Hi guys. I've just read the crap out of this thread. Been researching in general for the last 24 hours straight, my mind is close to mush. Didn't know anything about torches these days honestly as of yesterday, but I do have some knowledge of electricity ( a 2-year degree in electrical tech.) There are so many similar Chinese made lights it's mind-blowing.
I'm looking for a light for less than $60 US.
Looking for these almost MUST-HAVE features:
Adjustable beam size (zoomable), At least 1 XM-L emitter, Decent build quality.
Preferable features: Regulated, 3 modes, non-bluish light, good throw without much spill bleeding
Also, if I were to get this light, the TR-3T6, (which I know doesn't have adjustable beam), could I use 2 IMR 18650s without blowing anything? I know it's risky with single 18650 applications but with two cell's current divided among the 3 emitters, could I get more light out of her this way?
Thanks, I am VERY appreciative! And sorry to thread-jack, but the OP was appeased long ago I think.
It has the most of the features what u wanted but like-
1>XML
2>Zoomable Option
3>By reading the reviews from Manafont it is clear the build quality is good.
4>Good throw without much spill due to optic but the spot will be more like square looking( rememember XML leds are more of a flooder)
5> for less than $60 US
Exceptions:-
1>5 modes(Most Chineese manufaturerers uses 5 mode version drivers 3 mode is a rare thing)
2>I don't know if it will be in other than blue tint or not,but manufacturers sells the flashlights on the basis of lumen factor,'Cool white' tint produces the max light output in typical condition,for confirming check the cree site ie;Order Code-XMLAWT-00-0000-0000T6051,so it has high possibilty that ull get a cool white tint Led.
Tf3t6 is sold in only 2 cell & 3 cell version,running in 1 cell is not appropriate but will still lit up Tf3t6.No visible light output differences can be noticeable in 2 cell & 3 cell version atleast I can't,in 3 cell u ll get more runtime that's it.I prefer a 3cell cuz its more versatile & more applicable in real world.
Thanks for the info man. Funny, At the end it was between the two you are talking about. The Z5 or the 3T6. Very different lights I know, and maybe I will still buy the Z5 for kicks, someday, but I bought the 3T6. Bought it from a guy in Brooklyn on ebay. It's only two cell, and that's fine with me. VERY glad to know you don't see a light difference by adding a third. I had heard that elsewhere as well, and it was the thing that allowed me to click "buy now."
Since I am assuming it's power regulated anyway, it would just draw more current from 2 cells than 3 cells to make up for the lack of the extra 4.2V. Hopefully an exact ratio, such as 2.4A on 2 cells, 1.6A on 3 cells. What I'm confused about though is how the heck this thing gets supposedly gets to 4 times the lumen level of a single XM-L, dual 18650 torch. Unless it's drawing 4 times more current, it doesn't make much sense.
I'll tell you what the world of torches is a freakin' snake pit. You wouldn't think it could get so in depth! It's just an LED, a power supply, a switch and a tube for God's sake. (And a reflector, resistors, caps, inductors, diodes, solder and a PCB but who's counting.)
At least I will be receiving my light within about 3 days rather than 2 weeks if I bought from Mana. Had some black Trsusty flames expedited here so I'll be at it soon! I only live about 350 miles from Brooklyn so that guy was the perfect seller for me. I just hope my new 3T6 is as bright as some of the sky ray x3 XM-Ls I saw on youtube. They seemed a little brighter than comparable 3T6 vids I saw.
That's why I kinda wanted to get IMRs, to even the playing field, but I just didn't know what those would do to my new toy. I am guessing though that with the regulation the IMRs would only overheat the regulator and it's heatsink. Unless it's only voltage regulated, in which case the IMRs would have a large impact on luminosity.
Ehh....i finally killed one of the LEDs in the Sky Ray 3800 (with DRY driver, that one guns the LEDs hardcore). Was in strobe mode and it finally died. Will need to swap it out with a 16mm MCPCB XM-L, not too difficult...i already disassembled it.
Well my heart just dropped when I read that. How can ILIKEFLASHLIGHTS not have edited his first post to say DO NOT BUY THIS?
Of all the damn threads I read during those 36 hours of researching I can't believe I didn't read a few posts further in that thread. I had read about 15-20 posts in. I just assumed if there were a problem that the mod or OP would have deleted the link or the OP would edit in a warning. That thread is the only reason I went to yallstore to begin with. Was about to buy from manafont and at the last minute I saw that thread. I just heard people in there saying, "Well if you live in the US, go for it due to fast shipping times. Otherwise not a great deal."
I haven't ordered anything on ebay in like a year at least for this reason.
So.... can I just refuse delivery even if it comes USPS?
Sorry I'm just all worked up right now. So upset I spent all that time reading about lights just to get ripped off. If I had just read a few more posts....
Thank you on behalf of anyone else who this might happen to. Kind of a silly thing really, if I had just read a couple more posts... lol. Funny thing is I somehow thought I had read the whole thing.
Just hope I can get my money back. Looks like the thing to do it ask the seller first rather than go straight to ebay/paypal channels. Just trying to think of how I should phrase it to get the best possible outcome. Like maybe not have to deal with sending it back at all :)
I just ordered the real deal from manafont, just hope it gets here by the 25th.
Benckie, what happened to Australia this "summer"? My friend in Sydney said temperatures dipped to 10 deg C with hailstones over the weekend. Perth is a low of 16 deg C at night!
Still good for DRY turbo usage... heh.
