Of all the optics I’ve used over the years(first tried the cute –3 in ’08) it has the weakest legs. Plastic often acquires micro cracks when cutting or sanding that can propogate. The way they get tightened under a rotating bezel doesn’t help either. I can’t speak to the emitter opening but the legs are very sensitive and the top surface needs to be polished to the edges and all scratches buffed out. If the mcpcb can’t rotate then the optic can’t either but the bezel will torque it in any case. As with the sheared A6 domes, press on the optic as you turn the bezel.
I use a lens over the optic, so it lessens the torque from tightening the bezel.
on another note… I have a SupFire M6 that I modded way back when. At the time, using the triple channel large MOSFET driver and piggybacking in a new driver with an MCU on it containing new firmware was the way to go. But I wanted to upgrade this light, which formerly made some 4800 lumens. So, Friday or Saturday I stripped the factory driver, built an A17DD FET of Wight’s design, and hooked it all back up. The new driver has ramping firmware. But it only made some 3600 lumens. I was thinking I’d just live with that as the ramping firmware is much more to my liking.
Today my Daughter and her husband brought the grandson down for a visit. I was showing Gage a few lights, this M6 included, and realized one emitter wasn’t working. Hmmmm. So tonight after they left I cracked it back open and checked it out. It would seem that when I first built this light a few years ago I had put the red and black leads on the wrong side of one of the emitters. Being as how I’d already sealed the contacts under epoxy to prevent a short, I had put 2 red wires and one black on the drivers positive lead out’s, 2 black wires and one red on the negative. Going in to strip the board and place the new master driver I didn’t catch that. Tonight I swapped positions of the leads on that one and regained all 3 emitters, and now see 5120 lumens! 
Man, modifying old lights a second time can be grueling! Especially when short-cuts were taken some years back. But it all worked out, even if it took some detective work to discover where I’d err’d. 
Happy birthday Tom. Apparently at 60 you get to grow up. :+1:
My normal led tester runs off a 9V block so can not light 12V leds, so I made a tester for 12V leds. I took 2 well-drained 9V alkaline blocks from my battery bin, clipped them together for double voltage (whatever is left of it), soldered a resistor to one side and a wire to the other side. Did not even check the resistor value, but on a 12V Nichia 144A I get a nice moonlight. Now I can check the reflows of 12V leds (also XHP35).
My S2 Baton. Replaced the pocket clip with that of a defunct Thrunite Archer 2A v2. It’s not nearly as aggressive so it doesn’t destroy the fabric of my ball cap or pants, but it still grips really well.
Yes, I know, really hardcore tune-up right there :disappointed:
Almost finished another X6 today, 3x Nichia NVSW219B-V1 R9050 sw57 in parallel. Nanjg 105C based driver with BLF-A6 firmware written by TK, that I tweaked a bit to my likings, with great help from PD68 and gchart in TK’s firmware thread. I separated 1 AMC7135 from the 105C and gave him a friend and both their own pin. Now it’s a dual channel 11+2 AMC7135 driver, with 13x 7135 meaning the highest (1200-1300 OTF lumen) and 2 meaning the second highest mode (250-300 OTF lumen). I measured a current draw of 4,55A at the tail. I’m sure though that there are some 0,38A spec’ed amongst the 13, so it’s not as perfect as it looks (13x0,35=4,55) :nerd_face: I think this is a pretty nice driver for these Nichias after all, BLF-A6 interface is very nice, and I added Battcheck with Volts per Tenths to it. “Stole” it from Bistro. :) It’s so much nicer to have your lights blinking out the voltage instead of 1-4 or something blinks as an indicator, at least for me. Went out with it for a walk tonight and was quite impressed with this coolwhite high CRI goodness Nichia has given us. Still prefer warmer tints though, but it’s amazing to see that nice color rendition in a cool white LED, made my SC600w L2 look like :confounded: , to be fair, I always had the feeling I hadn’t quite won the tint lottery with this one… Another note: Ceiling bounce: SC600w L2 30lx, X6 tri B-V1 - 39lx. both on LG HE4 @4,18V. I really love that Zebra though! In fact Zebras are almost the only “expensive” lights I consider buying since I got into modding… So that means my X6 does around 1200-1300 OTF LUMEN (as I said). I’m happy with that.
Not that happy about that gap though, between bezel and head/ heatfins… And there’s not much that I can do about that. I sanded down that bezel a bit too much. It’s waterproof as I can make it though, with or without the gap. Both o-rings at the head have a very snug fit. I’m debating if I’ll secure the bezel with glue/epoxy… Will also use some epoxy on the driver at the end to add a bit of safety, sturdiness and improved heat transfer maybe to the chips.
with it’s gang
Now you can start engraving specs on the opposite blank flat so you can know at a glance which is which. 
