I was responding to this bit: “even though one guy on here who took the driver apart said it would run an MT-G2.” (comfychair definitely fired up an MT-G2 with one of those DQG 26650 drivers somewhere, I do not recall whether it was in that thread or not.)
MechEngVictor was definitely referencing theomajigga’s thread as well of course. My thoughts on theomajigga’s driver are pretty neutral. Theomajigga’s initial posts refer erred to it as “working”, but that’s a relative term. Later posts by theomajigga made it clear that the driver in it’s then-current iteration was not “working right”. No useful information or hints were posted in the thread. At this stage (the long silence stage) I have shelved any thoughts about that driver and I do not intend to think about it again until theomajigga returns.
Definitely a major issue DB. The other bad part is that input current gets higher and higher as battery voltage drops! With that said, while applications are limited I do feel that “3v input” boost driver development will be tackled by BLF driver folks at some point.
Pretty sure the OP’s target is a single 26650, if we’re having issues bumping output from a single cell to 6V, how is doubling that going to be so easy?
Last time I looked at my Meteor, it’s 4 cells in there. And FAR from a 17mm driver… also criteria named in the OP’s leading statement.
On the flip side, I think it’d be great to get a nice boost driver (doesn’t have to be 17mm, but handy as so many hosts take this size), that can deliver 2A to something like an MT-G2 from a single cell.
I’d love an MT-G2 in 4000k in an EDC sized light (S2 or p60 size ideally). I want it for the tint and the beam profile in addition with good, rather than stellar lumen output. At the moment the only real option is to run 2x18350 which just gives pathetic runtimes.
An MT-G2 @ 2A is likely producing more lumens than most hot rod Nichia setups or even moderate XM-L2/XP-L setups.
Going up a size, I really like the JM35. I very much like that it is single cell. I prefer it to my SRK. A similar torch is the FourSeens MMU which runs an SST-90 from a single cell. This is one of my favourite torches. FourSevens claim “800 lumen ANSI FL1”. But it brighter than my BLF A6 on Turbo. An off the shelf driver that would make it easy to build such lights without full on bespoke customisations would be great IMO.
I’m having a go at a boost driver for 17mm driver sized lights to run off a single cell (18650 in my case). I wouldn’t know the efficiency, probably not good, but I’m only out to have better run times than two 18350 cells with about 2 to 2.5 amps to the MT-G2. I am ordering components and will make a mock-up board to see if it works before designing a driver board.
Then what you want is a F6DD with mixed-tint XPL-HIs. 1A+3B+5C. Over 3500 lumens of very pretty light and fits in a shirt pocket.
That explains where I've been the last year+... I finally found the one perfect light for just about everything. After that, the rest of the stuff around here can get a bit tedious.
I'm kinda surprised someone hasn't jumped on the F6DD thing to build them for others. It's all been figured out and perfected, it's a slick package.
The reflector is really not designed for this led so I sprayed it to make it OP. There are still some minor artefacts in the beam but it’s not bad over all. I think, from memory, I get 4.5 amps draw at the tail (charged cell). I did a quick comparison with a sportac triple nichia and the beam is smoother on the sportac but to my ‘calibrated eyes’ I reckon the mtg2 puts out more light. I have a P60 (2x 18350) sized mtg2 that I should have compared with but totally didn’t think about it at the time. I’m sure I’ll get around to comparing all three.
Yeah I’ve seen that driver before, although the specs on it are hard to read. So I wasn’t sure how it’d actually perform. Good to hear it seems to be working ok thus far.
6A on the DQG boost driver is 6A input current, not 6A output current. That means you’ll get a whopping 2A-3A maximum output into an XHP50/70 with a fresh battery, falling quickly as the battery sags.
I’ve built some XHP50 UF1405s and IMO it is a poor emitter choice for a zoomie, unless all you want is flood. I took them outside together with my UF1405 with a dedomed XM-L2 at 5.1A and I would take the XM-L2 over the XHP50 in that light any day. No point having a huge lens like that if you don’t want throw!
I agree. We don’t need super driver efficiency if it means having to use a space-inefficient, low capacity battery like two 18350s. Where’s the efficiency in that?
All we need is the ability to use a space-efficient 18650 in a single battery format with AVERAGE driver efficiency to get AVERAGE run times.
Once again, we shouldn’t have sky-high expectations and ask for super efficiency and super run times.
Thanks for all the comments. I guess I’m having BLF post issues… I checked on this thread for a couple of days after I posted it and it showed I didn’t have any comments. Now today, (3 weeks later) I get a notice I have a new comment, then I check it out and see that there were several comments, some made the same day I posted… go figure.