Convoy L6... XHP70 Beast!

What's the bin/tint of the 70.2? Are the springs bypassed, LED wires heavy gauge? Form what distance do you measure throw from?

Agree - 24% bump in kcd is decent.

I’m only getting 155.55Kcd as I’ve got the original OP reflector.

It’s a P2 1D.

Since its a TA driver, no bypass needed on the driver spring. I burnt through a lot of tail spring bypasses, but the 18ga wire seems to be holding up.

18ga LED wires.

Distance is 5 meters.

Now about your last sentence, is that related to your earlier questions or seperate?

That’s really good for an OP reflector. You’d probably be about 195 kcd, like Tom E, with a SMO that was focused well.

In my older setup, a swap from op to smo went from 65 kcd to 81 kcd. Then when I cut the bottom out and got it to sit a bit lower, it went to 87.5 kcd.

All sounds legit - can't figure why your readings are lower than, but really they are not that much lower 172 kcd vs. 195 kcd. Last sentence is from what you said: "I remember that slicing the dome off my xhp70 gave a 24% boost"

I use a spring on my TA driver, so I guess you don't? Is there a brass button or something? I've never heard of burning bypass wires before - never happened to me, not on the 37K lumens S88 (20 AWG bypasses) clone or the 27K lumens MT03 (22 AWG bypasses) or the 18 amp L6. Big reason to use bypasses on springs for high amps is to prevent the springs from melting, so even 22 AWG wires should take the heat I would think, specially at such short distances.

I didn’t want you to think I sliced my 70.2 and got a 24% boost. That was an older xhp70.

The TA driver has the positive led wire go through the hole and connect to the end of the spring which is touching the battery. The spring doesn’t carry any load. So no need to bypass it.

On my tail spring I used some fine braided copper solder wick. I thought it would flex with the spring nicely. That burned through. So then I added a double layer of it and it burned through. So now I added some 18ga wire. So far so good.

Ahhh - yea, I gave up on solder wick couple years ago - too many broke. Silicon covered wire seems more reliable but isn't perfect either. Some lousy springs out there that the solder doesn't hold up well on.

Yep, understood bout the XHP70 vs. XHP70.2.

I know that KeepPower is reccomended cells for this light. But maybe you can recommend any other protected batteries? Maybe these? https://www.aliexpress.com/item/2-Pcs-Pair-Soshine-3-7V-5500mAh-26650-Battery-26650-Protected-Rechargeable-Li-ion-Battery-with/32292707585.html

Clear L6, TA driver, XHP70.2, Lighted side switch. I think I will reduce the resistor on the orange led to make it a little brighter.

Nice!

Nice! You could cut a crocodile eye like insert for under the cover.

I always thought it was kinda odd using something intended as a “wick” to carry current. I’ve never even had solder wick, for any use… been using the same Turnigy silicone wires for spring bypass as my LED leads since I first started. I usually use the same gauge wire for bypass as the leads, even up to 18ga. Figure what’s the point in putting heavy leads to the LED if the contact coming off the cell is smaller?

Sometimes, if a light feels special to me, I even cut a round piece of copper to solder on top of the spring for a larger battery contact, drill a via into it and solder the spring bypass into this copper disc, this way I have a much larger contact surface to the cell instead of a pinpoint like a soldered bead on top of the spring would make. Every little bit helps… :wink:

Have you ever worked with old cars? It’s very common for them to have ground cables made up of braided copper from the engine to the frame. Copper is a great conductor and when you put it in braided form it becomes very flexible and allows you to fully compress the springs which can be difficult or impossible with a normal spring bypass. On rare occasions I may use my extra long protected keep power cells in my L6 and I need to be able to fully compress the springs. So that’s why I tried it. I think the problem with the solder wick is that the strands are just too small in diameter and when any one of them gets a little too much current it will sever and transfer that load to some other strands which will cause them to sever and eventually the whole thing just melts in two.

LOL, that’s funny Jason! :laughing: My dad was in an Antique Car Club when I was young, he had a 28 Ford and a 37 Cadillac… at one point we had 43 cars here on the property… everything from Nash to DeSoto to Willys. Even a 58 Cadillac ElDorado Barritz Seville, one of 843 ever made. Ground breaking for 1958, it had a 365 ci V8 that made 356 HP from a triple deuce carb set-up. Auto headlight dimming even! Hurt me deep down when he let that one go…

I started out driving a 51 Chevy Custom Deluxe. (Dad actually suggested I use the 58 Caddy’s Alcoa produced turbine style aluminum wheels to customize my 51! Only ran em on the back, 15’s in back, 14’s up front. Geesh, forever ago!) Vacuum operated windshield wipers? Horrible idea! Tube style AM radio? 6V battery destroyer! Also quite familiar with the brake master cylinder under the floor matt…

Heavy braid from the battery ground? The 6V battery? That braid that very seldom if ever got flexed? The one that turned green and corroded up something fierce? Yes, familiar. The only way it’s similar to our discussion here is that it was braided copper, much different use and demands. This ground in the cars was a densely woven thick beast, the solder wick is a very loosely woven braid designed to pull solder off a pcb, plenty of room for the solder to flow, but not good physical properties to flow current, especially when flexed repeatedly. It was talked about here, some time ago, as to how electrical current in DC form uses the outside surface of the copper wire to flow, as such, this solder wick is really a lousy form for high current needs.

Not to say large car grounding cables of modern make don’t have their own problems… my brother’s late model pick-up is sitting parked in his driveway because he’s too lazy to replace the badly corroded ground to frame cable.

Edit: We still have a 1968 Renault 10 here, with the plastic coverings still on the door panels and 84 miles on the odometer. New car smell inside. Brand new, but non running, with the original gas from the dealer still in the tank… jellied and foul smelling. Just realized, it’s still sitting on blocks to keep the tires off the ground that I put it up on when I was 16 years old! That was 39 years ago! (3 lug wheels, by the way, never seen the like… 4 cyl in the rear, horizontal sliding rear windows)

No, that is not a typo… 84 original miles. My Aunt bought it new, didn’t drive.

As important as using the correct fuel in a car, use the correct cells for the flashlight. :wink:

I’ve heard it all my life, “If it don’t fit, don’t force it!”

Hi DB,
Do you have the .c file of the firmware? I can compile it later.
I would like to have ramping firmware with stock driver.
If you don’t mind, could you share with me? TIA.

DB is using a 17mm FET driver in his L6. There is no way to get the stock FX30 driver to do ramping.

My L6 received the resistor treatment long ago but never made a runtime graph for it until now, in short you get 3K+ lumens for 1/2 hour and then 2K+ lumens for another 1/2, followed by a slow drop to zero in the next 20 mins.

The hottest part was around the side switch and measured 62C, there was a very light breeze hitting the light but no dedicated fan cooling. The L6 and its driver can deal with the heat just fine, this had me worried for a while.

The output might be way off since my setup isn’t still calibrated for throwy lights, so this L6 is perhaps around 4,500-4,800 lumens.

Thanks for the confirmation, Jason. Appreciated.

Has anybody recently bought the Keepower batteries mentioned in the OP? Are they still the correct type (the older model)?