DST using 3 18650's (Finished)

I guess what does looking so inexpensive have to do with flat-out raw size, big amps, and skilled determination ? :smiley:

You could take a .99 cent store flashlight with these same basic dimensions and turn it into one relative blasting beast if one were so determined.

Never necessarily judge any light’s potential just by the look of its tube. :bigsmile:

This light has always had the bones even at $22.98 much less $12. One just had to recognize what it already had compared to others way more expensive that didn’t have it.

GottaZoom wrote:

How much did the draw change? . . .

Unfortunately, I don't know the answer to your question. I have to remove the tail cap to measure draw. So that takes the copper dome spring out of the equation. Out of the light, with good connections, the emitter was getting 6.75 amps. At the tail, current settles down to the following readings:

High 2.83 amps

Med 1.23 amps

Low .29 amps

To complicate matters, I also turned up the trim pot 1/2 turn. So I should be getting more than 6.75 amps to the emitter. I need to center the emitter base. I will remeasure everything then and report back. Do you think I should up the current to the emitter to 7.5 amps while I'm at it? I'm quite tempted to.

Flomotion wrote:

Could you give us a close-up of where you connected the pot, and a link to the exact pot please?

This is the trim pot. Most of it's range is not used because it goes up to 10 ohms. I only have the above pictures for now. Next time I take apart the pill, I will try to remember to move the inductor out of the way and snap a picture. Legs 1 and 2 are soldered to the red wire. Leg 3 is connected to the black wire. Polarity does not matter. The 2 wires run over the top of the vertical pcb and connect to each side of the voltage sense resistor bank. If you magnify the below photo, you can see the wires soldered on each side of resistor R200.

nottawhackjob wrote:

This light has always had the bones even at $22.98 much less $12. One just had to recognize what it already had compared to others way more expensive that didn’t have it.

I agree. I told someone else that with this light you are buying potential. I wish I had a lathe like MRsDNF. He has replaced the weak points of the light and turned it into a proper beast. Actually, if I had a lathe, I would still lack his amazing skill. Well, one needs to have dreams and folks to look up to. So at least I got that.

I don’t think your imaginative creativity will run out either. Look at what O-L creates with just a drill press.

Where there’s a will there’s a way. Finding someone that has a lathe that shares your passion isn’t close to impossible especially if you turn them on to that passion as well. Then you both benefit equally.

Thank you Notta. Great idea on finding someone local with a lathe.

Well said. There is a lot of amazing people here that have very diverse abilities.

I see the smiley, so I hope that means you know what a sleeper refers to in street racing …

I even had one once. Absolutely stock looking 1964 2-door Falcon with a hi-po 271 hp 289 4 Hurst on the floor. ’Twas light on it’s feet and shocked more than a few in a cloud of tire smoke. :smiley:

The only thing missing here is BEAM SHOTS. :bigsmile:
Great job ImA4Wheelr, that’s quite a thrower you have there. Thanks for sharing, you have got me thinking about what to do with that second DST still in plastic. Really like the driver mod. :wink:

Beamshots:

I'm terrible at outdoor beam shots. In these pictures, the light and camera are about 10 feet high (I'm standing on the top of a stair case. I don't know the distance to the trees. I will measure and get back on that.

There is no area lighting. So a nighttime control shot would just be black. I don't have a daytime shot yet. Here is a "control" shot using a Supfire M6 on high (unmodded) to get a overall idea of the scene (Sorry for shaky hand):

Here is a shot of a Shadow JM26 (resister modded with copper wire bypass, xml u2 2c or 3c) on high:

Here is the DST on Low, Med, and High:

In real life, the center of the hot spot isn't quite as saturated as the med and high pictures below. You can clearly see what your looking at in the hot spot albeit it is quite bright. The camera must be compensating or something, but these shots are comparable to each other.

Here are a couple wall shots (Wall is beige). You can see that emitter is not quite centered.

Careful where you point that thing, your going to catch the woods on fire. :bigsmile:
.

Is this driver from fasttech the same driver as the manafont driver, it looks to be the same to me.
http://www.fasttech.com/products/1612/10005161/1404708-tr-0124b-84v-5-mode-led-flashlight-driver-for-lumi
I going to place a order there, figured I might as well throw one of these in if it’s the same driver.

Thanks Moderator007 for your earlier compliments. It's a dedicated thrower now. Kind of a pencil beam, but I guess that is the price to pay to throw. I wish the light had the wider spill of the TN31. But then, you could build 3 of these and strap them together for less money.

That driver looks different, but looks worth trying out. The numbers on the drivers I have say "TR-0159D".

I took a second look at the pics of the drivers side beside, I can’t tell any difference in component layout. They may have slightly different components but the locations are the same. One way to find out I guess, going to add it in my order.
Thanks ImA4Wheelr. :wink:

Cool. Thank you for taking one for the team. Please report back on that driver Moderator007.

I finally dropped in the xml2 u2 1a, but my throw dropped slightly. I'm now measuring just shy of 300kcd (averaging 297kcd now). Either I did something wrong or the emitter from the Sunwayman D40A was better.

I added some info on the tail of the light to the OP.

I have only been measuring at 10 feet. I need to try at 25 feet. The place I do that has been occupied by a project my wife is working on. For the sake of marital bliss, I will wait and not pressure her to move her stuff. She, after all, tolerates my hobbies with minimal grumblings.

Is it possible that the XM-L2 U2 may not be a U2 bin?

That is possible, but I think unlikely. I purchased the emitter from intl-outdoor. They seem reputable and diligent to me.

The decrease seems small enough to be within the range on a bin and also could be due to any number of other factors. I'm not concerned. A little bummed because my ego wants the light to be clearly over 300kcd. I guess it's close enough to call it a 300kcd light though.

Out of curiosity, would strapping 3 of these together result in a 900kcd light?

I'm thinking Yes because when I pointed 2 lights at my light meter once, the lux read about the sum of the 2 individual lights.