M60 dud?

So I recieved my M60 on Thursday and decided to play around with it for a little while. While it is the warmest tint on an LED I've seen so far, it's lack of brightness when compared to my L2D Q5 left me unimpressed.

My first suspicion is that the Ultrafire unprotected 17670 I was driving it with couldn't supply enough juice. I inserted a multimeter in series and another in parallel with the M60 and the 17670 and measured 0.56A @ 3.835V. This is approximately 2.15 watts and the Malkoff supposedly is still running in regulation till it drops below 3.8V? 2.15 watts sounds a little low for a Q5 driven this bright.

My next test was to perform the same test using a pair of SF123A I had lying around that had been in my U2 for less than 5 minutes. These cells read 5.8V open-circuit.
As above, I tested using one multimeter in parallel and one in series and obtained a voltage reading of 5.2V @ 0.84 A. This calculates to be 4.368W.

However, both configurations seem about as bright as each other (17670 vs 2x SF123A), and neither seem brighter than the L2D despite that the M60 supposedly has about 30% more lumens than the L2D Q5 (180 vs 235). Perhaps it's the yellow tint that's throwing me off. I'm beginning to wonder if I recieved an M60L which was mistakenly labeled as an M60.

What I want to know is has anyone done voltage and current draws on their M60 and what are their typical values?

AzN1337c0d3r said:

My next test was to perform the same test using a pair of SF123A I had lying around that had been in my U2 for less than 5 minutes. These cells read 5.8V open-circuit.

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It is impossible to make judgements about lights when you don't have properly charged batteries.

Open circuit voltage tells you next to nothing about primary CR123 capacity. Having said that, you should be getting a reading of over 6 volts on 2x new primary CR123 (random test of 2x fresh CR123A here 6.53V) - and so your CR123 test is not particularly indicative of maximum performance since you're using partially depleted batteries.

Rechargeable li-ion are a different thing; open circuit voltage is a good estimate of capacity - what was the reading on your 17670? Even if your 17670 was reading 4.20V, cell quality (cheap chinese brand) would still probably be suspect. In any case, it would probably be better to feed the malkoff with AW/Pila/Wolfeyes cells for quality/safety reasons.

Try 2xR123A - I have seen a M60 on that setup and it is very bright indeed - far brighter than the L2D Q5.

My M60 is brighter than my L2D-CE Q5 even when running on partially depleted batteries... and by definition, if it's in regulation it really shouldn't have much difference between 6.5v and 5.8v. I would expect reduced brightness from the 17670, as you've seen. Perhaps you should try comparisons outside, or do a ceiling bounce test. White-walling it isn't the best way to determine relative brightness. Remember that it won't seem "twice as bright" even if it has twice the lumens...

If it looked the same with 17670 as it did with 2X123 then your 123 were pretty depleted.The m60 should look brighter on the 123 I would check it again with new cells.

I had a similar problem when I first got my M60 too but learned it was more about the way the optic produces the light. When mine first arrived I compared it to my T1, P3D-Q5, M60-Q2 and did not see much difference and was rather disiappointed until I got out to a nice dark place. The M60 puts more light toward the center giving you a mix between flood and throw that simply works better than a reflector. The tint also has an affect on releative brightness that might take a little bit to get adjusted to.

P.S. use AW'S 123's for max performance

Grox said:

It is impossible to make judgements about lights when you don't have properly charged batteries.

Open circuit voltage tells you next to nothing about primary CR123 capacity. Having said that, you should be getting a reading of over 6 volts on 2x new primary CR123 (random test of 2x fresh CR123A here 6.53V) - and so your CR123 test is not particularly indicative of maximum performance since you're using partially depleted batteries.

Rechargeable li-ion are a different thing; open circuit voltage is a good estimate of capacity - what was the reading on your 17670? Even if your 17670 was reading 4.20V, cell quality (cheap chinese brand) would still probably be suspect. In any case, it would probably be better to feed the malkoff with AW/Pila/Wolfeyes cells for quality/safety reasons.

Try 2xR123A - I have seen a M60 on that setup and it is very bright indeed - far brighter than the L2D Q5.

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I guarantee you those SF123A haven't been discharged for more than 10% of their capacity, I took them out of the sealed 6PL package on Thursday. They are no where close to depleted. And it shouldn't really even matter. It is claimed that the M60 runs in regulation above 3.8V so that even if the cell voltage was 4V, it should still be as bright as it was as if the cells were brand new.

I had a similar problem when I first got my M60 too but learned it was more about the way the optic produces the light. When mine first arrived I compared it to my T1, P3D-Q5, M60-Q2 and did not see much difference and was rather disiappointed until I got out to a nice dark place. The M60 puts more light toward the center giving you a mix between flood and throw that simply works better than a reflector. The tint also has an affect on releative brightness that might take a little bit to get adjusted to.

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I agree with you on both counts here.

The M60 has a very very tight and bright hotspot and a very nice dim gradiated spill (both of which I were looking for a flashlight). I took it outside and shone it down the street (I have practically no lights on my street) and it lit up the stop sign on the end far better than my L2D. But this is a function of the optic. When I did a ceiling bounce test, my L2D lighted up the room slightly better than the Malkoff. However, the tint is much much warmer and this is probably the reason why I feel the Malkoff is dimmer.

I know the Malkoff website says 6V @ 0.78A, I was just wondering how much the final production M60s that are being distributed draw in terms of power so that I could verify that I got the correct module and that nothing is wrong with it.

P.S. My 17670s are Ultrafire unprotected LC17670

dont stress man, you have the right module.

the power consumption is spot on.