Xtar D26 1600

[stuartv]

Preliminary results are promising.

I received the new version of the D26 1600 yesterday. I got out some batteries that I fully charged a few weeks ago and have just been sitting.

I put a battery in the original 1600. The light turned on and the battery charge indicator immediately went to solid red.

I took the battery out of that light and put it in the new 1600. It turned on and the battery charge indicator went to solid green.

I took the battery out and put it in my Opus charger/tester and it showed 4.15V, then said Full.

Looking inside the new light, the design of the spring in the butt is totally different than in the original. What I can see in the head end looks the same, but I guess that doesn't really tell me anything.

Anyway, I am encouraged. I'm hoping to dive with it on Saturday and find that it works like it should.

 

[Jiminy]

i want to get one of these if they fixed the issue!

 

[Anthony A.]

I'm hoping to dive with it on Saturday and find that it works like it should.

Are you seriously going to make us wait till saturday

If you have some free time before then, why not charge the battery full, leave it inside the light overnight, then turn it on and leave it in a sink filled with water. Watch it for the first 10 mins or so atleast that will tell you if its still green. Might actually be a good idea so you know if it will work before saturdays dive.

 

[stuartv]

Are you seriously going to make us wait till saturday

If you have some free time before then, why not charge the battery full, leave it inside the light overnight, then turn it on and leave it in a sink filled with water. Watch it for the first 10 mins or so atleast that will tell you if its still green. Might actually be a good idea so you know if it will work before saturdays dive.

Pushy much?! Just kidding!

I already thought of that. I left the battery in it with the light off. This first test is to confirm the issue is fixed where it would discharge the battery while off. I'll check the battery tomorrow and see if it's still fully charged.

If so, then yeah, I was thinking of turning it on and letting it sit in a bucket of water to verify operation.

Patience, grasshopper! LOL

 

[Jiminy]

Pushy much?! Just kidding!

I already thought of that. I left the battery in it with the light off. This first test is to confirm the issue is fixed where it would discharge the battery while off. I'll check the battery tomorrow and see if it's still fully charged.

If so, then yeah, I was thinking of turning it on and letting it sit in a bucket of water to verify operation.

Patience, grasshopper! LOL

What is the run time supposed to be? That would be the ohly other concern i could think of
as long as it gets close to the runtime im in

 

[stuartv]

What is the run time supposed to be? That would be the ohly other concern i could think of
as long as it gets close to the runtime im in

I think it's supposed to be about 2.5 hours on High.

But, that's not the whole story. One of the big problems with the first version of this light was that if the battery didn't have a full charge it wouldn't even turn on. It would just flash the battery indicator LED red 3 times each time you pushed the button to turn it on.

It seemed as though I could turn it on with a full battery and it would stay on until I turned it off. But, if I turned it off after using it for, say, 20 or 30 minutes, then it wouldn't turn back on.

So, I will attempt to test it tomorrow and confirm that I can run it for, say, 1 hour, turn it off, turn it back on, and continue to run it for another 1 hour, etc...

 

[Jiminy]

I think it's supposed to be about 2.5 hours on High.

But, that's not the whole story. One of the big problems with the first version of this light was that if the battery didn't have a full charge it wouldn't even turn on. It would just flash the battery indicator LED red 3 times each time you pushed the button to turn it on.

It seemed as though I could turn it on with a full battery and it would stay on until I turned it off. But, if I turned it off after using it for, say, 20 or 30 minutes, then it wouldn't turn back on.

So, I will attempt to test it tomorrow and confirm that I can run it for, say, 1 hour, turn it off, turn it back on, and continue to run it for another 1 hour, etc...

Cool cant imagine how they didnt catch that during testing. Might as well do a torture test!

 

[stuartv]

The results are in.

The light sat for roughly 24 hours with a battery in it. The battery was still fully charged (I checked the voltage).

I put it in a bowl of water and left it turned on in Turbo mode (its brightest setting).

After 1 hour, it still appeared just as bright. The LED was green. I turned it off for a minute or so and then turned it back on. Same brightness. LED still green.

After 1.5 hours, the light didn't seem as bright as earlier, but it was still bright. And, it's really hard to say if the light was less bright or if the room had gotten brighter. I didn't really do anything to try and quantify the brightness. LED was still green.

After 2 hours, the LED was still green. It only seemed like it was around 1/2 as bright as original. I turned the light off for about 2 minutes then turned it back on. It turned on, but the LED immediately went to solid red.

After 2:15, the LED was still solid red and the light was still only about 1/2 brightness. I turned it off, thinking "experiment over". But, when I pressed the button to turn it off (accomplished by press-and-hold for about 2 seconds), I noticed that the light got really bright when I pressed the button. I turned it back on and it appeared to be back at full brightness. The LED started flashing red. I put it back in the water. It turned itself off after another 2 minutes or so.

My conclusion is that when the battery gets low, the light doesn't just get dim - I believe it switches itself to a lower brightness setting automatically (accomplished by a normal press-and-release on the power button). But, the brighter settings are still available, if you want it and don't mind killing the battery that much more quickly.

Getting over 2 hours of burn time with the light running in its full 1600 lumen mode is way more than adequate for my needs.

I would say this light is officially "good". I'm going to dive it on Saturday (I think). Assuming it continues to work properly, I think I'll order another one next week, just to have it as a backup.

Oh, and one other thing I noticed while playing with it: The first version worked slightly different for locking and unlocking the light. I think the directions for the first version say that, to unlock it, you press the power button 3 times quickly. With this one, to unlock it you just press and hold the power button for a few seconds. To lock it, the light has to be on and then you press and hold the power button until it turns off, you keep holding it for a few more seconds, and the LED will flash like 3 times or something. Once it's locked, you can't turned it on except by unlocking it as described.

I'm not sure I like this way of unlocking. My purpose in locking it is to ensure it doesn't turn on by accident and run down the battery when I'm not using it. I was pretty confident that a locked light would not accidentally get 3 quick presses. It seems a lot more feasible that it would get one long accidental press.

 

[Anthony A.]

Thanks for the update Stuart. Seems like it may be my next purchase. You said you got this directly from xtar? Do you have a link? I want to make sure i get the new version.

 

[stuartv]

I ordered one of my original D26 lights directly from Xtar. Now it seems like they don't have direct online ordering anymore.

I ordered my D26 1600 from Alibaba.

The supplier on that order is shown as:

Shenzhen XTAR Electronics Co., Ltd.

It looks like this is a current link:

Xtar D26 1600lm Led Diving Torch - Buy Led Diving Torch Product on Alibaba.com

Current price: $89