So what about your L2, PD? Did charging up the battery help? I think you should see at least 150 kcd, even 200+ kcd is possible with high binned XP-L HI.
The XP-L HI in that L2 isn’t that hard to focus properly. I’ve done it three times. The first time I raised the emitter by soldering a copper disc underneath the MCPCB, but for the last two I went without that, but achieved the same well focused result.
For a L2 with dedomed XP-G2 I had to raise the emitter as well, that one was much more a PITA to focus as the XP-L HI.
I have another L2 that I wanted to build up for a friend (XP-G2 dedomed + FET-Driver), but ran out of FET drivers, so I put a sliced XP-E2 @2,1A in there, just for fun. Now that is a pencil beam. Since it was just for fun and won’t stay like that, I didn’t fiddle around with focus too much, probably should though, to see what it’s good for…
So now, I have three L2’s, one with XP-L HI, one with dedomed XP-G2, one with the sliced XP-E2. However, I’ll keep just one, still have to decide which. Would have posted beamshots that compare the three, but have only two working tail-caps right now, since one is in the progress of beeing converted to a reverse clicky. Not as easy as it sounds! I really dislike the stock forward switches, fried three out of five during the usual bypass operation.
The cell in the L2 was a lot lower than I thought: 3.6v. I didn’t have time to let it charge last night so I’ll test it again tonight. I’ve been considering moving to dedomed XP-G2 in it, after these readings I might give it a shot.
I thought for sure my Courui would be above 300kcd, and I know the cells are for sure over 4v in that one. The focus being bad is the only thing I can think of.
That’s what I was worried with getting a meter, that it would make me unhappy with lights I previously enjoyed. For that reason I don’t think I’ll make a sphere or pipe. I mainly wanted the meter to measure before/after for the upcoming TM16 mod.
Well I still can’t decide what I like better in an L2, the dedomed XP-G2 with more lux or the XP-L HI with more lumen and better tint. I’d say the XP-L HI is more practical in use. The sliced XP-E2 is funny and maybe cool to have that kind of reach @ 2,1A, but not practical at all. One day I had a fox lit up maybe 200-300 ft away, I had to hold that light soooo steady just to keep him inside the beam… Dedomed XP-G2 is somewhere in between, but compared to the sliced XP-E2, even the dedomed XP-G2 is so much more practical.
I hear you on the measuring stuff, PD. I don’t like to measure the heck out of my lights, I simply like em or I don’t, don’t care much about numbers.
Yes, stock reflector but i might be wrong about the current because it is direct driven, no driver at all, so it might be higher. At the time of the test i had three 25R’’s in it, ive seen that same led pull just over 5A from a single cell, so with 3 in parallel there might be a bit more juice delivered to the led.
My TM16 is making 109.75Kcd, essentially stock… I didn’t change anything on the driver, still has the NW (on the warm side of NW) emitters, but I used 18ga Turnigy leads throughout, in place of the 20ga they used.
So I’d say you’re in the ballpark.
I’m using fresh charged LG HE-2 Button Tops.
Direct Drive for Turbo? Where does that info come from? I see an R010 sense resistor on the driver… mine tests out at a bit over 4100 lumens.