My name is Martin and my quest for a decent headlamp when snowmobiling lead me here. I hope to find some good help here and learn a lot and after a while help others.
It all started with buying one of these, looks the same atleast.
It’s a bright light and nice put together I think but not powerful enough.
I then saw this and thought that bigger is better, should handle the heat better since it’s much bigger then my first light and I hoped that it would spread the light better illuminating a bigger area.
Sadly the light wasn’t working at all when I got it and I’ve been emailing with lightmalls since. I hoped that they would fix it quick and just send me a new one but NO. I’ve understood that all lights, cheap ones atleast aren’t driven to there full potential so what ever I get chances are it won’t be bright enough. I paid $68.40 for it so it’s already a pricey light but I’m starting to think that I should keep it and put in a new driverboard, which hopefully will make it better(more powerful although I don’t know if it needs it…). Since it’s big and has 7 T6 it should be a good one to mod or? I don’t think I will need to put the leds to there max. I would like something that puts out about the same as my light on my snowmobile and it has 55-60w halogen and I think thats about 1000 lumen?
What should I do, keep it? Send it back and get a new one? Perhaps it’s easy to mend, to start with… Or is there something better for me out there?
It would be fun though to modify it Soldering is not a problem and I have basic skills in electronics.
Keep annoying Lightmalls about it, but they do not have a reputation for customer service at all.
A replacement driver for a 7xT6 is not likely available, and then it must be the right size also. More likely is that you can tune up the existing driver. So whenever you are ready to give up communicating with Lightmalls, open the light up, see if there is an easy fix for the light not to work. If it is reapaired, make a picture of the driver and post it here, I'm sure you will get advice on how to get more light out of it.
And the same counts for your first light, a 3x XM-L should be sufficient for 1500 lumens out-the-front.
My new light is big, dimensions are : Length*Head diameter *Tail Diameter=76.0*63.5*53.2mm so there must be quite good with space in it. It should dissipate the heat better, more area. The switch is also on top so you should be able to mount a driver on the back(inside of course). Is it possible to disconnect a few leds and run a 5x driver instead?
The driver sold from LM (lightmalls) is also sold from KD (Kaidomain.com) and IOS (intl-outdoor.com), the last one a much more serious store than KD and LM. Several people have used it. Its good for high output. It will certainly make your light very hot (when used on high), which is not something I would worry too much about...
What is your input voltage/battery source? Did you use that for the 7 XM-L light?
Are you able to tell if its an electronic or mechanical switch?
@djozz
I agree it would be a pity but could be an option if you just want to use/benefit from the bigger size of this light. But it looks like 7x driver is available.
@RaceR86
Thank you and thanks for your reply! If I decide to go that route I will get a driver from IOS!
I’ve used the battery that I got with the 3x light above. As I understand these types of batteries don’t give the amount of amps a powerful light need, therefor I wanted to see first if my 7x light was powerful enough or if I needed to modify it and therefor also need a better battery…I ordered the 7x light without a battery.
In the end I will need a battery or two that will give me 2-3h of running time. Perhaps I will get some Li-poly batteries along the way if it’s required.
No I don’t know what type of switch it uses, could you please explain the difference?
Im not sure how the battery pack to your first 3 XM-L light is wired. But if there are 2 or more batteries in series, that might be the reason why your 7XM-L light never worked. The driver on the 7XM-L light may not be able to deal with more than 4,2V max (one cell, or several cells in parallel). If that is/was the case, there is a possibility you fried something when connecting that battery-pack. This is just guesswork and speculation, because it looks like the 7 XM-L light uses an electronic switch, and have space for a driver circuit which comes with SRK (Sky-Ray King)type lights, and they are usually 4,2V max.
Electronic vs mechanical switch is described quite good here.
If the light uses an electronic switch you can not use that switch with the 7 XM-L driver (that requires a mechanical switch). I would not recommend to order that driver circuit unless you have confirmed mechanical switch and that there is room for the driver circuit.
If the light uses an electronic switch and uses a 46,2mm driver circuit you probably be better off with this driver assuming you wire it correctly and do not feed it more than 4,2V.
