Better XM-L driver ?

You can change the modes on the KD 2.8A driver, you know. The 3-mode option is pretty good.

There's also a 2-chip driver that is available on KD and on eBay, often in red. I forget the details on that one.

I did see that on here before but i can't work out how to do it, i dont want the stupid modes strobe,sos

If you solder a short piece of wire to connect the 2nd star (clockwise) and the outer ring, you will get 3 modes, no strobe or SOS. I use a longer piece of wire and then snip it short once it is soldered down in place. It's pretty easy and getting the 3 constant modes is one of the best things about this driver.

cheers mate, my soldering iron just packed in and my Weller pyropen is out of gas and there's no where local that sells the refills. BUGGER !!!

Can't it use lighter gas as sold at just about every corner shop? My gas iron can - or I'd never have bought it.

Hi Don well they do recommend you use their own gas but i guess lighter stuff would be ok ! do you use a specific brand ?

Whatever I can get - tends to be Swan branded around here. Have used Maplin's own brand but it, like pretty much everything else they sell, is horribly overpriced.

I reckon if it'll work in a lighter it will work in a burner. And may well be a lot cheaper.

I mean butane is butane - probably some propane too as butane has an inconveniently high boiling point of -0.5oC

Thanks Don now just need to find a better driver, i'd love to have the the same dimming ability as the vara power but i guess that's going to cost a fortune..

Just a thought does the driver require heat sinking ? I’ve not done so so far …

It looks like CPF is still seriously screwed up, with so many posts missing/corrupted. My 300+ links are now completely worthless for that site, so it was all time wasted for me in building a useful reference index over the past few years. In answer to your driver question, a new thread was restarted on CPF from a guy that builds custom mag mods for resale. His builds are both innovative and well thought out, and his customers are nothing less than extremely pleased with his product.

The 19mm driver he uses for 2X LiCo is this one. Notice: its a 3 mode without all the blinky crap added on that most of us cant stand. Woohoo! Its about time. Reports of up to 3.2A to the led have been reported. In his CPF thread (and the older one, which is now gone - thanks to the extreme gross incompetence of the CPF admin) there are still no recent reports of this driver overheating when being properly heat sinked in his builds. The key seems to be in using short wire runs of properly sized wire (24AWG teflon silver stranded, or larger) and running with 2 x Lithium cells for 8.4V total after a fresh charge. Other configurations seem to have been less successful. I have this driver sitting on my self for a 2 x 18650 XML thrower mod but haven't gotten around to putting it together yet. I have no doubt that it will perform as expected. Hope that helps!

would i be able to use 2 18650 with this set up, i'm not too worried about long run times ..

must . . . get . . . maglite . . . Man, if he would sell it with a battery pack and with a charge port, I'd buy it.

must . . . get . . . maglite . . . Man, if he would sell it with a battery pack and with a charge port, I'd buy it.

Batteries and charger aren't terribly hard to get, just go to 4sevens, grab their charger, grab their 26650's.

go big or go home. 32650s!

Yes!

Or go direct drive with 3 C NiMH cells in a 2 D Mag and get 100% efficiency directly from the cells. Also wont have to worry about a potential LiCo explosion and still run with 5000 mAh capacity.

Nah. And the problem is, I can charge 26650's, but not Nimh C's.

well theres a solution for that

http://www.hobbyking.com/hobbyking/store/uh_viewItem.asp?idProduct=7028

or

http://www.all-battery.com/tenergyT9688universalcharger01127.aspx

i have both, and i love them both.

Will I not blow the led going direct drive ! Also my nimh cells are over 1.2v when charged sometimes close to 1.4v so three of those and bang goes the led.