ThruNite Catapult V6 Mini Thrower Review

hehaw77

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I bought this light upon viewing some of the reviews on utube. For its size its quite amazing... I'll be writing more about my observations as I take it out more. It's hard to criticize the light based on its size and simplicity of use.

I want to compare it to the Acebeam L16 I have. I'll be taking both out and comparing them. Inside they both shoot out quite intense spots. I'll say more later when I do a side by side
 

hehaw77

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So here are my thoughts… I just came back from testing.
The V6 is a stronger light however for real world purposes eg.. what the human eye can actually handle not by to much. It is stronger yes but I was not blown away by it.
What the V6 does have is better battery life eg.. due to it using a much larger capacity battery. Both lights get very hot. The V6 does stay a little cooler the L16 will burn your hands.

I compared beamshots what the L16 does have is that is does flood more which some people may like. I like both lights they each serve a different purpose.
For the price and what your getting with the V6 its hard to beat.
The only thing if you want to be nit picky is the design of the V6 is very basic but again that's just being overly critical.
I also brought the BLF GT with me of course not a fair comparison that light is a monster and outshines anything in the market right now.
One of you is going to have to show me how to post picts here… I wouldn't mind showing you guys all the tests so you can see what I mean.
I had fun I ran into some skunks and wild rabbits haven't seen those in a while..
Oh one thing one of you might help me understand is this.
When I used the BLF GT and put the light on the rabbit I couldn't see the glow in its eyes; however when I used the L16 and V6 I could see it…
Didn't get that mind you the BLF light up the rabbit like it was daylight…
 

Gandersea

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Both of my Catapult V6 flashlights do become hot very quickly. Much faster than I had anticipated. The heat is not a showstopper for me however I do have to be very mindful of hand positioning while holding this little monster thrower.
 

Gandersea

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Had difficulty sleeping last night so at 2:00 a.m. I took my V6 outside to my front yard for an unofficial test. I live in a suburban setting where seeing wildlife is very rare. Whilst shining this mini mini monster thrower down the side of the street 4 blocks away I saw a pair of shining eyes low to the ground thinking it was a large cat I walked towards these shiners. Once I was within three blocks I was shocked to find that this "cat" was a raccoon preparing to cross the street. Needless to say, I was impressed.

By the way is it just me or has anyone else who may be using Orbtronic 5750mAh 226650s notice the throw seems to be casting further than the included 5000mAh Thrunite 26650?
 

hehaw77

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Well it is a stronger battery... so makes sense... yeah it does get hot fast ... but you can still hold it... the L6 becomes burnable hot...
 

twistedraven

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I tried my basen unprotected cell rated for 60a pulse discharge, but didn't really notice a difference between it and the included thrunite cell on turbo, but I'd need to do a side-by-side to truly know. I don't think thrunite's driver is purely fet, so the cells theoretically shouldn't make much of a difference.

Having played with my neutral white V6 for many days now, I love everything about it. My biggest criticism would probably be its side-switch. The switch itself has a nice feeling, but damn is it hard to locate it by thumb when taking it out of a pocket in the dark. I'm spoiled from my main EDC the Zebralight SC600 HI, whose side-switch is super easy to locate.
 
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CelticCross74

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The new Catapult V6 aesthetics seem pretty a bit too basic to me but WOW! This thing is a FLAMETHROWER! It is no M3X-UT Javelot in terms of RANGE but it is 1700 lumens with 26650 support. In other words it actually blasts out right around advertised output and range for the advertised time for what? Less than 80 bucks? This thing is awesome!
 

busseguy

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The new Catapult V6 aesthetics seem pretty a bit too basic to me but WOW! This thing is a FLAMETHROWER! It is no M3X-UT Javelot in terms of RANGE but it is 1700 lumens with 26650 support. In other words it actually blasts out right around advertised output and range for the advertised time for what? Less than 80 bucks? This thing is awesome!




Actually it doesn't. They claim that it runs for around 150 minutes on the 1,700 lumen setting but actually only does about 20 something minutes before stepping down.

im pretty upset about that.
 

twistedraven

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You will have to have realistic expectations with the XHP35 HI in such a small form factor. The XHP35 HI draws quite a bit of power-- over 25-30 watts of it, and as such will generate a lot of heat. A small host like the V6 can only handle about 3 minutes of that before stepping down.

