It is really the heat that sags the emitter initially? 2 sec seems very quick for heat related problems... If someone has a way to try the dropin with 3-4 18650 in parallel to put the battery out of the question...
That fast its 2 things ...
1/ Too much current to the emitter
2/ Emitter not transferring heat to base/star quickly enough [ could be poorly or not as well mounted as it could possibly be ]
Or a combination ... The current does not back of , but rather increases slowly , another sure sign that the emitter is heating up ..
So initially , the current is 3.3A but increases quickly to 3.4A , and then holds ...
I think the XM-L is best @ 2 - 2.5A , [ no heat sag or over current ] , perhaps they will mature with time , and tolerate more current .
Perhaps finding a good hi-med-lo 2,4A driver would be best. /7amc could be near that.
I might see about swapping drivers perhaps , might put it into my DIY build as it seems not to suffer from sag ..
I just hope Manafont can source the driver for DIY .
Ive been unable to find a suitable one recently. I thought gettign the 8xAMC circuit board from KD and desolder/bridge over one amc... not skilled enough to know what em i exactly doing. It seems a bit logical to remove one amc but on the other hand i could eventualy f****up everything. XD
Best driver for me would be 2,7V-8.4V, linear, with output for 2400/2500mA, 1200mA, and around 150/250mA with good memory implementation. Im in for 5pcs if it gets done (at least).
I havent seen more than 2.4A from the KD driver .. I think you would be safe with it ...
Here's an animated GIF of the Ultrafire and KD dropins
I just got my Manafont XM-L dropin today.
3.38A on high with a fresh charged Flame Trustfire 18650... very nice indeed. Its home is in a shinny new 504B. Thanks Old!
Don thanks for that animated gif, but the image doesn't appear to loop. Tried it in 2 major web browsers. Interesting still.
Eagerly awaiting my Manafont Ultrafire drop-in. KD one arrived yesterday, my first, but that's for another thread. Thermally potted it tonight using DX 'thermal glue, grease-like'. That was fun (not). At least it's over. My aim is to be able to still remove the reflector. I noticed the sag too even though my KD one draws less current, I think due to my batteries and there's still sag. In my mind it's from heat, and someone here did a thermal potting using thermal epoxy (and only a little bit) and pretty much proved that. Batteries do sag too though. But he proved the thermal potting helped substantially and it seems like the major cause.
It isn't for me either though it was working before. I've made a new one.
Aloha old4570, now that you've had this for a while, do you still like it as much as you did as stated above?
I'm thinking about getting a couple. I really like the fact that it doesn't come with any blinky modes. Thanks.
yeah , I like it plenty .. One of my favorites ,
ATM I reach for either this one , or my DIY build on a XP-E reflector , or the RL-198 [ XP-G R5 and no blinky modes ]
I hardly touch or give a second thought to my XR-E's any longer , not that there not nice , but the XM-L , wow , it just ........... Blows everything away .
Sold! I was going to get 2 of them but now maybe I should get one for each of my p60 lights which is 6. Hmmmmmmmmmmm...... Decisions, decisions, decisions.....
Thanks old.
I like mine too, but I wouldn't get rid of my XP-G's. It is a little too much light on full brightness, great for lighting up an area but not great for seeing ahead. I tend to use my lights in short bursts to see what's up front, but with this one, you get blinded.
That makes sense so 2 it is.........for now. :bigsmile:
Thanks for knocking some sense into me brted.
Well , I dis agree ... Sorry ..
Blinded ???? If your in a hole and its pitch dark and you turn on a XM-L , I can see that ..
But if your walking around with a XM-L and change into high mode , not really , it will affect your night vision some , but so will any flashlight ..
Thing is , if you want to see , a XM-L on high will let you see everything out to 200 Meters or so [ dep on variables ]
I love mine , there just impossibly fantastic on high , for a walk around light , you would not really need more than low mode ...
Mine is 50+L on low , walk around with that and changing into high is not going to blind you , though I would pity anyone looking directly at it [ XM-L ] when on high .
I guess this is all about personal perception ..
Buy one , check it out , Im currently on 6 XM-L's .. Hopefully a 7th soon .
KD has run out of the 3 mode driver I liked , hmmm , so ATM Im sitting on several emitters , just thinking about what light to mod next .
I just bought 2 for now and I'm pretty sure I'll love them since I love lights that are really bright. I'll also probably give the other one to Norm to go in the wf-502b kit I gave him.
I just recieved mine today! love the no blinky modes. I dropped it into my solarforce L2i. Absolutely blown away by the light output on this thing. Now to dig up some aluminum foil to wrap it in :)
And now to find another nice p60 body to put the R5 drop-in into, that I removed from the solarforce. Perhaps I'll order another solarforce, I am really liking the quality!
I purchased one around 24th Jan and it still has not arrived. I'm guessing the delay is due to the Chinese new year. How many weeks after purchases was it for yours to arrive?