Had an XPG2 on Noctigon and Qlite 3A driver laying around, then I saw that RMM was selling hosts too, so I got the Convoy S2 host to put them in. After just a bit of wrangling and soldering the 4th star to ground to get the moonlight mode I put it all together and popped a sweet LG D1 18650 in, charged to 4.35v, and VOILA…Let There Be Light…it WORKED!!
This makes for a throwier than normal tube light with a smooth reflector that I got from Simon. The S2 is beautiful, I don’t understand why it’s so much cheaper than the others, quality is amazing for an $8+ host!
ANYway, the point is…I’m absolutely AMAZED every time something goes well. Must be because the first attempts went so bad, but when I button it all up and hit the switch it’s like I took a pile of parts and MADE LIGHT out of them! Most people don’t get it but I’m betting a lot of you do!
The next attempt may be the classic “turning a C12 into an MTG2 wall of light” trick. RMM has everything necessary, all I gotta do is drill that reflector out. How hard could THAT be, right? Um….we’ll see.
Yep, I'm with ya. I'm amazed when things I work on actually work! I always expect the worse due to past experience. It's not just with flashlights, it's everything!
That must be the addicting part, succeeding where once there was failure.
It’s like gambling, if you NEVER won at it, you wouldn’t want to do it, but you hit one jackpot and you’ll be chasing that feeling through many losses.
You learn to expect success when you’ve been through enough failures to learn. It’s the little things that trip ya up at first, then as you learn all the little details you begin to expect everything to work according to plan.
Getting there, but there are still surprises. Like hooking up a 3A driver to an XP-G2 on a Noctigon and getting a Hi of .73A. ? Expecting 400-500 lumens and getting 217. It works, but not at the level I was looking for. It’s all good cause in this case the light is tiny and 217 is probably more than it should be doing in the first place.
I think my biggest problem is rushing to get done. Currently I'm not getting much free time to do things so when I do get some time (maybe 1/2hr to 1hr) I try to rush and get done. If I don't get done I risk wondering where the heck I left off when I come back to it days later!
3 amps to an XPG2 is pretty freakin’ bright! Are you going to ‘settle’ for less?! I’m really happy with the whole thing, it feels like a lot more lumens, I guess because of the focused beam and the slightly cooler tint (3C) than the 5C1’s in my other Convoys.
I can really relate to this, Garry. I’ve forced myself to slow down and try to enjoy the process. If you don’t have the time, of course, that would be difficult.
I’m gonna have to settle in this case, it’s a mini C8 and it’s all JB Welded together! It’s got a nice beam, quite a bit of light from a 3” mini for sure. Was looking for twice that though. Might be partly the small cell required, but I’m thinking there’s some resistance pulling it down as well.
I have a full sized Convoy C8 with an XP-G2 R5 2B on a SinkPAD pulling 4.55A through a stacked Qlite and running from a Samsung 20R. It’s 883 lumens out the front at 30 seconds, fires up at 969 lumens out the gate.
Edit: Good luck on the reflector, it’s much much harder than you might think! The key is in not damaging the very sensitive plating. How are you going to hold it? How are you going to get the dust off the inside of the reflector? Can’t wipe it off. Washing it will almost certainly leave water spots. Almost any touch to the plated silver finish will leave scratches. A tip, mount the reflector backwards in the bezel, use the host to hold it and the emitter hole will be out in the open where you can get to it, plus you’ll be working from the non plated outside. A rubber sanding arbor can be expanded inside the battery tube at the back end, then the arbor can be mounted in a drill to slowly spin the set-up. This will allow you to, hopefully, cut the hole a bit larger with a dremel tool without doing damage to the perfect mirror finish inside. If you clean it afterwards, a mild soap such as shampoo can be used, boil water to rid it of impurities or use bottled water and then blow dry it to stop spotting.
Thanks man, it DOES sound difficult! I was just going to run a drill bit in there and then blow off the dust. This lack of planning is what results in ‘less than successful’ projects. Thanks for the heads up!
If you are going to use an actual drill bit to enlarge the reflector, be VERY careful, you might end up tearing the reflector instead of making a clean cut, especially if you don't have a drill press and a good way to hold the reflector. I ended up marking mine with a sharpy and then grinding it out with my dremel because I currently don't have access to a drill press or firm enough vise. I wouldn't try to drill it out free hand. My hole isn't perfectly round, but really it doesn't affect the beam pattern and the plating wasn't damaged.
To rinse the reflector I blew off all I could then I rinsed it with some 97% isopropyl alcohol. It isn't perfect but good enough. Distilled water or fairly pure isopropyl alcohol shouldn't leave noticeable spots on the reflector (it is the minerals in the water that leave the spots).
I have not used it yet for this purpose, but I am sure this thing from my toolbox will do the job of, in dutch it is a 'gatenruimer', don't know the english word. it enlarges holes by scraping off the edge. it does not produce grit that dirtens the reflector, just clean scrapings, if you apply it from the front end from the reflector, the scrapings will probably just fall through the hole.
Tapered reamer - great tool to keep on hand! Ordered mine from Sears online here in the US (ship to store), but it's also available at Harbor Freight (don't know the quality though).
Always gratifying at least. I like trying new ideas and they rarely work the first time mainly due to my still weak soldering skills. The more effort I put into something, the more dissappointing the failure and the more gratifying the success. I still feel relief when I get the expected current from stacking chips.
Just finished another light. On assembly I have learnt to test at every stage. I hooked the driver up to the led, nothing. Test the led by itself nothing, hook another led up to the driver nothing and finally another driver onto the led and we have light. I have no luck at all with these electronic things. If I had not tested before ass anfd finished the light I would of lost far more hair than I did.
How are you going to hold it? How are you going to get the dust off the inside of the reflector? Can’t wipe it off. Washing it will almost certainly leave water spots. Almost any touch to the plated silver finish will leave scratches. A tip, mount the reflector backwards in the bezel, use the host to hold it and the emitter hole will be out in the open where you can get to it, plus you’ll be working from the non plated outside. 