Luminescent
Enlightened
- Joined
- Jun 26, 2007
- Messages
- 399
Kaidomain 5 mode Light - First Impressions
Kaidomain recently upgraded thier previous 4 mode light to a full 5 mode light for only 15 dollars.
I ordered the standard round single AA version (without the fluted front lens hood).
https://www.kaidomain.com/WEBUI/ProductDetail.aspx?TranID=2436
I have to admit that I started to get a slight case of 'buyers remorse', while waiting for it to arrive, when I read some nasty comments about similar lights from Kai and DX here on CPF.
One fellow cut his light up into tiny pieces with bolt cutters and posted the pictures.
Fortunately, all my queasy feelings only lasted until my light arrived, then I realize that this inexpensive little light can actually perform pretty well for the money I spent.
If you would like to see an internal breakdown and read another perspective, here is a review of the simalar Kaidomain 4 mode light:
http://www.lightreviews.info/kai_cree_4modes/review.html
Note that my model is the Kaidomain single AA 5 mode light (not the 14500 light reviewed), so there will be some differences in output and runtimes.
Also my light seems to be an updated version which has fixed many of the issues mentioned.
Here are my impressions of the Kaidomain 5 mode single AA flashlight . . .
OVERALL
The Kaidomain 5 mode light is a pretty standard five mode, tail switch reverse clicky light.
The mode sequence is HIGH, MEDIUM, LOW, STROBE, SOS.
Mode switching is by a partial press on the rear clicky, and is fairly reliable, though the light occasionally fails to recognize a click (on the other hand, it almost never skips modes, which sometimes happens with other lights).
This light also features 'mode memory' and will start up when first turned on in the same mode as was last used (this is a nice feature that even some of the heavy-hitter high end lights lack).
OUTPUT AND BEAM QUALITY
The beam quality and brightness are pretty incredible for such a low cost light.
In simple terms, this light is one of the brightest single AA lights I own, easily matching some much more expensive CREE lights at the high end that cost three or four times as much.
Roughly equivalent brightness to a Fenix L1D with a really nice pure white tint [with no green, blue, or purple overtones]. It may be just 'luck of the draw' but this light seems to have both the best brightness and best tint of just about any of the CREE lights I own so far (regardless of cost).
I have a couple luxeon lights that are perhaps a little warmer [color temp wise], but they don't have anywhere near the output of this light.
The Kaidomain 5 mode light has a good quality reflector that focuses to a very nice spot and spill beam. The only lights I have with more throw than the Kaidomain CREE 5 mode are much larger multi-cell lights like my 3 D-Cell 3W.
SOME NIT-PICKS
I notice that the CREE LED in my Kaidomain 5 mode light is very slightly off center on it's starboard mounting.
The reviewer in the above link, in reviewing a similar Kai 4 mode light also noted this issue, and some have really used this to knock the quality of these lights, so let me give you my take on what I think may be going on here.
I think the cagey Kaidomain folks may have simply made a engineering tradeoff here, because the large reflector in the Kai light tolerates the centering issue well (with ZERO effect that I can see on the beam pattern), and because quite likely the 'off-center' issue with these emitter stars allowed them to get these [otherwise] top quality P4 LED's at a good price, and therefore to give you a much higher brightness and color bin rated CREE than you would normally find in a 15 dollar light.
For example, looking closely, I can see that my CREE P4 LED in my Kaidomain 5 mode light is the newer 4 bond wire type, which is not something I would necessarily expect to see in a 15 dollar light.
In fact, in perfectly fairness, as I noted above, other than this insignificant centering issue, the P4 in my Kaidomain light is not only better than any other low cost light I own, it easily equals the brightness and tint quality of the 50 and 60 dollar lights I own as well.
I have a CREE Q5 bin emitter on order for this light, but the color and brightness of the original CREE P4 emitter is so good that I may end up swapping it into another light.
MECHANICAL QUALITY
I guess there have been some quality issues in the past with DX and Kai lights, and my light did arrive with slightly loose head and reflector assemblies in addition to the above-mentioned LED centering issues.
I think the reflector is intended to be slightly adjustable, with the o-ring providing the friction to keep it in place, but the o-ring is a little skinny to do the job, so I just snugged my light's head down all the way, which took care of the looseness and gives a nice perfect tight clean spot with good throw and also a very nice uniform spill beam.
