My MT-G2 emitters came in today which I ordered specifically for the UltraFire T90 that came with an SST-90. After seeing Match's test results showing the monster output of the MT-G2, I ordered a couple thinking they may improve the throw of the T90.
My plan from the beginning was to try to drive the 6.0V MT-G2 with the stock driver which was driving the 3.6V SST-90. The difference in Vf is significant, to say the least. I tested this on a pair of XM-L emitters in series first (cheaper if they blow instead of the MT-G2). IT worked just fine, and drives 5A into a 6V load no problem.
Getting the LED in was simple, just like any other emitter swap. I got it centered in the reflector, loaded up the cells, snapped it on and... hmm, that's not much brighter...
I was a bit underwhelmed. When looking at the test chart from Match, driving this beast at 5A should yield close to 2800 emitter lumens; to be conservative, estimate 2400 OTF. I measured about 1900. The SST-90 build was close 1500 lumens OTF. I was expecting a much larger jump in output.
Note: I currently do not trust my lumen readings for absolute use, so the only thing I have is relative comparative numbers.
Moving on to throw, again some more disappointment. The SST-90 driven around 9.5A was giving a respectable 71kcd. The MT-G2 brought this down to around 50kcd. Even though lumens went up, the throw dropped a lot.
The spot looks to be a similar size, maybe a little larger (obviously cannot do a side-by-side), with a simply awesome tint (very nice neutral white) and very good spill. The emitter surface area looks to be a lot larger, so I suspect that surface brightness of the MT-G2 is lower than the SST-90.
I put the second emitter on my bare emitter heatsink and at 5A I get 2810 lumens, Match got around 2825 lumens... maybe my lumen measurements are not that far off.
I held the reflector up in front and the numbers dropped close to the 1900 OTF number above. It looks like a lot of light is not getting into the reflector.
All of this is preliminary (assembled for 60 minutes so far), and will be updated as the mod progresses. I posted this now just to see if anyone has ideas about what might be going on and what I can try to figure this out.
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