I like the light, Killer LED. it Can compete with a triple. I wish the driver external ntc had a little higher temp range. Shuts off in short time on DD. But when its disabled in UI the light Will get too hot. I think the ntc on the emitter MCPCB is too close to the heat source. Even a large hefty light I think will shut off quick with the ntc on the MCPCB, before the body can soak the heat. The LED can take a beating and survive, I tried to kill it with ext ntc off but the driver on board thermal shuts it down completely. I have Fet+1 Nichia triples on Bistro that have a better thermal regulation. I haven’t played in the UI too much on CC, I mean it’s a 9A driver and it’s pulling 8.4A DD. I can also lower the variable CC down to 7A and still keep DD. I gotta play more and maybe I will get it dialed in better.
But, in the back of my mind, I am thinking Fet+1 and Cresendo running that Luxeon V in something other than a Convoy S. Maybe a different light build with the Luxeon too. C8? Nothing built here that I can find except Dales D4 using the L.V. I am curious if it can throw, and considering a C8 first. No idea what it would look like sliced if needed in a C8.
You building a single also?
I wish I would be there to see your first reaction on DD.
I bet it kicks the 9A triple’s butt.
Thanks! I didn’t clean parts up as well as I should have. Glad I didn’t install the driver spring till last. Had to file the solder off the driver spring side from the wire through holes so it didn’t short the retaining ring. I also stuck the wires through the holes with some poking out spring side, fluxed and soldered from the spring side. Cut down excess and filed it flat. Those wire holes are really close to the ring on the S2+, be careful.
I have the driver ring tight too. I trimmed the pads to fit the aluminum perfectly and you can still see the blue oozing into the wire holes. Spacer is a good fit.
At least I tried a cold Toluene dedome (did not post about it), and although the dome came off quite ok in half an hour, also quite some phosfor came with it. The dedomed led is usable because straight on top of the die there was enough phosfor leftover, but because of the flip-chip design I do not expect much throw improvement (see EasyB’s experiments/lecture on that).
My best use of the LuxeonV sofar is in a Thorfire VG10 with FET+1 driver, over 2000lm still at 30 seconds, minutes before really overheating and a very pretty beam (the quad LuxeonV D4 was also my build btw, crazy at turbo but very versatile at lower levels).
I’m Sorry about that!
I can’t remember whats in my own light builds a week later. Your VG10 I remember cause I read that last night.
Luxeon on DD is pretty amazing. It gets whiter but the whole spot is whiter. No dark center spot at all.
I have a few VG10 around but they were the bad batch that had the spacers staked under the MCPCB. So the reflectors are too short to use. I have the kiriba copper made special for them and thats all they are good for… Quads. OH, I do have EE X7, 20mm driver, but not sure my 26650 are up to the task (Black L6 Keeps). And a $12 EE X6 on the way. X6 will take some heat.
I have a duplicate S2+ kit from LED4P, just wanna try a different light.
My VG10 is one of the old good ones.
I’m quite fond of the Kaidomain K2 host (link ), and think that the LuxeonV might work nicely in it. I built one with a 90CRI 3000K XM-L2 and I really like it. The reflector is OP though so the hotspot is not as tight as with the VG10.
As for LD-x4 temp. threshold, I suppose you know you can change that threshlod to desired level?
There is decription how to do that in datsheet (basically same as with LD-3), but with one difference (which is still not in datasheet,I will update it ASAP): because LD-4 has 30sec timeout fimer while in config. mode(for safety reasons), user must "preheat" flashlight while in normal mode, that means turn the flashlight on max. and wait until it's around desired threshold temperature. After that user should enter into config. mode and pick ext. temp level sub-menu and then custom threshold level. Further procedure is correctly described in datasheet.
With cold Toluene it seems to help a lot if you slice the dome off first as if you are doing the “slice de-dome” technique. This will reduce the time needed for the soak and usually will get you a good clean de-dome without taking any phos. off at all. I haven’t tried the Luxeon emitters yet, they sound very interesting.
As in many modern leds, the phosfor in the Luxeon V is not a tight layer over the die, but to me it looks like it is mixed into a layer of silicone covering the die area and around it, so by using the solvent you dissolve the phosfor-carrying substance too.