Before ordering anything, I would open up the light and try and figure out what is wrong..
From the description I would guess that it’s an electronic switch. Wouldn’t it be possible to use an electronic switch with a transistor or relay to make it handle the current with another driver? If there is enough space of course.
Yes, I will open it up first if I decide to keep it. Just looking at my options. I could start with returning it and getting a working one and take it from there. It’s just the hassle with returning it and the wait…haven’t decided what to do yet.
Hi martin, did you fix it? I reviewed the light on another forum . My light works flawlessly. Did you check all the cables? This light is causes you an awful time to assemble it without bending and twisting cables But it eats about ~32-36W of power from battery so it is quite powerfull as they wrote on their webpage.
Regarding my broken light I have opened it up and found two loose wires going to the board with the on off button. Lightmalls claimed that he checks all lights before shipping, well he didn’t check mine. I’ve planned to mail him and ask for a picture of the on-off board with the correct wiring but haven’t got to that yet. Perhaps you could help me with that?
Also on the on off board there are one led but on the circuit board there is a marking for another led, my board only has one led. A picture of the board would be really helpfull!
Yes the cables are a mess, some poor soldering on mine atleast and the underside of the on off button board could make a nice short circuit, to me a weird solution but cheap.
It’s an interesting light, big and the circuitboard is also big, when I look at it with my amature eyes it sure looks like it could handle alot of current, but what do I know (not much)
Thanks Well now I have 2 of these 7 XM-L lights and another on the way. I like its power out of the box since you don’t need to touch current sense resistor and very good alloy heatsinking. Weird thing is that the first came with XM-L2 T6 4C leds (neutral white) and second came with XM-L T6 or U2 but cool white. So I am curious what sort of leds the third light will have :D I am going to change all leds for XM-L2 with neutral white but it cost money so it is not that budget light anymore But indeed the driver of the light is very powerful the best one I have seen among these budget lights and the disco mode is hidden. If I have too much courage again I dissassemble it again and post you the button board picture if you can’t figure out the puzzle of the wires.
Is there any difference in efficency between the different leds? Do you know if it possible to do a resistor modification to get more light?
I understand, the wires is a mess and short… I’ve tried to sort it out but if I recall there is 4 connections total on the board and with two loose wires it is hopeless. I will email lightmalls, he said that he would help me.
There should be about 20% efficiency between XM-L and XM-L2. Yes mine are all from Lightmalls. I think resistor mod will be possible (you may add additional heatsinking to the driver board), but this 7 XM-L without resistor mod is as powerful as the one you gave in link 7T6 with the resistor mod. You should have 7 wires going from/to the board. The red/black from the battery, another thick red/black to leds and finally red/black/white thin ones going to power button (I think the thin white is the wire to the green led on the button PCB, black is usual minus but I will try to find that out).
Thanks, that is a big help!! Thank you! I will take a look at the light soon when I get back home in a couple of days.
I tried this one last night out riding on my snowmobile. As I mentioned I’ve done the resistor mod to it and I think it’s powerfull enough, perhaps I need more light but that kan be fixed by having two of them.
I have soldered my loose wires now and it got the leds on the back of the light going but not the leds that matter
MK96 does your board look like this? Notice the green little dot on the led in the right upper corner. If you look at the markings on the other side where one led is missing you get the feeling that my led should be in the other direction? Also while measuring I’ve notices that the led is green but on the board it’s marked “RLED” and while on the right emty location it’s marked “GLED”. It makes no sense!
Perhaps I should have started a project thread about this but right now I don’t know were this is going, we will see soon I guess!
Soldering is not a problem and I have basic skills in electronics.
But it eats about ~32-36W of power from battery so it is quite powerfull as they wrote on their webpage.
Well now I have 2 of these 7 XM-L lights and another on the way. I like its power out of the box since you don’t need to touch current sense resistor and very good alloy heatsinking. Weird thing is that the first came with XM-L2 T6 4C leds (neutral white) and second came with XM-L T6 or U2 but cool white. So I am curious what sort of leds the third light will have :
