I was able to spend a couple minutes and check things out. Looks like too much solder on springs and they cannot compress. Bummer. Emailing him now. Hopefully we figure something out.
I just realize one of the batteries was a Sofirn 2200mah and not the VTC5D. I remeasured using 3x VTC5D and got 12,400 lumens at 1s. Better but still less than what I expected.
Lumens at 1s are Ahh! and all, but are not really relevant and no one uses that measurement. I think we’d all like to see something more realistic once the output settles a bit. Maybe 15 to 30 seconds or maybe Turn on and 20 seconds so we see how it drops.
Firelight, even the Blue springs benefit from spring bypass. I chopped a D Maglite and used the Q8 reflector with it’s board and XP-L HI emitters, counting on just the springs the output seemed low, a single tail spring bypass gained 500 lumens, I removed the one on the driver and used a solid copper contact. Now the light can make the expected 5000+ lumens on a hot cell.
The collection was joined by Emisar D18.
I will say briefly, I like it very much.
Turbo withstands 30 seconds. When setting the temperature threshold to max, after 6 minutes I was able to warm it up to the temperature of 75 degrees Celsius. Beam profile similar to M43, looks reminiscent of a bejspol stick
Maybe do him cleaning the contacts. I undressed the whole thing, cleaned the contacts, the tube, the brass ring, everything I could. Then I re-greased the threads, twisted and just started to play. The result did not surprise me because I was counting on those 10000. It surprises me a bit, how poorly XP-L HI is. Sky Lumen did not squeeze out too much. Maybe it’s a matter of optics and poor fitting to XP-L HI?
I will be looking at my friends D18 later today, expect to find gains but where and how much remains to be seen. It’s on the mail truck , looking forward to it.
He’s so excited to see what I do to it he didn’t even measure it on his new light box! lol So I have to get readings with a few different cells first, then I can start looking for the improvements…
Original springs. I want to have some fuse. I do not see them as a limitation of power. My measurement is 45A, or 15A for each cell. I use samsung 30Q with the top button, bought on BG. They are slightly longer than those with a flat top, so they also compress the springs more tightly. It can also affect the result. I am very pleased with the efficiency and overall quality. It is a pity that the LEDs are not aligned with the switch. Fortunately, only a little so it does not bother me.
Risky? Aw come on, the lab IS in the dungeon basement for a reason!
Doesn’t the MT-G2 have 72 dies? Don’t I have more than one light running multiple MT-G2’s? Didn’t Richard put 50’s in his 18 emitter TRJ20? Who’s gonna do it if I don’t? Sometimes ya just gotta tear the box up and move on…
Edit: I might not even be able to move up to the larger footprint as space constraints might limit the possibility, so for the time being I will stick with the XP footprint and see where I can take it. W6 LH351D emitters on stand-by.