Convoy L2/L6 modding thread

Very well put^

I think people put WAY too much stock in lumen numbers personally. The idea that one of our home grown spheres is even 10% as accurate as a real mathematically calibrated sphere is stretching things IMHO.

I say this having put dozens of hours into calibrating, perfecting and setting up my own. While mine is now super consistent, reading the same output on the same light even 6 months after building it, I am still well aware that I would be surprised if it is within 10% accuracy of a real sphere.

This is why I never quote exact numbers from my lights/sphere, just rounded figures. That is simply the best I can hope for.

Now consistency is key and I can compare my own readings with other readings in the same sphere very accurately. Great for seeing how much of an improvement a mod made ect. But those numbers are still only applicable to my own setup except for possibly a percentage increase.

This is my own opinion but I wish people would stop quoting lumen readings down to the last digit (aka, 1466 lumens). Instead just round it off (instead say 1450 lumens).

When readers are always reading lumen readings down to the single digit it makes them think that we actually have them measured with enough accuracy to know the lumens down to the single digit. In reality we would be lucky to know the reading down to the hundreds.

Just my opinion, I will keep rounding my numbers and I do not expect anyone else to change the way they do things because of this post.

Yep I’m loving the NW TN42 is a beauty (liking it more and more every night) it’s alot nicer then the de-domed TK61V4vn which is yellow in comparison, or the TN42CW too ME IMHO!

cd only matters to the meter reading peter’s out there, in real life who can see that far with out a scope, binoculars, telescope. It’s just nice knowing it cranks it out according to the meter, bragging rights. The TK61XPG-2 was totally useless to me, so I gave it away, for cheap!

Now I’m glad RMM had the Neutral Tints in the XHP35HI’s when I ordered them, that’s what I’m running in my Black L6, SD75 and one of the T90-2’s Keepers all! Of course just my opinion. :+1:

To test these two meters of the same model but different purchase dates and places, I grabbed my Thrunite TN42 off the shelf along with the also new Eagle Eye X7. Both are stock lights, with the exception of spring bypasses in the TN42 carrier. Cells are As Is, straight off the shelf.

My meter reads the TN42 at 2487.45 lumens and OL’s reads 2494.35. Lux from my meter shows the same as his, at 697.5Kcd. Cells are at 4.12V (LG MJ1 * 4)

My meter reads the X7 at the same 1045.35 lumens as OL’s, but my meter shows 48.25Kcd while OL’s shows 50. A purple Efest 3500mAh 26650 was used in this one.

Lux reading taken at 5M, meter at x100, they both showed 27,900 for the big TN42.

Essentially a wash. The two meters basically give the same result, both have new 9V batteries in them, OL’s just got one today, mine got one Friday. Both from the same package.

At least I know the 1330B meter is pretty consistent. lol

Dale , once i receive your L6 i will measure it with my cheap meter . If my measurement is close to yours i will measure my dedomed xp-g2 C8 that i have.

I am just really curious where the middle ground is. Ya know? Not saying anything at all about right or wrong, just where is the consistency or what is causing the inconsistency, is it the meter’s, the emitters, lenses, style’s…. always striving, looking for well, perfection I guess. I know I’m far from it, want to know how to get closer.

I have the Dr Meter 1330B as well. What I do is periodically measure two lights that I assume the stated cd is correct. ( one is a new led maglite, the other a C8 from pflexpro) When I compare the measurements I get I find my 1330B reads about 7 % high with a fresh battery compared to advertised cd of both lights. When measuring my own lights I multiply by .93 and go with that.

That said, my C8 numbers mostly fall in line with what Dale said. My latest dedomed S4 2B with the new version FET from Mountain shows 149 Kcd at start with 142 Kcd after 60 seconds with freshly charged 30Q. I could have tweaked the focus and got somewhat better numbers I’m sure.

I did manage to hit just over 160 Kcd with a 2S C8 with dedomed S4 2B and 5.1 amp buck driver in the spring.

With my L2 build I managed to get very good focus. Old school dedomed S4 2B, FET driver @ 4.9 amps with Basen 4500 showing 279 Kcd after 30 seconds. Tried to take some beam shots last night but failed miserably. I might try again tonight.