Don't over tighten the head though, or it will pinch down onto the CREE P4.
A little tension will be more than enough to keep things snug, but too much could cut through the round disk of reflective insulating film that protects the CREE (and possibly short out the emitter).
I have mine fairly snug, and had it even tighter before I realized that there could be problems if it was too tight, and I haven't had any problems, so if you don't get too crazy, then things should be fine.
If in doubt, others have suggested that you can also make the head threads tighter with a few wraps of Teflon plumbers tape, then it will stay put without being tightened all the way down against the CREE star board emitter.
All together, the total time I invested in fiddling with the light to get everything spiffed up was only about 10 minutes, and I consider it time well spent considering how well the light now performs.
I think one reason that my Kaidomain light arrived with a loose head is that the head is NOT POTTED like some others.
This means things can get loose, but on the plus side, it makes it a lot easier if I want to get into the light to replace the CREE emitter with an upgraded one later.
Speaking of upgrades, another great thing about this light is that it uses a standard full sized luxon style star mounting board for the LED emitter ('luxon star' is obviously just the style of the mounting board, the LED can be a CREE or Seoul P4, Rebel or anything you want). This makes it really simple to replace the emitter, even for average guys that don't have access to a machine shop. You will have to unscrew a couple screws and unsolder and resolder a couple wires, but that's about it (you won't find a light that's easier to get into and modify).
Overall, other than the slightly loose head and really minor LED centering issue, the overall mechanical quality of my Kaidomain 5 mode light seems to be really nice.
The outer black finish is perfect without a single nick or imperfection of any sort, and seems quite tough (not HA3 but quite nice none the less).
Some have complained about the tail switch, but I have had ZERO problems with the tail switch electrically or mechanically, and though it was a little stiff at first, it has gotten better with use, and is now quite nice.
The light also comes with a very nice holster, and a pretty silly 'wist strap' (which won't fit the wrist of anyone older than about 5 years old). I have found that the strap will fit snuggly around the palm of my hand, and then it would be able to perform it's intended purpose of keeping you from dropping the light, but I finally decided to simply remove it.
RUN TIMES
The run times are quite good on standard AA's considering the output levels available. This light doesn't have a really 'Low-Low' level though, so you are limited to about 4 hours in the lowest mode. I didn't try any higher voltage Lithium cells, and don't know if this model light will tolerate them (kaidomain has other lights specifically for lithium cells),
Because of the low voltages in a single AA cell design, some have noted that similar lights have had problems with not starting back up with mostly depleted cells, but that seems to be fixed in my light. It will suck the cells down to maybe 1% or 2% in 'moon' mode before the 'no restart' situation occurs, and even then if you wait a minute or two for the cells to recover to 0.8 volts or so, the light will fire right back up and run the last little bit out of the batteries (not so great an idea with L-ion rechargeable, but fine for Alkaline and NiMH)
Here are the specifics of the runtimes at the various power levels:
Run time on my light in the highest 'Turbo' mode is a solid 1 Hour and 10 minutes before the output starts to fall off (and about another 20 minutes or so at gradually reducing brightness). In this mode there is up to about 20-25 degrees F temperature rise (11 to 14 degrees C). This is enough to indicate that the light is driving the LED emitter pretty hard, but not enough to be cause for concern.
Run time in the middle 'medium' mode (which is really closer to high mode on most lights) is about 2 hours which sounds a little short until you consider that in this mode it is just as bright as my Jetbeam C-LE (ver 1.2) running in it's HIGHEST mode (which also runs about 2 hours). The modes on the Kaidomain light are all a bit brighter than most of my other multi-mode lights (You could say the light runs Turbo, High, and Medium rather than High, Medium and Low) In this mode the light is not working nearly as hard and only heats up by a couple degrees.
In it's lowest power mode the Kaidomain light is still pretty damn bright, easily matching most of my 1 Watt luxeon lights in brightness, but blowing them away on runtime at about 4 hours. For example my single AA luxeon light only runs about 2 hours, but the Kaidomain gives about the same overall light output for twice that long. This is exactly what I would expect from a light based on the twice as efficient CREE P4 LED emitter, and indicates that the boost regulator is actually turning in very respectable performance in the Kaidomain 5 mode light.
