Contents
- The Boring Stuff
- What comes in the box?
- Design & Construction
- Size & Measurements
- User Interface
- Modes, Brightness & Throw
- Runtime & Currents
- Driver & Regulation
- Emitter & Beam
- Switch
- Carry & Ergonomics
- Batteries & Charging
- Conclusion
The Boring Stuff
I purchased this light with my own money from Kaidomain. This is actually sort of going to be a review of several different products in one, so here are their product pages:
I purchased the Quad SST20 drop-in, host, and battery as a bundle since that was significantly cheaper than buying them individually. I bought the Xenon drop-in separately. The order took just over two weeks to arrive from China, which is pretty impressive.
What comes in the box?
The box is a retail-style box made of thin, printed cardboard. There’s a plastic insert inside that holds the light. Both the plastic insert inside and the plastic window outside came broken. The LED drop-in and battery came inside the light, and the Xenon drop-in came outside the box wrapped in bubblewrap. The following items are included in the box:
- The host itself
- Spare o-ring
- Alternate switch boot (glow in the dark)
- A nice lanyard
- Rubber tactical grip ring
- LED drop-in & battery (if bundled)
Design & Construction
The design looks like a P60-style light. It’s simple and I like it.
The host build quality is surprisingly excellent. I did not have particularly high expectations of this Chinese bargain P60, but it’s build well. The anodizing is thick, even, and smooth. All the threads are anodized, lubricated, and smooth. It’s got all the o-rings it should have for water resistance. If I had to pick something to gripe about, I’d say I wish the head threads were trapezoid cut like the tail threads, but that’s really not a big deal.
The quality extends to the LED drop-in too, which is a nicely machined, heavy chunk of brass. The “bezel” is easy to unscrew should you want to do an emitter swap.
The Xenon drop-in isn’t as nice but I don’t find it to be lacking in quality.
Size & Measurements
From left to right:
Convoy S12
Noctigon KR1
KDLITKER E6
Emisar D4V2
Convoy M1
| Measurement | Measured (mm) |
|---|---|
| Bezel Diameter | 32.1 |
| Length | 131.2 |
| Switch Diameter | 16.5 |
| Lens Diameter | 28.5 |
| Lens Thickness | 1.4 |
| Drop-in-hole diameter | 22.5 |
| Body Tube Diameter (internal) | 19.0 |
| Body Tube Diameter (mode) | 25.4 |
| Tailcap Diameter | 25.3 |
| Tailcap Length | 34.4 |
| Included Battery Length | 68.9 |
| Included Battery Diameter | 18.0 |
Empty host weight: 86g / 3.03oz
Battery weight: 49g / 1.73oz
Quad LED Drop-in weight: 38g / 1.34oz
Xenon Drop-In weight: 14g / 0.49oz
User Interface
The Xenon’s UI is just on/off, which is kind of neat. I got the “6-mode” version of the the LED drop-in and it leaves a bit to be desired for a multi-mode UI. There is a 1-mode version of it too.
The host has a reverse-clicky switch. A “click” is a full depression of the switch to the point that it clicks. A “tap” is a quick half-press and release without fully depressing to the point of clicking.
| State | Action | Result |
|---|---|---|
| Off | Click | On (mode memory) |
| On | Tap | Cycle mode (moon-low-med-high) |
| On | Double-tap | Turbo (not memorized) |
| On | Triple-Tap | Strobe (not memorized) |
| On | Click | Off |
The 1-mode UI of the Xenon drop-in is charming. It’s an appropriate brightness for most situations at 124 lumens.
The LED drop-in UI is a mixed bag. I really like the Turbo & Strobe shortcuts. Those are great. I really don’t like the mode memory though, nor do I like the reverse-clicky switch this light comes with. It would be significantly better with a forward clicky and no mode memory, always starting on moon.
Modes, Brightness & Throw
Disclaimer: Lumen measurements were taken on a Texas Ace 3.5″ Lumen Tube. A candela measurement was taken with an Opple Light Master III at 10 meters on the highest brightness, and other candela figures were calculated relative to that. Runtime tests were performed with the Ceilingbounce app on my smartphone. All of these tests were performed with a fully charged included battery unless otherwise specified.
| Level | Lumens (@ Turn-On) | Candela (@ Turn-On) | Throw (meters) |
|---|---|---|---|
| Xenon | 124 | 5000 | 141 |
| Turbo (LED) | 980 | 5000 | 141 |
| High (LED) | 880 | 4490 | 134 |
| Medium (LED) | 365 | 1862 | 86 |
| Low (LED) | 90 | 459 | 43 |
| Moonlight (LED) | 30 | 153 | 25 |
Mode Spacing: The modes & their spacing are not great. Calling 30 lumens “Moonlight” is patently absurd. The spacing from “Moonlight” up to High is fine, but there’s virtually no difference between High and Turbo.
How does it compare to the official specs? The Xenon drop-in doesn’t have any official output specs. The LED drop-in is advertised at 1400 lumens with no throw spec, and I measured 980 lumens. The 1400 lumen spec is probably for the 5000K+ emitter options which are low CRI. It would be nice if they offered a spec for both types because the high CRI emitters (4000K-) are going to be significantly dimmer.
Runtime & Currents
You do not buy the Xenon drop-in for the brightness and runtime.
