Well, I wrote the firmware for the MtnE L6 driver originally, and hardware wise, looks like the the stock SP70 driver is using the same FET Richard's driver uses, so I don't see any gain in power there. Downside is Richard's driver has no support for the switch LED whatsoever, if you are interested in that, unless you upgrade it to NarsilM or Anduril, and assuming you can wire up the LED - not sure if the L6 driver has a pad for that or not, or needs to be wired to a MCU pin.
Other downside of the L6 driver, not sure if it's an issue or not, but we are using a 7135 at voltage levels it's not designed for (6V+). To me it looks like the SP70 is using better, proper parts for the lower output levels channel. Dunno for certain on this, but sure looks like parts rated for higher voltage levels. We've been lucky in using the 7135's this way, but if you go to more power, like 3 XHP70.2's, or 16x XHP50's (like I did), the 7135's do fail. I found this out, and TA - TA used a totally different approach/design in his new high powered 6V+ drivers and got rid of the 7135.
So the L6 driver should fit/mount ok - but also might need the ground ring raised, maybe add a brass ring, because the stock driver has a raised ground ring, probably to compensate for a gap to make contact to the tube.
It seems like people forget that this light was designed ground up as a hot rod, it’s essentially already modded by Sofirn with the assistance of BLF. While there may be some slight gains to be had it’s not necessary to work on the light at all… which was the point in talking a Mfr. into making this kind of light for BLF.
This is exactly why I don’t really offer modding services, no matter how hard I work on a light somebody always wants to take it apart and change something. So I don’t do it. If they’re capable of making changes to my mods they can do the mods themselves. This kind of deal was put together so people that don’t mod can have the benefits of a tweaked design, the optimizations of what we as modders do but straight out of the box. Of course modders will still mod it, for some folks it’s just what they do (I know this all too well) but again, it isn’t necessary and the potential gains are minimal without going to extremes.
+1 Dale, but in addition we also want Sofirn to make lights as easy to mod and repair as reasonably possible, so I can understand the modders asking, and of course the modders are at all different levels of expertise. For the Q8 for example, we insisted on easy access to the driver and LED's, and we need to keep emphasizing and reminding the manufacturers to do so.
I wasn’t trying to insinuate anything with my question; I was just curious as there was a little side-talk about the quality of the FET and the UI ramping.
I purchased 2 Haikelite SC26’s and realized afterwards the UI was pretty terrible, but I haven’t learned how to flash firmware, and the SC26 driver is an odd ball size. So for now, my fix is to just replace the driver if I don’t like the UI. This is what caught my eye:
Tom, if you press and hold from Off, and you go into moon mode, how do you get it to ramp up? Hopefully not turn it off and then back on…
Yes, there's no ramping from moon. Yep, I find this lacking/annoying, but the lowest setting of ramping is pretty low, but not as low as moon. The annoying thing is if you last turned off the light at a high setting, you are gonna get blasted by that high setting, either from a power startup or click to get back into ramping. You can still access moon mode of course independently, but if you want to get back into ramping, you'll get blasted by the last set high level. It kind of violate my (the?) rules of a good UI:
simply click for ON and OFF
easy access to last level used
easy access to max/turbo
easy access to the lowest level
So they did provide access to moon directly, but not directly to the lowest ramping level.
I had thought I understood that moon was an independent setting, I didn’t realize though that because of that you couldn’t enter the ramp at the lowest level from turn on… that potential to come on in high is really a killer, really going to have to look into changing that one.
It's not a show stopper for me, and think for most it would be ok.
But because simply that I can, I should really look into reverse engineering the circuit a bit more. Looks pretty straight forward as a FET+(device), if so, then I could attempt an MCU swap - swap in a ATtiny85 for the PIC, then run full NarsilM or Anduril -- I've done an MCU swap before, recently for a headlamp.This design is probably superior to our classic FET+1, just wish I knew what that 3 legged part is that is used in place of the 7135. Would help to know to see if it's a true amp regulator, if so, how many amps, and if it can take high rate PWM.
Man that really sucks. I’m having the same problem with the SC26’s I mentioned earlier. The immediate blast to the last used level has made them both shelf queens :weary:
Maybe Sofrin can change the firmware for the BLF edition??? If not, I guess I’ll be learning how to flash firmware soon…
Was I dreaming, or did Sofirn in the last few days send an offer for discounts on a lot of lights and invite us to share it to friends, something about mentioning “group 4” or words to that effect?
I know some public service folks who’ve been interested in the Sofirn lights I routinely carry when doing volunteer work, and want to pass the info on.
Pointer or cc welcome if anyone recognizes this. I don’t find it among PMs, nor in email, nor in browser history.
Anyone found any tricks to increase output on the SP70 yet? Resistors, heavier gauge wires and etc? Just curious, I know it’s coming. I would love an SMO reflector just to see what it would do.
No harm meant or taken. I just kinda look at it as, that’s just what a lot of us do. Like the Q8, people just upgraded a few things to get a little more output so I assumed someone had already started working on ” upgrading ” so to speak. I took the tail switch out of my L6 and put in the SP70 and got another 150 lux on my meter. It has BlueSwordM’s springs with a bypass on it, but I switched it back. Just wanted to see the difference. Which visually you would never be able to see. Just numbers at this point.
Yep, there's some room for improvements. My previous posts (post #1951) documented a gain with spring bypass's, plus you could swap the driver for a 30 mm one which we have for replacing the L6 stock driver, etc. Also if you stay with the stock driver, could swap the FET with an Infineon for example. You should get some boosts.
As Dale said though, it's a pretty good "BLF" caliber light to begin with, great for non-modders to get a mod level light, or can be additionally tweaked by modders, just like we did with the Q8's for example.
I'm thinking/guessing it's about a 5700K LED - wish I could test for that. I have spare P2 5700K's, but I'd prefer a 4000K myself, so think I'll order them from Arrow since the P2 4000K's are so cheap.
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