The M8 has a separate pill from the rest of the light…the pill is the mid-section that the battery tube and head screw onto, with the Noctigon thermally pasted directly to a shelf on the top end. I’ve added 1/2” of copper under this shelf, which of course is still not enough.
My plan is to put any money I receive at Christmas towards a fully copper mid section. VOB will be doing this for me. A bit wider in diameter, with thinner fins than the stock finned mid-section and about 10mm longer as well. The Noctigon will then reflow directly to this finned copper mid-section and it should be good for me to go direct drive. I will be utilizing a 20A switch…the smart switch, from mattaus in Australia. Should be good for the full 12A and we’ll see how the Panasonics handle that.
Might be pertinent to have VOB machine the copper section to fit his new HD2010 extension tubes and go with 2 26650’s instead of the 18650’s for better sag protection and longer run times. Hmmmmm……
The sliced and diced emitter in the baked M8 pill…
“Pill” in the M8, notice that the HA TypeIII anodize baked into an olive green military look, which compliments their choice of font quite well!
The M8 baked, in shorty configuration using one tube
Hi Dale. I thought the sliced and trimmed MT-G2 had a cooler tint than the original unmodified MT-G2? How does the tint of the sliced and trimmed MT-G2 compare against a dedomed XML2?
That is pure flashlight porn there! (running off to bathroom) 8)
Race, the Powerizer 3600mAh cell does even better for total amperage, just saw today that while the 26700 Moli doesn’t make as high amperage at start-up, it holds it longer than the Powerizer. A trade-off. Kind of tight squeezing those Sony’s into places made for 20R’s……
Proper direct drive MT-G2 makes a lot of heat.. Larger 26650 lights are better suited, and 26650 are generally better at maintaining high voltage under load (not that my 26650 light has got a pill to body contact that is well suited for direct drive 26650, but it works. :)
I have yet to see some discharge graphs for the Powerizer compared to the Sony cells. If you want better amperage, King kong is an option too. :p
Question is, is the Powerizer on level with the Sony in terms of voltage sag when its been used for some time.. Direct drive is all about limiting voltage sag and achiving high amps.. J) (atleast for me it is)
A comparison picture I posted in another thread, but 10A is kinda similar when looking at the cells ability to maintain high voltage.
Peak amps on the 20R and the US26650VT are quite similar, but use them for 5-10 minutes and its easy to see which is better.
I hope HKJ will test the Powerizer and more 26650 cells. Im in need of more 26650 cells..
I had figured that out by your description, I was just poking at you a little.
Thanks for the info about the tint. That M8 looks awesome as a MT-G2 host.
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I stuck everything together late last night. With 2 Sanyo UR18650FM protected batteries I was seeing 4.5 amps of tail cap current. With the 20R’s I was seeing a little over 6 amps in the mag with everything stock besides the heat sink and the led. The cells where a little down on voltage as I had been playing around with them without charging them up.
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It lit up a power pole at a hundred yards like daylight, huge hotspot and that’s with a rebel reflector. The XML in a mag does good at lighting up the power pole too, but it doesn’t light up the whole pole with intensity like the MT-G2 did. It lights up everything in the beam path even the spill is bright.
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The mag did not seem to get that hot until after about a minute. I had used some thermal paste in between the head and tube threads but most all the heat was running down the tube. I had finned the head to help get rid of some of the heat, but after a minute it didn’t seem like the head was absorbing much of it. I guess it was making heat so fast it hadn’t had time to get to the head yet. The tube heat was increasing with every second and I could definitely tell where the heat sink was placed. Didn’t run the light much longer than that. I was impressed with the amount of light this mag was putting out. I have a 4 XML kung running 10 amps and doesn’t seem as bright from memory as the MT-G2 mag. Maybe I’ll find time tonight to get them outside and compare.
Very nice, love it when a plan comes together! Are you as impressed as I am with the Sanyo UR18650FM cell? Who would have thought a $1.08 cell would perform like that! But then, they didn’t cost that new going into the HP battery pack I’m betting.
