Convoy L2/L6 modding thread

Question about the “old” new L2 Banggood L2 host

I like the block style knurling on the tube instead of the new style. But what else is changed?
Is it 17mm driver hole in the old one or 20mm like the new?

Also there was talk of single cell tubes for the L6, what style of knurling is it on that?

Regards
Erik

I like the block knurling better too, it just wasn’t very doable with the single-plus-extension approach as it’s nearly impossible to get the blocks to line up properly and Simon didn’t care for that aesthetically. He went with the “ring style” to avoid mismatched blocks. But to appease me and a few others he did make a single piece two cell tube with the block style knurling. That’s still available in the Convoy store as far as I know and the single cell block style tube will fit both the L2 and the L6 so that one’s covered. I imagine that new tube should be on sale pretty much as soon as the store reopens.

As far as what else changed on the L2 from the single cell version to the convertible (current model), the driver pocket went from 17mm to 20.5mm. The single cell version used the 17mm LD-25 driver and the current version uses the 20mm LD-29 driver that allows use with either one or two cells. Other than that the longer tube added the threaded tactical ring which can be swapped with a simple ring that just disappears and hides the threads for the ring if you don’t like the tac-ring. I think that pretty much covers the changes.

Finally got most of rings, hazy fuzy corona out of the Convoy Test Smooth reflector L6 XHP35 E4-3C HD build! By diffusing the bottom shelf of the reflector from the emitter hole, up the side about 2mm! The Ole PFLEXPro Hybrid Reflector Mod,Thanks Randy! :+1:

Now for the 4S 26500 battery tube mod. Used a fine wire, wire wheel on my DotCo die grinder to remove the non conductive material.

Finally found a use for all those beauty rings I have laying around! :smiley:

Now that don’t look too awful bad, now does it! It’ll work for me!

2S tube and the extension.

Bro’s! In XHP35’s JAX X6 Hunter 3+ amps E4-1C HI and the L6 3+ amps XHP35HD E4-3C

Looks pretty close to 3,000 lumens to me…

Excuse my noob sounding post.

I’ve wanted to bump up the power on my L6, but didn’t have a resistor. I started thinking about the stock FX30 driver I bought at Kaidomain. I had planned to swap it into my L6 and do mods to it, but decided not to. What’s funny is that it was supposed to come with an R100 and R082 resistor and is supposed to pull about 4.5 amps on high. Simon modded his drivers with a pair of R082 to bump up the output to 5.25 or so. I started looking at the stock driver and it’s not like the photos, it actually had a pair of R082 resistors on it. How odd. Maybe the manufacturer decided to alter them for a bit more power? IDK.

Anyway, I was robbed of an R100 resistor so I decided to pull an R082 off of it and add it to the Convoy driver. It was a pain working with something so tiny, but I had success. It works and no burnt smells. Yay!

I just bought a lux meter and measured the output from a ceiling bounce test. Turbo went up from 311 to 341 when measured at same voltage and after 30 seconds. I don’t know if that’s a big increase, but I can see less yellow around the hotspot. It definitely warms up quicker, but that’s not an issue for me as I use it for short bursts of 10 to 20 seconds mostly. Now to take it to work and use it normally for a week and see if I notice it’s brighter and if the batteries end up at about the same 3.6 to 3.8 volt range after the last day.

if i could ask, what would be the logistics of making an illuminated tail switch?
any interference with the UI?

Not as much of a problem doing the illuminated tail switch on a single cell L2 as it would be for a 2 cell L6. No expert on it and haven’t followed Pilotdog on it so he might have figured how to do the 8.4V reliably, you might check with him.