For those that hate the PWM flicker that some lights show on the lower modes, the Kaidomain light does not show any flicker at all, even when the head is waved back and forth quite quickly (most likely the light is using some kind of current regulation, not PWM, to control brightness).
The strobe function is very intense. About 8 - 10 Hz at full brightness (VERY annoying). Most think this mode is pretty much useless (ideally suited for fending off hordes of attacking epileptics, but not much else), but it might be quite useful on a boat or in the wilderness as a unique signaling device to help someone pick you out at a distance after establishing contact by radio. For example, if someone breaks their leg while backpacking and you need to help a helicopter pinpoint your location, this strobe will do a great job of NOT looking like any other light sources in the surrounding area.
The SOS function on the Kaidomain 5 mode light gets high marks with me for NOT playing by the strict technical morse code rules and using slightly exaggerated dot-dash and inter-character spacing. Some lights use the 'computer correct' 3:1 ratio and correct [barely noticeable] increase in time between characters. This is fine if you are a computer or expert in morse code, but I think the exaggerated sequence used by the Kaidomain 5 mode light is much more likely to be quickly and correctly recognized by the average person who only knows the basic . . . - - - . . . SOS sequence.
Sorry I didn't check the run times in STROBE or SOS mode.
CONCLUSIONS
I like the Kaidomain 5 mode light a lot, there are a couple minor issues with quality that you can nit-pick, but nothing I couldn't straighten out in a few minutes, and overall I think it's a very good value for the money I paid.
There are a few minor things I would change:
First, I wish the medium and low modes were a little lower, because the light is so bright and efficient that it would still give good output with a lot less drive in the lower modes, and I would really appreciate the longer run times that would result.
Second, I would rather see this light use the now pretty common MEDIUM, LOW, HIGH, STROBE, SOS sequence that is used by the Jetbeam C-LE, Fenix L0D and others, because I find this sequence more useful than the current HIGH, MED, LOW, STROBE, SOS sequence. Also the current sequence makes it a real pain to try to see the small difference between HIGH, and MED on this light, so you can't select between these modes very well. With a MED, LOW, HIGH (or alternately HIGH, LOW, MED) sequence you can't so easily confuse adjacent modes, so these sequences are much better for most clicky switch and twisty switch lights were missed modes can be confusing.
Kaidomain recently upgraded thier previous 4 mode light to a full 5 mode light for only 15 dollars.
I ordered the standard round single AA version (without the fluted front lens hood).
https://www.kaidomain.com/WEBUI/ProductDetail.aspx?TranID=2436
I have to admit that I started to get a slight case of 'buyers remorse', while waiting for it to arrive, when I read some nasty comments about similar lights from Kai and DX here on CPF.
One fellow cut his light up into tiny pieces with bolt cutters and posted the pictures.
Fortunately, all my queasy feelings only lasted until my light arrived, then I realize that this inexpensive little light can actually perform pretty well for the money I spent.
If you would like to see an internal breakdown and read another perspective, here is a review of the simalar Kaidomain 4 mode light:
http://www.lightreviews.info/kai_cree_4modes/review.html
Note that my model is the Kaidomain single AA 5 mode light (not the 14500 light reviewed), so there will be some differences in output and runtimes.
Also my light seems to be an updated version which has fixed many of the issues mentioned.
Here are my impressions of the Kaidomain 5 mode single AA flashlight . . .
OVERALL
The Kaidomain 5 mode light is a pretty standard five mode, tail switch reverse clicky light.
The mode sequence is HIGH, MEDIUM, LOW, STROBE, SOS.
Mode switching is by a partial press on the rear clicky, and is fairly reliable, though the light occasionally fails to recognize a click (on the other hand, it almost never skips modes, which sometimes happens with other lights).
This light also features 'mode memory' and will start up when first turned on in the same mode as was last used (this is a nice feature that even some of the heavy-hitter high end lights lack).
OUTPUT AND BEAM QUALITY
The beam quality and brightness are pretty incredible for such a low cost light.
In simple terms, this light is one of the brightest single AA lights I own, easily matching some much more expensive CREE lights at the high end that cost three or four times as much.
Roughly equivalent brightness to a Fenix L1D with a really nice pure white tint [with no green, blue, or purple overtones]. It may be just 'luck of the draw' but this light seems to have both the best brightness and best tint of just about any of the CREE lights I own so far (regardless of cost).
