I made a FT03 with the SFT-40 its a great combo i got almost 430kcd (rated at 400kcd by Banggood). I think the SFT-40 is brighter than the SST-40 when direct driven. I reflowed a SFT-40 onto the 26mm board and the focus is good, with a good cell the amperage is a bit high hitting 10.5amps which i feel is to much for the LED probably around 9.5amps is the sweet spot.
Overall i already liked the FT03 its a great light at a great price and i would highly recommend the SFT-40 edition, of course there is no warm white or neutral white SFT-40 yet.
Feel free to remove the video from this thread, i dont want to spam the thread for no reason.
I think there has been a revision to the driver of the FT03 the newer driver is similar to the FT03 mini driver, i have a newer FT03 and its different to my original driver.
Do you have the kcd #'s of before the mod and what LED?
The SFT-40 is a beast, yes, it's binned the same, I believe, as the SST-40 even though there's no dome (usually you drop 10-15% or so), and it can take more amps, so you get higher #'s with an unregulated driver.
Actually it's a re-designed LED from the SST-40. Wondering if they will come out with a domed version to replace/upgrade the SST-40.
I got the same numbers from my original FT03 as you, around 230kcd and like 2300 lumens. The light i modded a bought a few months back i still have another FT03 with a sliced XHP50.2 in it. I did have a CSLPM1.TG in there but i could not get it focused on the 20mm MCPCB.
Wait and see if Cree release a 3v XHP50.3 HI.
I just upgraded an already modded "vintage" FandyFire/Solarstorm SP03. It's a triple SMO reflector, 85 mm head diam sitting on a quad battery tube, like an SRK's battery tube. It's running a BLF Q8 style driver (FET+1).
Upgraded it to triple SFT-40's - it had 6500K SST-40's, back when the 5000K's weren't available yet. The lumens stayed about the same, but the throw little more than doubled, once I got the LED's properly centered. With just one of the 3 LED's off center, after aligning it better the throw jumped by 13%. These SFT-40's seem very sensitive to centering - something to keep in mind if you don't think your FT03 SFT-40 is throwing as good as it should.
The #'s on triple SFT-40's:
lumens: 7730 at start, 6180 at 30s (maukka calibrated)
throw: 540 kcd, 1470 meters (it was 264 kcd w/SST-40's)
Stock, this light was 75 kcd, about 2200 lumens, back in the day, 8 years ago...