I’m really loving the MT-G2, incorporating it more and more. Wish it weren’t so hungry, but I reckon it’s the nature of the beast. Thinking about using one in a smaller light, keeping power level down and accepting the lumens it makes for the gorgeous tint I prefer.
My Shadow tc300 (a modest size light) modded direct drive with a MT-G2 does 8 amps (initially) on two cgr18500ch's for a few minutes of wow, and for prolonged use I can put two A123 18650 LiFePo 's in it for 2A and 1100 otf lumens.
How is the heat in that one djozz? Is there a line there somewhere in the middle where the choice between XM-L/XM-L2 crosses what the MT-G2 is doing? I put an XM-L U3 in a SupFire F9, driving it at 4.41A with Sanyo lap pulls for 1259 lumens OTF at 30 sec.
Makes me wonder at what point the 2 footprints cross over in lumens, amps and heat. Where’s the happy medium?
I’ve also got an XP-G2 in my Convoy C8 pulling 4.55A on a Samsung 20R and making 883 lumens OTF. Tighter beam yet again over the XM-L footprint.
It’d be cool to find out where the heat was the same for the 3 sizes, at what amps and then what the output was by comparison. If heat were the determining factor, say 125ºF at 5 minutes on the plane of the emitter on the head. Wonder how that would end up? Might be a surprise to a lot of us!
EDIT: I might just try that. Convoy C8’s in a host only are about $10. So 3 of those would be about the cost of a semi-normal light. With an XP-G2, XM-L2 and MT-G2 I wonder what the magic amp number would be to create 125ºF at a given place on the head in 5 minutes? It’d be an easy thing then to compare beam profiles and lumen output, as well as kcd and throw range. Hmmmmmm……
Direct drive seems to be a common way to drive the MT-G2, if you want some serious output. Has anyone else used a buck driver with 3 or 4 cells besides MRsDNF to regulate current? I’am not really crazy about the idea of running 3 or 4 cells in series, pushing 6 amps or more through each cell. One lazy cell could spell disaster with that much current. Looking for ideas before I go and spend several hours machining a solution. 2 cells and a voltage modified amc7135 driver with modes seems might be my best option, but I wouldn’t mind running the MT-G2 at 8 or 9 amps fully regulated either.
007, it seems like 7A is the best middle ground. For the amperage required, the heat produced (and dealt with) and output…the heat produced and likewise expense gone to in order to deal with it is really more than the output is worth after 7.
And, well, it does seem like 7 is your “lucky number”
I completely understand what your saying DBCstm, I just cant help myself. I keep looking at that wonderful graph djozz provided and wondering how to achieve near the top of that mountain. :~
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Does anyone know of another source for the IOS 9 amp driver?
the IOS driver was not successful in this application in the respect that it would lock into high after a short period of time and would not change modes.
I’m running it in a ZY-T08 and I’m getting around 3,000 lumens at startup and 2,800 steady after that with unprotected sanyo’s. This will pop the protection on Panasonic 3400’s after about 30 seconds. It’s more lumens on startup with samsung 20r’s but I don’t remember exactly how much.
I couldn’t tell you how many amps but you might be able to guess considering that it pops the protection on two pretty good cells. I think it was comfy who ran this same driver to power a 3xMT-G2 and he was getting about 3amps per emitter with three cells.
I e-mailed both wallbuys and fast tech to see if they would put this driver in stock. They both said they would but neither of them have and it was a while back. It can be trimmed down some to fit the XY-T08 but not much if any more than that. 29mm
I have also used the original 3xT6 and the driver from a J-18 and both worked well and can be modded to put out more if you wanted to. I have a link someplace that sells them. I’ll try and find it. It’s in Spanish I believe.
Fasttech sells a 3xT6 copy, it was what I original tried at the beginning of this thread along with the pot mod. Maybe I’am trying to reach too high on that mountain. I’ll keep looking and testing. Maybe I can find a happy medium some where.
Thanks for the info 18sixfifty.
