Convoy L6... XHP70 Beast!

Bypassing what territories have been entered and just looking at numbers, my L6 with SMO reflector and (nice tint :slight_smile: ) XHP70.2 does 4500 lumen (just re-measured) with 100kcd throw, and the hottest XHP70.2 mod has about twice the output, so also about twice the throw.

Back at post #4264 here I mentioned my throw # of 195 kcd taken at 5m. Thinking that's bout best you can do with a domed XHP70.2.

It has the XHP70.2 P2 3B, SMO, full TA triple channel NarsilM mod, bypasses, etc.

That is on this same page and I missed it :person_facepalming:
All numbers look pretty consistent, and did anyone get even more throw with a sliced XHP70.2? Or has that not been done yet?

Hhmmmm, dunno if any measured #'s. Word is it doesn't help much, but not sure what that means. KB1428 has certainly dedomed anything and everything (), but not sure if he's got #'s, etc.

I got an SMO shipping today for the Haikelite MT07, already got the same XHP70.2 in it that does about 200 kcd with the stock OP at lower amps, so should bump well once converting the driver to FET based and swapping in the SMO.

Woah, hold on there. Doubling the 1 meter numbers does not even come close to doubling the throw. More like a 30% throw increase.

Throw is also very dependent on the focusing of the reflector. If you wanted max throw with the xhp70 you could slice the dome off to get a smaller hotspot and increase the throw, but you end up with an overall weaker output.

I stopped chasing throw and instead focused on a good balance between brightness and hot spot size.

When expressed in distance: yes just 30%, when expressed in kcd, throw is simply lineair with output.

I just did a few tests on my L6 with Liitokalas, 70.2, fet and smo. A rather disappointing 172 kcd. About 830m. Still, it’s impressive to see in person.

This is coming from an L6 that bone stock did 58 kcd 481m.

I remember that slicing the dome off my xhp70 gave a 24% boost, from 92,500 to 115,000. It might be worth it to a “throw seeker” to slice the 70.2 and see what happens.

If you did see a 24% boost in candela, that would take my 172 kcd to 213 kcd which would be 923m. That’s pretty impressive.

What's the bin/tint of the 70.2? Are the springs bypassed, LED wires heavy gauge? Form what distance do you measure throw from?

Agree - 24% bump in kcd is decent.

I’m only getting 155.55Kcd as I’ve got the original OP reflector.

It’s a P2 1D.

Since its a TA driver, no bypass needed on the driver spring. I burnt through a lot of tail spring bypasses, but the 18ga wire seems to be holding up.

18ga LED wires.

Distance is 5 meters.

Now about your last sentence, is that related to your earlier questions or seperate?

That’s really good for an OP reflector. You’d probably be about 195 kcd, like Tom E, with a SMO that was focused well.

In my older setup, a swap from op to smo went from 65 kcd to 81 kcd. Then when I cut the bottom out and got it to sit a bit lower, it went to 87.5 kcd.

All sounds legit - can't figure why your readings are lower than, but really they are not that much lower 172 kcd vs. 195 kcd. Last sentence is from what you said: "I remember that slicing the dome off my xhp70 gave a 24% boost"

I use a spring on my TA driver, so I guess you don't? Is there a brass button or something? I've never heard of burning bypass wires before - never happened to me, not on the 37K lumens S88 (20 AWG bypasses) clone or the 27K lumens MT03 (22 AWG bypasses) or the 18 amp L6. Big reason to use bypasses on springs for high amps is to prevent the springs from melting, so even 22 AWG wires should take the heat I would think, specially at such short distances.

I didn’t want you to think I sliced my 70.2 and got a 24% boost. That was an older xhp70.

The TA driver has the positive led wire go through the hole and connect to the end of the spring which is touching the battery. The spring doesn’t carry any load. So no need to bypass it.

On my tail spring I used some fine braided copper solder wick. I thought it would flex with the spring nicely. That burned through. So then I added a double layer of it and it burned through. So now I added some 18ga wire. So far so good.

Ahhh - yea, I gave up on solder wick couple years ago - too many broke. Silicon covered wire seems more reliable but isn't perfect either. Some lousy springs out there that the solder doesn't hold up well on.

Yep, understood bout the XHP70 vs. XHP70.2.

I know that KeepPower is reccomended cells for this light. But maybe you can recommend any other protected batteries? Maybe these? https://www.aliexpress.com/item/2-Pcs-Pair-Soshine-3-7V-5500mAh-26650-Battery-26650-Protected-Rechargeable-Li-ion-Battery-with/32292707585.html

Clear L6, TA driver, XHP70.2, Lighted side switch. I think I will reduce the resistor on the orange led to make it a little brighter.

Nice!

Nice! You could cut a crocodile eye like insert for under the cover.

I always thought it was kinda odd using something intended as a “wick” to carry current. I’ve never even had solder wick, for any use… been using the same Turnigy silicone wires for spring bypass as my LED leads since I first started. I usually use the same gauge wire for bypass as the leads, even up to 18ga. Figure what’s the point in putting heavy leads to the LED if the contact coming off the cell is smaller?

Sometimes, if a light feels special to me, I even cut a round piece of copper to solder on top of the spring for a larger battery contact, drill a via into it and solder the spring bypass into this copper disc, this way I have a much larger contact surface to the cell instead of a pinpoint like a soldered bead on top of the spring would make. Every little bit helps… :wink:

Have you ever worked with old cars? It’s very common for them to have ground cables made up of braided copper from the engine to the frame. Copper is a great conductor and when you put it in braided form it becomes very flexible and allows you to fully compress the springs which can be difficult or impossible with a normal spring bypass. On rare occasions I may use my extra long protected keep power cells in my L6 and I need to be able to fully compress the springs. So that’s why I tried it. I think the problem with the solder wick is that the strands are just too small in diameter and when any one of them gets a little too much current it will sever and transfer that load to some other strands which will cause them to sever and eventually the whole thing just melts in two.