Maxtoch M1 Archer NOW AVAILABLE/// Totally Dedomed SST 40 /// Full Review

LED Flashlights – General Info 18650 Flashlights
1

This is the Maxtoch M1 Archer sent to me for review and NO other compensation other than keeping the light.

You can find the M1 at ……
http://maxtoch.com/archer-m1-long-range-handy-flashlight-p00067p1.html

The M1 should soon be NOW listed on the Aliexpress site for purchase also.
https://www.aliexpress.com/item/MAXTOCH-Archer-M1-1650lm-800-meters-Luminus-SST-40-W-P2-LED-Ultra-Long-Thrower-One/32952202673.html

The M1 came well packaged and inside a plain brown Box from Maxtoch. Inside the Box was the nylon carry case with the light , lanyard , extra switch , switch boot and 2 extra O-rings.
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The M1 is a C8 sized light styled very much like the 2X and M24 from Maxtoch.
Pictured here with the M24 (center) and a C8 (right)………
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The Anodizing and the threads are all very well done with type III anodizing on the light. No bare , or thin spots have been found and no pin prick spots that I can detect.
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The Branding or etching is well done.
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The fins are well cut and somewhat deep and seem to handle the heat from the light well also.

There is no knurling so to speak on this light , but instead has lateral grooves cut in the tube with some fine lines cut across the higher edges. It does have a good grip to it though.

The stiff rubber “tactical” or cigar grip can be removed easily when the tailcap is off the light , if you do not like it and a clip for a 1 inch tube could be used in its place if desired , as there is a groove already there where the tactical ring sits.
Shown here with and without the tactical grip…….
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The reflector was near perfect when inspected upon removal from the box and it is a heavy well made aluminum reflector.
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The SST 40 emitter is perfectly centered and much to my amazement , it is TOTALLY Domeless. Thats right , somehow Maxtoch has totally dedomed the SST 40 , which I personally have not seen nor heard of being done before now with the SST40 emitter. Look closely , it is NOT a sliced or shaved emitter , but totally domeless.
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The UI is very simple with H/M/L , NO blinky modes and does have mode memory , with a forward click switch for momentary on. Last used mode is memorized after 4 or more seconds in that mode , so the light will come back in the mode it is turned off in.

The beam from the dedomed SST 40 is a tight hotspot with useable spill for walking or such and the M1 shines well at longer distances for such a small light. The tint is also a nice tint to my eyes and is not nearly as blueish , as pretty much all the SST 40 emitters I have seen are , whether they were sliced , shaved , or had the dome on them.

I have noticed a very slight ring in the corona area at close distances when white wall hunting , but in real world use the slight ring is non existent.

Beamshots……

50 yards to gate L/M/H
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100 yards to gate L / M / H
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175 yards to big tree M / H
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400 yards on High

400 Yards Enlarged

Here are the charts on my testing of the M1……….

Overall the M1 Archer is a very well built light in a small package and has the build quality I have come to know from the Maxtoch products.

For those who do not wish to watch the whole video , but might like to see the live footage of the M1 Archer compared with the Acebeam L16 and a Convoy C8 with FET and dedomed emitter , that footage starts at 10:03 of the video timeline.

Video followed by listed specs……….

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jIqBSQfNFrw

2

I love it, but its output drops by half in 30 minutes of use. No heat management or no regulation?

3

The description says “regulated output” “constant current” but I don’t see that with the testing I have done. It seems more like a FET or direct drive to me really.

For the SST 40 emitter though it isn’t doing too bad for the 6 amps draw and also does not get so hot as the other SST 40 emitter lights I have in there that I used these emitters in on a few of my mods.

4

Looklike chemical dedomed led

5

Yes it is most definitely chemical dedomed , but I have tried a good many different things with the SST40 and have not had very good luck with these particular emitters getting them to dedome with any of the chemicals I have tried.

6

Thanks for the video review. What a great thrower for the size. I’m not sure if there’s a better thrower with this same size head. I’m quite impressed that they got so good numbers with a dedomed sst40. Must have a good reflector and driver. Xpl- hi outthrows a dedomed sst40 right?
The nitecore p30 has a slightly bigger reflector but this maxtoch outthrows it.

7

Glad to do the review.

I actually changed out the SST40 in this light with a XP-L HI V3 3C already and did nothing else but swap the board and emitter out.

With the driver that is in the M1 , the lumens went down considerably with the HI emitter as did the amperage. I am sure it is due to the difference in the VF of the two emitters mostly.

Without doing anything other than the emitter swap the HI emitter was making 1110 lumens at 4.97 amps at the tail while the dedomed SST40 is making 1557 lumens at 5.89 amps with the stock Driver that came in the M1.

If both emitters were pushed close to their maximum amperage in this light I am sure the SST40 would have a much better throw due to the shear amount of lumen output , but you would also have way more heat from the SST40 and way more amperage draw also with much less runtime from the SST40 than the HI.

Overall I think Maxtoch did a pretty good job of balancing the amperage , output and run time to be using the SST40 emitter really and it is a pretty good little thrower in the end.

8

Thanks for the review. Looks like a great thrower for the size. Did you take any lux measurements?

9

Again glad to do the review and thank you.

I did take some measurements and I forgot to write those down unfortunately , but if my memory is serving correctly I think it was 649000 for an ANSI meter throw of 804 meters?

At least in that neighborhood.

10

Great review and vid Robo, Thank you, looks like it’s time to buy a new Max, not to sure about the knurling but if you say it’s alright then it’s alright, will give it a go.
Thanks again…!

Edit: Speaking of knurling, I can’t seem to recall but one light that had knurling anyhow.
I personally love those rubber grip things, use them on a lot of different lights, wish I could buy a bunch of them.

11

Thanks and YW…….Yes it don’t look like much , but the little ribs across those raised or higher spots do have a fairly good grip to them , much more than I anticipated when I first looked at the light.

12

Yeah Brother! :FACEPALM: Wonder what chemical/process they are using?

13

650kcd from a 5050 large die LED in an ~50mm reflector?! Are you sure that’s correct? That’s unheard of performance levels…

14

649kCd is not 804m of ANSI throw… might be a typo

15

800m from the specs = 160 kcd, which is very good for a C8 size flashlight.

This light looks much nicer than a C8, performs best in this form factor, has a simple and useful clicky UI and being a Maxtoch must be very robust, and personally I like the rubber grip ring. It is nice to see that Maxtoch does not go with the flow of e-switches and fancy UI’s. :THUMBS-UP:

Thanks for the review!

16

OK guys my apologies ……Kind of brain dead last night /early this morning as I had been up for about 27 hours.

I posted my figure of my number that is used to get the throw (square root of 649000 is 805.6 meters of throw)

The actual number should be 162.25Kcd for the lux.

17

Lack of sleep is a serious number scrambler, it’ll get ya every time! Coffee, bold strong coffee. :smiley:

6490 (meter lux reading on x10 setting was 649) x 25 (5M measure distance) = 162,250 (162.25Kcd) for 805.61M throw. :wink:

I need one of these. :smiley: lol Seriously though, I like the look and size, like the reflector, might change the driver but I really like the overall form factor a lot. Thanks robo…

18

Thanks djozz for your figuring and also Dale…………

I had the right number in the wrong place and without writing down anything the other day when I did the figuring I got the numbers mixed up in my head.

The 6490 was my meter reading the other day and it was a x 10 factor , so the throw and kcd numbers you 2 guys figured were right on the money.

19

Apologies………corrected in post #16

20

I was wondering why you didn’t show up on this thread yet… I knew this light was your type of light. I’m assuming this will dethrone your nitecore p30 now, but not your olight m2xsut