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Nope, not what came in mine, mine is a blue PCB and a different layout entirely. The sense resistor sits parallel to the edge of the driver instead of pointing towards the center.
That is largely due to the reflector I think.
I have the Texas Avenger drivers in everything and they all have the same moonlight current or around 4ma.
In the small S2+ reflector I can look at it no problem but in an L2 it is painful.
Although I also prefer my moonlight mode a bit higher then most, which is why the TA drivers offer a few different moonlight brightness options.
I find the 4-5ma range to be about right for me, it is low enough to not hurt night vision but bright enough to actually be useful in things other then pitch black. Personal preference.
I am guessing that the VG10 has about the same brightness of moonlight as what I have on my other lights, it is just better focused and appears slightly brighter.
Ok, I just checked the driver out more carefully, and have a dead LED to show for it.
It is a strange setup that doesn’t make a lot of sense.
I will work my way up in voltage:
3.5v - 1.8A - 6.3W
3.8v - 2.57A - 9.75W
4V - 3A - 12W
4.2V - 3.44A - 14.5W - The limit for a non-DTP star
4.4v - 4.1A - 18.5W
4.6V - 4.5A - 21.1W = Dead emitter
Now before this I did a voltage sweep with the current limited starting at 6V and working my way down.
From 5V to 6V it actually regulated the current as it should as a buck driver, it kept the total wattage to right around ~16W (figure about 12-14W making it to the LED, which is about perfect). under 5V though it switches to direct drive FET mode and power jumps up to over 24W if you don’t limit it. It also pulls over 4A from the cells.
With CR123’s it would try to pull upwards of 4A between 4.4V and 5V, and even under that it would pull more. Most CR123’s are only rated for 2A draw.
Why the regulation cuts off at 5V I do not understand. It still has plenty of overhead to maintain regulation until 4.2V at the most. It should also regulate the power through the 18650 voltage range as well, thats the whole point of a buck driver.
The mode spacing is still good and it works fine with an 18650, it is just not the best driver around and could be vastly improved. The plus side is that it gives very good initial turn on numbers on a fresh cell. Luckily the driver is something that is easy to swap out for modders.
I put a XP-L HI in a VG10 along with a fet driver. The results were fantastic. This is at about 120 meters.
C8 with fet & dedomed XP-G2 S4 2B
ThorFire VG10 with fet and XP-L HI
I should have specified, my “official test method” of looking at the LED uses off-axis viewing where I can see the LED but not the reflection off the reflector (I can obviously still see part of the reflector when viewing off axis, but am not receiving any light off of it). So I feel like I’m observing the emitter without any impact due to the type of reflector.
I have noticed the same as you describe if looking straight-on: a deep smooth reflector can be difficult to look at straight on even if the LED is lit in “firefly” level, but a flat OP reflector could allow me to look at a relatively bright moonlight LED until the LED brightness itself becomes too much.
Thanks TA for your tests! My driver only goes up to 2.2A with a fully charged Sanyo GA and only gains 0,2A with a HE2 (which is likely due to a different voltage. lol ) 
Take a look at it if you can, my guess is you have the red driver which appears to be a real buck driver with true regulation.
The blue driver appears to be the one that is no more then a high resistance FET driver with an 18650.
Wonder why they changed drivers?
Still looks ok for single cell use, no?
No idea why the change. This driver still works fine for single cell use from a functional standpoint. The modes are way better then most. There is just no regulation and very high resistance. Ok for a stock light but not good for a modded light.
I need to put one of my unused red drivers to the test. I just yesterday finally finished my dps5015 power supply. Maybe this will be my first attempt to use it:)
How difficult is it to access the driver on this VG10? Does it require any special tools, other than a screwdriver?
Just screw off the entire head to be able to see the bottom of the driver. To remove it, snap ring pliers work best but thin needle nose pliers will usually work too.
This is my driver too. Not red and the coil has a bit of shrink tubing over it. I put in an XPL LED and the beam is a lot nicer but current draw hasn’t increased.
Not surprised the current draw didn’t increase, this driver has a LOT of resistance. You might as well be hooking up a large resistor honestly.
I must say, that vg10 with xpl hi is rather impressive!
Makes me want one
That appears to be the C8 beamshot. The VG-10 has a much more usable beam pattern.
I received my 2nd and 3rd in the mail today.
Sitting side by side and swapping the same battery back and forth, #1 does 3.42A, #2 does 3.00A, and #3 does 3.04A
Bummer. Can we see a pic of this new driver?