Trustfire TR-3T6 (from Wallbuys) 2000+ lumen mod

Havent measured with three batteries only have two matched cells should be getting more of the same ones either this week or early next week.

Thanks for all your information you are giving!

Ha! Same thing here!

-Garry

To make the answer short and not based on some of my previous and hard testing ill say check here:
http://lygte-info.dk/review/batteries2012/Intl-outdoor%20NCR18650B%203400mAh%20(Black)%20UK.html
I highly doubt the batteries had problems or that the voltage was that low at 3,2A discharge. I believe they were far from their limits and that the voltage sag was not an issue at all.

I believe there must been some built in thermal protection. Since it at one point locked into one mode (medium I assume) I believe that also backs up that it has some sort of overheat protection in it.
The (limited) experience I have with overheating protections are that are not always 100% stable in the way they work.

I plan to check more when I try with 3 batteries… Changing modes a couple of times when it is 55C+

Werner, or anybody. Im thinking out loud now. First I assumed the flashlight had higher tailcap readings with 2 batteries (4,4A “total)
And after the mod it had higher readings with 3 battteries (7,17A total). But if we assume the light is regulated and the output to the leds before/after mod was/is exactly the same. Would not that mean that before the mod, the light/driver was more efficient when using 3 batteries. After the mod it is more efficient with 2 batteries?

Stock tailcap measurements.
2 batteries: 2,2 amps on high. (2,2×2= 4,4 “total”)
3 batteries: 1,15 amps on high, (1,15×3= 3,45 “total”)

After mod:
2 batteries: 3,2 amps on high. (3,2×2= 6,4 “total”)
3 batteries: 2,39 amps on high, (2,39×3= 7,17 “total”)

That’s the thing, the power is not consistent. Let’s convert to real power the driver is seeing (assume nominal 3.6V battery supply):

Stock:
2batt: 3.6V x 2 x 2.2A = 15.84W
3batt: 3.6V x 3 x 1.15A = 12.42W

Mod:
2batt: 3.6V x 2 x 3.2A = 23W
3batt: 3.6V x 3 x 2.4A = 25.9W

Power supplied to driver is not consistent at all. But this is the limit to what we can calculate as we cannot tell driver efficiency. The next step will need actual LED current measurements.

I received my WallBuys TR-3T6 today (moments ago). Haven't fired it up yet, but did disassemble and look it over. Seems the backside of my driver is different from the O.P.'s. I've got a white ring. Hmm. . .

Nicely packaged in a box inside a bubble envelope. Nice hefty light – more so than I expected! At work so I haven’t lit it up yet. Speed of delivery was impressive: ordered Jan 21st, Shipped (Wallbuys status) Jan 22nd, received today Feb. 6th!

-Garry

That is defiantly not the same board/backside of driver as on my light.

Ill write a more detailed “report” on my light, maybe tomorrow. Ill upload some pictures too…
In short I have had lots of fun with my light since last time! :slight_smile: But driver is now dead… Not because of the modification but because of some small soldering “debris” that short circuit a leg. Totally my fault not cleaning up the pill after cutting away soldier between the pill and the circuit board… Ill have to say, the driver in my light was really tough and a good one.
For me, its not a big issue tough, had been looking for replacement driver before even buying the light…

Thanks. I'll try to update with current draws sometime soon. I really only have 2 matched cells though.

-Garry

For testing current draw for a short amount of time that should be fine as long as they are kinda close (e.g. 3100 mah and 2600 mah), just don't do a runtime test or anything like that.

Well, I do have 4 protected Tenergy 2600's, but they are scattered around in different lights at different charge levels right now.

-Garry

As mentioned. The driver is now dead. Ill write the story. My brother will be referd to as The Doctor.

