Convoy L2/L6 modding thread

Tom, I’m quite confused here. Perhaps something came across different than I intended? I wasn’t being defensive and I’m not in the least bit worked up about anything said here. Dale doesn’t need defending as far as I know. I just remember him telling me he was using a calibrated light sphere so I stated that. It most definitely was not intended as any slight towards you or anyone else for that matter.

I certainly don’t want you to unsubscribe as I have a huge amount of respect for your work and want your input just like I want that of all those here. Particularly those like yourself, Dale and many others who are much more experienced than I am.

Just went back to the Black L6 to test amp draw at the tail. Cells haven’t been recharged, it’s showing 11.38A with the clamp meter. If I remember correctly (which would be a small miracle) it was making 11.7A on fresh cells which goes a long way towards explaining the rapid drop on the 4500mAh cells. :wink: Thought I’d toss that out there…

Dale, did you do any kind of write up on these 2 lights? I looked through your started threads and didn’t see them. I was thinking of the L2 with xhp35 myself to make a cheap version of the Acebeam K70 since it’s got a pretty steep price.

I just used 4 of the fat 26350 cells in the L2, used one of Neven’s LD-2 drivers set up for ~3A with moon as I recall. I think it’s making some 326Kcd and almost 3000 lumens.

Configuring the led4power LD-2 driver can be a bit tricky as some of those components that have to be added are super small.

TexasAce is about ready to go with his own driver that will do this, you should probably give him a shout out for this mod of yours. :wink:

I should actually be running some XHP35 tests with the Texas Avenger drivers in the next week or so, just got to clear a few hours of time to sit down and do it. I also have an L2 standing by for an XHP35 mod if it works.

If you’re going for big throw you should go with the L6 and smooth reflector as opposed to the L2. Both are very good throwers but the L6 will hit higher numbers thanks to the larger reflector. I think Dale’s best L6 thrower build is hitting around 100 Kcd higher than his best L2 thrower build. :+1:

L2 can also hit hard with dedomed xp-g2 . More than the xhp35.

3000! I thought the xhp35 peaked at around 2200 lumen at around 3 amps.

Did you have to cut out the aluminum base and drop in a copper slug or was it pretty straight forward?

Heres my plan:
Get a good quality xhp35 on as big a copper PCB as will fit and drop it in.
What centering ring did you use?
Use 4 26350 batteries.
Then focus on the driver, their 22mm I believe. Is TxAce making a boost driver for single battery use or still for 4 batteries?

Sound about right, or am I overlooking something?

I like this idea because you can use the short battery tube and a single 26650 for a more compact light. Plus the driver is simpler, I could probably use a 7135 based driver and adjust the current very precisely. Might be cheaper to build as well.

I wanna keep costs down as I don’t really need a mega thrower, it’s just the novelty of it. Lol.

Definitely. I have one built as you describe. I’d have to look back through a a bunch of old messages but it’s hitting somewhere between 320 and 350 Kcd with a crazy pencil thin beam. Very lightsaber-like. :smiley:

Just out of curiosity, was the beam still usable or does it get too narrow? I’ve never seem beam shots of the little xpg2.

A few corrections… The L6 thrower I did was a buck driver to an de-domed XP-G2 at 5.5A. The L2 thrower is an XHP-35 at 3.13A with the LD-2 driver. Different creations.

A short tube L2 with XP-G2 will not pull the amperage that it takes to really make it hit hard. This is why we are using buck drivers and two cells to push 5.5A. It’ll still be nice, just not maximum.

The XHP-35 does around 2200 lumens at some 1.87A or thereabouts. Max current is supposedly 2A. At some 2.8A it makes 2600 or so lumens. And when pushed right up against the wall at 3A or a bit more, I’ve seen 2986 lumens. I’ll say again that every time I use this one at 3.13A I expect it to go poof.

That’s a matter of opinion really. In my experience it’s quite poor for anything up close (50 feet or less). It’s not that you can’t use it, it’s just not very practical. When I took it up to my mom’s place in the dark woodlands of northern Michigan is where I REALLY fell in love with it. From my mom’s deck down to the bottom of the valley is around 800 feet or so. Deer come out to the edge of the woods at night to feed on some of the greenery growing there. Lighting them up from her deck at 800 feet and more is no problem though I had to look through binoculars to tell if they were deer or coyotes. They’re so small at that distance that they’re just tiny moving brownish shapes with glowing eyes. :student:

Okay, so if I were to use an L2 host (cheaper than an L6 + smo reflector) and put a dedomed xpg2 in it, a single battery would have too much voltage drop at 5.5 amps and reduce output?

I know a 26650 can put out good amps, so it must be the voltage drop that’s reducing power, right?

So 2 big 26650 and a buck driver must keep the voltage higher and give you that maximum punch.

Have you seen any pictures or videos of a light with a similar hot spot size? I was surprised by how usable the Acebeam K70 beam appeared. It got me thinking a max thrower is not so bad.

I don’t know about video but there are some beam shots of it in the L2 thread.

I can try to find them later unless Dale has them handy… He built it. :laughing: :+1:

It’s the one with the copper ring spacer between the head and bezel. Pictured right here in the OP. :slight_smile:

With a hard pushed de-domed XP-G2 the hot spot is really tight and the spill is really dim. Most of the ~1100 lumens is going downrange. As such, it’s not great for walking because the hot spot is about 8” around in front of you and the spill is really insufficient to illuminate the surroundings. That’s where the “pencil beam” effect causes a gap in real world usage. It’s doable, but not preferable.

This is an outstanding thread with good information; my appreciation to everyone. :slight_smile:

I’ve got plenty of walking lights, I just wanted to make sure that the hotspot at 300 feet wasnt so small that you can’t tell a tree from a bush. When it’s too laser like, well, it’s like a laser. You can’t tell what it’s illuminating. :slight_smile:

I took up to much space here. I’ll do some more reading in the forums. Thanks

I still remember a great C8 Mitko made using xp-g2 s2 2b , about a year ago , using fet driver and single cell, running @ 5.5amps for ~175kcd .

Higher binned xp-g2 s4 2b (old production) needs less current (4.3-4.5) to achieve a better result in the same host (around 192kcd). I have some of the old s4 leds running @ 4.3amps (single cell) without an issue .

I’m using C8 because i know the numbers for sure.