I just finished assembling a DIY Convoy S3 host that arrived today from Fasttech with an XM-L T5-5C1 / 4000K and the 8* AMC7135.
As I also bought a pre-assembled Convoy S3 Cree XM-L T5-5C with 8* AMC7135, I had the opportunity to compare.
While I thought in theory they’d essentially be the same, there is a difference. The DIY assembly has a spot that is probably tighter by up to 30%, and the tint subjectively appears to be cooler by perhaps 750K. Both are going to be acceptable for bike lights where cooling will be efficient. (I’ve found that when hiking outdoors at this time of year, they are barely warm to the touch on high, whereas indoors they get too hot to hold, so that little bit of active cooling even at speeds as low as 2.5 km/hr. while going uphill really makes a difference.)
Even the S3 DIY spot is not as tight as the Cree C20 DIY Host using the same driver and LED, so together they will make a good combination for biking. I wondering perhaps if the pre assembled light may not have the reflector screwed down as tight as I did on my DIY unit to account for the difference in the hot spot. So for anyone contemplating this unit, if you want a tighter hot spot you may want to assemble it yourself.
The blink on low is a bit annoying, but OTOH I kind of liking having confirmation that it’s on the correct setting since sometimes low still seems incredibly bright.
It’d be kind of nice if it didn’t have mode memory, and instead just always started on low.
Anyway, I’m guessing that the low-mode blink is why the hidden modes are “not hidden enough”. And I think it can be soldered to force it, but I’m not sure which star to use or if this is the version of the driver with that feature.
sometimes i want to change the brightness and it blinks and goes to blinky group instead, or i only happen to need a few secs of low light so turning it off changes the mode, or a few times it changed back to blinky group on its own, i just want rid of it
Come to think of it that blink in low mode is kind of annoying. I’m pretty sure it’s the third star that changes the driver to 3 modes, although I haven’t done one for a while, someone else may be able to confirm it. Make sure you ground the star to the outer negative ring, and don’t just solder the star by itself, I remember making that mistake once.
It’s the third star. When I ground the driver to the pill I usually do it at the third star and kill two birds with one stone. However in the case of my S3 I don’t think the star to ground bridge took. So I had to use the switch method, and I agree, it is not a well thought out algorithm, and I also hate it. So I will be disassembling both my S3’s and try to bridge that star again.
My other two annoyances with the S3 are with the pill, the dimples for screwing the pill in are so small it’s hard to get purchase on them, and I had to dremel the tab off the driver because the pill has no keyway in it.
I got my Convoy S2 (XML U2-1B, 2100mAh model). I’ve not tried out if the stars work or not (or perhaps I’ll just flash it with a better software). I find the blink tolerable but I sometimes seem to change mode groups by accident which is very annoying.
Other thoughs:
-Very floody. A narrower optic would help a lot. I tried 10 degree and 15 degree optics and I liked the beam more that way.
Unfortunately for example Fasttech XML optics (like the 10 degree optic) are too short to fit there without some kind of spacer in front. The pill does not screw forward enough and at the extreme tha battery contact is lost. (A 5-pack of extra glass plates should probably do just fine as a spacer See FT site for measures of the reflector to be replaced.
–2100mAh was hitting 50C on the outer shell in 5 minutes. (Lamp horizontally on the floor at room temperature). Anything more than that is not safe for longer use I think. Even at that current I’m thinking if I should remove 1-2 7135s.
-The shell is pretty thin which makes me wonder if it conducts heat away good enough. The hot end of the tube at battery end location stayed at around 40C or so.
-Could be smaller for EDC use.
-mode spacing is not perfect and it requires two presses to switch mode after the memory has been stored.
I just gave it a try. First I had to drill bigger dimples into the pill with my dremel so my circlip pliers could get a grip to extract it. I bridged star #3 to the outer ring. Reassembled and because of the better grip, screwed the pill down until tight. Then when I replaced the lens, it had lots of space to rattle around, so had to adjust the pill again, now it is loose and probably will not retain it’s present position so will have to seal the pill threads by the looks of it. Tried the switch again, and unfortunately shorting the star had no effect, still get the programming blink after 5 seconds on low mode, and it will still reset the modes. Probably will need some of those extra glass lenses to space the bezel gap now as mentioned previously.
Has anyone noticed if they turn the light on low and use the tailcap a quarter turn to turn it on and off several times rapidly you can find a mode thats low but strobes approximately once per second?
That’s the low battery protection thing kicking in on the drivers; you’ll get the same thing if you suddenly impact the light (Not that I’m recommending this) or switch modes too fast in some cases.
It should enter this mode automatically when the battery is low (Step down from high/medium, but maybe not from low) however I wouldn’t rely on it.
I get similar on the light I modded. Because my modded light isn’t exactly perfect the battery can move and if I shake the light while it’s on the battery looses contact with the driver for a moment and then low voltage kicks in. So basically by doing what you’re doing you’re simulating low battery voltage.
One of mine had a faulty switch and would go into low-voltage mode entirely on its own. When changing modes, it was pretty much random if it would rotate by 0, 1, or 2 modes or go into low-voltage or just give a dim flicker. But I contacted Intl-Outdoor about it and they sent me a free replacement switch. Works great now.
I had a couple of DIY Hosts that gave me the same behaviour, in the end it was due twice to bad grounding of the pill to the driver, and once bad grounding of the switch.
Need to get the S3.
The emitter and tint choices are a bit confusing.
If I want the S3 with the floodiest beam w neutral tint, which configuration should I choose?
( T5-5C?)
See FT site for measures of the reflector to be replaced.