I was getting similar results, on turbo my light would drop from 5100 lm (at startup) to 2200 in 10 sec. Had set the thermal limit to 75ºC. Tested against other batteries (iJoy, Molicell, Efest and Sony VTC5A) and would still drop like a fly. Then it occured to me that I had placed a metal ring between the driver and retainer (to align the body tube flats). Thinking it was brass (had cleaned with fine sandpaper) only to realize it was electroplated aluminium with some clear coat.
Changed to a stainless ring and the numbers are back up. After some 2 minutes, 4200 lumens and head at 50ºC.
The led is drawing much amperage, any small resistance in the electrical path throttles the output. I’ve dedicated the iJoy 26650 / 4200mAh cell for this light as can handle the 20 to 25 amps for some 5 / 4 minutes (by HKJ’s tables).
Tighten the retaining ring and check if other contact points are clean.
I can use a weaker cell but they rated the light at 500kcd which it can’t do and less output would mean even less throw. When the group buy was still in the interest collecting stage I messaged them and asked how long it would run for on turbo and was told it hadn’t been tested… Let’s make a high powered light, claim 500kcd and release it without testing it properly. Let’s also redesign the reflector and make it worse. Seems like a great idea. I understand that Mateminco is a value brand but how could they mess up that badly. My NI40 got scratched pretty easily and didnt have the best UI but at least it worked as advertised and hit the rated numbers whilst costing less. I don’t usually use turbo for long but when I do one day it’ll be annoying having a 20s stepdown. I really didn’t expecting this light to come with problems as it’s just an upgrade to an existing light. Anyway I hope they fix the problems with the newer batches and send out new reflectors for free or at least at a discounted price.
Edit: Just saw Sidney Stratton’s post. I’ll try this and see what happens. Hopefully it’ll fix the issue.
Do you have any pictures, or any additional way of explaining what you did for people that are new to modding? It sounds like you found a pretty straight forward improvement if I’m reading this right!
I have all the FT03’s, not all tints but I couldn’t bring myself to buy this one for $90. I did get an NI40 from Neal. Probably should have got this one for the all around better light. Really not sure why I didn’t jump on this. Maybe it’s the $60 difference for this particular LED. Guess you all are happy with this version? Maybe It will be cheaper at a later date. Maybe.
No. You must not have read the last several pages.
This version of the light received some bad reflectors not capable of focusing the beam properly. The throw numbers are way less than advertised. Even with good reflectors from the FT03 swapped in it’s still a bit short of throw.
1400 meters is way more than the other versions. The SST-40 is about 900 meters. So 500 more meters is a really big jump. I think they estimated what is should be instead of actually measuring it.
I can feel your disappointment.
I had some problems with this unit also. When I took it out for a test run I had no mode memory. Then the turbo wouldn’t hold up. I was somewhat deceived as I had purposely set my order to be in the second batch - bugs and kinks are too often present in the first run. But with the overall picture of a great thrower and equally good UI, I dug in and found my mistakes. This version of Anduril has user selectable mode memory deactivation / activation. The ring I had placed as a shim between the driver and the retaining ring had some kind of brass like anodization or varnish. That limited the conductivity.
I had noticed the led’s phosphor reflection not completely filling the reflector but it wasn’t till ZozzV6’s post (#863) that pointed to an improper parabolic shape. Will see if a FT03 reflector will be available after CNY.
As for the green tint, yes it is visually striking at the lower outputs. This being a thrower, I set it to stepped from 1200 lm at lowest which gives a much better hue. I can’t see myself using this light for a night walk or searching for things in the house. It is for the great outdoors. BTW have set at two levels, high at 3000 lm plus the turbo, ~ 4500 lm sustained 5 minutes.
Overall, I’m quite pleased with the “overpriced” light. It does throw well to 200 m, above that my eyesight can’t detect well enough. The 5700ºK is a good temperature outside in my urban setting. The build and form factor are ergonomic.
Toykeeper got back to me and said she was not consulted to do a version of Anduril specific for this light. So the thermal response code may not be optimal. Mateminco probably just used an Anduril build from another light and adapted it to this one. This means the thermal code might be reacting too quickly on Turbo or the FET might be transferring heat directly to the MCU.
I wonder if a FT03 can be bought, then buy a SBT-90.2 and a MT-G2 mcpcb to put it on. You’d have to enlarge the centering ring, but in the end you’d get a perfect light. Good reflector, good driver, maybe even a cheaper cost if you don’t count your labor. One downside is this led is not easy to find at the moment.
We haven’t really figured out why it’s stepping down prematurely. If the FET is responsible for heating the MCU, you could add extra mass to the FET. You take a cube of copper and attach it to the FET with thermal adhesive. What it does is make the FET heat up at a slower rate. This theoretically would make it step down when it’s supposed to.
What temp do you have it set at? Even at 75°C mine steps down in 20 seconds. This only happens when the cell is at above 80% charge. Might be the FET overheating but I’m not sure.
So it looks like your light steps down at about 25 seconds?
What battery did you use?
Do you know if the exterior felt hot at 25 seconds or did it seem like it stepped down too soon?
Seeing as how the output went back up I’m thinking it’s just the software reacting prematurely and not the FET prematurely heating up the MCU (at least not all the FETs fault). The software measures the temp going up fast so it reacts sooner rather than later. A lot of Anduril lights act like this and there’s not much you can do about it. Still, adding mass to the FET might help smooth out the big dip in output or at least slightly delay when it starts to ramp down.
I have the SBT-90.2 led in a Wildtrail D90V2 host, it has a Lexel FET+5+1 driver that runs flintrock's bistro firmware. On a fresh VTC6 battery (high drain 18650) it draws 19A at max. At maximum setting with a fresh VTC6 battery I measured the temperature between the fins near where the ledshelf is with a IR thermometer:
time after switch-on (s)
fin-temperature (degC)
20
38
40
48
60
55
80
62
100
68
120
73
At 120 seconds it stepped down, I will have to look up in the UI if it is a timed stepdown or a temperature-stepdown but I like that it is at 73degC (the led will be hotter but still some distance from desoldering temperature), a good safety measure and the tube is still cool enough to hold, I need no gloves to switch it off when needed.
I would think that the FT03 should be able to handle more heat than the humble D80V2, so two minutes before stepdown sounds reasonable, not 20 seconds
too me a rushed light asking premium money but failing to deliver…