I'm hoping this light will be driven hard enough to at least equal what the DRY is on HIGH mode. I'm sure nothing around will equal it on TURBO. Hopefully I'll have it in about a week and let you know if it has "teeth" or not. The 856 will be my first 2x26650 light, so I'm looking forward to it. It'll be driven with either 2 Trustfire protected 26650's or 4stevens protected 26650's.
Welcome to the madness, pezie!
Aloha and welcome to BLF pezie!
Thank you, guys. Have been lurking around some time.
Thanks Richie!!
Can you check the low modes for visible PWM? Thats a key issue with me, as I am very sensitive to that. That element has kept the Skyray king off my list.
Hey Kramer, you can count on it. You'll have the answer sometime later during the week.
Kramer, here's the deal in a nutshell.
The Skyray 856 displays a slow heartbeat on LOW & Med, none on HIGH. On occasion, I can actually see the PWM using just my eyes, no digital camera assistance, but only sometimes. Tailcap readings on HIGH mode with 2x26650 4Sevens, 4000mAh cells is 1.65a. Using that reading as a baseline, the 3 LED's are sharing about 4 amps between the 3 of them.
I was also under the impression this light is the color black, rather it's a beautiful dark gray and flawless anodizing. Mode memory takes about 1 second to work and the Cree T6-1C color tint looks fantastic as well as a very well defined hotspot. I also found it very interesting the 3 x XM-L reflector appears to be the exact one used in the Ultrafire UF-T70, about 55+mm diameter, so it's larger than the Skyray KING and the DRY. It also tail stands like a champ.
I also wasn't sure what to expect because all online photos show a blob of solder on the driver +B, but this one didn't have it. But my 4Seven batteries worked fine and even my Redilast 18650 3100's, using a couple of sleeves I had lying around.
The one thing I'm not thrilled about are the way the LED's are installed, which is exactly like they are on the Skyray KING, attached to the base of the reflector. So the driver must be removed somehow in order to lift the reflector/pill out. But the pill is very well screwed in and although I couldn't actually see the threads, they appeared to be a lot of fine threads to screw it in. Heat transfer to exterior appears very good to excellent.
I haven't decided yet if I'm going to start a new thread on this light with actual Shoot-Out photos comparing it to the KING, UF-T70, and DRY, etc.
I know the PWM is going to be a No-Go for you, but it is one mean looking light that feels great in the hand.
THANKS so much for that feedback!!
So best scenario looks like each LED gets 1.3A (not factoring driver efficiency loss). Thats still roughly 400-500L from each LED. Three LEDs will be 1200-1500 (cool running) bulb lumens for a run of 2.18 hours, using 3.6Ah cells. Thats not too bad at all.
FWIW, it's brightness is fine, but my Skyray KING beats it pretty good in distance and flood. The thing is it's not a reliable light due to the way the driver is mounted. I would never recommend it to the forum for purchase unless you are skilled at replacing the driver and finding a better way to install and secure it inside the light.
Thanks for your thoughts and candor on this light!
Thanks for all the input.... I just ordered a SkyRay King, I don't like the pimp gold finish, soooo I'm taking it apart as soon as I get it and going to test something .... 
How would it look with a couple of coats of Line X bed liner black ? Maybe some Black Teflon, Oh yes ... Let her warm up on high and fry an egg on the tail cap, only in case of emergencies of course ..... Thanks to everyone and by the way I negotiated it down to $50.00 free shipping .... now comes the hard part, checking my mail daily for the next month or 2 .....
Thanks for the warm welcome and your help.....
MannyD.
Left China and In Transit !!!
Sorry Kramer for digging up this thread on the Skyray 856 flashlight.
Mine hasn’t been used since my last post which was around 5/2012…LOL. For some reason, I haven’t been able to get past the bad driver install from the factory on my light, which only worked for a few minutes and died. But after a very good build I had assembling a Torchlite Kit on another thread, I decided to upgrade my 856 with the same driver I used on that flashight. I think it’ll be a great match for the 856, and will really allow it to stretch its legs. At 2.6a-3.0a per led, this light will finally rock.
The driver on order is from IOS, can be used with multiple LEDs’ or using just one LED if you don’t mine 5 amps going to it, and I already verified the the IOS driver fits perfectly.
http://www.intl-outdoor.com/boostbuck-318v-triple-xml-circuit-board-p-542.html
As soon as the parts come in and I get it rebuilt to what it should have been in the first place, I’ll post some new beam shots of the result.
Hi folks,
Finally got my Skyray 856 working including all new 20 gauge wiring for the LED’s. The LD-29 driver, which never worked correctly was tossed and replaced it with the same high power driver I used on my Torchlite build. The driver is this one below available at IOS.
http://www.intl-outdoor.com/boostbuck-318v-triple-xml-circuit-board-p-542.html
Only problem with the driver is it arrived as a 5-mode rather than a 3-mode, but I’ll have to deal with that later.
On 2 x 26650 Trustfire 5000mAh cells, I now get a rock solid 3.45a at the tail. Originally with the old driver, that was 1.65a, so a big difference.
Those cells sag to 3.9 volts at that level of drain so that means the I-O driver is drawing 27 watts from the cells. Subtract driver losses and there is no way that driver is driving each led at even 2.6 amps.
Why can’t someone produce a two cell driver that actually does output 30 watts when driving 3 XM-L emitters?
The draw stated i think is divided between the 3 leds not for each…