Defiant 3C MT-G2, 4 x 26650 custom build. 9 Amp driver pictures added 16.8.13.

Thank you

New pictures added in the first post with the 3C now sporting a IOS 9 amp 3 mode driver. This driver has transformed this light from a light that was did not impress at 120 meters to a light that literally goes look at me now at that distance. To say I’m blown away with the difference would be an understatement.

Yayy! Thats more like it! :)

How many batteries are you using??

And how does it seem to handle the heat?

Thanks RaceR86. I’m running 3 26650 batteries with a spacer. If it works ok I will shorten the battery tube. I haven’t completed any long runs with it yet so I’ll report back when I have. On the light meter it has not increased a tremendous amount but in reality its like the extra current has woken it up. Nothing has made much sense today.

You did really fine job. Very nice flood light and natural looking tint. 18 AWG wires?

But I am not sure about Fujik potting any more. It is pretty messy compound.

Holy crap! that 9a driver did the trick!!

Wow! Now that's the kind of MT-G2 light output I want!

-Garry

Wow oh wow! That is just awesome, awesome, awesome. Congrats on your beauty that is now truly a beast.

I got to get me some of them leds. :bigsmile:
Now that’s very impressive MRsDNF. WOW!!! :open_mouth:

Thanks guys. After my debacle on the driver measurements I needed a bit of picking up. I’ve just completed, or attempted some timed runs. In a 17 degree celsius room with still air the high temp protection kicked in on the driver after 7.5 minutes which flashed momentarily to low and then fired back up to hi. This would happen about every 30 seconds. The heatsink was very hot but could still be held. The driver at this time appeared to be stuck in high when trying to mode change. After cooling down for a few minutes all modes worked fine. I decided to continue the testing in medium. Ceiling bounce output on high was 122 lux at the start and dropped to 53.7 at 7.5 minutes. On medium this dropped to 54 lux. After 30 minutes of running lux had dropped to 52.9 and the heatsink was extremely hot. Again the modes would not change until the driver had cooled of a bit. Hi temp protection did not kick in. I think it may only work on high.

That's quite a bit of tint shift. Do you know what current is getting to the emitter with that driver?

Im not sure what you are seeing/meaning here..

Mose out- 5amp driver. Mouse over 9 amp driver

Its mainly just brighter... Putting out more white light on everything. I don't see anything more special in terms of "tint shift" in the picture above than when comparing say and XM-L at low vs high current.

The 5amp driver looks more green to me, but I bet you're right about the intensity being what I am really seeing. The mouse over really helps.

Comparing the side spill of the light with the 9A driver and the hotspot of the light with the 5A driver gives the opposite effect. Light intensity makes a difference. I think the picture in this post shows that quite nicely.

Sure, there are differences in CRI, tint and temperature at various amps, but those differences are generally fairly small.

I wasn't looking at the leaves. I was looking at tree trunks (especially some of the thinner ones) and the driveway. It seemed much more pronounced when I was to scrolling up and down the OP to compare. Now that MRsDNA has mentioned it, I see intensity was definitely throwing me off. I have to admit though, I'm struggling trying to tell how much is intensity and how much is tint shift. I still have amateur eyes. Thank you all for your patience and knowledge sharing.

It was also wet during the first set of pics, that changes colors by a lot.

Wow, that driver upgrade did the trick. I'd call it a clear and present flashlight! :-)

Comfychair wrote:

It was also wet during the first set of pics, that changes colors by a lot.

Ah, thank you Comfy. You hit the nail on the head. I couldn't place my finger on it, because the larger tree trunks didn't seem to look different, but the younger ones mostly did. The pictures make more sense to me know. Nice catch.

I was surprised myself about the color change and double checked the camera settings in the JPEG properties and yes they were identical. Everything was wet the first night and dry the second night. I did take longer range pictures but they were no good as the wind gusts here were blowing the trees around making the pictures blurry.

A quick update. After using the light last night for a short period outside I’ve come to the conclusion that the 9 amp driver in this light was not practical. When the high temp protection kicks in it is supposed to change down to low mode with flashing every now and then and then go back to high mode when a certain temp was reached. Instead it locks itself into whatever mode that it is in with an occasional kick down to low and straight back into high. On medium the light just locks itself into medium.
I have reinstalled the 5 amp driver today and after testing it took 33 minutes to overheat, the 9amp was 7.5 minutes in the same temp room, and the over temp on high did indeed work as advertised. Kicking down to low with flashing and going back into high when it had cooled to whatever temp it was programmed to. during this time the mode changes still worked.
With the 5 amp driver it took approximately, in still air, 35 minutes before the light was too hot to hang onto for any amount of time.