix my 7G9 up for comparison.

Thanks for looking and please feel free to post any questions.

Cheers! :D

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Thanks for the review !

3

Still the king of high output budget lights. Cost to size to performance ratio is off the charts.

4

Thanks for a great review.

I bought the FandyFire UV-S5 from Fasttech. I’m finding it hard to believe that the SRK and the FandyFire are manufactured by different companies. I compared the UV-S5 to your photos and everything looks the same even down to the colour of the o-rings. The only differences appear to be the material used for the lanyard and the laser etching of the name.

“Sky Ray King” does have a more melodramatic ring than “Fandyfire”. Perhaps that accounts for the price difference.

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There’s an interesting combination of ‘original’ and ‘clone’ features on that king; the lanyard, centering rings and printing on the bezel appear like the newer ‘clones’, but the driver, ratio of deep to shallow heatsinking fins and quality of fit and finish seems to match the original.

Do you have a way of measuring output? I’m assuming it hits around or just over 2000 OTF with the original driver?

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And this has very shiny plated bezel and is named as New-M6, just like mimics sold at DX.

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A picture with it in your hand? For scale :slight_smile:

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Redforrest, I don’t have a light meter or an intergrated sphere yet, so I’ll post some ceiling bounce shots soon.

Dale: Updated post with a photo of relative sizes.

Review updated with current readings!

Tailcap Current measurements:

4.2V: 5.35A

4.0V: 4.89A

3.6V: 3.20A

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How exactly do you take Tailcap Current measurements and how do you test for parasitic drain? I am new to all of this.

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Tailcap currents I used a DIY power supply to touch the light’s terminals and measured the current.

Similarly, I touched the terminals of the light when it was off to measure the parasitic drain. (About 1.7 mA)

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Hello guy, we just get a cheaper price of this flashlight.

So, your guy can use the coupon code 8offM6 to get another 8% cut off for this M6 flashlight as follow:

http://www.aurabuy.com/skyray-king-new-m6-3-cree-xm-l-t6-3-mode-2000lm-white-light-led-flashlight-torch-golden-4-x-18650.html

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Thanks for the review ryansoh3. From your amperage readings, it sounds like your SRK came with the 3 terroid driver. Can you tell us more about your power supply? I get 6.5A from my SRK. IMO, this light is still the king of all budget lights ever made… as long as you get one with the high output (3 terroid) driver. I feel sorry for those that wind up with the cheaper clones.

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Hi Kevin! Thanks for the discount code. :bigsmile: I see lots of nice lights at aurabuy.

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Hi Ryansoh3, I don’t think anyone gets tired of reviews for the SR King, especially when it looks and operates as nice as this Aurabuy.com version. Thanks for the great review.

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Thanks Kevin for the discount! 8% is a lot.

FlashPilot, I’m using a 100W buck converter for my power supply.

It has a trimmer pot that I can adjust the voltage and is powered by a laptop power supply.

I’ll take some pics of it when I get home.

Riche, you’re certainly welcome. :slight_smile:

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So the power supply I’m using is a buck driver from Ebay.

It deserves a review of its own, complete with osciliscope readings, but here’s a quick pic:

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The Aurabuy website states 3200ma as the circuit current.

I hear you guys talking about 6.5A, what gives?

I have had real Kings and clones both black and gold and never heard any noises from any of them over the last couple of years.

Some of the clone Kings are really badly put together, very cheap and nasty.

The King journey of one vs three toroids, questions about different manufacturers and driver boards has been an interesting one to say the least.

A King is not necessarily a King as I have found out the hard way.

I have bought about 20 Kings over the last couple of years for my family and friends as well as keeping six for my own use all around the house and in my car.

The best Kings that I have had so far are the Black U2/1B 2500 lumen ones from Ric at Cnqualitygoods. The first batches were very bad and he exchanged the two that I received for two from the later better batches at no cost to myself and he even paid for shipping the faulty pair back to him. Now that Ric has sourced better quality Black Kings I have had no problems at all with flickering beams, poorly made screw threads or bad buttons.

They are a very nice build indeed.

I will stick with Ric at CNQ for my Kings.

As Ric says on his website “Quality of this batch is super nice! Highly Recommended!”

Black Kings at Cnqualitygoods

See ya.

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SRK’s equipped with the proper 3 terroid drivers output 2A to each emitter. There are at least 6 versions of the SRK, and many of them came equipped with a cheap driver that deliver far less current. Do a search and you’ll find dozens of recent complaints that involved black as well as gold SRK’s (sometimes referred to as mimic SRK’s). If youre concerned what you have, wire 4 or more high quality 18650’s in parallel, charged to 4.2V and test yours through a calibrated DMM with thick leads… or pop out the driver (at your own risk) to ID what you have. Otherwise, youre only guessing.

If youre looking for a serious hand warmer, there are also mods for the 3 terroid driver to push +12A and add a myriad of modes.

SRK 3 terroid driver (photo credit to Serifus):

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Yeah, the good SR Kings really put out. I had purchased one of the original ones from another vendor some time ago. My power supply registers 6.8a-7.0a on high. Certainly one of the top 5 multi-emitter lights to buy.

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Far Thrower: Ive purchased from cng several times but often find better prices through other vendors. Although they are one of our preferred vendors, they are also guilty of mailing out several poor quality SRK’s (which has also been posted on this forum and several others…)