Boruit Headlamp Review D10 (aka. EHL0628) - King of the Budget Headlamps?

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Boruit D10 / EHL0628

So I’ve come across this well-liked budget headlamp which I believe to be much better than the well-liked cheap Boruit RJ-02. The only review I am aware of posted on the web is a Russion review found here (translated via Google Translate). I decided this headlamp deserves its own thread, so here are some pics and a quick review. Doing some investigating I came to the conclusion this light is model #EHL0628 (EDIT - more widely known now as the D10), as shown in this listing. The light will most likely not come up by searching this model number. It can be found all overy Ebay or AliExpress by searching “Boruit XM-L2 Headlamp” and weeding through the listings, or I believe this is the link I bought from.

Functionality: The light uses a momentary button. Quick press turns on in a medium mode, another quick press changes to high, another quick press turns off. Pausing at medium (longer than about 1 second) and then quick pressing turns it off. Quick double-press from anywhere, a mode level or even off turns on a medium strobe. A quick press returns to the mode the light was in prior to strobe (a mode level or off). Press-n-hold from off does nothing. Press-n-hold from strobe does nothing. Press-n-hold from a mode level triggers a quasi-ramping of 5 output levels starting from whichever mode level you were at (medium or high) and proceeds downward to low then back to high and downward again until you let go. Low is low, not moonlight. (I’ll measure output in my sphere at some point.) The light fit all of my cells from unprotected flat-top laptop pulls to protected button tops (note: I don’t have any extremely long protected cells). There are springs at both the positive and negative ends. The light can be locked out with a twist of the end cap.

Tint: is a very crisp cool white. It actually doesn’t bother me in use. A 3C side by side with it looks yellow in comparison. The Zanflare F1 cool white even looks warmer compared to this (it does look awfully yellow on a white wall to me). Sounds terribly high K, but like I said, it doesn’t bother me (and my favorite tint is a 5B1 around 4,000 to 4,200K). Here is a pic showing this headlamp in between an XM-L2 3C (left) and the Zanflare F1 in cool white (right):

Heat: I left it on in high mode for about 5 to 6 minutes and the body barely got warm. I expected more heat. The LED on a 20mm board is mounted to the body (as far as I can tell, not a pill or a “lip”). The LED must have thermal glue behind it as the star will not budge at all. I don’t want to break it yet, but plan to remove that star soon. (Thinking to put a Nichia 219C in this light.) It’s a fake XM-L2, the one with the “spots” as seen here:

USB: To access the micro USB port you unthread one of the “caps” which acts as an access cover to the port and charge indicator LED. The indicator is green at all times except while charging when it is red. The light actually operates from a USB power source without a battery installed (doesn’t appear to reach highest output, but that could be due to my 1.0A AC adapter or USB cord I suppose). According to other’s reports on the driver, it has a reputable charge controller. (I didn’t get the driver out as I didn’t want to break it.) In testing, my cell reached exactly 4.20v and there was no charge current measured once the indicator turned green. Currents observed during charging were as follows:

Cell Voltage Current
3.07v 960mA
3.82v 820mA
3.98v 700mA
4.00v 380mA
4.10v 180mA
4.14v 120mA

Unplugging and replugging in USB triggers red charge light for just a second or two and then green.

Beam Pattern: To me the light has a very good headlight beam pattern right out of the package as-is. It’s very floody with a hotspot that’s not too intense and blends nicely into the spill. Spill is quite wide. (I’m curious to try a 60º optic in it for comparison.) It has an OP reflector. Reading other’s comments this light should accept the cheap widely available 21mm optics (like from LEDDNA). At 10 feet back from a white wall, I measured the hotspot (again, not a sharp transition from hotspot to spill, so hard to really nail down) at 2 1/2 feet and total spill at 16 feet.

The light body is a very very light aluminum. This could be a positive aspect considering it is a headlamp, but it does feel cheap due to it. General fit and finish is very good for this price level. Threads are decent and much better than many cheap lights. They are shallow square threads and very very course threaded (caps spin on and off very quickly). O-rings are everywhere they are needed (though dry) and I expect the light to be very watertight.

Tailcap currents on fully charged 4.20v cell (an old, but good protected Trustfire 2400):

Basic 2 Modes:
Medium: 0.40A
High: 1.87A

5 Step Quasi-Ramping:
Level 5: 1.87A
Level 4: 0.84A
Level 3: 0.40A
Level 2: 0.13A
Level 1: 0.05A

Approximate Lumen Outputs on a fully charged cell:

Level: 1 Start: 17 30secs: 17
Level: 2 58 58
Level: 3 149 148
Level: 4 293 290
Level: 5 573 547

Other notes: The lens is glass. The end cap at the driver end (at the power button) is reverse threaded. Emitters wires appear to be very short, so be cautious when desoldering and swapping in a new emitter. The headband while missing the 3rd overhead strap works nicely and I don’t notice the need for the 3rd strap. The light tilts in the pastic mount and rubs against a ridge to hold its angle. I expect with careful use it will last for quite awhile.

