Review: On The Road X6M (Includes mod too)

LED Flashlights – General Info 26650 Flashlights
24

Can’t remeber the last time I enjoyed a review as much as yours!

In particular, I liked the practical aspects of making judgments based on the light and its price point and also the comparisons to other lights.

You, RacR86, are a natural. I look forward to more of your great work with budget lights!

25

I haven't revisited this thread since you first started drafting it. Wow! First class stuff. Probably the best review I have ever read.

26

Thank you for the nice comments guys! :)

btw, WB will have a sick sale on the X6M (with T6 CW emitter). I might pick up another one. Ordered! :)

27

Wow - great review! For under $40 right now at WB, this light looks like a bargain. WOuld be nice to see lumens.throw measurements on the mods though - just curious... Thanx!!

28

Thanks for the review. I like the body design of this light but I think the 26650 tube will be too big for me.

29

Ive seen larger objects in your hands before Chloe. Im sure you could handle it.. ^^

Im talking about that massive Kershaw knife of course!

(Filthy minds!)

[quote=Tom E]

Wow - great review! For under $40 right now at WB, this light looks like a bargain. WOuld be nice to see lumens.throw measurements on the mods though - just curious... Thanx!!

[/quote]

Thanks for the comment.

Yupp, In the world of 26650 lights, I would consider it a bargain when its below 40$. If not, extremely good value.

Here are some numbers for you Tom E (including those from the review).

Taken at about 30 sec.

Stock Convoy L4 with XM-L2 U2 1A for reference (3A on copper mcpcb with insulation layer)

959 lumen (otf, calculated from ceiling bounce)

34800 lux (meter reading)

41500 lux (Corrected to be fairly similar to Tom E numbers)


Stock X6M with XM-L2 T6 3C (2,9A on aluminium mcpcb):

825 lumen (otf, calculated from ceiling bounce)

40400 lux (meter reading)

48177 lux (Corrected to be fairly similar to Tom E numbers)

Conservatively modified X6M with XM-L2 T6 3C (4,25A on Noctigon) (as seen in post 1)

1207 lumen (otf, calculated from ceiling bounce)

59600 lux (meter reading)

71073 lux (Corrected to be fairly similar to Tom E numbers)


Feel free to compare my L4 numbers with your numbers in this post. They might have been used as reference numbers. I measured slightly higher amp reading on my L4 though.

Either way, my numbers are comparable with each other , and probably not too far off from yours.

30

yikes - wonder why our throw measurements are so different. Mine have compared pretty well with rdrfronty in the past, even with identical lights I've shipped to him. I've been doing the measurements at 5m and hunt for the best # - think that's what they say to do. Actually when rdrfronty tests them at 15m, he's usually higher than my kcd's.

31

Thanks for a great review , RaceR86 .

Seems like a winner .

32

Great review!! This really seems like the 26650 alternative to the Convoy L4. Nice flashlight!

33

Who knows Tom, as I mentioned to you in PM. I have now started a thread.

Share you Convoy L4 lux numbers (Comparing lux meters)

Thanks for the comments guys!

34

Hi,

I have one of these coming from Wallbuys, one of these days :(, and was wondering if, for the resistor mod, anyone has tried just jumpering across the resistor in the pic in post #1 instead of piggybacking an SMD resistor (which I don’t have)?

And if so, what kind of tailcap current would that give?

Thanks,
Jim

35

In lights like these, peak tailcap current mostly depends on the battery and its ability to limit voltage sag. If you are using something like a KP 4500mAh, Soshine, King kong.. You will only see around 4,5A peak (probably a bit higher with KK), and it will be sinking. Unless you are using any high discharge batteries that hold current very well, its better and safer to just resistor mod for something in the 4A range.

The issue with bridging is that you could mess up low, or how the driver works. Its hard to predict what happens. In many single emitter lights, bridging works fine. On others it don't, and you could just go back to resistors. Chances of ruining the driver are fairly small in a single cell light, but it could happen. I have done it once. My general advise, is that if you don't want to gamble, or have a replacement driver, don't do it.

Also, in general (not on this light it seems) Resistor modding also increases low. Another reason why it can be smart to not bridge or increase the current beyond the battery capability.

Bridging resistor on a buck driver will often lead to too much voltage to the emitter, and fried emitter.

With the correct cell, you might see up towards or close to 6A peak current if its bridged and working properly with little resistance.

Resistors are cheap. 100pcs R100 are less than 2$ from FT. As an example you could stack three of those to get R033 combined. Or four for R025 combined. Those resistor, along with a few others come in handy for several resistor mods.

My R030 was salvaged from another driver.. But you can easily buy such resistors from ebay or other places.

36

I think that I have some of these somewhere:

https://www.fasttech.com/p/1234403

and some of these:

https://www.fasttech.com/p/1234410

Would either of those work for this mod?

Jim

37

Yes. The R120 (0.12R) would work fine. But you would need to stack four of them in order to get them down to 0.30R (same value as I used)

Even more resistors if you want to try and go further.

38

Hmm. I’ll see if I can salvage a 0.30R one then… would not look forward to trying to stack 4 of those little guys :)…

Thanks,
Jim

39

Its probably easier than you think..

40

Great review and pictures! Looks nice, but can’t afford anything after the IS killer specials!

41

Thanks. :)

Anyone else bought the light?

Got around to mod my 2nd X6M the other day along with an Xintd X3.

This time I used an R020 for peak output of 5-5,1A on max. Salvaged from Solarstorm Warrior.

Trimmed the Noctigon more than last time, so no trimming on the screws were necessary.

Like my first X6M, screws were not holding the stock star down. All parts on the light were very tightly secured (strap wrench and good tool needed). I trimmed the locating ring this time too, but could not say I was not able to measure any increase in output before and after. You can probably skip that step if you mod it.

Also did the springs..

42

Where one can get a spare driver for that flashlight?

I friend of mine got one, and after 6 month of usage it seems that the driver malfunctioned

43

I would make sure its a driver issues first.

RMM(/mtn electronics), DrJones or led4power have different drivers that works with an E-switch (and mechanical switch). The light in the switch will not work with those drivers though, but some or them are better compared to stock UI in several other ways.