It's also a bit cooler this year. It got to about 25-26 deg C just few days ago at night, pretty cooling in our standards.....and i was shivering already after i got out of the shower.
There weather has gone to the dogs, it was 30 plus the other day but it's been cold and raining for 2 days now, I'm on the other side of Australia to you friend but this time of year it is normaly hot day and night, a couple of weeks back we had a nice run of hot days and nights.
The reason for the cold weather is Perth has been hit by a cold front they had pritty bad storms there and they coped it last night places around Perth coped 120 to 150 mm of rain last night and strong winds, thats alot of rain for perth.
I dont live near Perth but we had has some of the same weather just not as bad i heard on the radio today emergency services around Perth were over loaded last night and there was alot of flooding and tree damage
Just got my 3T6 from yallstore on ebay. It doesn't look anything like the fake 3T6 that monanoke posted, and in fact looks like it is the same light that zardon posted. It is even a 3 cell light although it was advertised as a 2. 8 gaps in the heatsink fins, sticker inside on the dropin.
Problem is, I went to fire it up in two cell mode with my protected trustfire flames, freshly purchased from an American e cig dealer and freshly charged, and no light came out of the 3T6. So I quickly unscrew the endcap, and the 18650s are very warm and there's a funky burning smell. I had put the negative batt end against the spring towards the front and the positive end on the bronze nipple of the endcap. I assume they didn't change this right? Every electronic device I've ever seen has had the spring correspond to the negative side of the batteries. Although every flashlight I've seen has had the positive end facing the front/LED so it's strange to me.
Even now the light tube, and batts have a distinct burnt smell to them.
Well that's cute... thanks. I just tested the voltage on the TF flame 18650s and one is fine at 4.15V while the other is apparently crippled at 2.1 volts. I fully charged both batts before using and it took about 6 hours. Didn't notice anything out of the ordinary.
Some of the plastic at the end of the crippled batt is kind of melted a little bit. Wonder if that's all the smell was.
And no they are/(were?) protected.
The torch gods have not blessed me thus far. The spring ALWAYS goes on the neg end I thought. Man. I've had prouder moments, lol.
So it looks like I've still got one working cell. I really really want to see what this thing can do, so anybody think it'd be ok to try to run it with one 18650 and some coins? I also have about 8 3.6V CR123s. I'm guessing its not ok to combine an 18650 with a CR123, but the length fit would be perfect. Maybe could I try just 3 CR123s? Or would the current demand be too much? Thanks a ton!
EDIT: Just read that it's kosher to try 3xCR123As. Tried it and... success! Just measured current too and I got 1.45A, 650mA, and 140mA (High, med, low.) With 3 cells at 3.6V a piece @ 1.45A, I'm getting almost 16W of output to the emitters without factoring in efficiency. COOL. I might just have a genuine torch, even though I got it from yallstore and there were multiple people reporting a couple months ago that they were selling fake lights (have to go to post 19 to see it.) Looks like my driver survived the reversal :)
Just took the dog for a stroll with the new toy. I already own a little 3xAAA 220 lumen XP-G light, but I am new to the XM-L world so I have no real high power basis of comparison here. But damn. This thing was easily lighting up entire buildings from about 75-80 yards away on high. Some might not say it's a "wall of light", but outside it sure did the job.
Only problem is it kept dimming the lights to a barely visible glow every 3 or 4 minutes when on high. I could click the button again right away and bring the high beam right back, but I don't think it likes the 900mAh 16340s I used.
Anyway, I am actually hoping this thing is fake so I can be knocked out by the real deal when my manafont 3T6 gets here in a week or so. But something is telling me this thing is for real. From what I was reading, it seemed like with 3 3.6V cells I should have gotten around 900-1050mA if it were a cheap copy. 1.5A though tells me it's not.
With 3 14500 cells at the exact same voltage as the 16340s, 4.2 on the dot, it pulls a touch more current, about 1.51A rather than 1.45A with 16340s. I'm tempted to drop a single 3.6V 18490 IMR I have in there to see what kind of readings I'd pull. Anyone think that's a bad idea? I have two, but I wouldn't dare try that until after trying one.
I also have 4 3.6V 10440 IMRs, but those things are too emaciated to fit in there I think. Still kinda want to see what kind of tricks this dog can do.
I'm not talking about the 10440 IMRs, those little guys are only 350mah. I'm talking about the 18490 IMRs as the ones I'd try. They are AW 3.7V 1100 mah IMR (more like 1500 mah in trustfire standards.) They are big, same width as the 18650s (1.8 cm) just not as long. 4.9cm vs 6.5 cm hence the name "1.8 6.50" vs "1.8 4.90". I just realized the cell name is derived from metric dimensions a few months ago myself, although you probably already know that.
I have two, and I'm thinking about throwing them in. The XM-Ls can handle 3A each @ 3.35V, although the question is, can the driver. Highly doubtful. That's why I am hoping that much less than 9A would be drawn from the two high drain 18490 cells.
I'm just itchin for more lumens since I won't have a working pair of 18650s for about a week. The driver might just soak up all the extra current and perhaps I would not see another single lumen, but I'm dying to find out. I know these XM-Ls can handle more current, I just want to give it to the hungry little guys.
With typical capacities, the 16340s and 14500s are being pushed to 2C or 2.5C....that's a fairly heavy load for a standard Li-Co cell, and may be too much for a lower-quality example.
The same current draw on a 2600Mah 18650 cell is only 0.6C.