The temp setting did appear to time out on me several times or I had reached max value. I did to try to preheat the light before setting, thinking I could cheat the time out. I tried for a while to get it set to my liking, tried to work around the time out too. At the moment I am using 5 mode with ML, ext ntc disabled, 7.5A, CC. Will also try this setting with ntc ON and try setting thermals again. Maybe work up the CC A scale. My DD tail readings were 8.4A, perhaps max out the CC to 8A, no visible loss should be apparent.
I saw the formulas for the different colors. Thanks. I am picky about the brightness of a tail SW, I tried 4 values and went back to the one I liked best. I have a wide selection but they are 0805, they fit.
Edit:
Some thoughts on the UI…
The strobe when OTP lowers the output is really annoying. That strobe alone makes me want the OTP disabled. Its pretty obvious what happens, Strobe is unnecessary. After the thermal strobe, the light reverts to Low on the next click. With on board driver thermal And external OTP I should be able to go upagain if that output is really needed. I will be honest, I am a fan of Bistro and like the 6+ ML levels with medium click to go backward in mode and in a high output light the 7 choices are useful. But with 7 levels the going backward option is very useful to have. I have your UI set to 5+ ML. This is why I dislike it going to low again on next click after the OTP and annoying strobe.
Edit 2: I am still messing with this light. I have found if you have Memory enabled you can turn off light and turn it back on to get to higher level after OTP kicks in. avoiding the next click to Low after OTP.
Also just applied the MX4 to the threads on pill and body (didn’t take much), definitely added some time to OTP strobe and lowering level.
I put together a Convoy C8, a silver one, to get a mix of throw and power. Special request, as it were. So I used an SST-40 with a straight FET driver built from scratch and flashed with Biscotti. For the throw part, I first sliced the SST-40 just above the bond wires. Then I cut into the remaining silicone in a “dice” maneuver getting rid of the silicone on the substrate as much as possible. Then I cut this vertical slice action right beside the bond wires, straight down onto the phosphor, in preparation for a shave… very carefully slid the scalpel parallel to the phosphor just above the point I’d be shaving yellow, cut to the previous dice point and then removed that thin film. The result is that the bond wires are protected, with as little silicone left on the die as possible.
The end result is a C8 pulling 8.68A at the tail, making 2049 lumens out the front and throwing 127.75Kcd for 714.84M. Pretty decent mix of throw, power and some usable spill.
"Strobe" is two very short blinks and they appear only once after OTP,but if it's annoying I could remove it. Also, driver goes to low mode on next click after OTP because it doen't store going to previos mode on OTP activation, I will probably update this too, so that driver memorizes mode step down after OTP.
Nice work. I’ve never got my hands on a SST-40 but wouldn’t mind playing around with a couple. I couldn’t be bothered with the slicing and dicing though. How would the beam profile be of an unmodified SST-40 in a C8? Not too concerned about max throw, but very concerned about ugly beam profiles. And where do you buy yours?
The double Strobe on OTP is annoying mostly because the same intensity on DD or highest CC. If people want to keep it, perhaps, lower the level it blinks at. On my light the Luxeon V is insanely bright for the size. That blinking is disorienting.
Also learned that my thermal calibration (with pre-heating light) wasn’t timing out. It is the driver on board OTP, 5+ blinks before it quit. And I do not believe the other settings changed at that time get stored when that happens. Not sure.
Thanks for participation and considering input from customers.
I upgraded my ZY-T08 MT-G2 dual switch modded light (Mod/Driver: ZY-T08 series conversion, MT-G2.) with a new custom 1634 based driver with FET and 8 x A705s (instead of 7135s), and a new lighted momentary side switch to replace the old boring black one.
I’ve seen a few lighted momentary switches, but this is the only one I’ve come across where the actual button protrudes the switch casing. I don’t like the ones with the button level to the casing, very unnatural pressing action on those. This one is sweet.
This is one of my work horses down in mines and caves, it usually gets pretty dirty and beat up so I’ll have to see how the new switch holds up. It’s pleasing for the eye though.
Looks real nice Mike C. Love your lighted switch mod.
I’m not sure what the o’ring seal on your battery tube to head is like but I’ve been using C8 bezel orings on mine for a far better seal.
Thanks. It’s an interesting LED. How is the size compared to XM-L2? I have TIR optics that fit XM-L2 perfectly, would these fit without modding the optics?
I have Fet+1 Nichia triples on Bistro that have a better thermal regulation. I haven’t played in the UI too much on CC, I mean it’s a 9A driver and it’s pulling 8.4A DD. I can also lower the variable CC down to 7A and still keep DD. I gotta play more and maybe I will get it dialed in better.
