Convoy L2/L6 modding thread

thats not true
in a 1s Setting lets say the SMD LED draws 1mA and has a voltage of 3.2V at that current
on 4V Battery voltage the resistor needs to drop 0.8V @1mA
R=U/I=0.8V/0.001A=800 Ohms

on 2S Setup
on 8V Battery voltage the resistor needs to drop 4.8V @1mA
R=U/I=4.8V/0.001A=4800 Ohms

So if you use 1600 Ohms on a 2S setup doubling the resistor value you get about 3 times the brightness
I=U/R=4.8V/1600 Ohms=3mA

I had to cut a new piece of PCB with 2 pads for the resistor, (the first one collapsed holding it with hemostats to remove the resistor) I put a 75K resistor on in place of the 51K and now the light works just fine. The SMD LED’s are still bright enough, almost more than I like as they’ll glow pretty bright in the dark. Regardless, at 75K the ramping works fine.

Same camera, same settings, same position in the same room…

Cool. That’s a lot easier than modding the switch for a seperate ground wire.

Did you say that was pink? I didn’t know that was an LED color. I’ll have look again to see if I have some.

Yep! :slight_smile: I looked at what it would take, figured I’d try reducing the impact on the circuit first, might even should have gone with 82K in place of 75K but it works and I’m happy about it… if I see the ramping having any further issues I’ll just swap the 75 out for the next larger in my book and run with it.

Thanks for all the help, this will really aid in keeping the cells ready to go as I do seem to forget quite often and put it away powered up. No more! :slight_smile:

Yeah, those in the tapes I gave you that look hot pink, they end up a nice exotic purple or lavender when lit. When I was doing tail caps I’d use one of these hot pink and one blue, looked neat.

Edit: I got 160 LEDs in the package I bought, 20 of each of 8 colors. I clipped 6 of each of those and sent them to you. :wink: (at least I THINK that’s what I did…)

just a thought of mine, why not simply solder a 50kOhms tunable resistor on the pad?

then set the brightness as you wish

Word of advice? Make sure there’s a fixed-resistor as the minimum possible resistor you’d want. Otherwise, if it just happens to be near-0 when you first power it up… :eight_pointed_black_star:pouf!:eight_pointed_black_star:. Goodbye LEDs.

So if you want the range to be roughly 20k through 50k, you can get a 22k fixed resistor and use a 22k or 25k pot.

just deliver it at lowest brightness and full resistance, so the user can tune down

add a tiny manual, not to tune below 2kOhms for 2s and 500 Ohms for 1S light

thinking about modding my l2, currently it has a xpl hi led, is it worth puting a xhp70 into it?

Better off just buying an L6 IMO. Or the S70s is not bad as well for the price.

You will need a driver that fits. You’ll also need to enlarge the hole in the reflector as well as have a way to adjust it’s height. Otherwise you may have a donut hole shaped beam with the SMO reflector.

A sliced dome xhp50.2 will probably give you a nicer, smaller hotspot compared to the xhp70. It’s not as bright, though.

Is your current L2 not bright enough for you or is the hotspot too small in your opinion?

You can get the most out of that xpl with a FET driver.

If you just want a bigger hotspot, then the xhp50 or 70 will do that.

L6 SMO now on fasttech too :

https://www.fasttech.com/products/1617/10032269/7057400-67-6mm-aluminum-alloy-smooth-smo-flashlight

I ordered this one and it’s good quality. Put it in my L6 today.

I noticed that with the light rested, cells fresh but rested, my lighted side switch acts up still. Playing with it for a few minutes it quits, so it’s like the cells are too hot at first and after some use then it works ok. The “hot” wire to the switch LED’s is coming from the actual point of intake for the positive power, the lead is soldered straight onto the 18ga lead going from driver pad to XHP-70. So the only common place is the ground wire, which is coming off the MCU. If I run a separate ground wire would that solve this? Or should I go with yet a bit more resistance? I want it to be reliable, of course, even considering the problem I’m seeing is only on the top end of the cells life, I’d like to know it’s going to do what I ask of it when I ask it.

Wondering if a capacitor at the ground wire might help… ???

I went with the XHP50 in one of my L2’s and Love it! No hacking up that beautiful reflector, the emitter fits perfectly. I frosted the dome, it’s pert near emitter artifact free,pert near, but it has 2 very slight faint rings, so if your into perfect WW beam shot gasms, don’t bother, it’s outside in the real world this XHP50 J4-1B at 8.5amps rocks in my L2! Want a little more downrange illumination shave it want even more range de-dome it :wink:

Try de-doming a 50.2! :person_facepalming:

Here’s a link to an observation/opinion about the 50.2 from one of our own BLF members, I also agree with his opinion, I tried the 50.2 emitter in several different lights, didn’t like it at all, it’s in the junk box. :smiley:


Just my .002 cents! :beer:

I still have no idea what your driver looks like. Is it piggy backed on a 30mm board or maybe you added some width to the 17mm driver?
Could you take some pictures of it?

I think it was Tom E that said the shared ground wires should have zero effect on the LED’s circuit so I don’t know why your having a problem.

Do you have any more info on frosting the dome? Wouldn’t that reduce output?

This reminds me that I need to remind Simon about something. He was going to make an OP reflector for the L2 but it got back-burnered…