Nice work, especially on tweaking the A6 firmware. Well done!
Thanks a lot, Dale! Engraving would be very nice, think I’m lacking the skills, maybe in the future. For now I use different optics or different colored switch boots. Lighted tail cap maybe someday, if I can get that running…
Tonight I received my first lux meter, so I immediately tested 90% of my lights (yes, I really have this few 
) Unfortunately I only have one stock light to calibrate to (the TM16) so I need you guys to tell me if you think my numbers are high, low, close enough, etc.
I measured all of the lights at 26ft (my living room wall-to-wall). Perhaps that was unfair to the floodier lights? I think it may not have been far enough for the Courui. I let rapidtables do the math for me. The TM16 I know had cells at 4.1v, and the SP03 was just charged up. The others I didn’t measure, but they should all have at least 75% charge right now.
- Nitecore TM16 - 105kcd - Stock (Nitecore rates 122.5kcd)
- Solarstorm SP03 - 236kcd - Dedomed XM-L2’s, FET
- Courui D01 - 231kcd - Poorly focused dedomed XP-G2, FET
- Brinyte B158 - 230kcd - Dedomed XP-G2, FET
- Convoy L2 - 130kcd - Low-bin (possibly poorly focused) XP-L HI, FET
- Thorfire S70 - 99kcd - Shaved stock XHP-70, resistor mod ~9amps
- Jacob A60 - 93kcd - Dedomed XP-G2, dirty lens, FET
- EagleEye X6R - 14.4kcd - Dome-on Triple XM-L2, FET
- EagleEye X2R - 8.8kcd - Low-bin XP-L HI, FET
- Convoy S8 - 6.9kcd - Dedomed XP-L and dedomed XP-G2, frosted narrow optic, FET
- Thorfire TG06 - 4.4kcd - Nichia 219c, 2.2amp driver
- Olight S15R - 1.8kcd - Warm XM-L2, stock driver.
When you’re at the point where the main reason you’d want more stock lights is to have something to compare your really nice lights to… :laughing:
Can’t say anyting to your values, L2 is very low, but I guess you know that. You could go search for measurements from other guys for the TM16 and calculate an average and maybe a correction factor for your meter.
Lol the only reason the TM16 is still stock is because the parts aren’t here yet.
I’ll charge up the L2 and see if it gets any better.
You might want to measure at a given 5M, for consistency, then you would multiply by 25 for candela. 16’ 4.85” is 5M, using the distance squared (25) you should be on the same page with most of the rest of us that use meters. I know some people use 6M and some use 10M and this is what creates confusion. A thrower fares better further out, as it gives the beam a chance to culminate. But who’s got a 15M living room? Who can read the meter from that far away anyhow? lol
My luxmeter store max reading and my house has a 10m distance from hall through kitchen to living room
Have you ever watched your lux meter and compared the maximum reading you see to the stored max reading? Mine varies.
Yes I tried from closer distance and the max is the same as stored max. Only need to turn off and on to reset it for another measurement.
If a thrower culminates further out, then measuring closer will give inaccurate readings. Logic would say the throwier the light the more off it will be.
If you don’t have or don’t trust the ‘max’ reading on the meter, then just set the light on a fixed location and hold the meter yourself. You can definitely read it then.
For longer readings I put a video camera on the meter, then I can easily see what each set did. Simply tell the video what light it is and it’s easy to keep track.
Yep, like, I need to do a longer test on my TN42…
I have a theory, wondering if anyone can give provenance to it?
When you look at the emitter inside the reflector, I’m thinking the focal point (or distance the beam merges) is the same as how far away you have to be to see the yellow phosphor fill the reflector all the way. Anyone ever think about that? Like, some lights you see it fill up at 2 or 3 feet, other’s it takes backing off a good ways. My TK61 that I used to have you could see the inverted V in the beam out to around 25-30’!
Have no idea if I’m on the right track or if it’s totally bogus.
My 5M reading on the TN42 with 30Q cells showed 702.5Kcd. When I set up a one mile beamshot test, you could read a sheet of paper by the light of the TN42 at one mile, so I do know it throws AT LEAST one mile.
I think you’re spot on.
You have to be distant enough to be able to see the yellow phosphor fill the reflector all the way in order to get a correct lux reading from each particular light.
So, what meter did you purchase? I’ve got a tab up with an HS1010A from Banggood in my cart.