Have you spoken to Fraz about it? From my understanding of the design, most cells run the LED at 3-4A in his current lights, which is really too high for 219B, especially without thermal management and stepdown.
Uhm, what?
As you said, there is no driver. UI manipulates resistance but at any point, the current taken is a function of resistance, Vf and how much current can cell deliver.
All emitters take as much as they can pull from the battery with the given resistance.
I’m confused about the quote as well. From my understanding, these lights are essentially direct drive at maximum output, which is likely far more current than 219B can safely handle with pretty much any cell. They also fail to a direct drive configuration if the QTC material degrades, so even physically limiting the amount of compression wouldn’t necessarily be safe. The 3-4A estimate comes straight from the Fraz Labs thread on CPF where the creator states “I measured the current draw at between 3 and 4 amps at the light’s highest level (direct drive at full), depending on which battery you use.” So how is this design a good candidate for 219B?
Hey guys. Glad you found the light! Posted about the old model development years ago on the homemade forum here, but haven’t been around in a bit.
I’ll try to stop by more often for sure. As for the 219B, I haven’t tested any yet (I usually let the LED direct-drive in the system for a couple hours and get readings and see how the heat does). I think they will work as the new models have excellent heat sinking (there may not be enough resistance in the system for the 219B, but we shall see). Only one way to find out…
I can confirm the Samsungs work great, as do XM-L2, XP-L, SST20, and SST40.
Myself I’m on the fence with this light.
I absolutely love the way it’s driven.
I absolutely love how it doesn’t require a soldering iron to do a LED swap.
I would love to experience it in practice.
But I hate how overbuilt it is. I love small and lightweight flashlights, in relation to what runtime and performance they deliver.
And the price is very steep if it’s only for the experience.