SkyRay Kung 7x XM-L T6 - Brief Review

LED Flashlights – General Info 18650 Flashlights
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I know, I know…another SkyRay King derivative. But I feel I must give these at least a moment, since they’ve so far left me pleasantly surprised.

First off, I won these in two separate eBay auctions, though it seems that they are shell accounts for a single eBay power seller as they shipped together. No matter, payment was easy, and the shipping was shockingly fast. These didn’t come from a US warehouse, but rather via the usual/free Hong Kong Post from China. Paid on the 20th, goods accepted at the port on the 22nd, and at my post office for pickup on the 27th. Not bad, not bad at all.

As you can see from the photos, these are of the new body style, and the logo says SkyRay Kung.

The build quality is better than expected, but nothing that will blow the doors off of a high-end flashlight. There are a few sharp cuts, and the threads are a little marred, but the reflector is seemingly flawless, and including extra O-Rings was a nice touch. The anodizing is well done, and I think disassembling this flashlight + throwing the body parts in my ultrasonic cleaner will make this look significantly better! Actually…I’ll go do that right now…

The driver doesn’t seem to have much if any visible PWM, which is nice. It’s a seriously sparse board though! Almost comically so. The modes are also somewhat unique—High, Low, Off w/ a press & hold to strobe.

I got these for about $30 each. I don’t think the seller was super-thrilled with that! But I think I got some pretty good mod hosts for that price, and even with a simple driver upgrade or mod this could be a much more satisfying light.

Pictures below:

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Pretty soon these are going to be 8x 18650 and have a dinnerplate size head if they keep cramming led’s in there!
can’t have much throw like that.

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anybody seen one of these in black?

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Here’s one, for example. I just searched 7x Cree on eBay

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nice. red accent switch, too :slight_smile:

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What’s the drive level?
any thermal issues?
I know my stock 3 xml2 gets toasty with fresh batteries.
had it turn on in my coat pocket.nice handwarmer

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The factory allocation of thermal paste was a little light (albiet w/ the right spread…kinda surprised by that) so I replaced it w/ AS5. Leaving it running on my desk on high. Will report if flashlight self-destructs.

I don’t have a multimeter yet so driver level TBD. Don’t expect miracles!

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I wonder how many emitters are the cloners going to try to squeeze in the standard SRK sized body to get a piece of the original SkyRay King’s popularity before they give up ?

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If I had the resources, I'd throw in as many triple XM-L2's on Noctigons with carclo's as I could. It'd be like a stubby Electrolumens flashlight.

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Shh don’t spoil my plans :wink:

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Theoretically, because of the logarithmic relationship between current input and light output, using more emitters driven at lower currents makes sense. Of course, the 7x lights have practically no throw and are pure spillers, but theoretically they would put out more light for the same driving current as a 3x. But it would take…a Trustfire AK-90 or similar to see a significant difference, imho. I can see 5 emitters, but after that its just silly. 3 is a nice, even odd number, and there are alot of attractive 3x lights with nice big merged reflectors.

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I modded a 6x for myself and one for another member. I put a JB driver in it with the mods done to the driver along with sinkpads. It came with XM-L2’s. It has high, medium and low, with hidden blinkies. It is one seriously bright light. I de-domed the five outer emitters for extra throw and nicer tint. I stopped short and didn’t do the tail spring mods because it was seriously all that I dared do to it after the driver mod. Talk about a beast.

My advice; Don’t set it down on high and walk away from it.

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It’s going to be fun trying to fit 7 sinkpads in that light but I think it could just barely be done. It’s going to take a lot of cutting them down to fit though.

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you thinking of trying your magic with this new 7emitter kung? hahah

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As with any of the multi-emitter designs, the more emiters the smaller the reflectors, and the more of a flooder it becomes and a less of a thrower. I did a comparo test of the 6 -emitter version SRK last summer against a a couple real SRKs and a SR Kung, as seen in the photo below its has a bigger hot-spot, but not as powerful as the others:

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That is a very nice comparison!

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Nice, is the emitter base screwed into the body?

That driver is the FET driver, very powerful with minimal components, a few guys put their heads together and came up with a ATtiny 7135 based driver capable of pushing 12A, I think they are working on a even MORE powerful ATtiny driven FET as well.

Imagine the possibilites with custom firmware and being able to have 5+ options including moonlight mode on that SRK!

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I’m on spring break right now but I’ll answer questions about the specifics of the flashlight as soon as I am back at home base.

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Wow, the tint on that cool white is crazy. I’m still waiting on a 7 xml2 light I ordered, hopefully it’s whiter than this.

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I want to find this with 7 xm-l2 and the same reflector

this one with xm-l2 appears to have bad reflector

7 xm-l2