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

Rating: ★★★★★



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 - Sky Ray 3XT6 18650 x 4

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.
Nice and comfortable in small and large hands even with extended use.
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:



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



Side View



Tilted a bit more



Beautiful 3 Up, small defect on the flat area of the aluminum reflector, 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, missing a screw.



Driver Contact Plate



Down the Battery Tube



Size Comparison
SK68 - EDI T P14 - SF L2i - Sky Ray - Mini Maglite - HD 2010 - 3D Maglite - Defiant Super Thrower



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 3x XM-L T6 @ 7.2A Right: SRK (On Laptop pulls)



Dropping down the exposure



And a bit more



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.

Yes...this is a very well made FL !!!! AND....FYI...THIS is the unit that provided a host for my Tridentis build !!! The body needed to be shortened, the momentary switch changed out due higher current draw of the three (3) 9mm 445 modules....and the Lipo cell compartment needed to be changed from 3.7 VDC to a 7.2 VDC configuration.

But....the take away is that this is a great unit....just as it stands !!! Mucho Bright !!! Excellent Quality !!!
CDBEAM=======>

How did you mod those batteries"? They look well done!

:beer:
-Matt

KRNAZNBOY said:

How did you mod those batteries"? They look well done!

:beer:
-Matt

Click to expand...

I grabbed some brass nuts from the hardware store.

Lightly sanded the contact surfaces of the nut and the positive flattop.

Flux on contact surfaces.

Cranked the soldering iron up, tinned both the bottom of the nut and the positive pole (Very quickly as to not heat up the battery).

Refluxed the now tinned surfaces.

Placed the nut on the pos pole and applied just enough heat to melt the solder, removed the heat, and pressed lightly on the brass nut with tweezers to settle it down flat.


Makes for a solid button top on a laptop pull cell with next to no chance of it sliding off like magnets sometimes do, but is also still reversible if needed.

Also not my brilliance, borrowed the idea from one of the nice guys over at BLF.

CDBEAM777 said:

Yes...this is a very well made FL !!!! AND....FYI...THIS is the unit that provided a host for my Tridentis build !!! The body needed to be shortened, the momentary switch changed out due higher current draw of the three (3) 9mm 445 modules....and the Lipo cell compartment needed to be changed from 3.7 VDC to a 7.2 VDC configuration.

But....the take away is that this is a great unit....just as it stands !!! Mucho Bright !!! Excellent Quality !!!
CDBEAM=======>

Click to expand...

Definitely a fantastic light stock even running it with 4 laptop pulls (about $1 per).

Only light I've got that beats it is a BTU Shocker, but that is double/triple the cost of an SRK. My other triple emitter lights in the same price range don't quite match up to output and don't come near the run time.

unknown001 said:

I grabbed some brass nuts from the hardware store.

Lightly sanded the contact surfaces of the nut and the positive flattop.

Flux on contact surfaces.

Cranked the soldering iron up, tinned both the bottom of the nut and the positive pole (Very quickly as to not heat up the battery).

Refluxed the now tinned surfaces.

Placed the nut on the pos pole and applied just enough heat to melt the solder, removed the heat, and pressed lightly on the brass nut with tweezers to settle it down flat.


Makes for a solid button top on a laptop pull cell with next to no chance of it sliding off like magnets sometimes do, but is also still reversible if needed.

Also not my brilliance, borrowed the idea from one of the nice guys over at BLF.

Click to expand...

How high did you crank up your iron? Solder never sticks to my batteries...

It also never sticks to anything that is not a solder pad, such as metal nuts.

*sigh

-Matt

I believe the key is to lightly scuff the contact point with sandpaper followed by adding a bit of flux. I use somewhere around 430 C (cheap variable dial iron). The extra heat is to melt the solder very quickly without heating up the battery too much.

heed what unknown001 was saying: your goal is to get solder to tin the battery pole WITHOUT heating any other part of the battery past a certain temp., to reduce chance of issues later, and to reduce lost capacity due to heat damage, and to keep from having a face full of battery juice/fire.

Get a more powerful iron and use short bursts to allow heat to spread and dissipate.

Or use a battery welder and some nipples from some old AAs or something. I hear battery tab welders are fairly easy to make.

unknown001 said:

I believe the key is to lightly scuff the contact point with sandpaper followed by adding a bit of flux. I use somewhere around 430 C (cheap variable dial iron). The extra heat is to melt the solder very quickly without heating up the battery too much.

Click to expand...

Tried it with the high soldering iron temp. Works like a charm.

I now have 4 button top panny NCR18650Bs

Thanks!
+1