ENEDED

I did some minor modding with my M3 last night. The LED sits on a 16mm aluminum MCPCB that is ~1.0 mm thick. So I hot air removed the LED. I took a 16 mm Noctigon and sanded it down to about 1.35 mm thickness (from 1.6 mm stock), and reflowed the same LED on to it. I replaced the LED wires with shorter minimum length 24 AWG wires, and used a good thermal grease (GC-Extreme).

Results were nice, as expected. After 30 secs on turbo, I got a true 10% bump in lumens output, and noticed in the first 30 secs, output doesn't drop as much as it used to. Ultra low and low were unaffected, and small bump in hi mode.

Original stock turbo, lumens: 680 @start, 658 @30 secs

On Noctigon turbo, lumens: 734 @start, 724 @30 secs

So even at a relatively low 2.28A, a copper DTP MCPCB makes a nice difference.

Still want to get a decent driver in there, but may have to wait a while.

Mine too.

I bought a pack gift to give away to a beginner…
I hate “protected” but I will buy one to change it. I do not think it will be is a problem, aside to shorten battery life, but…

Edit… Checking the battery capacity on MC3000, 1A discharge rate and cut at 3V.
Charged on OTR… 4.27V… 668mAh
Charged on I4… 4.20V… 633mAh

Can be 4.35V battery? I will charge it with the OTR and I will observe for a few days.

Thank you for your post. A 16340 4.35V? I am curious about your results. Could you please report here.
If you buy protected, watch the size. I tried Olight and AW 16340. It worked but I heard the spring cracking inside when I srcewed down the tailcap.

My M3 5C came in today… This is a nice little light. I may install a Noctigon at some point, but it is not really needed. This is plenty of light output for this class of light. Freeme, thanks for the deal!

Does anyone know of a way to disable the low voltage blinking? Using 3v CR123 primary’s the LV blinker blinks constantly. Giving one to my Father-in-law along with 4 Panasonic CR123A’s.

I purchased 2 lights without the kit. I will pick up some 16340’s for myself, but my FIL won’t want to deal with charging flashlight batteries.

and I thought my CR123 was running out of juice. Guess not. Thanks. I like how it lights up RED with OTR on it.

I just tested with my Soshine RCR123 3V LiFePo4. LVP kicked in about 2.8V. I doubt that is a method to disable the flashing red light.

Forgive my ignorance, is there driver that is able to differentiate the battery types and fully drain the cell?

I received mine today. I ordered the 1A and I’m going to tell you that is the brightest 600 lumens I’ve ever seen. It’s as bright as my convoy s2 8*7135 1a. You can’t tell the difference between them when I double click my OTR M3 it’s bright. I really love it.

I don’t think there is any driver that can differentiate cell types. You would think it would be easy to code the driver to disable the blinking LV indicator, since they had to code it to function in the first place. My Chinese is nil or I would email them to ask.

The Fenix E15 does kind of differentiate. https://budgetlightforum.com/t/-/37480

I have an S2+ 8*7135 arriving so I can’t compare yet but someone did a review here and basically said the same.

So far this light is taking over my Olight S1 for EDC duty. I’m tempted to get another one.

Convoy S2+ 8*7135 should be brighter as OTR M3 is ~400mA behind.

That is a very good video review.I agree 100% to me it is every bit of 920 lumens.

Just got my M3 - the 5C model. It is quite bright and, yes, rivals my S2+ 7135x8.

I really like the modes and the way the blinkies are hidden. Nice to have them if I need them but out of my way.

I’m going to carry it in my EDC bag for a while and see how it goes. Right now, I’m not sure. The truth is that it may actually be TOO small for my everyday needs.

Very nice light though. Looks well made and it’s definitely a handsome torch.

One last thing. The button. It’s very… different. At first it felt faulty, but it’s just different than any of the other lights I’ve had. After a bit of playing with it, it started to feel normal to me.

July 05 - 4.27V
July 19 - 4.22V

thanks freeme

awesome little lightd

For the OTR fans, M6 group buy is coming soon.

How can we not have a 18650 version?

Great news! :+1:

:heart_eyes:

I am interested