I`ve tested tonight L2 / XPL W2 1A@ 6.2 amps agains 1s L2 dded XHP35 E4 1A @ 1.6 amps, both emitters gave nearly the same output, arround or equal at 2000 lumens yet W2 is like 300 000cd and e4 like 215 000

Unfortunately my XHP35 driver fails above 1.6 amps( on a long term base, coil/heat issues) but i guess that at 2.–2.7 amps the XHP will perform kida equal: more lumens yet lower cds : a 2.5 amps driver XHP35 gives like 2500lm/250cds in the L2 host but with a different driver

The lighted tailcap works fine at 8.4V assuming the driver works with it. You just have to adjust the resistance for the higher voltage (takes about twice the tailcap resistance).

Perhaps for you, but I’ve found the UI to be messed up when trying to use the lighted tail cap with a Zener modified FET. I had reduced resistance to 11K ohm on the tail switch lighted board.

I’d venture to say it’s not always going to be a straightforward or easy addition to a light. Don’t know if it’d work on the stock L6 driver at all without some modifications.

Edit: It’s MUCH easier to put a clear boot in place of the black one and install a tritium vial sideways through the post inside the boot. No drain on the cells, easy to find it in the dark.

i like the tritium post idea.

tryig to work out all the electronics hurts my head, but some of the boys on this forum do it with ease, bastards. :wink:

still amazes me as to how far and how complicated some lights have become, seems like the battery and led tech has gotten to the point that only heat dissa[ation is the bottle-neck.Seems as tho the next generation of lights are gonna all posses some form of active cooling.
either way, very interesting.

MRsDNF already built a large one with air cooling holes through the finned pill, the next step would be to install a small MCU controlled fan and link it to the temperature. With a lot of the drivers now going to ATTiny25 and ATTiny85, the storage space is there for programming fan controls I would think, so yeah, just a matter of time…

I took off both R082 resistors and put a small piece of wire across the pads. The light still only hits ~5.25A on turbo. I have myself convinced that bridging the pads should give me all the amps the FX30 has to offer. What am I missing?

What cells are you using? Bridging the pads should give you 9A+ with good cells.

Unprotected Keeppower 5200mAh fresh off the charger.

The bridge isnt good/ the springs are loose/ the spring/battery contact isnt good/ the driver ground isnt good/your MM isnt accurate or your MM cables arent thick enough….so many reasons…

Like TA said: arround 9 amps, pay attention that the driver could mallfunction with this mod( i have several friedalready) especialy on a long term base

I’ve reflowed the bridge a few times, so I feel confident it’s good. The bridge wire is a solid piece of 22AWG. I’m measuring current using a clamp with a 3” piece of 16AWG between battery and tube edge.

Thanks for the heads up on how aggressive the bridge is. I plan to swap the driver out soon anyway, so I’ll probably just abandon this quest for now and focus on that. I want to move to FET based and Narsil for ramping.

Has anyone here noticed that the stock L6 reflector seems to press down on the red and black wire insulation more than it presses down on the centering ring?

I can remove my centering ring and the reflector won’t go down any farther.

I’ve got an smo reflector now and I’m trying to think of a way to get it lower to improve the focus. Some have swapped to wires with thinner insulation, but why not just cut some small holes in the reflector base to clear the wire and solder blob. Then I can drop the reflector a lot more to see if it helps the focus.

The reflector shoulders and bottoms out on the head I.D. Even shimming the mcpcb board up with a stripped board, the leads/reflector bottom interferes. Relieving or clearing the base of the reflector has to be done, use painters tape to cover both emitter hole and reflector top to keep most of the crap out, clear the interference by filing, sanding or machining, its alot of work, be careful don’t break thru into the reflector surface.

I machine the head to accept a 32mm Noctigon (XP/XHP35 build) or 26mm Maxtoch (XHP70/50 build)

Or cut/ machine the bottom out of the reflector out, and shim the mcpcb to focus…

The stock OP reflector measure 2.6mm clearance between centering ring and reflector base.

In this example, did you change to some different screws to apply downward pressure on the MCPCB since the reflector is no longer pushing it down?

Correct. Drilled and tapped the solid aluminum press fit pill for 2mm flat head screws, the pill was pocketed to keep the mcpcb board on center.