Driver diam is 28 mm. Nope, no glue accept a dab under the driver - probably to get the switch aligned to the button, but driver still came out easy. Yep, has a thin brass retaining ring on the driver. Very moddable.
The driver does not act like a buck or boost. Output decreases as the cell drops. My first test was with an LK cell at about 4.05V or so, and got 870 lumens, 188 kcd (2.55A tail). On a full LK cell @4.21V, got 950 lumens, 205 kcd (2.84A tail)
Then made a few mods:
20 AWG bypass wires on both springs
20 AWG LED wires (stock were ~26 AWG)
bypassed sense resistor with a jumper
sanded down centering piece a little
swapped stock XPL HI with a XPL HI V3 2B from MtnE, sanded MCPCB smooth, MX-4 thermal grease
Stock:
stock MCPCB is a good one: 32 mm DTP MaxToch, screwed down by 2 screws - excellent
Reflector I.D. is 61.5 mm - outstanding
Weight: 305g - fairly light for it's size
nice solid shelf
the blue bezel is not SS unfortunately, it's aluminum
the switch looks like a heavy duty one. There's 2 slots next to the rubber switch boot to unscrew the tail - the removable tail/switch housing is plastic though
This got:
1240 lumens, 266 kcd (3.74A)
This is slightly better now than the specs posted. Really needs a FET driver though. Because the switch is driver mounted, I'd probably go with a piggyback driver mount.
Thanks for all of this info Tom E, it really helps. I’m not interested of moding it, I’m just interested how it will be in compared to Nitecore P30 for example since prices are the similar. Can this JM70 out throw it since it have bigger reflector etc, and is it worth of buying compared to other lights on same and similar price range. If you have some pics you can send me on PM it will really helps.
Well throw is 205 - 200 kcd, pretty darn good. The P30 is rated at 95 kcd -- no comparison there.
I did find out the other JM70 I received had the old style driver - actually performs a bit better, stock, in Turbo at ~1,150 lumens, ~220 kcd, drawing about 3.6 amps.
I do not trust any more of those numbers, need to see it or that someone trusted tell me.
For example Utorch ut02 is marked with 124000cd and I can’t see any improvement comparing it with P30, even more P30 is better to me.
I will wait if price again drop under 40$ I will take it.
I did not mean anything bad, just say I don’t believe manufacturers specifications any more.
Except perhaps Nitecore, Olight, Xtar and other high brend manufacturers that can be taked seriously about their ratings.
Ahh, excuse the confusion. The numbers Tom stated were his numbers, not the manufacturer’s. So when you said you didn’t trust them, I thought you were aiming that at Tom.
I speak genearally about that ratings from manufacturers and theirs in the big case exaggerated ratings. English is not my naturally language so I can’t express oneself on the best way.
Tom E is trying to help, now I see that they write 264000cd, I did not pay attention to that, interesting I hope it is worth 40$.
I understood what you intended there. Yea, I know - it wasn't a good comparison, I should have said that. Frequently manu specs are way off, like ThruNite kcd #'s on their throwers. There's also the variations from piece to piece out there, even in name brands. I' know I've gotten under performing Nitecores in the past - I ordered 2 EA41's together a while back and one was maybe 10-15% lower than the other, and about the same percent under it's specs.
In theory though, the P30 with it's lower "spec'd" lumens and smaller reflector should throw less.