Noctigon KR1 and KR4 driver upgrading project

Outstanding design and execution!

I applaud your impressive skills.

Now if only Hank would adopt your modifications into the regular production line...

I'd love to have one exactly like it.

Enjoy your well earned success with this gem!

Thanks :slight_smile:

I am eager to see the final release. I’d love to put one in my Jaxman X2

That seems to be good looking flashlight, but not available anymore.

It would be good if Hank can make a KR series flashlight with 21700 battery!

Truly

Very nice to see the first of my HDR boost drivers assembled and used by someone other than me :smiley: , Haukkeli was very motivated to go through the whole process and he provided valuable feedback, he’s a great beta tester :+1: .

In this configuration (6.4A6V) the lowest mode is ~75uA, for comparison the lowest output (li-ion) Zebralight is the SC700D at 50uA (6V), with some tweaks it can go lower but I think this is low enough.

That light looks pretty good, what driver size is that though ? it looks very small for a 26650 light.

About 22mm. I was looking at D4v2 boost driver in it. It’s very compact, though not the most compact. The machining is excellent and I have a soft spot for Jaxman. But figure if you buy Jaxman you need to plan a driver swap before you purchase.

Here’s a comparison to some familiar friends:

I have XHP50.3 HI 90cri that I’d love for it.

I have one Jaxman. Their S2+ equivalent. E2 I think. I baked it, modded it to triple that uses 18500 tube but takes 18650 battery and has H17Fx driver.

Nice little hotrod.

Do we see a PWM in 2m distance pic? Have you tested it for PWM (stability) in various modes and batt voltages?

It couldn’t be PWM but it could be oscillations due to instability, Haukkeli can check with the Opple though we don’t know how high it can go in frequency and since there is no noise it must be higher than audible frequency if indeed there are oscillations.
I never tested it above 6A so it’s possible the compensation values are not adequate for 6.4A. The values from the suggested schematic in the datasheet for example are only good below ~4A (at 6Vout).
I’ll assemble one with the same values as Haukkeli’s and check with the scope.

Im just asking because of Lume1 project. There was no any info of instability in nicely made data sheets, but that drivers was flickering in some cases. Stability in switching drivers is important.

Very true, even if it’s not visible/audible it can decrease the efficiency.

My bet is a bad camera user fiddling with settings he fully doesn’t understand. But I can check with Opple soon.

I tested flicker from moonlight to turbo with Opple. I took maybe 7 samples. There was no flicker in any of them. Distortions in pictures could be from camera noise or flicker from led “fluorescent lamps”.

I continued with this KR1 little bit more. I swapped in XHP70.3 5700K M4 90cri and dedomed it. Now it is really neutral, duv 0,0016 and 4500K

I continued with building 12V driver for KR4. I used stencil I ordered along with boards

On the hotplate

And flashing

I had some problems with low modes. Here I did some troubleshooting.

I ended up building another one. I also used 1uH inductor this time. TheFreeman did some efficiency tests and 1uH gained 1% more efficiency compared to 1.5uH.

Then I did some output measurements. Battery voltage was ~4.14V
Input amps

Output amps

Driver in place

2 *XHP35.2 4000K 90cri +6500K 80cri +3000K 80cri. Calculated output OTF should be~3200lm.

Aux board connected

And finished. Here are 2 KR4’s. Nichia 519A 5700K dedomed with linear driver and this one. Both on lowest mode.

Here it’s alongside the KR1 I built earlier

Here are some measurements. Anduril 2 stock stepped mode step 4.

Thank you for reading this thread. These drivers will hopefully be available soon for everyone willing to build them.

Great job !

Very impressive !

I don’t understand a thing about this, but I envy these skills and knowledge!
I’m glad it entered the OL Contest as well, different stuff to widen the perspectives :wink: :+1: