Gotcha, sounds like a normal evening at the workbench for me (hooking things up all kind of crazy and then realizing it later).
I’m glad you got it working now, and no smoke came out!
I think I know what happened with the blooo Nichia... and it's another D'OH!
I ran out of the 10* TIRs and re-used the original reflector. But I forgot that my XP-to-XM adapter centering pieces are really really REALLY thin, the flat the reflector sits on is only around .010-.012" thick. These F6's originally used the semi-transparent butterfly centering pieces, and those are around .035" thick on the flat part. I completely totally utterly forgot to do anything to compensate for the dramatically thinner spacer, and the design of this light makes the stack height there critical.
The lens o-ring sits on its own little shelf around the OD of the reflector, so even with no reflector in the light the bezel & lens compress the o-ring, and the bezel feels nice and snug when you screw it down. The MCPCB+insulator+reflector have to be tall enough to clamp it all together, yet not so tall that the o-ring under the lens doesn't get compressed enough to seal. Get it wrong and heat transfer goes all to shit. Which is exactly what happened. When I swapped the 219B for the XPG2 I used a different, thicker centering piece and never gave any consideration to the effect on the stack height. Which is why the XPG2 handles a 25r just fine, but the 219B didn't.
The 219B will survive DD from a 25R, which I should have known since I have a Kung (so one cell per LED) with 219Bs on the same 16mm Sinkpads and I only run that light on 25Rs, and it doesn't turn blue. Because in that light, the four MCPCBs are clamped down nice and tight by the Kung's center screw from the pill to reflector. Sheesh!
The machined step in the head is just to locate & center the 3XP board, it's cut deeper than where the top surface of the plug/spacer will end up.
I’ve just received F6 that I’ve ordered from FT but it seems to me to be the same as the one on banggood.
It has memory and my biggest problem is that I can’t find any lens for low battery indicator, and I don’t want it without that.
Can I turn it back or ask for refund?
Here are some pictures:
P.S.
Does the one from banggood has that low battery indicator or no?
Here is the difference:
Black shadow makes the F6 also and has the same driver pictured above. Their version has 4 little resistors and one missing.
Any ideas on how to gain more output out of this driver? Resistor changes?
Bridge the bank of resistors at the bottom. Output will be limited then by the internal resistance of the FET (identified & link to datasheet earlier in the thread).
The BG F6s I got do have the fiber optic pickup for the battery indicator, but the cheaper version of the driver has the indicator LED right beside the switch which is all the way on the opposite side of the driver (lens is located directly over the bank of sense resistors), and it's not easily visible when on. It does at least function, tested with a single CR123+spacer.
Well shit. So there's no known source for the version I got first from Fasttech? The lesser versions from BG aren't any cheaper, I was going to buy a big pile of the 'good' ones from FT and use them as hosts, but now...
So just remove all the resistors from the bank of 4 or 5 and replace with solder? Maybe I should swap main led for a noctigon?
Yes, that's a given... direct drive + LED on aluminum = bad.
The resistors don't have to be removed, just add a jumper over them. There's even a blank spot you can use off to one side if you don't want to go over the top. Use a piece of scrap copper cut to roughly the same size as the resistors.
The SD01 version I got from Blackshadow solarstorm does not have the fiber optic pick up. The led is next to the side switch. And the SD01 only has 4 resistors instead of 5
What does it matter about the number of resistors? They are all in parallel. The total resistance of whatever resistors are present is what determines the output current. Four 1 ohm resistors in parallel is exactly the same resistance as a single 0.25 ohm resistor. If you are going to bridge them anyway it wouldn't matter if the pads had all been left blank and the stock output was zero amps.
I have a few questions:
Do you have any idea how can I use that led for low voltage warning?
Should I drill a hole and put some other rounded red led there?
How did you removed the front glass, how can I open it there to get to the emitter?
@phsinvent
On that link they say that it has:
“custom-setting brightness level on High mode.”
How can you change brightness on High mode?
The cheaper driver as in your pics has a ramping mode. Fast double click to access. I forget the details of how it works, but it's there, I don't have one wired up that I can test right now.
If I had one without the indicator lens and wanted to use it (it's not really very useful anyway), I'd drill a hole and then fill it with clear epoxy. http://www.ebay.com/itm/161193700970
To remove the bezel, unscrew it.
Thanks @comfyrchair for the tip with epoxy. What dimension of the drill should I use?
When I do fast double click it is just changin next two modes with a delay.
To unscrew the bezel should I turn it left or right?
The bezel is standard right hand thread, so counter-clockwise when looking at it from the front.
The brass driver retainer plate, though, is left hand thread - so turn that one clockwise to loosen. (they do that so that removing the battery tube won't loosen the driver retainer, it instead tightens it)
The indicator hole on the lights that have it is 4mm, though if you're going to plug it with epoxy it can be any size you wish. You could even make it square if you wanted to be all fancy.
A few days ago I have received one from BG, has not that indicator. Its head is like the left.
The better driver is the one Helios- already did for us. https://oshpark.com/shared_projects/OQDe10xU
I'm awaiting a reply from Simon, about if his stock has the indicator lens or not. I don't care about which driver it comes with, if I can't reflash it with a usable UI it'll just go in the leftover parts bin with the rest of them.
edit: http://www.aliexpress.com/store/product/Free-shipping-Roche-F6-EDC-HAIII-CREE-XM-L2-U2-1A-LED-Flashlight/330416_1854425141.html
The one I got from Simon does not has the indicator lens.
Well, got in touch with one of the overseas resellers and was informed that the original version - nice tint LED, copper MCPCB, good driver, lens for battery warning - is no longer being produced. The only ones being made currently are the cheaped-out no frills version, with the ugly green LED, AL MCPCB, crappy driver with the stupid UI, no lens in the side.
But of course, they're still the same price. It's no longer a $23 light, it's now a $12 light that's sold for $23. Awesome! :angry: