Just got a friendly reminder today about the potential for trouble with some of the really high output lights. I EDC an S6 triple XP-L with a DD driver, and as I was clicking my seat belt I must have turned it on. Luckily I was looking down at the seat belt latch so I saw it turn on. By the time I got the flap of the case open (3-5 seconds max) smoke was coming out from around the head.
No, thankfully I’m not writing this from the burn ward. The few seconds it took me to get the light off was enough to do this to the case.
One of these days I’m going to see if this guy really can start a fire with a fresh battery and some tinder. I’m starting to think maybe it can.
My kids love to find dark places to use my SunwaymaV11R or M10A. And last week or the week before they left it under the blanket, ON.. an my wife was kinda angry because of leaving those flashlight unattended. The blanket and mattress were hot, but not as hot as yours!!
I've just started to look at the S6 and others as a host for a triple mod... stating to have second thoughts about DD. I'm finding that a tailcap lock-out is very handy for EDC's.
I was checking out reviews for headlamps on YouTube, I can’t remember what one, but the reviewer burnt a hole in something, I think it was his couch from the heat coming out the front.
I melted a hole in my fleece jacket last year. I had removed the jacket and in doing so had inadvertently turned on a tweaked 2010 that was in the pocket. I returned to the room a short while later to the smell of melted plastic!
Dont think it would have started a fire, but it was a bit of a wakeup call
I've only built a few DD XP-L triples like this, and all of them start on low with no memory (this is why). Glad you didn't get burned! Even the 6A triples can cause some mayhem, but not nearly as fast as the 9A-10A ones do.
I made a triple XHP-70 M6 for a friend that does close to 14,000 lumens. He’s used to showing off his lights at work by shining the light at a piece of white typing paper at arms length. This time, he got a surprise! At only a second or so on time, it took him 5-10 minutes to be able to get back to work on his computer…couldn’t see anything on it!
I’ve burned those 3 holes in the lining of a jacket pocket, trying to stay warm while taking eclipse pics I figured I could turn my 5000 lumen M6 on in the pocket to warm my hand. Like you said, it only took a second or two and the smell gave away what was happening!
By biggest fear with these high drain lights is the possibility of a short welding the circuit together and going ballistic. I know it’s not likely, there’s a lot of weak links that will “fuse” this kind of event, but still, it’s scary getting 4 or more of the high drain cells going knowing full well what they’re capable of.
I’m trying to go with more clicky switch lock-out’s on my lights as well. Never hurts but man what it can save!
It’s a triple XP-L V6 3C build using a brass spacer I turned on the lathe and silver bearing soldered directly to the pill, MCPCB soldered directly to the spacer. Running a BLF17DD driver, braided springs at both ends, lighted tailcap.
Efest Purple is my battery of choice. Never measured the current, but it does a bit over 4000 lumens on a freshly charged Efest…. For a minute at a time.
Yup, triple XPL on a DD17 in my sinner 18350 with purple efest and copper braid bypassing the spring will burn through the pocket and give you a second degree burn. Lucky I was in denim and not in nylon or other more flammable material when I did that and burned my thigh. Could have cooked my giblets or worse. I wonder if we could make a safety switch? Flip the cover to hit the switch? Is there something like that in production?
I have a tiny Red 200mw laser that I carry most of the time. It’s based on a Maglite solitaire and uses a 10440 battery. It will burn and gets hot pretty fast, but being a twisty, I haven’t had it turn on yet.
My triple MT-G2 M6 light (about 18A on full) went on in my backpack, lots of smoke coming out. I’ve since then programmed a lock out feature, requiring a specific turn on sequence of presses to unlock.
OK, this got me thinking about putting a magnetic (Hall effect) kill switch into the driver so that a magnet in the holster would keep it activated (killed) if the light was ON and still in the holster. And before you ask, no, I don't know where this could be squeezed in. Nor do I know exactly how to embed a magnet into the holster such that it doesn't matter what orientation the light is in.
Just some food for thought for the clever minds we have here.