I have a couple luxeon lights that are perhaps a little warmer [color temp wise], but they don't have anywhere near the output of this light.
The Kaidomain 5 mode light has a good quality reflector that focuses to a very nice spot and spill beam. The only lights I have with more throw than the Kaidomain CREE 5 mode are much larger multi-cell lights like my 3 D-Cell 3W.
SOME NIT-PICKS
I notice that the CREE LED in my Kaidomain 5 mode light is very slightly off center on it's starboard mounting.
The reviewer in the above link, in reviewing a similar Kai 4 mode light also noted this issue, and some have really used this to knock the quality of these lights, so let me give you my take on what I think may be going on here.
I think the cagey Kaidomain folks may have simply made a engineering tradeoff here, because the large reflector in the Kai light tolerates the centering issue well (with ZERO effect that I can see on the beam pattern), and because quite likely the 'off-center' issue with these emitter stars allowed them to get these [otherwise] top quality P4 LED's at a good price, and therefore to give you a much higher brightness and color bin rated CREE than you would normally find in a 15 dollar light.
For example, looking closely, I can see that my CREE P4 LED in my Kaidomain 5 mode light is the newer 4 bond wire type, which is not something I would necessarily expect to see in a 15 dollar light.
In fact, in perfectly fairness, as I noted above, other than this insignificant centering issue, the P4 in my Kaidomain light is not only better than any other low cost light I own, it easily equals the brightness and tint quality of the 50 and 60 dollar lights I own as well.
I have a CREE Q5 bin emitter on order for this light, but the color and brightness of the original CREE P4 emitter is so good that I may end up swapping it into another light.
MECHANICAL QUALITY
I guess there have been some quality issues in the past with DX and Kai lights, and my light did arrive with slightly loose head and reflector assemblies in addition to the above-mentioned LED centering issues.
I think the reflector is intended to be slightly adjustable, with the o-ring providing the friction to keep it in place, but the o-ring is a little skinny to do the job, so I just snugged my light's head down all the way, which took care of the looseness and gives a nice perfect tight clean spot with good throw and also a very nice uniform spill beam.
Don't over tighten the head though, or it will pinch down onto the CREE P4.
A little tension will be more than enough to keep things snug, but too much could cut through the round disk of reflective insulating film that protects the CREE (and possibly short out the emitter).
I have mine fairly snug, and had it even tighter before I realized that there could be problems if it was too tight, and I haven't had any problems, so if you don't get too crazy, then things should be fine.
If in doubt, others have suggested that you can also make the head threads tighter with a few wraps of Teflon plumbers tape, then it will stay put without being tightened all the way down against the CREE star board emitter.
All together, the total time I invested in fiddling with the light to get everything spiffed up was only about 10 minutes, and I consider it time well spent considering how well the light now performs.
I think one reason that my Kaidomain light arrived with a loose head is that the head is NOT POTTED like some others.
This means things can get loose, but on the plus side, it makes it a lot easier if I want to get into the light to replace the CREE emitter with an upgraded one later.
Speaking of upgrades, another great thing about this light is that it uses a standard full sized luxon style star mounting board for the LED emitter ('luxon star' is obviously just the style of the mounting board, the LED can be a CREE or Seoul P4, Rebel or anything you want). This makes it really simple to replace the emitter, even for average guys that don't have access to a machine shop. You will have to unscrew a couple screws and unsolder and resolder a couple wires, but that's about it (you won't find a light that's easier to get into and modify).
Overall, other than the slightly loose head and really minor LED centering issue, the overall mechanical quality of my Kaidomain 5 mode light seems to be really nice.
The outer black finish is perfect without a single nick or imperfection of any sort, and seems quite tough (not HA3 but quite nice none the less).
Some have complained about the tail switch, but I have had ZERO problems with the tail switch electrically or mechanically, and though it was a little stiff at first, it has gotten better with use, and is now quite nice.
The light also comes with a very nice holster, and a pretty silly 'wist strap' (which won't fit the wrist of anyone older than about 5 years old). I have found that the strap will fit snuggly around the palm of my hand, and then it would be able to perform it's intended purpose of keeping you from dropping the light, but I finally decided to simply remove it.
