After adding a few chips to mine, I was having trouble with the current measured, 2.8 up to 3.5a. It would not read past 3a. I took the pill out and unscrewed the driver to test. 3.48a. Screwed the driver in 3.48~a. Put the pill back in the head 3~a.
I had to clean my threads for it to work properly, the pill threads. I also removed some of the anodizing from the lip,where the head screws on on the inside of the tube. I have no problems with current now.
It is very inexpensive. It does make the driver thicker and creates some heat but in this particular light there’s lots of room. You must add the chips on the bottom of the driver though which can be tricky since there’s little room. I Desolder the chips that are there, stack them, then put the stacked chips back.
While stacking chips are good for better performance you should also change the LED star into direct copper MCPCB, something like the Sinkpad or Noctigon, otherwise the increased light output will sag very quickly and it may even damage your LED in a long run, depends on the current draw anyway.
When you add chips to power up the driver, the choice of cell becomes increasingly important. Some cells simply will not deliver the current needed for the increased power of the driver.
Stacking 4 chips usually yields around 4.12A and many cells can do this, the Panasonic NCR18650PF is a great choice here for it’s excellent capacity and resulting runtime. It’s also capable of delivering more, when you get hungry to bump even more power. (which you will)
Stacking 4 more on top of those for a total of 16 chips usually results in around 5.34A (more if your cell can deliver), this does require a good cell like the one above or a Samsung 20R, there are several others that will run a driver with 16 chips but not at it’s maximum potential. When doing this, it’s essential, like above, to have a SinkPAD or Noctigon copper star under your emitter! (mtnelectronics.com here in the States has the Noctigons with emitters mounted, or you can get them at Intl-Outdoor.com)
This can get you to 1000-1100 lumens in the first example, and upwards of 1600 lumens in the second…this is Out The Front (OTF) lumens!!!
Have fun becoming a Flashaholic!
Edit: I would be remiss to leave out that the tail switch is not made to run these currents. Adding 4 chips you can easily give the tailcap some breathing room by doing a spring bypass, which entails soldering a solder wick copper braid or a wire from top to bottom of the spring to carry the current. Springs are made from steel, in most cases, so the copper bypass will have less resistance and the current will follow the path of least resistance. Going to 8 added chips you might need to put a stronger switch in your light, like a McClicky, available at multiple places but Lighthound is a good choice.
I got some Panasonic NCR18650B protected batteries. They should be able to provide enough power right?
Planned to put in a copper pill, dedome a XML2 on noctigon and put in some 22 awg led leads. So I think it should be able to handle some higher amperage…… J)
Edit: Ow yeah, almost forgot the copper braiding of the tailspring. Maybe also the driver spring?
I know what you mean. I’ve only waited 11 days so far for mine to arrive. I figure I still have a couple weeks of waiting. I excitedly check the mail each day, just in case it comes in that “7-15 day” window shown on the Banggood site.
Has 8 chips (2800mA), ended up flashing STAR V1.1 with pins 2, 3, 4 bridged to ground
It now comes on wide open for 2 minutes, then automatically steps down to a lower level, has 5 modes turbo w/ timeout, high, med, low, moonlight
I did it this way as my “bump in the night, blind badguy with a wall of light, but also keep the kids from burning the darn thing up by turning it on high and leaving it there” setup
Unlike my modded Convoy S5 that has last mode memory the C8 ALWAYS starts in turbo but after 2 minutes pulls back to keep from overheating (and no daggum flashies)