Convoy L2/L6 modding thread

I noticed that with the light rested, cells fresh but rested, my lighted side switch acts up still. Playing with it for a few minutes it quits, so it’s like the cells are too hot at first and after some use then it works ok. The “hot” wire to the switch LED’s is coming from the actual point of intake for the positive power, the lead is soldered straight onto the 18ga lead going from driver pad to XHP-70. So the only common place is the ground wire, which is coming off the MCU. If I run a separate ground wire would that solve this? Or should I go with yet a bit more resistance? I want it to be reliable, of course, even considering the problem I’m seeing is only on the top end of the cells life, I’d like to know it’s going to do what I ask of it when I ask it.

Wondering if a capacitor at the ground wire might help… ???

I went with the XHP50 in one of my L2’s and Love it! No hacking up that beautiful reflector, the emitter fits perfectly. I frosted the dome, it’s pert near emitter artifact free,pert near, but it has 2 very slight faint rings, so if your into perfect WW beam shot gasms, don’t bother, it’s outside in the real world this XHP50 J4-1B at 8.5amps rocks in my L2! Want a little more downrange illumination shave it want even more range de-dome it :wink:

Try de-doming a 50.2! :person_facepalming:

Here’s a link to an observation/opinion about the 50.2 from one of our own BLF members, I also agree with his opinion, I tried the 50.2 emitter in several different lights, didn’t like it at all, it’s in the junk box. :smiley:


Just my .002 cents! :beer:

I still have no idea what your driver looks like. Is it piggy backed on a 30mm board or maybe you added some width to the 17mm driver?
Could you take some pictures of it?

I think it was Tom E that said the shared ground wires should have zero effect on the LED’s circuit so I don’t know why your having a problem.

Do you have any more info on frosting the dome? Wouldn’t that reduce output?

This reminds me that I need to remind Simon about something. He was going to make an OP reflector for the L2 but it got back-burnered…

Yes Jason, it’s a MTN FET driver piggybagged onto the original driver after stripping the components off of it. (Actually it’s a different driver that I stripped, the board fits though so it’s the contact board) The contact board is bored in the center for a 16 Ga wire which is connected at the top of the spring. The other end of the wire is on the MTN FET driver spring pad, so the FET driver is actually floating on top of a 16Ga lead. Ground for the switch is off the ground ring of the FET driver, positive for the switch is on pin 2 of the MCU.

I’m not good at visualizing. I need pics to really understand.

How is the fet driver grounded to the flashlight body?

So the switch LEDs are getting positive from the main wire going to the big LED. That should always be battery voltage as long as the rear switch is on, right?

I’m assuming your mcu pin 2 is always hot and it’s waiting for that side switch to close and provide the ground path it needs.

So you have positive power flowing through the switch LED’s to ground. I don’t see how it would effect pin 2, unless…

It may be possible that one of your switch leds is touching the switch body. They get very close and you may have a solder bridge between them. That would cause pin 2 to see a very faint ground signal. Not enough to effect the switch, but maybe enough to screw with the mcu function or led brightness.

I had one of my switch leds get crooked and maybe touch the switch body so I had to remove it and start again to make sure it had a gap. A tiiiiiny little gap.

Man I hate smd soldering. I tend to use a flashlight and my smart phone camera at 5x magnification like a video microscope to easily see how I did after a solder.

Reduce output, not much, or to worry about, only your meter will know bro! :smiley: Visually nope.

I use a fine emery cloth or finish sandpaper around 800-1200-1500grt. Very wet, soaked even, like in a bucket of water, you don’t want the grit to become lodged into the silicone dome, or you will have a smoker! Then scrub/clean the dome very well with alcohol and a towel. Sometimes I even polish the dome, I have used tooth paste the white highly abrasive paste, cleanser like the Roman Cleanser/AJAX and water to make a paste, if I don;t have a fine enough paper. Still make sure it absolutely cleaned/scrubbed with alcohol. Blow it off with canned air.

Best to test the emitter after outside the light after cleaning, just to make sure you don’t smoke up your reflector.

That is why I like to build it up outside the light first, take my readings and when i assemble, I know what i should be getting right!

XHP70 SD75

Looks store bought, Cree XHP70HI! :wink:

thanks for the advice guys, i think i will go with the xhp50 :slight_smile:

I updated the L6 switch color.

That’s really cool looking :beer: Jason, u did a great job! :+1:

Any of my X6’s with the lighted tail cap I’ve gone with that combination, really like it. :slight_smile:

I’ve put a new momentary switch on the pcb in my L6 and it still acts up. I removed the positive lead to the LED’s, still messed up. So I am going to build a new driver and swap it out, see if I can get this L6 working properly…

I did this combo because you mentioned it before. :+1:

Man, I’m not sure why your having so much trouble. So with no power to the switch led’s, it’s still acting funny? I guess the driver has an issue.

Earlier I was thinking whatever mcu your driver is using might just be sensitive to the light circuit, like power was back feeding to pin 2, but I don’t know if its possible since the little leds are still diodes, so they are one way only.

I’ve used the lighted side switch on the FX30 and Tx Avenger drivers and had no issues at all. Maybe their mcu’s are not so sensitive?

I have had this driver working fine in this light for months, making 7200 lumens when I first built it. Didn’t start having issues till I tried the lighted switch.

At any rate, I built a 20mm MTN FET driver and swapped it out. I’m gonna have to quit doing this on pain meds. Put the Zener on backwards and played he figuring out why I had nothing! lol Got it flipped around and the light seems to be working fine, lighted switch and all. It was making 5600 lumens on the cells at 84% charged, recharging cells now…

Sounds good.

If anyone wants to see all my pics of the lighted side switch as well as my other mods to my L6, I’m putting together a thread on it.

I’ve got a 91K resistor on the switch LED’s. I’ve got 18ga leads from the driver to the LED, 16ga from the contact board to the driver. So, why am I now only getting 5740.8 lumens where I got 7200 before? The only thing really different is I’m using an SIR404DP mosfet instead of the SIR800DP. Might have to pull it apart yet one more time and swap MOSFET’s… ugh.

I didn’t think a single mosfet could make such a big difference.

Was the amp draw less as well?

Actually it’s still pulling 12.05A. Weird huh?

Just remembered something… I pulled the UCLp lens to use in my scratch built triple 50.2, I think I have a S70 lens in it now. Could be that the combination of changes is doing it. Some lenses can block a lot of light and the UCLp is the best out there, so I’d expect to see losses for the lens change, maybe not so much, but still…

In the morning I’ll test it without a lens, see what that shows…

If a UCLp lens can make that much of a difference, I wanna buy one! Lol.

Some time back I bought a MaxToch SN6X-2X in a group buy. I put an UCLp lens in it and it made a 27Kcd difference in throw. Seriously. Biggest single gain I’ve seen for one item change. This is a variable of course, depending on the quality of lens already present. I’m using an S70 lens because the AR coating on the L6 lens got accidentally damaged. I DO have what appears to be a very nice white glass lens with good AR coating from Klarus that is fitted to the L6, can try that in the morning as well, see if a swap will help there.

flashlightlens.com has the best lenses in the business. Comparable to eyeglass or photography lens coatings and clarity with up to 98% transmission as I recall. (just checked, 97% in the UCLp … 68mm is $8.25… and 98-99% transmission in the smaller UCL glass lens)