RUN TIMES
The run times are quite good on standard AA's considering the output levels available. This light doesn't have a really 'Low-Low' level though, so you are limited to about 4 hours in the lowest mode. I didn't try any higher voltage Lithium cells, and don't know if this model light will tolerate them (kaidomain has other lights specifically for lithium cells),
Because of the low voltages in a single AA cell design, some have noted that similar lights have had problems with not starting back up with mostly depleted cells, but that seems to be fixed in my light. It will suck the cells down to maybe 1% or 2% in 'moon' mode before the 'no restart' situation occurs, and even then if you wait a minute or two for the cells to recover to 0.8 volts or so, the light will fire right back up and run the last little bit out of the batteries (not so great an idea with L-ion rechargeable, but fine for Alkaline and NiMH)
Here are the specifics of the runtimes at the various power levels:
Run time on my light in the highest 'Turbo' mode is a solid 1 Hour and 10 minutes before the output starts to fall off (and about another 20 minutes or so at gradually reducing brightness). In this mode there is up to about 20-25 degrees F temperature rise (11 to 14 degrees C). This is enough to indicate that the light is driving the LED emitter pretty hard, but not enough to be cause for concern.
Run time in the middle 'medium' mode (which is really closer to high mode on most lights) is about 2 hours which sounds a little short until you consider that in this mode it is just as bright as my Jetbeam C-LE (ver 1.2) running in it's HIGHEST mode (which also runs about 2 hours). The modes on the Kaidomain light are all a bit brighter than most of my other multi-mode lights (You could say the light runs Turbo, High, and Medium rather than High, Medium and Low) In this mode the light is not working nearly as hard and only heats up by a couple degrees.
In it's lowest power mode the Kaidomain light is still pretty damn bright, easily matching most of my 1 Watt luxeon lights in brightness, but blowing them away on runtime at about 4 hours. For example my single AA luxeon light only runs about 2 hours, but the Kaidomain gives about the same overall light output for twice that long. This is exactly what I would expect from a light based on the twice as efficient CREE P4 LED emitter, and indicates that the boost regulator is actually turning in very respectable performance in the Kaidomain 5 mode light.
For those that hate the PWM flicker that some lights show on the lower modes, the Kaidomain light does not show any flicker at all, even when the head is waved back and forth quite quickly (most likely the light is using some kind of current regulation, not PWM, to control brightness).
The strobe function is very intense. About 8 - 10 Hz at full brightness (VERY annoying). Most think this mode is pretty much useless (ideally suited for fending off hordes of attacking epileptics, but not much else), but it might be quite useful on a boat or in the wilderness as a unique signaling device to help someone pick you out at a distance after establishing contact by radio. For example, if someone breaks their leg while backpacking and you need to help a helicopter pinpoint your location, this strobe will do a great job of NOT looking like any other light sources in the surrounding area.
The SOS function on the Kaidomain 5 mode light gets high marks with me for NOT playing by the strict technical morse code rules and using slightly exaggerated dot-dash and inter-character spacing. Some lights use the 'computer correct' 3:1 ratio and correct [barely noticeable] increase in time between characters. This is fine if you are a computer or expert in morse code, but I think the exaggerated sequence used by the Kaidomain 5 mode light is much more likely to be quickly and correctly recognized by the average person who only knows the basic . . . - - - . . . SOS sequence.
Sorry I didn't check the run times in STROBE or SOS mode.
CONCLUSIONS
I like the Kaidomain 5 mode light a lot, there are a couple minor issues with quality that you can nit-pick, but nothing I couldn't straighten out in a few minutes, and overall I think it's a very good value for the money I paid.
There are a few minor things I would change:
First, I wish the medium and low modes were a little lower, because the light is so bright and efficient that it would still give good output with a lot less drive in the lower modes, and I would really appreciate the longer run times that would result.
Second, I would rather see this light use the now pretty common MEDIUM, LOW, HIGH, STROBE, SOS sequence that is used by the Jetbeam C-LE, Fenix L0D and others, because I find this sequence more useful than the current HIGH, MED, LOW, STROBE, SOS sequence. Also the current sequence makes it a real pain to try to see the small difference between HIGH, and MED on this light, so you can't select between these modes very well. With a MED, LOW, HIGH (or alternately HIGH, LOW, MED) sequence you can't so easily confuse adjacent modes, so these sequences are much better for most clicky switch and twisty switch lights were missed modes can be confusing.
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