I don't think it's really the leads (although obviously they have a part in the low reading).
I took your advice and made leads from 16AWG wire, about 5cm long. I even enlarged the contact area by making a loop at the wire ends. These should be able to pass through enough current, I think.
Give it a go with 3AAA. If it is about the same brightness then you almost certainly have a bad cell. If you have a light meter - a photographic one will do fine for this - take a note of the exposure or brightness with each. The 3AAA configuration should give quite a lot less than the 18650.
I ordered one of the same dropins from monafont late Jan and I still haven’t had it arrive. I’ve emailed them and so far no response. Hopefully it arrives this week as it’s well overdue. Reading this thread it also worries me a bit that possibly the new batch have a poor driver. In any case I just want the drop in I ordered
After everything I've read about the Manafont XM-L (sku 5720) I'm anxious for some low-price-high-output goodness. (ordered a week ago) Oh well; if a driver change is necessary, I may have to see how rusty my soldering skills have become.
Unfortunately, I don't have any other 18650s, and I doubt any new order would be here in time for a return from Manafont.
I don't think I can take the pill apart, to take a look at the driver - the back plate is soldered to the pill and the emitter has some protective plastic disc that seems to be glued to the pill.
Some photos, anyway. The emitter is not centered properly and is not soldered straight on its base.
I only have the two Q5s from tMart (my other lights are AA/AAA), and they both draw 500mA with my multimeter test leads, or 700mA with the 16AWG leads I made.
Well you can try a different battery when you have the chance. If happens that the dropin is faulty contact manafont. They have replaced a burnt R5 to me quite over the paypal protection limit. Actually i would be surprised if you ever need to resort to paypal. Perhaps inform them of the annoyance now and after testing is done ask them how can it be solved if needed at all. Looks like lowly cell to me. I have yet to get something not up to spec from them but might happen one day.
Ok, I tested with the 3xAAA, and it gave me about 300-400mA @ high.
But I'm really not sure I tested it well, I could barely attach the battery pack to the drop-in, and I used just the thin test leads and some thin wire crocodiles.
I also tried the 3xAAA with the 16AWG wire I have, and it gave me 1.5A, but the LED didn't turn on.
I later tested the drop-in again with the 18650, and it gave the same readings as before - ~700mA with the multimeter test leads. (and ~ 300-400mA with the crocodiles, the same setup as I used with the 3xAAA, so I guess the crocodiles really limit the current flow).
I wish my magnets would arrive already, and I can make some more reliable measurements.
While I still suspect of the cells, I have one UF 3000ma which not delivered more than 1.3A, these drop-in is faulty, the bad position of the emitter compromise his ability to spread the heat since the central path is misaligned
Could be reflowed but is not a task for a newie, probably you would ruin it...contact the seller , with the pic is enough...