Review: Sky Ray 3XT6 (3x XM-L T6, 4x 18650) From Tmart. (Picture Heavy)

LED Flashlights – General Info 18650 Flashlights
1

Sky Ray 3XT6

Reviewer's Overall Rating: ★★★★★

It was great a year ago and it's still great now!

Summary:

Battery: 4 x 18650
Switch: Electronic side switch, Reverse clicky
Modes: 3: High, Low + hidden strobe
LED Type: 3 x XM-L T6 (Cool White)
Lens: Glass
Tailstands: Yes
Price: $41.09 Shipped (US Warehouse)
Provided by: Tmart

Pros:

Compact

Versatility in Battery options (1 - 4)

Extremely Bright (My brightest light as of 12-15-2013)

Great Run-time with 4x 18650 in parallel.

Electronic side switch with hidden strobe

Build quality is outstanding; great threads, machining is excellent, proper O-rings used,

Looks fantastic with the stainless bezel.

Nice and comfortable in small and large hands.

Gift-able box with heavy duty lanyard and manual included.

Cons:

Incompatible with flat top batteries (Laptop pulls need a bit added to positive terminal)

Positive terminal of batteries rub against the driver contact board when tightening the battery tube (This could be an issue in the long run).

A bit on the heavy side with 4x 18650.

Pictures!


...sky!

It arrived in a nice little box, adequately padded. The box suffered a bit of damage on the corner, but the light is unharmed.

Up close and personal

Side View

Tilted a bit more

Beautiful 3 Up emitter, small defect on the flat portion, but the actual light contact surfaces are immaculate.

Back end

Partial Disassembly, Threads were liberally lubricated from factory.

Top Threads

Bottom Threads

Plate at bottom of battery tube, seems to be missing a screw. Will investigate further.

Driver Contact Plate

Down the Battery Tube

Flashlights can make snow angels too!

Snow is starting to pile up!

Bacon, Eggs, Toast, and SRK! :)

BEAMSHOTS:


Up close, about 1 - 2 feet away




Control (May not show up, but on my camera shows the garage door just barely via a bit of moonlight) Approximately 20 feet.


Close to real life, actual hotspot is quite a bit smaller.


Approximately 50 yards to the trees.


Approximately 25 Yards to trees


Comparison Shots:


Left: Defiant 3up @ 7.2A Right: SRK (On Laptop pulls)


Dropping down the exposure

A bit more

And a bit more

What I received is one heck of a fantastic light. There is some room for improvement, but I will be leaving mine stock.

I'll be posting a bit more comprehensive breakdown and some current measurements soon. Thanks for looking! Feel free to ask questions or offer suggestions as to what else I should include and I'll do my best to answer/provide what I can!

2

Breakdown Pictures


Longer protected button top batteries fit fine (I tested Protected Panasonic 3400mAh button tops).

A Quick little mod to laptop pulls is needed in order to make them usable in this light:

Shows the slight protrusion of the positive pole of batteries needed in order to make contact with the driver's contact board:

Negative contact plate removed; anodized on the platforms, but the threads for the contact plate's screws are bare.

Underside of the reflector; large screw fastens the reflector down on top of the emitters through the underside of the pill.

3

Thanks, nice review!

4

Would like to see what the driver looks like, the gauge of wires used as well as the current path at the bottom. I read that many of the other variants had anodizing limiting the contact points. Thanks for the review and the pictures!

5

Alright, after more error than trial trying to remove the driver I’ve taken a break to research a bit more. I tried both removing the switch housing and the small slots on the outer circumference on the underside of the driver. Succeeded in scratching it up a bit. Hmm.

I did grab a current measurement at the tailcap of 3A on 1 unprotected laptop pull.

The contact platforms for the negative contact plate are anodized.

Edit:
Boom, a bit of convincing with vice grips and I was able to get the switch retaining piece loosened.

The driver is not the 3 torroid version.

Pics uploading now, will update 2nd post momentarily.

6

I love the Bacon n Eggs! My gold SRK from wallbuys was missing the screw in the bottom also…. :quest:

7

:wink:

Thankfully the missing screw doesn’t seem to cause any issues.
.
.
.
I’ve updated post #1 with some breakdown pics. This is a fantastic light, definitely in my top 3!

8

Thanks for the shot of the driver and the underbelly. That’s a lot of hassle plus the pictures. Thanks very much.