I have a Yezl M6 in XM-L (which no longer seems to be sold in XM-L at CNQG), and I removed the reflector in order to clean it. I cleaned it and replaced the reflector, and now it seems to be stuck in low mode (or possibly even lower than low...hmmm). I unscrewed the pill and tried it with just an 18650 + wire (the battery read 4.12v), and it will only run in low mode. I assume I somehow damaged/fried the driver...not sure how...any thoughts? Any good recommendations for a decent XM-L driver?
Just check that the reflector is not shorting out the little metal pads on top of the XM-L or the conextions on it's MCPCB.
I was told, to clean a reflector (or even to touch it), is most likely to ruin it. So, I did't even try that yet and allways handled them like raw eggs. How did you clean it?
Some reflectors you can be rough with others you can just wipe the silver finish off, sadly theres no way to tell untill you try...
Guesswork can be eliminated by treating every kind of reflector carefully.
For cleaning the delicate surfaces of vacuum deposit reflectors, distilled water, isopropyl alcohol and compressed air are recommended.
If you accidentally shorted across the LED leads with the reflector, I would imagine the driver is fried. That's exactly what happened when I shorted the leads in my Tank007. I noticed it was VERY dim afterward. I ended up removing the components from the driver board and using it direct drive. Since that Yezl seems to be a single-18650 lamp, you could look into direct driving it as well...
I'll tear into the driver then and look at direct drive as a possibility...I could always add a driver. As far as the cleaning of the reflector goes, I had no idea they were that fragile...sounds like a telescope mirror...now I know. That's definitely not the problem in this case, but I do appreciate the good info. I'm guessing I shorted the driver out as keltex suggested, arrrrgh
I've ruined a couple of SMO reflectors wiping them with micro-fiber cloths. They scratch really easy.
Foy