Edit: My C8’s have UCL lenses and the L2 is stock AR.

Yes, I should add that I think that result is very good. ~50% more lumens with same cd means ~50% more beam area and ~25% larger diameter hot spot, all other things being equal.

Not a huge improvement IMO, but if your host has room for 4s cells then it’s definitely worth using.

A minor point on semantics, but a warmer tint has ‘less’ contrast than a cool tint. A cool tint has high contrast leaving the shadows either in shadow or illuminated. A warmer tint gives more illumination to the shadow areas. :slight_smile:

Not sure I understand this. Wouldn’t the shadowed areas not receive any light?

When people say warm tints provide more contrast I think they are referring to: when outside there are lots of red and brown colors that are illuminated better with warm tints.

I was a freelance photojournalist in the 60’s and 70’s who did all my own darkroom work as well as trained in the Zone System made famous by Ansel Adams.

In both film and print high contrast eliminates detail in the shadows; a cool tint also provides greater contrast between shadow and high-light and leaving shadows with less detail.

Fwiw, and just my 2¢ here, but I only bought my L2 because I wanted a super-thrower, basically a “flashlight laser” with ideally little to no spill, for “reaching out” long distances w/o washing out the foreground. Was between the L2 and a Maxtoch…

A “usable” flashlight with lots of spill kinda negates all that. I might as well just use a regular C8 for that…

Or Jawas… :smiley:

(“Moffet! Moffet!”)

When I think of spill I think of the light directly from the LED that doesn’t hit the reflector. The L2 and C8 would have similar amounts of spill if using the same LED, the L2 would just have a more narrow beam.

A lens light (aspheric or fresnel) would have much less spill.

I should clarify, it is not so much black and white contrast as color contrast.

The colors pop more with the higher CRI / neutral tint LED’s. Outside it was proven without a shadow of doubt that we could see things better at range with the warmer lights.

A very good example was my L6 vs S70.

The S70 makes more lumens and have more lux according to the light box/lux meter.

In the real world though it was unanimous with a rather large group of people that the L6 was the much better light as a thrower. In one particular case we were looking off a bridge at a creek and we were shining them at the same spot about ~300m away. Right at the edge of the effective beam.

With the S70 we could just barely make out the edge of the creek bed.

With the L6 we could see the rocks on the creek bed, the bushes, the vines and even a frog jumping (or a mouse, hard to tell at that distance).

It was actually a very eye opening moment as I knew that the S70 was both brighter and threw further on the meter. I even re-tested them when I got home with the same results. Ever since then I have put FAR less weight on lumen and throw numbers and far more on CRI and tint.

This same result was seen with all the lights that night, the neutral tints were always easier to see as the distance increased (and up close as well although it was not as big of a deal besides looking much prettier up close).

+1

Contrast and tint do overlap in defining a usable light that our eyes can use to view or interpret. It is one reason a cool light has more lumens, which would also translate into an increase in contrast.

Edit: As a side note anyone who still remembers an analog TV with knobs for ‘brightness’ and ‘contrast’ could use these controls to illustrate their difference.

A cool light has more lumens because it has less phosphor on the die. The natural output is UV light in blue tones, phosphor is added to produce the desired color results. Or at least that is how I understand it from explanations given earlier.

+1

The Physics of light and how our eyes and brain perceive it could have its own thread. :slight_smile:

Nope, you misunderstood me. I meant “usable” as in the hotspot size at distance. For a dedicated thrower, I would want no spill at all, so as not to hurt my night vision.

This is great conversation, but I think we should keep the topic in mind. L2 and L6 mods. :slight_smile:

There is a tiny bit of spill in my L2 but it only interferes up close. I had to hold it above my head to ensure the white cowling from my boat didn’t light up while looking for markers and shorelines some few hundred meters ahead. Other than that it’s a beautiful beam that lights up just what you are pointing at. I wouldn’t call the beam in mine pencil thin, more like a shaft of light that has negligible spread all the way out.

I’ll see if I can get some decent beam shots tonight.