If you want good balanced performance with better efficiency, try the Manker U21 with the SST40 shaved dome from Vinh. Bigger host, not as good of a tint from the LED (IMO), but you will get longer sustained turbo runtimes with no hard stepdown.


Thankfully though, the 26650 and the V6 host can handle the 1000 lumen output just fine for long sustained runtimes, and the visual difference between 1000 and 1700 is subtle.
 
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busseguy

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You will have to have realistic expectations with the XHP35 HI in such a small form factor. The XHP35 HI draws quite a bit of power-- over 25-30 watts of it, and as such will generate a lot of heat. A small host like the V6 can only handle about 3 minutes of that before stepping down.

If you want good balanced performance with better efficiency, try the Manker U21 with the SST40 shaved dome from Vinh. Bigger host, not as good of a tint from the LED (IMO), but you will get longer sustained turbo runtimes with no hard stepdown.


Thankfully though, the 26650 and the V6 host can handle the 1000 lumen output just fine for long sustained runtimes, and the visual difference between 1000 and 1700 is subtle.





But how can they get away with claiming such a high number when it doesn't even come close to that amount. That's false advertising.
 

twistedraven

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My guess is they tested it at 1700 lumens then stepped down to 1000 lumens and ran for that amount of time, but they either forgot or knowingly didn't put the stepdown note.

I take thrunite for a reputable company. It does look like they don't put the stepdown time on their products, but it does make sense they their turbo modes would have such a stepdown, as the turbo and high runtimes are usually fairly similar.
 
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busseguy

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My guess is they tested it at 1700 lumens then stepped down to 1000 lumens and ran for that amount of time, but they either forgot or knowingly didn't put the stepdown note.

I take thrunite for a reputable company. It does look like they don't put the stepdown time on their products, but it does make sense they their turbo modes would have such a stepdown, as the turbo and high runtimes are usually fairly similar.



Thanks for the info. Do you think the 1,000 lumen mode will still throw noticeably close to when it's on the turbo mode?
 

CelticCross74

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Ah! Forgiveness plz! After collecting lights since 1996 I tend to FORGET that most that are relatively new to this already know about timed/thermally regulated drop off etc. Still, the V6 is awesome! With new 6000mah 26650's hitting the market overall performance just goes up! I am greatly interested to see what Olight does with the XHP emitters and the next gen Javelots. BOTH the M2X and M3X-UT's are STILL the BEST non custom throwers I have ever had.
 

busseguy

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Ah! Forgiveness plz! After collecting lights since 1996 I tend to FORGET that most that are relatively new to this already know about timed/thermally regulated drop off etc. Still, the V6 is awesome! With new 6000mah 26650's hitting the market overall performance just goes up! I am greatly interested to see what Olight does with the XHP emitters and the next gen Javelots. BOTH the M2X and M3X-UT's are STILL the BEST non custom throwers I have ever had.




would the 6000 MAH 26650 battery make the light brighter as well as longer runtimes or just longer runtimes?
 

Newlumen

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My guess is they tested it at 1700 lumens then stepped down to 1000 lumens and ran for that amount of time, but they either forgot or knowingly didn't put the stepdown note.

I take thrunite for a reputable company. It does look like they don't put the stepdown time on their products, but it does make sense they their turbo modes would have such a stepdown, as the turbo and high runtimes are usually fairly similar.

by the way, i tested the stock thrunite catapult v6 with my texas ace lumen tube.. lumen rating is actually higher than official specs... must be the cree high lottery bin. 2050 lumen @ turn on. 1970 lumen @ 30 seconds..
 

CelticCross74

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Wow! It is indeed a flamethrower that is for sure. It does not have the range or beam profile of my Javelots but for 80 bucks you cannot go wrong with this thing.
 

Swedpat

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I ordered this flashlight a few days ago. Regarding the runtime at turbomode it's misleading because it's based on the ANSI/NEMA FL1 standard. Which means the runtime until brightness is 10% of initial.
But as usual the runtime at high mode is more correct and I will use this light mainly at high mode in which I expect ~2 hours stable output. At high mode it's still a great thrower for the size with around 80000 candela so I am really looking forward to receive the package next week!
 
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