I did a high temperature with 3 batteries, and the light died after 8 min. The circuit board also had a new bad/funny smell.
I inspected the light and found out the the black negative wire got loose from the board. (probably due to all my fiddling and that stock wires are really thin)
Once the wire was upgraded to something larger the light could not switch modes. It was locked in low… Something was wrong… I checked my work several times but could not find something wrong with the wire I had replaced or anywhere else…

Away to the hospital:

On closer inspection this caused a short: (cropped picture, erea is not within depth of field since this was a random picture when I was not aware of the short curcuit)

The Doctor reported that a short-circuit killed the “largest black important thingy” (my words, not The Doctors).

Now… The Doctor who always needs to fix thing found some stuff for it and it was properly alive in no time with the ability to change modes…
The new “big black thingy”, now Frankenstein size with headsink was tested…

It was not very efficient and output on high was not more like medium… Input voltage was quite high though…

Considering the driver was now pretty useless, and I did not want the light with “low” output only or replace the fried part. It was time for some extreme over the top experimenting and testing… DIRECT DRIVE!
3 leds in series and 3 batteries! To limit current a little bit, a couple of parts on the driver curcuit was used… In the “test bench” with quite long wires it measured 5,3A. It was probably 6+ amps…

Light got assembled and it was BRIGHT!” :smiley: Went out on the porch and tried it… WOOW!.. and after 5 sec one led got fried. :stuck_out_tongue:
I had a feeling that could happen… Would hoped for 30+ seconds though…

Looking back:
The only minor complain about the light was that the leds did not have thermal compound everywhere beneath them. It was under the emitter, but not under the whole star. I suspected that when I had looked at it earlier. All the three leds are now out off the pill, and the one who got fried got of quite easy compared to the others…
(old picture before hospital visit)

To sum it up: This was the most fun Ive had with a light. In generall, not just in terms of modding. I say succsess despite the failure! :slight_smile:
This light have been through a lot of modifying! And I have improved a lot on soldering skills and gotten some more knowledge in this project…

Future plans:
Days before killing one led I had already placed an order on several leds. This light will get 3 new T6 3C XM-Ls wired in series with thicker wires. The last two stock leds (T6 cool white) will get into project lights… Currently one have found its way into a Sipik SK68.
As for driver, before I bought the light I had been looking at some stuff from intl-outdoor.
Yesterday, I placed an order for this. So 3,5A to each led coming up in the futre. Ill use the stock 26mm driver board in comination with the new driver… Due to Chinese new year it will probably take up to 5 weeks before my lights is back in business. No rush… All I know is, the future will be bright! :wink:

That’s how a work desk has to look like.

This driver will make a beast out of the 3t6, will get hot like a cooking plate

Yeah… I thought someone here would like his “little” work bench… :wink:

Not sure about what you tried to say in your 2. sentence…

As for cooking plate. Not an issue for the way I use my lights, or the environment I use them in for longer periods on high.
Based on what I have seen, my TR-3T6 should have quite equivalent, if not better heat sink capabilities than hard driven P60 lights (measuring 2,8-3,6A).
I have no issues with them.

As for the short-circuit, I don’t think it was my fault after all (I just assumed so). Check last and first picture in my first post… It was there after resistor mod, not before.
Makes me even more impressed with the stock driver! It lived through a lot of extreme heat testing with a short circuit! 3 batteries heat testing was too much tough…

Never updated this thread.
To make it short. I got the 3,5A driver from intl-outdoor. It was a buck driver. Something that was not specified. Basically, it sucked with 2 batteries. They changed the description and I got a refund.
Ordered their boost/buck driver., which is now inside the light.

I never did take measurements on the leds.
On the tail with two batteries: 3,5A on high.
With three batteries: 2,95A on high! :heart_eyes: (start out slightly above 3A)
Not a fan of the PWM noise on low and medium. Much higher than a typical nanjg105

I had hoped for a bit more with two batteries. But maybe the protected NCR18650B may be the reason for it.
On high, the tail cap reading is higher than I had hoped for with 3 batteries. This light is incredible bright with 3 batteries now! So the goal of 2000+ emitter lumens was reached. Its probably way beyond that!
Thanks to the NW emitters, tint is also nice.

