Convoy L2/L6 modding thread

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)

No 18 or 20mm, do they stock these sizes?

What are you talking about?

UCLp

18 and 20 both in the UCLp, but not in the glass UCL.

Thanks :+1:

Chris will cut custom sizes in the UCLp if you ask him. :wink:

I have a couple of their UCL lenses I got for my M1s, definitely high quality products, better than the cheaper AR lenses commonly available.

ok, so, this L6 and the lens question…

With an Thorfire S70 lens it makes 5740.8 lumens
With an Klarus G35 lens it makes 6168.60 lumens
With no lens at all it makes 6523.95 lumens

So there ya have it. The S70 lens is costing it 783.15 lumens while the Klarus G35 lens is only losing 355.35 lumens. This is all on the same LiitoKala 5000mAh cells without recharging them, I took the S70 reading last night on fresh cells, the no lens reading first this morning, then the Klarus reading last.

I also talked to somebody that has used the SIR404DP MOSFET quite a bit lately and found them to be finicky, easily damaged by heat in the re-flow sequence. So I’ll be pulling the 404 and putting an 800 back on. :wink:

People ask why I pay $8 for an UCLp lens, with a lot of effort going into making a 6500-7200 lumen light it sucks to lose 780 lumens to the lens! Cutting that loss as much as possible is worth the price, considering the FET itself can be as much as $4, why not let the light out with the right lens? :wink:

I’ve shown a light to my Dad before after putting the UCLp lens in it (without saying anything about the lens swap), no kidding he tried to put his finger in the reflector declaring I’d forgotten to put the lens in! Then the astonished look on his face when his finger hit the lens, like that last step you thought was there and about fall down when it’s the floor instead of another step. :wink: I myself have completed a build and thought the same thing, you see the emitter so clearly down in the reflector that you have to tilt the light around and try to catch a reflection off the overhead light or a window, it’s really just amazing how clear it is.

Awesome , i would like to see that haha :smiley:

With the 91K resistor on the switch LED’s and the new 20mm driver now having an SIR800DP FET on it, I’m still only getting 5754.6 lumens with the Klarus lens on and 6272.1 with no lens at all. So I’m nearly 1000 down from when I first built this light. In this instance, the lens itself is robbing me 517.5 lumens. Guess I’ll be getting an UCLp and see how that works out…

On the plus side, it’s working fine with the lighted switch. :slight_smile:

Isn’t UCL better than UCLp ?

There may be a size issue with their UCL in glass. The biggest is 55mm. I don’t know if they can cut a bigger size or not.

In the UCLp, they have a 68mm listed.

So this driver and the previous one are both pulling the same amps from the same batteries, yet the 17mm had more output?

Maybe there is a difference in driver efficiency?

Maybe there was a difference in amp draw at the emitter?

It’s also possible your P2 emitter has suffered a bit of damage over time with such high current going through it.

I’m assuming your light box and meter are all setup the same.

Just spit balling ideas here.