Low Voltage Protection:

According to my testing (and trying to pull the cell to measure voltage quickly) it seems to trigger 3 slow flashes at 3.00v but keeps running at regular ouput (no stepdown) and I don’t believe it flashes again - just shuts down when it reaches about 2.70v. That shut-off level might be a little low for some cells.

Pics:

-Garry

1 Thank
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thanks for your review, i got the same headlamp on its way :+1:

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What do people generally think of this fake xm-l2? Is it a decent LED?

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Garry, mind if I add something?
I received the “same” light, from another AliExpress shop called Shuolide (non-affiliated)! One day it was 16€, on the following it was 8€ :money_mouth_face:
I thought that it would have a different UI from this “Boruit”, but it is all the same! I had read your thread before but I was expecting mine to show up to confirm if it had differences or not… And apparently it doesn’t :person_facepalming:

I would just add that from strobe, a double click gives SOS, and another double click gives beacon mode.
After beacon, a double click goes back to strobe. A single click or press & hold shuts the light OFF.

Also, I too some pictures from the LED while ON and this is what we get: the PWM can’t be seen to human eye. Unlike other statements from other Boruit headlamps, this one doesn’t have visible PWM.
From highest to lowest (5 modes):

I also got the same feeling as you comparing this with the Zanflare F1 (that has that greenish ring due to AR coated lens): this one is even more CW :open_mouth:
I put a piece of “diffuser” (a piece of plastic I kept from a box) and it helped to minimize that hotspot and to even the colours. Not good, but better than it was :smiley:

On the first look, I don’t feel confident to modify the LED, due to the length of the wires. Maybe later, with bit more of experience and courage I try to dismantle all that and put a NW or WW LED! If you mod it, let us know how to do it :wink:

Also, thanks for your review and for pointing the working of this headlight :wink:

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Ah, good catch on the SOS and Beacon modes. I don’t think I even tried double-clicking while in strobe. At least these modes and well hidden yet accessible. I forgot to mention about the PWM too; I didn’t notice my camera picking it up at all.

I still want to measure the output of mine in stock form in my DIY sphere before I do any modding. The only “modding” I plan is to try out some optics and swap out the emitter (like I said before, likely a 219C).

-Garry

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Do you guys think the 5 levels are enough or do you sometimes wish you could could adjust it in between them?

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I haven’t not put it to real world use, but they are 5 well-spaced levels. I think they give a good range of output choices. There is no moonlight, but I’m ok with that. I am glad to see that low is as low as they set it. I generally hate when “low” is set to something like 30%!

-Garry

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Yup, they are just like that, accessible but hidden :wink: They will not interfere with regular modes!
Hum, I can’t do those measurements, but it would be nice to get some numbers when you can :wink:

I couldn’t try TIR optics as the ones I have (for the S2+) don’t fit. I would have to sand or filled them on the edges and it would ruin them. Maybe others, slimmer, can fit!
I will use the plastic until I get something decent for it! I works well :wink:

My opinion is that unless super bright or super low modes are needed, the 5 existing modes are good enough, well spaced and provide good illumination at a “close range” (meaning: I don’t think it will be very powerful if you need good illumination after 20 meters).

Some beamshots, from highest to lowest. (not the best, but maybe enough for an illustration)

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That should be a size that fits. This one?

Did you pop it out of the plastic housing?

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Yup, I tried without the plastic holder. Those are too large for this light! They have to be thinner and shorter than those you linked.
As reference, here are the reflector’s measures:

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Hmm, I’d swear it was mentioned in one of the Russian threads (there is another I didn’t link) that it accepts optics and I guess I assumed they were the widely available ones.

-Garry

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Those I have don’t fit, but there may be others! To fit the “bezel” the lenses must be less than 18.8mm, just measured!
The ones I have are larger than that :frowning:

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Thanks gb. :+1:

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Thanks for the review and PWM evaluation! :+1:

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Looks like a nice budget headlamp, but the interface seem abismal D:

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PWM 16 kHz.
TIR from Convoys works perfect. Swapped led to samsung lh351d hi-cri :+1:

Do not be afraid to cut the lens, you cut off the idle part of the lens and this does not affect the light.

Or you can use TIR 17mm from Skilhunt, it is another good option.

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Why do you say that?
One click on, one click off.
Press and hold to cycle through 5 brightness levels.
Plus hidden strobe, SOS and Beacon using a dbl click.
What’s wrong with that?

1 Thank
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Wildcat, so that the Convoy TIRs fit, you had to cut them, right? Cause the ones I had didn’t fit, but if I file the edges they will probably fit.
Unless my headlight has some difference from Garry’s, because it was not bought as “Boruit” but in Shuolide store. I don’t think they differ, but I may be inducing people in mistake… I hope not!

I guess the 17mm TIR will fit more easily due to the internal measurements of the bezel!!

Thanks for the tip on this :wink:

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+1

Wildcat, thanks for chiming in on this.

-Garry

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Yes, you just need to file the edges that the TIR entered the bezel. With any 3535 LED (xp-g, xp-l, nichia 219, samsung lh351d) TIR rests directly in the star. It is only necessary to add an o-ring between the TIR and the bezel for tightness.