All in all, very pleased with this light… :slight_smile:

Thanks for the update. So is that new driver a simple swap out with the old?

-Garry

Yes, I would consider it a simple driver swap if you have basic soldering skills.

But, four things are needed if you have a stock light.
1.You need to wire the LEDs in series.
TIP: On the reflector there are three white plastic rings. Take one off, and make sure it can sit around the LED. Your soldier points have to be on the outer edge of the emitter, or else those plastic rings (which prevents short circuits) will hit your solder point and it will raise the reflector higher than it is supposed to sit.
And as with most flashlights. Make sure each “solder point sits low”. (Make the wires sit all the way down on the emitter board, and don’t have a high bunch of solder on top of it)

2. I needed to do a little file work on the driver to make it fit. You probably have to do it too if you buy one.

3. I changed out one of the wires from the driver to the leds. You may want to do both wires. Or maybe you will manage with both the stock wires. Reason for that. The screw holding the reflector is behind the driver/circuit board. So in order to assemble the light you will have to soldier the wires from the driver onto the LEDs/emitters. But in order to tighten the reflector screw, the driver can not be in your way. Having a longer wire or two might help you with that. (If you dont get this, you will when you have the light opened up).

4. Springs from your old circuit board have to soldered over the the new circuit board.

You will have PWM noise on low/medium. But it will be bright! And the modes will be very well spaced. And yeah… very bright! :wink:

Thanks! We'll see what I run into with the stock driver (if it can be modded). Gonna be awhile.

-Garry

I got my TR-3T6 about a week ago from FT, & it came with the same driver as RaceR86’s - I took it apart when I got home from work, after taking a couple of night photos(which I seem to have lost…).

Yesterday, I received a replacement driver from KD which seems to be identical to the one from intl-outdoor.

I had already prepped the head by re-wiring it in series with thicker wire;


It’s measuring 3.3a at the tail on high.

Although it’s definitely brighter than the stock driver, I can’t say I’m blown away by the results.

Seeing as I can’t find the original photos taken with the stock driver, here’s some comparison shots. The fence line & tree is approx 15m away;

P60 XML @ 2.9a;

TR-3T6 @ 3.3a;

My de-domed C8 XML @ 2.8a;

I have some resistors coming from FT - I may mod the stock TR-3T6 driver to see if I can get it a little better… :slight_smile:

If the kd driver puts real 3A through the LEDs than you won’t get better results from stock driver.
I guess the stock driver makes about 4.5A through the LEDs which is 1.5A per LED. Resistor mods of the other”original” driver made it a 6.xA driver which is ok.
So your KD version should be double the brightness and it should get hot really really fast.

Perhaps you can measure the current through the LEDs to check it up.

I would say your 3T6 is about 2-3times brighter than the p60 and that is, what it is 3 XML…

One question have you measured current with two full cells?
8V*3.3A=26W if the voltage lowers and its a regulated driver…26W/6V=4.3A
So you should get over 4.5A at the tailcap with empty batteries…

FmC, I assume your tail cap reading are with two batteries??
If so, its not not far from my reading with two batteries. If I had used a longer thinner wires and a DMM that reads slightly lower I might have been looking at 3,3A.

I got some NCR18650PD batteries the other day. And that did not make my tailcap reading with two batteries higher so the driver is the limit. It needs 3 batteries to get the full input(/output). My post 34 in this thread basically shows that.

Its not that easy to estimate output based on pictures, but it looks to be around 2,5+ times brighter than a single XM-L @ 2,8A.

The measurements are with 2 full cells - I’ll measure again when the batteries a low for a comparison.

… & you are exactly right - I may as well taped 3 p60 lights together - I guess I was hoping that the torch would be more than the sum of it’s parts…

I just whacked the extension tube on, & with 3 (full) batteries, I’m getting 2.75a.