Modded readings scroll down!
I am going to talk about the Small Sun ZT-T13 from Manafont, I first learned about this light by reading BLF member POK here I liked the looks of it, it is very much like the Sunwayman TC40CS but at a fraction of the cost, want to know how good is it? Read on.
Light as pictured on Manafont
The light came nicely wrapped in very thick bubble wrapping, I am sure there were no dings or chips during shipping, but the light did had some small chips in the anodizing, so I assume they were there from the factory.
The best match to compare this light is going to be the Eagletac M3C4 XM-L, they have to my eye the exact same reflector in size and depth and produce the same hotspot and throw, although the Eagletac is brighter!
Small Sun ZY-T13 on the left, Eagletac M3C4 XM-L on the right.
Now lets have a look at the internals
The light comes apart very easily the only hard part was getting the reflector out since the aluminum crown is smooth, I had to use a strap wrench to open it, I wasn’t planning on doing it but there were debirs and lint on the reflector, and it kind of bothers me so I went ahead and opened to clean it, it also had two small smudges of what appears to be grease or something on the reflector, which I do not plan to use any chemicals to clean, since we all know how that goes
A look at the tailcap
Disassembled
A look at the business end, the reflector was kind of off center, but it centered up nicely once I reassembled it
Removing the head to take a look at the led
The round star is about 1 inch round and has some white thermal grease underneath the reflector presses down on it and keeps it in good contact with the heatsink, It works as it should because I can feel it getting warm right away when in use. and seems easy to mod if need be, the tint is nice, I would say it is just a tad warmer than 1C, my guess is 2B or 2C there is no green tint on it at all!
Now at the other side
The plate unscrews easily and you can get access to the driver, I forgot to take a picture of the driver so I will use the one from the other thread, credit goes to viffer750 for it.
I also found that if I remove the white centering ring the reflector gives much better throw, here is a pic compared to the Eagletac M3C4 XML, I forgot what order I had them before so now they are reversed from the previous beamshot
Eagletac M3C4 on the left and Small Sun ZY-T13 on the right
The hotspot is now about 30% smaller than the Eagletac, not bad!
The light has an on / off switch at the tailcap, it is a forward clickie, the head switch controls the modes, the modes are HI / Mid / Lo / Strobe / SOS, it does not have mode memory and always comes on at high.
Current measurements at the tailcap
Hi 0.90 amps or approximately 1.80 amps to the driver
Mid .44 amps or approximately 0.88 amps to the driver
low 0.09 amps or approximately 0.18 amps to the driver
This light has enough room inside to accept any length of protected 18650’s on the market with no problems.
The driver has 2 resistors that may be tweaked to get more current, If someone can give me tips on what resistors to use, I might try them
The light has square threads, comes with all orings but I am not planning to do a waterproof test, the tailcap does lock out with 1/3 turn from fully tightened.
Overall I would recommend this light, specially for $24 compared to $100+ of the T40CS
Thanks for looking!