Turbo (LED): Turbo starts out at 980 lumens. It drops to a little under 500 lumens just before the 3 minute mark. it stays there for a little under an hour and a half, before ramping down the brightness and beginning low voltage warnings. It shut completely off just before one hour and 45 minutes. It got too hot to hold, but not dangerously so. This sustained output is very impressive and reinforces my suspicion that this drop-in is using a buck driver.
High (LED): looks virtually identical to Turbo, just a little dimmer.
Medium (LED): A relatively flat ~350 lumens for about two hours before low voltage stepdown and warnings kick in
Xenon: Starts out at 124 lumens and drifts downward slowly. The downward slope gets steeper between 1:15 and 1:30. Around 1:30 the light started blinking on and off for a few minutes and eventually turned off completely. This didn’t happen with an unprotected cell, so I’m assuming it’s the protected cell’s protection circuit tripping and resetting over and over.
LVP: There is both a low voltage warning and low voltage shutoff on the LED drop-in. The Xenon drop-in has neither.
Driver & Regulation
The Xenon drop-in has no driver, so most of this section will only apply to the LED drop-in.
The LED drop-in has what I assume is a Buck driver, because it’s capable of being run on one or two cells. I can’t tell exactly how it’s held in but it doesn’t appear to be soldered.
Regulation is fairly poor. It’s non-existent on the Xenon drop-in, which is to be expected. On the LED drop-in, Turbo and High are both heavily affected by cell voltage.
Note: All regulation measurements are taken at turn-on so they do not reflect any thermal or low voltage stepdowns that may occur. A value of 0 indicates low voltage shutoff immediately upon activation.
Thermal regulation: is not present, despite what the product page says. I did two turbo runtime tests: one uncooled and one with a fan blowing directly on the light. The lights performance in each test was identical.
PWM: No PWM is visible to my eye. With an Opple Light Master III, I only detected PWM on High mode, and it was nice and fast.
Emitter & Beam
The LED drop-in I chose has four SST20 4000K LED’s under a quad TIR optic. It produces a floody hotspot with spill made up of several layers of flower petals. These are not particularly pretty emitters, as they are fairly green.
The Xenon drop-in has a Xenon incandescent bulb. It produces a relatively narrow hotspot with well defined spill. Ostensibly it should have 100 CRI score and perfectly neutral tint, but I think the AR-coated glass is affecting it.
The LED beam has a wide and even hotspot with some major flower petal spill. The Xenon’s hotpot isn’t perfectly even but it’s good enough. It’s got clearly defined spill
I did some testing of each mode with an Opple Light Master III in the center of the hotspot. For the LED drop-in, I got a color temperature of 3600K and an Ra (CRI) of 97. DUV/tint is greenish, ranging from 0.0043 to 0.0052. For the Xenon drop-in, I got a color temperature of 4000K and an Ra (CRI) of 97. DUV/tint is less greenish, at 0.0028. It should be dead neutral DUV with 100CRI, but I think the AR coating on the glass is affecting it.
In the beamshots above, the trees where I’m aiming the hotspot are 175M away. In the beamshots below, the park bench where I’m aiming the hotspot is 42M away.
Outdooors the LED drop-in is sufficiently bright. It produces a nice floody beam. Distance isn’t great but it works. The Xenon-drop in looks pretty sad outside as it just isn’t very bright. That’s not really why you buy an incandescent drop-in though. For what it’s worth, it’s significantly brighter than it appears in the photos. I had my exposure adjusted for significantly brighter lights.
Switch
To be honest, the switch is a disappointment. It comes with a pretty standard reverse clicky that works fine, but I strongly prefer a forward clicky. This is a “tactical” P60 host too, so it should really come with a forward clicky. Moreover, there’s not enough space to add a forward clicky even if you wanted to. I tried. It’s not a dealbreaker because this host is so inexpensive, but it’s not good.
Carry & Ergonomics
Ergonomically it’s fine. Nothing noteworthy. Nothing awesome but nothing bad either. KDLITKER includes a removable rubber tactical ring to help with a cigar grip.
The only included carry method is a lanyard, and it’s good quality. There’s no clip. I tried both a Convoy Universal Clip and a Thyrm Switchback 2.0 and both worked quite well. Though, the Thyrm really only makes sense with a forward clicky, and that’s not an option. Kaidomain also carries several compatible clips including that Convoy Universal Clip, which is my favorite.
Batteries & Charging
The version I got came with one, protected, 3200mah, 18650 battery. You can get it with or without the battery and with or without an extension tube to take two 18650’s. There’s also a 21700 version which is pretty cool. The Xenon drop-in needs a protected cell to prevent over-discharging, but I tried the LED drop-in with an unprotected flat top and it worked fine.
No charging solution is included, but Kaidomain does carry a variety if you need to grab one with your light.
Conclusion
I bought this light because I wanted to try out an incandescent, I wanted to try out a P60, and because this is the cheapest way to do both without having to use disposable batteries. The host is really solidly built and is a great buy. The Xenon drop-in scratches the itch for an incandescent nicely. I didn’t really care for the driver & LED choices I made in the LED drop-in, but it’s well made and would be an excellent choice for an emitter and driver swap. Ultimately, this is a good light and I’m glad I bought it. I’ll be keeping the host and Xenon drop-in around as a dedicated incan in my collection.
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