A few things could cause them to be different brightness levels:
Different modes: The lights have two brightness levels. To change between them, click 7 times while the light is off. It should cycle through low, high, blinking, and off.
Different colors: Each of the 3 colors (red, green, blue) and 4 combinations (yellow, cyan, purple, all) makes a different amount of light. To change the color, click 7 times while the light is off, but hold the last click until it reaches the color you want.
Different battery charge levels. A full battery is brighter than a low battery.
If you get them both into high mode at the same color and the same charge level, and they still are different, they could possibly have different resistor values. Do you have a multimeter? If so, try measuring the current at the tail of the light while the aux LEDs are in high mode. It should be about 1 mA to 5 mA. If it’s much higher, like 20 mA to 40 mA, a resistor could be missing or bypassed.
There’s a pretty good chance the current is too low to measure with a clamp meter. Those can measure high current easily, but are pretty bad at low current. If it has a non-clamp mode which uses a direct connection though, it may still work.
That looks like a pretty decent clamp meter, but its specified precision in its lowest range is /- 8 mA 2%. So if it’s measuring a 3 mA signal, with an error margin of 8 mA, the readings may not be precise enough to be useful. However, it seems to have a zero function which can be used after putting everything in place but before actually turning the light on… and that might help.
So it might work. It’s just not the tool generally used for this sort of thing. It’s a bit like trying to measure grams on a bathroom scale instead of a jeweler’s scale.
Hello ToyKeeper,
I am the proud owner of a D4V2 with the well-known bug.
I noticed that the last position of the AUX LEDS (Volt) does not indicate the correct voltage.
The battery is charged with 4,2 V, the AUX LEDs show red.
Can this have something to do with the bug?
I also have two D4v2s and on low, I also notice a slight difference in brightness of the auxillaries, even though they are both using the same kind of fully charged batteries. On bright, it is harder to see a difference. It really doesn’t bother me.
Are you quite sure you are in voltage mode on your auxillaries? If you are, occasionally, I have found that briefly, the auxillaries will show a lower voltage color, immediately after the light had been run on turbo. The color then corrects after a minute or so.
For the record, on an 18500 with Nichia’s (and the limitation applied therein) mine showed around 2200 lumens. With the Nichia’s swapped out to Samsung LH351D W6 5000K emitters it makes 2960 lumens on the same cell, 3320 lumens on a Molicel 26A 18650 with the longer battery tube. Nichia limitation still in play. Should prove interesting what she’ll do if I get the firmware flashed to a non-restricted version…
I will say, if tiny tight soldering is not your thing or if you have little experience modding compact packed lights you should probably stay out of this one! It is pretty tight in there and time consuming to disassemble and then reassemble properly.
