V10+ 5000mA driver from fasttech not so 5000?

I’m also disappointed with this driver - was hoping for a real eye-popper….

I’m getting 2.9a out of this KD 3.04a driver, but with the same kit, am only getting 2.8a out of a supposed 5a driver…

I picked up one of the V10+ 5A ramping drivers on a whim, it's pretty disappointing. I haven't put it in a light yet (and probably never will), only bench tested it so far. Current was low with only one good cell so I thwacked it with four Samsung INRs in parallel... current went up just a little but still nowhere near the rating. I can't get it to feed more than 3.8A to the LED no matter what I feed it with. And the UI is about the clunkiest thing ever.

Also, it won't fit into a P60 pill unless you solder on an extender ring first, though most uses will be in something beefier than a P60 (but then, it doesn't really need to be 17mm).

Interesting piece on paper, in person not so much.

Response from fasttech was that for them, the driver works fine.
Offered replacement or refund, chose replacement.
I haven’t finished yet with that wannabe 5A driver.

I have not found a direct drive driver which gives 5A+ with one cell and xml2 until now…
I ordered a lot of them and a Samsung inr for my tests…too sad.
The FETs they use have to much resistance or the design is crap, I am not sure why these drivers often have so much devices on them. Controller and FET should be all you need, perhaps some resistors for under voltage protection….

So now I am building one by myself.

This is all very disappointing. You’d think that there would have been extensive testing before bringing these to market. |( Whats the point?

I just swapped mine out and put the East-092 back in. It increased the output sery slightly. I think I had it close to 5A with the mods. I’ll put it in the other HD2010 and mess with it some more. I don’t like how the ramping mode is all on its own. I want to have the ramp to set one or more traditional modes. Using the ramping to change output levels in real time is pointless and takes too long.

I'm think'n 4.3A-4.4A or so is the limit for XM-L2/SinkPAD single cell lights from what I've been seeing now on HD2010 mods. That's why the T08 is so nice - wonder if you'll get closer to 5A on 2 or 3 parallel batts with this driver. Maybe I'll try it in a T08 or 7G9.

Relic38 could not get 5A at 4.20V with a power supply I doubt 2 or 3 cells in parallel would do it. And that was at 4.2V, which you'll never have on on-load cells.

No, at least mine won't. 4x INRs in parallel, still wouldn't pass 4 amps. And that was testing with a XM-L U3 on an AL 16mm bolted to an old CPU heatsink. Current went up as compared to a single cell, but still short.

They didn't have the 4A version listed when I got mine, only the 3A & 5A, so I don't think it could be a case of a parts mixup.

4xINR in parallel, I must say wow.....

Once I put the driver in another light, I’ll see what voltage it takes to get 5A. J)

8.4V :) ?

Destroying the thread but I found a solution:

ST-50 flashlight, 4.6A driver designed for sst-50 led, aspheric lens, sinkpad & XM-L2.
I am not an expert but I strongly believe that the reflector designed for the sst-50 led is not helping the XML.

Just for the record. I placed a V10+ driver into a Convoy M2 host with a XML-T6 3C emitter. The ramping mode worked for awhile, and then quit. I had one mode left that works: high. That mode worked well last night at midnight when it was the only light I had with me and I had to enter a closed area so I could go and retrieve Reconyx surveillance images as follow up to our agency response to a local Cougar attack. It seemed to heat up a lot quicker than the same config as using a Nanjg driver at 2.8A, so I did a tailcap measure with a clamping meter. I got 4.4A at the highest reading. On a Convoy S4 with the Nanjg 2.8 driver I read 2.9A. I used fully charged Panny NCR18650PD and Samsung ICR18650 cells for this test and they were the same results.

So this has left me wondering, if I have a specialized application where I’m satisfied I can provide the cooling required and I only need one mode, would this V10+ driver be the only way I could achieve the 4.4A or more, or do I have other alternatives such as going the direct drive route? As mentioned this seems like a pretty flawed driver, and my experience would seem to corroborate that, so it would be nice to find something more reliable.

I think it went into a direct drive sort of mode. DD will probably give more current though.
Not sure how long an M2 can handle that kind of power, TBH.

Me either, but in the case of last night I did not have many options as I had also left the headlamp that is normally in my duty bag, a Spark ST6, and my new Tank007 at home. So I tried to manage it by switching it off when it felt like it may be getting too hot. I get the impression if you can provide constant airflow for cooling it may be able to sustain some more prolonged usage.

Outdoors, with air movement, you can definitely push it further. In a critical situation, I would push it a lot further than in any test or casual situation. I am confident that the emitter is not getting close to it’s max temperature unless the outer temperature is approaching 100C (depends on the light of course) which would no longer be hand-held. Even at 70C, aluminum is very uncomfortable to hold for long.

Thanks for that. I noted that driver said it had a temperature shut off. But as non of the modes work, I think it’s safe to assume that neither will the temperature circuit. Are there any DD drivers that would do a similar job in the range of 4A? I assume FT does not carry them?

Hi,

I just got one of the ramping and one of the non-ramping V10+ drivers from FT in, and tested the non-ramping one, and using bench supply, I am getting 4.6+ amps at tailcap and at emitter:

EDIT: One thing: I was able to get it to switch mode groups at first, but now it seems to be stuck in the 3-mode group. I never get the blinks when it’s on low, so not sure how to switch groups anymore?

EDIT: How do you use this driver in a light? I want to use in an UF S5, which has a really small pill. I’ve used another different 2-board driver in another S5, by Fujiking the 2 boards together and gluing to the pill, but on this V10+, the non-contact board doesn’t have any negative path :(?

EDIT 2: I decided that what I’m going to try to do is mount the front/driver board into the S5 pill, filling the pill with Fujik and AA the board to the pill. Once that sets, I’ll fill the area between the contact board and the driver board with Fujik.

The conect board has the negative ring, plus two “notches” that are plated, so I’ll add some solder to the spring side of the negative ring.

The way that the S5 works is that it has an aluminum retaining ring that’ll screw down into the head to hold the pill in, so that retaining ring will provide contact via the solder on the contact board negative ring to provide the negative path.

Hopefully, this’ll all work, and with the right battery, I’m hoping to get ~4.6 amps to drive an XP-G2 3up in the S5 (yes, it’ll get hot fast :)!)…

EDIT 3: When I put it into my S5, it wasn’t working :(. I also got one of the ramping ones, so I figured I’d try that, but when I pulled it out of the FT packaging, one of the white wires between the 2 board was disconnected :(… So no V10+ for now. I’ve opened a ticket at FT.

Could someone who has the ramping 5 amp V10+ driver from FT take a pick of the side of the blue board where the wires are connected. Maybe I could fix it, but not sure where the white wire came off from. It looks like there are 2 solder points (pads with solder on them already) on the board with no wire, so I can’t figure out which one.

Thanks,
Jim

One of the points is right next to where the black wire is attached. A large pad with solder on it.

The other point (lump of solder) is near that, but closer to the “notch” at the edge of the board, right next to a chip that has marking “E02”.

EDIT: Here’s a pic showing the 2 points circled in red.