My Convoy L6, lighted switch, TA FET driver plus mods

thanks for the reply…

I chose the xhp50.2 for a little more throw over the xhp70.2.

If I can get the beam to look as good as yours I will be happy…

For those curious about the best way to remove the switch cover, a pair of snap ring pliers is your best friend. I have a set with multiple tips that can apply force in both directions. This style of plier (the blue one) can both squeeze together or squeeze apart.

They are only $4.99 at Harbor Freight Tools.

These are not super high quality, but I doubt you will use them very often. Every flashlight modder should have a set.

Hi JasonWW
I may miss something ,I will try this setup just what to know how many L/KCD for L6 with 70.2+SMO+R100 with stock driver…Thanks

Back when I was using the stock driver the 70.2 wasn’t out yet. By the time it was easy to get I had already switched to the FET driver.

So L6 with 70+SMO+R100 with stock driver and KeepPower 5200mah cells = 86,250 or 587 meters.

The KeepPower cells drew 5.7A. With Liitokala’s they drew 7A so you can get a boost right there. That might push it to 90kcd or more.

When switching to the 70.2 I would expect little to no boost in output. You would mainly get a smoother hot spot.

Bro, came across your nice thread on the L6.

So can i confirm that if i were to just use a piece of short wire instead of the R100 resistor on the driver of a stock L6 XHP 70.2 version, i’d be able to get around 7+ amps 8 amps at the tailcap with 2S high-drain cells? Current stock driver is pumping out ~ 5-5.2 amps to the XHP 70.2? (not sure how many amps at the tail would that be).
I am thinking of just using VTC6 and some 26650-> 18650 tubes, which ought to be sufficient in current delivery, just a bit lacking in the capacity.

The present Convoy L6 that i am getting direct from China is the “typical” one that people will be getting as well, that ver with spring bypass already installed and things like that.

Not sure why would i need a Convoy L6 for since i already have the BLF and Sofirn Q8s which serves all the needs very similarly, but apparently i have a present consolidation shipment from China and thus i can get it at a discouted usd 36. The host looks great, host head sinking capacity is sufficient for the weather that i get here, so i guess why not? :smiley:

Only thing is that it’s not going to be as pocket friendly as the 4 x 18650 soda cans, which are already not pocket friendly in the first place.

I’ve never tried the combo of a fully bypassed resistor stock driver with a 70.2. I tried it on a 50.2 and it drew way more than 8A. It was probably closer to 10A or 12A. This might be fine or it might eventually smoke the driver, I’m not sure. I didn’t have it in there very long or use turbo more than 20 seconds or so.

I would install the new emitter on the stock driver and see how many amps it’s pulling. Then maybe try a resistor swap.

Personally I don’t like the stock driver. It’s much nicer being able to turn the light on and off with the side switch.

I really don’t like the short and fat Q8 sized lights. There’s no easy way to carry them unless you have a a big holster that sticks way out. With the L6 I can just slip the tail-end of the light into my back pocket and carry it just fine. I carried 2 D cell Maglite like that for many many years.

I see, it was for a 50.2 and not a 70.2. I guess it might be a bit too much for the driver + 70.2 then. even if say we’d be able to do 7k lumens with the 70.2.

I’m not really electronically trained, so definitely the resistor soldering isn’t for me. I’m looking for a nice boost from 5A of the Convoy driver to maybe 9-10A at most, as per TA’s review on the 70.2 in which he already has excellent heatsinking.

Now that I have my TA Lumen Tube and Maukka calibrated test light I’ve found that my L6 it putting out about 5300 lumen @ 30s drawing 17 to 18 amps. This is with 2 different 70.2 emitters, a 6500K and a 5700K. So don’t believe the hype of really high outputs. Maybe a 5000K NW will put out a bit more? I’m sure other folks might measure my L6 with higher lumens, but it’s just a number.

The best way I know to limit output is to use the protected KeepPower 5200 or 6000 battery. I’ve got the 5200 and even with a FET driver and a 70.2 it still limits current to 10A.

Thank you, that’s a good suggesion, i just might go find some cheap 18650 or 26650s that can do 8-10A thereabouts and do the sensing resistor bypass on the stock Convoy L6 driver.

Good enough for me, i’m not expecting too much with regards to having a flat regulated output from the low $$ that i need to spend on this, as the Sofirn Q8 w spring bypass is able to do it. This is just a “backup” if you will.

The XHP35 or XP-L HI throwers with 70mm heads don’t interest me, due to the lower lumens ie somewhat pencil beam limiting practicality in real life. And another issue is that spotty beam throwers attract the attention of the police here, actually more of the attention of residents here who would call the police. :frowning: Already had that happen with my 6000-8000 lumen 3.8M cd big HID. :person_facepalming: No harm done of course, it was established that i was not pointing at planes or trying to disturb other residental or commercial dwellings from a distance, so no ticket for me. :person_facepalming:

Hmm…that’s a good idea I need to try that out man! :smiley: I used to carry my 2 x 18650 50-70mm head lights (Olight M3X, Crelant throwers, Shadow TC6, Dereelight aspherics etc) in the side pockets with the head sticking out and it wasn’t exactly doable - the swinging hands are always hitting the head.

