Review: Black XIAOZHI CREE XM-L quickie review

djozz · January 25, 2013, 1:04pm

Tom E:

Here are some measurments I made on 5 EDC's I have:

HD2011 (WallBuys) mod'ed w/U3 1C, 2.8A:

2.83A measured, 802 lumens @start, 775 lumens after 30 secs

EDC 18650 (I0) w/U2, 2.8A, stock:

2.82A measured, 615 lumens @start, 574 lumens after 30 secs

XIAOZHI (FF) w/T6 1A, 2.8A, stock:

2.81A measured, 737 lumens @start, 710 lumens after 30 secs

TF T2, XP-G R5, stock:

1.62A measured, 333 lumens @start, 289 lumens after 30 secs

G10 mod'ed w/XP-G2 R3 1A, 1.7A:

1.72A measured, 404 lumens @start, 391 lumens after 30 secs (full charged DLG via KumaBear!)

* all tests, accept G10, done with fully charged Panasonic 2900 unprotected. Lightbox is PVC pipe based.

Hope this puts it in perspective. Not sure why the EDC tests so low, because it does have a U2. It definitely is the oldest light I have of the bunch, and also it has white ring around the emitter which is maybe interfering with light output.

I think the XIAOZHI does remarkably well for a stock setup.

Thanks for the measurements Tom, wish there were more real OTF measurements done on stock/modded lights, the claims/expectations/hopes are usually too high.

Tom_E · January 25, 2013, 1:57pm

True - agree. Usually a cumulation of changes - adding heat sinking, better quality/thicker wires, better electrical ground on the driver, better mounting of the star (leveling - sanding/lapping, thermal grease/epoxy), etc.

The HD2011 came out nice above - added copper disc in there, 22 gauge silver tinned teflon wires, etc.

atbglenn · January 25, 2013, 7:37pm

Got mine today. Not bad for the price. I had to take mine apart and blow dust off the reflector and re-center the switch. All is good. I'll take this one to work since I'm not too worried about getting it scratched. Mine whines on the medium mode. Not a big deal especially in the high noise environments I work in..

Edit: I fixed the whine by fully tightening the pill

Mr_Krabs · January 25, 2013, 7:43pm

Tomato Ketchup

atbglenn · January 25, 2013, 8:01pm

Heinz is the absolute best

gords1001 · January 25, 2013, 8:27pm

My Mrs grandad made the machine for testing Heinz’s tomato ketchup. (heinz is a 5 minute walk from mine)

Tom_E · January 25, 2013, 10:18pm

Sorry - I'm into organic ketchups now - cane sugar, not the high fructose corn syrup Heinz uses - I can eat ketchup (or my home-made habanero sauces) on almost anything...

relic38 · January 26, 2013, 3:27am

Heinz in Canada (and I think everywhere but the US) uses sugar, not HFCS.

sb56637 · January 28, 2013, 1:08pm

Thanks a lot! Sticky’d.

Tom_E · January 28, 2013, 2:08pm

I put a XM-L2 T6 neutral tint in mine over the weekend - came out well, replacing a XML T6 1A. Like the tint on it, lost a little on lumens output, but very close. Was hoping it would run a little cooler but didn't notice any heat reduction. I was able to add a small copper disc inside the pill, but space is really tight in there - was thinking of adding 2 7135's to bring it up to 3.5A but this would only make sense if I had better control over the modes (turbo mode, etc.), so may re-visit this light when I get the program download capability - parts on order.

Also have to play with the emitter positioning a bit, maybe that's why I'm not getting better lumens - I removed the plastic LED alignment piece because of contact with the wires, so may have to get that back in while eliminating possibility of grounding out connections on the reflector.