YUPARD Mod: 9 XML @ 3P3S with FET Driver (3S 26650) UPDATE: 4.3A per emitter! This is Insane ! (Post #37)

I got the FET driver from RMM.

OOOohhh… my hand are itchy tonight… I got spare MT-G2 FET driver and sadly no XP-G2 on noctigon :_(
can you mix them LEDs? say 6 XM-L and 3 XP-G2? in the middle? is that even possible? :slight_smile:

I think Vf is different between the dies, would cause one set to pull more current than the other…don’t think they will work w/o one set of them getting way to hot and burning out

I’d probably take the chance for $1.30 difference. L2 in the link, title, desc, and specs. Worst comes to worst and they are XML you could probably file a ticket and get the difference back at least.

I really liked the light as soon as I saw it as a new arrival, but the price tag and my lack of 6 good cells to dedicate to it :frowning: … Would love to see what you guys can do with it.

Does that link pull up in Spanish for anyone else?

I kept getting it in Spanish. I mucked about for awhile til I got the English site.
I ordered it there. There was a BLFDXDEAL coupon that gave me $4.50 off.

I had a bit of a scare. Light was getting sporadic when I turned it on. Thought the switch was going. Bridged the tail and was only getting faint modes, then nothing, then very faint lows only.
I went to pull the driver and noticed there was a tiny bit of play in the driver. I cranked down the retaining ring and all Is good.

I did a little tweaking on my light today. Braided the tailcap and got the reflector sitting down properly.

Three of the emitters, though not off center enough to notice, were off enough that the reflector was sitting on top of the raised part of the centering discs. This caused the bezel to not tighten properly and leave a gap. I removed the three offending discs and sanded the raised part flush. Since the other six were still intact, the reflector centered itself nicely and the bezel threads down tight.

I remembered I had some UCLp AR Acrylic Lenses for my COURUI that LinusHofmann brought up in his COURUI thread. https://budgetlightforum.com/t/-/23051?page=2#comment-509979 I had ordered two, and they sent me three...and they were the perfect fit for this light.

These are really nice lenses, and they come in large sizes from flashlight lens.com.

When you install them, it looks like air, like nothing is there, with a Light transmittance: 97%

If you hold it just right, you can see a pinkish tone from the AR coating.

Now that I've got everything just how I want it, this light definitely earned its clear bootcap award.

Glad to hear you’re happy with the UCLp AR lenses, I’m looking to outfit the worthy lights in my collection with them. Expensive, but worth it IMO. I know they’re not glass, and some people just won’t like that, but their performance metrics indicate that it really doesn’t matter that they’re plastic. Combined with the fact that they’re almost impossible to shatter, I could see these performing phenomenally well in EDC lights, or really any light that sees a whole lot of abuse.

I’m not worried about scratches. Big lights like this don’t end up in pockets and when you set them down on their heads the bezel keeps them from contacting the ground. These are the only AR lenses I know of that come in the larger sizes. If flashlightlens.com backs them, they’re good.

When I started out, I had no idea what the output was going to be in this light. If it had been under 2A per I would have used XP-G2.
When that 12 XML light arrives, I’m going to jury rig it with the stock emitters in place (connect everything externally from the front) to get an idea of the output with 6P2S. Then I’ll decide whether to go XPG or XML.

That AliExpress light is the same as the KD http://kaidomain.com/product/details.S022371? Might be safer from A-E though...

I’ve always had good luck and fast shipping from KD. I ordered the one from DX. I really didn’t want to, and it might have been a mistake, but I’ll be able to let anyone know whether it really has XM-L2 in it. I’m kinda doubting it.

That is a monster mod! great details in your pictures too. I especially like the one where you cannot see that the lens is there. (It is, right?) Thank you for sharing it like this.

Driving a different number of emitters or different types of emitter will probably end up with one of the circuits receiving more juice than the other circuit, which may not end well for a few of the LEDs. It is best to have them as balanced as possible.

I can't remember my calculations, but I think that "as is" (4.3v 0.25 watt zener diode, 200 ohm resistor) the zener mod may be over the limit with 6S cells but I think we could work around this easily due to the low MCU power consumption. However, the 70N02 FET is only rated for 20 volts, so 6S is out of the question. There may be an FET out there that can work that's rated high enough, but I don't think this one will work.

Also, I would think about wiring the LED+ leads directly to the contact board instead of running them through the driver, I'm not sure how much the traces on that thing will appreciate 10A+ loads for extended periods of time.

Thanks Richard.
I never even occurred to me to just wire the LED+ leads direct from the battery. I did that on my COURUI master/ slave setup. It sure makes things easier than trying to solder a bundle of wires onto a tiny little pad. I’ll rewire them tomorrow.

You can but from my experience it’s not really worth it at all. You don’t get that much throw and it ends up being a funky beam with lots of rings.

I am planning to try again with a 4x emitter that is the same size as the OP. It has four circles that don’t connect to each other. I have another that someday is going to get four XP-G2’s dedomed and four separate aspheric lenses.

That’s what I figured. The reflector cups are so small, the XPG is just going to flood.

A link to your four emitter light please.

I bought this when they had the $25 off of $50 this and a couple bulbs actually.

http://www.myled.com/p2737-cree-t6-2500lm-260m-range-5-mode-led-tactical-flashlight-3x18650-26650-black.html

It actually came with XM-L2’s in it.

I moved the LED+ wires from the driver pad and reconnected directly to the battery input. It was a bit of work. I had the setup so well constructed that I had to take the whole thing apart.

I reconfigured everything, and now it has even more copper incorporated in it. That's always good. I had a flood of relief after I put it all together and it still worked. You know how that can go.

Now for now for the scary news.

This time I popped in three hi drain Sony US26650VT and got a tail reading of 13A.

That's a total of 39A !!! 4.3A per emitter.

I shut it down quick. I never thought I'd be saying this, but that's too many Amps. I'm going to stick to the KingKongs to be safe. They've got more capacity anyway.

Richard! If your reading this, you've got to develop a heavier duty version of this driver. This is insane!

How long is my poor little tail switch going to last?

At 13A the driver will be just fine (but the rest of the light might not be.)

I wouldn't sweat running the 70N02 FET at 20A-25A. When you said 30A before, I thought you meant 30A through the driver, which would be at the edge, but 13A should be fine.