Thrunite Catapult V6 Review (26650 Compact Thrower, MicroUSB Rechargeable)

liquidretro · 2018-05-27T21:41:02.000Z

Today I have a review of the Thrunite Catapult V6. This the 6th generation in Catapult “Thrower” line from Thrunite. It’s compact spotlight style light using a 26650 battery, and is capable of throwing light out to 750 meters and upto 1700 lumens. Thanks to Thrunite for sending this to me to review and evaluate.

Full Image Gallery: https://imgur.com/a/K0bz2lc
YouTube Version of this Review:

Packaging
Packaging is like similar Thrunite products I have reviewed, it comes in a sturdy brown paper box with minimal information on the outside with only the company name, address, model number and LED designation. In my case it was hand checked Cool White. Inside the light was encased in egg case foam. Accessory wise the light includes a Thrunite branded 5000mAh button top 26650 battery, 2 extra Orings, an extra USB cover, extra inner button rubber, split ring, Thrunite branded Lanyard with split ring, a Holster, and a Micro USB charging cable.

The holster is nicely designed to fit the large head of this light. It’s lightly padded and made of the nylon. There is no DRing and the belt loop is permanently attached. The holster is the way to go if you were wanting to carry this light on your person. The multilanguage manual is brief but does a good job of going over the necessary info in 4 languages (English, German, Chinese, Japanese).

Construction
Construction of the Catapult V6 is on par with other recent Thrunite lights I have looked at such as the TC20. It’s made of nicely machined aluminium and anodized in a black hard semi gloss coating. The tail caps on the Catapult V6 and TC20 look similar. Both are non magnetic and allow the light to tail stand. Each has a small hole for the included lanyard. Its one area where some will want a larger hole for paracord. There isn’t any knurling on the tail cap but I was able to get it off easily. Threads are square cut and lightly lubricated along with an Oring.

The body tube has a large diamond pattern milled around it. This isn’t super grippy but it’s a nice change from a more traditional knurling patterns. The body tube is directional but doesn’t have any polarity markings on it for the battery. This light does come into 3 pieces the tail cap, body tube, and head.

The head is fairly large. The light has a polished steel bezel that can be unscrewed with considerable effort according to others on budget light forums. The lens is large and anti reflective coated glass. The reflector is smooth and deep with the LED nicely centered on a large white PCB. The head has minimal milled out areas The button is metal feeling and has a hole for an indicator LED underneath for charging status. It’s an electric switch and requires medium effort to use.

LED + Beamshots, Runtimes
This light uses a Cree XHP35 HI LED in cool white. According to the box there may be a Neutral White Catapult V6 in the future, however as of now this has not been released. This is a 12V emitter so the light is using a boost driver to get the batteries voltage to that level. It has a working voltage of 2.75V to 4.2V

Supplied with the Thrunite 5000mAh 26650 button top battery. It’s capable of delivering the 8A this light requires when use of Turbo.The light will accept button or flat top batteries without issue.

Outputs are pretty impressive. Turbo is rated for 1700 lumens, high for 960, medium for 180 lumens, low for 22 lumens, and firefly at 0.5 lumens. The light also has strobe that is at 1200 lumens.

The Catapult V6 was able to maintain a longer runtime for quite a while, maintaining above 60% relative output for about 125 minutes. Turbo slowly fell to about 90% relative output over the first 20 minutes which is where the light stepped down and ran for another 40 before stepping down for the remaining 70 minutes. Fall off after that was pretty rapid.

Distance
The beamshot of this light is a spotlight thrower. I found it impressive that even on moonlight mode (0.5 Lumens) it ends up throwing quite well over 10ft on a dark night. Over a longer distance and with higher modes the light beam does spread some but it’s still a spotlight. The distance claim of 750 meters is reasonably accurate. The light does have minimal amount of spill with a hard cut off on the edges. Video is really the best to see this in action. See the YouTube version of this review above.

Compared to Klarus XT32 and other 26650 lights I have
When I compared it to my Klarus XT32 the tint colors are very similar. The Captapult V6 has a little bit larger hotspot and a harder cut off on the spill at distances over 100 yards. I think the Catapult V6 for me in my hand is better balanced and easier to manipulate. I also included a picture of the size of the Catapult V6 in comparisons to other 26650 lights I have.

UI
UI is clear and simple to follow. From off a short press starts the light off in low, and short presses will cycle up in modes to medium and high. When the light is on in any mode double click to shortcut to turbo, double click again takes you to strobe. To access firefly long press from off. The light also has memory and will turn on in the last mode accessed except for firefly, turbo and strobe modes.

USB Recharging
The light also is capable of being recharged via microUSB. This is opposite the electronic switch and is covered with a rubber flap. I had no issues with the flap staying in place. Charge time was a respectable 3 hours 22 minutes from empty to full charge with a maximum rate of 2.14A.

Conclusions
This is one of the more compact throwers on the market for the sub $100 price. It’s a complete package including the battery, light, and recharging cable along with holster and spares. Some of the competitors such as the Emmisar D1S are sold as just the light. Combine the Thrunites fash shipping from the US and complete package I feel like it makes a pretty good value. I like the compact size for a thrower and use of one 26650 battery. I have other throwers that use 2x 18650 and these end up creating a pretty large light thats much less easy to put on a belt or bag. I like the extra diameter too in the Catapult V6.

This would be a nice choice for security guard applications, landowners looking to survey their property at a distance, or hunters trying to spot game. Due to that tight beam it’s not the best choice for a general EDC light or trail hiking in my opinion but that is to be expected. Overall it’s a very nice compact thrower.

Thrunite is offering 20% off if you order this light through their website through June 15th 2018. http://www.thrunite.com/thrunite-catapult-v6-mini-thrower-rechargeable-flashlight/ It’s also available on Amazon (at normal prices) but currently out of stock.

Siftah · 2018-06-06T11:39:10.000Z

Unsure about your description of the UI, mine is not like this;

UI is clear and simple to follow. From off a short press starts the light off in low, and short presses will cycle up in modes to medium and high. When the light is on in any mode double click to shortcut to turbo, double click again takes you to strobe. To access firefly long press from off. The light also has memory and will turn on in the last mode accessed except for firefly, turbo and strobe modes.

For me, a short press will turn on or off the light. Long press to swap modes, or hold to cycle through modes; Low -> Medium -> High.

Firefly is a long press from off, or double click form off to go to turbo.

Double click from any mode to go to turbo, then double click again to go to strobe.

Memory function remembers only low/medium/high modes. Turning off in Turbo will result in turning back on in High.

sp5it · 2018-06-06T11:54:07.000Z

You Turbo seems really odd.
That how it looks here:

4 minutes and turbo is gone.
Really bad stabilization.
Review with proper beamshots here: http://www.torch.pl/forum/index.php/topic,63787.0.html
Mike

Lux-Perpetua · 2018-06-06T12:03:39.000Z

sp5it:

Review with proper beamshots here: http://www.torch.pl/forum/index.php/topic,63787.0.html
Mike

Dziękuje Mike! :+1:
Bardzo podoba mi się pani recenzja.

For those who want to translate Mike’s review, I can really recommend this translation engine:

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It’s far more sophisticated than anything I’ve seen before at least for German-English and vice versa, using artificial intelligence for proper translation.