Geez why didn’t i think of that.

After which i went the soda can lights basically the triple XM-Ls like Skyray king, “DRY” direct drive pocket rocket and got used to it. Hence the love for Q8s.
I always tail stand them, so the shotter form factor is safer to a certain degree as the top heavy tall lights are more prone to toppling when knocked and could also scratch the surfaces of some things should they fall and roll off the table etc, unless if there is serious anti-roll surfaces on the light.

Yeah, i know the deal, there is quite a loss with the consumer coated alu reflectors and then some more % with thick non-AR glass. 0 sec, 30sec, even 60 secs due to thermal management is also another matter. If we take 7k emitter lumens and your 5.3k lumens OTF then that loss is 25%, about right I guess.
As long as we take things in a relative way and know what to expect, we shd be fine.

That’s also why you always see me talking about pocket rockets and the hot weather here. Coz i have already experienced that many years ago. My DRY could do 3k OTF lumens no issue, first 5-10 seconds that is. The thermal interface isn’t as good as the Q8s as well.

That’s also why the ROT66, D4, D4S, MT09R/MT03, Nighwatcher NA40 and maybe even some Acebeams (I read that thermal regulation was with the light at what…165deg F? How to hold that, by the the tail?!) and stuff are not going to work here, the high outputs are semi-neuteured here, pay $$$ to walk 4 steps forwards and 3 steps backwards……been there done that 8 years ago.

You missed my point. Most protection circuitry will shut off power if you go beyond the rated cutoff. The KeepPower circuitry instead limits output to 10A instead of shutting off.

Using cheap or low performance batteries is a crap shoot. You don’t know what will happen.

You missed my point again. I was not refering to losses in the reflector or lens (it is AR coated btw). I was refering to the different devices and calibrations people have when measuring lumens.

For instance, I measure 5300 lumen OTF of my L6. Another person with a home made lumen tube that is not calibrated the same may measure my L6 at 7000 lumen OTF.

Hmm… 2 x 18650 Keeppower 3500s would cost me usd 13 (assuming they are not fakes in the first place :beer: )

I really meant “cheap” 18650s as in cheaper type of batts eg NCR18650A wrt to the top dogs, not Trustfire flames or what :smiley: No worries i know the safety aspects as i do RC and Lipos 6S 5000mAh packs etc.

Actually i do have some NCR18650A on hand now. They are supposed to be able to survive pretty much a dead short till 0 volts without venting. I believe there were some Callie Kustoms video on youtube years ago which did just that or something.
edit - or maybe they won’t go 8A without sagging the heck out. I’ll go do a further search, maybe some other Pannys.

Here….wow the vid is in 2011 how time flies!

Ok, gotcha. :smiley:

Why does Simon rate his L6 so high at 3800 lumens? Is he just basing that on what the emitter can achieve?

My stock neutral white L6 is only pushing 2800 lumens with Keeppower’s.

Advanced Knife Guy on youtube rated his at 3278. Didn’t think my calibrated TA lumen tube would result in so much difference. Glad I’ve got something near accurate though

Maybe Simon paid someone to measure it and that’s what he was told. Or maybe he measured it on a device that read a bit high. It’s hard to say.

I think the stock CW version is around 3100 to 3200 lumen. NW versions might measure a bit less. They may not actually be less, but they will probably measure less.

I’m surprised AKG, mhanlen on this forum, got close to accurate numbers. The last I checked he was using a home built lumen tube type device without a calibrated light source.

Jason,

Thanks to this post as well as Matt Smith’s I was able to boost my Convoy L6 and add LED’s to the side button. My Convoy side button has a slightly modified PCB, so not only did I need to jump the positive connection for the LED’s, I also needed to jump the negative circuit as well. I took a quick look at the traces and by default the negative blue cable no longer connects to the LED’s “-” circuit. Creating a jump from the blue cable to another spot on the board right next to it creates the common ground needed. Just FYI if anyone else is looking at the photos and wondering why it doesn’t work. It took a little testing to make sure I was indeed getting the positive signal to the LED circuit. I’ll post a photo later.

:+1:

My mod is a few years old, Convoy might have switched to a slightly different switch pcb.

As promised here is an image of my latest Convoy L6 switch PCB. Apologies for the poor image. But basically the red line still follows the original post, the second blue line is the one needed to jump the ground to the negative poles of the LED location. If you have the new PCB, it won’t work without jumping this. The 2 larger contact points are also negative terminals, so you must be careful the red wire doesn’t touch it and short out the LED.

Final product,