Modified TrustFire TR-J18 +4800 lumen OTF

Yes, i mean that Lightmalls driver. I have also, but with big capacitor. I understood that last ones have been without capacitor?

I have sent it back, waiting for a replacement.
I believe it didn’t have big capacitor, I remember a big terroid wrapped with black heat shrink material.

This driver failure happens often?
It was working with 2 & 3 26650 batteries without any problem until it stopped working. Maybe mine was defective from the start, I had some strange measurements about the voltage output.

I don’t know how new version works, hope that they will work cause i think i need to order one more of these. I have been using that older one that takes about 5.5Amps from batteries (3pcs) many months. I have not used it lot, but no problems so far.

How did that warranty work? Did you have to send old one back or did you have to pay something for replacement?

Did you measure current consumption with that driver?

I asked for a replacement, they suggested discount, I insisted on replacement, I send the defective back, didn’t ask them to pay the returning post, just to send me a new one.
I faced some strange voltage & ampere readings and I wrote a post about them in the forum, but I use a mobile now and it is not easy to find it.

Has new driver arrived, have you measured amperes with that?

I did a resistor mod to mine yesterday. My j18 has the “T” shaped driver. My driver had an extra spot to solder a r47 resistor in. I measured 1.1a to emitters with the unmodified driver. After soldering the resistor in I measured 2.48a to the emitters! Tail cap current was 5.6-5.8a with 3 TF26650 batteries. I did have to pot the driver in thermal epoxy because it was getting a bit warm. This is one of my favorite lights now. At 5 meters stock light measured 1170 lux. Resistor mod did 2180 lux.

I didn’t read all the posts on this thread so pardon me if someone already did this. I’m just excited it worked so well!

Ken

R47 - is that 0.47 ohms? Damn - though I tried resistor modding this driver and had no success, though maybe I didn't try a resistor that big.... Hhmm, gotta re-visit this....

Yes .47 ohms. R47 is what is printed on the resistor itself. I had some r47 resistors and some r22 resistors. I tried the r47 first. It worked great!

Oh I forgot to say that I did remove the spring on the contact plate of the driver and just soldered the brass contact directly to the driver contact plate. The switch has not been modified at all. It’s been working good so far. It sure sucks up batteries on high though!

Ken

Sorry for the late reply, unfortunatelly, i never received the replacement driver lightmalls doesn’t answer my mails.

Hey Tom, Did you ever give the mod a try? Mine is still working great!

Ken

No - that was a long time ago. Guess I went straight to the 7X driver from IOS/LD/LM at the time. I know DayLighter had a resistor mod working well recently, but think he ran into problems with it. Don't think I ever got an R47 resistor at the time. I still have a stock J18 - could try it if I find that size resistor - should have one or something close now

Do you think I still can buy the IOS 7 LED driver for J18 mod anymore?

http://www.kaidomain.com/product/details.S020165

http://www.kaidomain.com/product/details.S020166

The 7x version doesn't have enough voltage headroom to run 7 XML2s, it'll be pushed close to the limit with XMLs. I think the 9x is a better option.

As comfy said, KD has them... The 7X LED driver worked well with the stock XML's for me, but I never ran it for too long - 5-6 mins at most. When I upgraded the emitters to XM-L2's, the 7X driver dropped amperage, couldn't keep up. I removed the middle LED, so running 6 XM-L2's and the thing is doing amazing - around 6,500 lumens. I have the 9X driver on order from KD, shipped Jan 9th -- planning on upgrading a 2nd J18 to upgrade all 7 to XM-L2's and using the 9X driver with that one.

its looks now as a brightest badget monster flashlite…no?

Thank you all very much comfy and Tom. So do you mean the 9x driver can be dropped right in while maintaining the series configuration of the LEDs?

Dunno, but maybe. It's up there for sure for a 7X light, well, actually 6X. I know other 7X 6,000+ lights are around, but maybe not measured in a light box. I know for a fact the 12X light from KD with 6 18650's modded is brighter - https://budgetlightforum.com/t/-/21505, but also, not measured. At the end of that thread is some other incredible mods by moviles2. Of course Hyprmtr's build is about $200 in cost.

Of course a modded SupBeam X60 vinh does is in this range, but it's something like $350 I think...

Yes - it's for LED's in series, and hoping it should work well with 7 XM-L2's. Not sure if someone tried this already -- thought something was posted bout it. I won't know til it gets here and I got time to work on it.

Lck led Has them too I believe.

This is the one I had my eye on, they ship to me in under 14 days.