I just got it open, it just took the right tools. :confounded:
Pressing the bezel against a “jar opener pad” got it open fairly easy, although don’t try to grip the bezel with it, that did about as much good as using my fingers lol.
The driver ring was a bit harder, it bent my tweezers that can usually do this but then I got out the big guns, my lock ring pliers from the shop. That got it open.
After looking inside, I am even more impressed, very well built, machines and put together. The glass even has an ar coating.
The only issue I saw was that the main bezel o-ring was broken on mine after removing the bezel, not sure if this happened when it was put together or when I removed it though, a little lube on the o-ring before install should fix that and luckily they sent spare o-rings with the light.
The LED also does not have any thermal paste but unlike some I am not too worried about this. Naturally I would love to see a DTP star and thermal paste but to be honest at the drive currents these work at stock no paste is just fine.
I like the mode spacing on the stock driver. I am going to run it through it paces in a little while and see what it is doing. I also see an easily accsessed sense resistor, I think I might try bumping that up a bit to see what happens.
Sadly I am out of 20mm Stars so I either will have to use a 16mm or wait till Simon re-opens to order more before I can mod it.
Makes me look forward to the TG06 I have incoming
Did some driver tests. I expected it to to be a buck driver but it acts like an FET driver. There is no regulation in any mode but on the plus side I am getting 14W worth of power (about 3.3A at the tailcap) in stock form. Although the output drops with voltage like an FET.
Not sure if my driver is messed up or if it is meant to be that way? I would have preferred a regulated driver with the same output but I can accept the FET.
It still works fine and is putting out over 1100 lumens bone stock on a 30Q 18650! It also has a true moon mode as well. Overall I think this is the best bang for the buck light I have in stock form. All it needs is a neutral white emitter (or better yet a 219C 90+ CRI and/or 90+ CRI XP-L2) with DTP copper star and it would be perfect.
Oh, and they sent a spare tailswitch with the light, it would be REALLY cool if the spare switch was a reverse clicky so that you have the option.
The moon mode on my VG10 seems a bit too bright to be a true moon mode but it is the only light I have that has moon, so what do I really know?
I would like there to be an o-ring between the bezel and the lens, I can’t see how the current design can be close to waterproof.
The VG10 is probably my favourite stock light considering the price ($11.00 for me) to quality ratio, despite the minor problems my light had. :+1:
I have not used the moon in the dark yet (just now getting dark enough here), so I can comment on that after I see it in more then a dark room.
I did notice the missing o-ring on the lens when I was putting it back together, the design they have now is a bit odd for sure.
Hmm? This was not my experience. I got about 2.4 at the tail and a resistor mod brought it up to 2.6. With accurate testing.
And doesn’t it advertise the use of either 2x 18350 or maybe 2x cr123? Can’t remember but I thought so. I’m interested as I have three or four of these drivers laying around here. Trying to think of how to put them to good use.
Yes, it does advertise CR123’s which would be an input voltage of 6V yet it was already at 3.3A at that voltage and climbing. Since it doesn’t have a DTP star and I didn’t want to kill the LED I stopped there but It showed no regulation at all and I have a feeling it would instantly pop the LED if CR123’s were used.
I honestly think there is something wrong with my driver, I highly doubt they would put all that time and money into designing a buck driver only to use it as an FET driver.
Just tried it out outside. I would call it a moon mode, it is slightly brighter then my EDC moon but that is mostly because it is focused into a smaller beam then my S2+.
Djburkes,
Where did you get the vg10 with xpl hi?
Texas ace, where did you purchase your vg10 from?
And there is a coupon for a thorfire c8s right now. From m4d m4x. $14.99
It’s my favorite c8 because I just love the tail cap. Similar to the vg10 how it has the cut out groove.
3.3A sounds a bit high compared to more recent reports, but when this driver first came out some people were seeing slightly over 3A. I need a better DMM, or at least leads, so I won’t give the actual results but the tail amps of my VG10 is ~20% less than my C8 with 8x7135 driver.
I haven't had a chance to push that driver yet, but it looks to be a high quality driver. Most bucks need a decent amount of overhead voltage to regulate properly. Below those voltages, they tend to behave like a DD with low efficiency. My bet is that yiou will get still be below 4 amps to the emitter at 2S. I'm not sure why so many folks are so quick to change out this VG10 driver. With a reverse clickie and no need for bleed-off resister for tail cap lights, the driver is already awesome. Take it to 2S and slightly decrease the sensor resistance and it may be a real winner. Well, hopefully. I'm planning on using one to drive a high power laser diode if it does.
I got it from amazon with the coupon a few weeks back.
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I have several of your flashlights
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Yeah, it is a bit high I think because the buck part of the driver is being bypassed and it is acting like a pure FET driver. I am guessing this is not how it is supposed to work.
I tested it by hooking it up to my bench power supply so I would know exactly what is going on.
I planned to keep the driver actually if the buck worked but it just doesn’t seem to be working as a buck. I will try taking the voltage up higher tomorrow and see what happens.
At best it is a very high resistance FET driver when using it with an 18650 since it maxes out at 3.3A and drops like a brick as the voltage drops. My 7135’s drivers maintain 2.8A down to ~3.5V in many cases.
I will take some official readings tomorrow and see how it does, I just did a quick voltage sweep earlier.
I really need some kind of light meter. I am probably used to what is closer to firefly mode. My middle of the night light is a DrJones RGBW driven Yupard 16340 with DCfix over the lens and on the dome of the led, it is mostly used on the lowest setting with the red emitter.
TA, I echo basically everything you said word for word. I got the $7.99 deal a couple weeks ago and was so impressed I ordered two more at the 9.99 price (waiting on those two to arrive) due to the excellent all-around quality. I had the same pinched O-ring. I get 3.43A on a freshly charged rested 30Q. I even used my jar opener pad to get my bezel off as well, lol.
I would call it “barely” moonlight - I can look straight at the lit emitter without immediate discomfort, but a few seconds later it becomes uncomfortable. To me true moonlight modes allow me to look into the emitter indefinitely and low moonlight modes allow easy observation of all the features (bond wires, mottled nature of the phosphor coating, etc).
I do not have an M1,but I have several S- series and C8’s from Convoy. With the exception of the pinched O-ring, the robustness of the design and the quality of the manufacturing is better for the Thorfire VG10 than the Convoys I have observed. (source: QC engineer in manufacturing)
I reserve the right to backtrack on the above statement if there is in fact a malfunctioning driver issue, lol. Although on the OTHER hand, isn’t Convoy dealing with malfunctioning drivers (firmware) at this very moment? Double lol…
I want to put an XP-L HI in one, an XM-L2 and DC-fix diffusion film on another, and who knows with the third.
Hopefully, your driver looks like this:
Hmm… dunno why I didn’t want to pull the trigger on this light… it was in my cart for the longest time.
Now it seems like I missed out on a great light :person_facepalming:
Oh well, maybe next time they will have another sale on this light again