What did you do to insulate the reflector (prevent it from shorting)? Did you put tape on the end?
I keep thinking that an MT-G2 would fit nicely in that reflector opening, but don’t have an extra one at hand…
What did you do to insulate the reflector (prevent it from shorting)? Did you put tape on the end?
I keep thinking that an MT-G2 would fit nicely in that reflector opening, but don’t have an extra one at hand…
Gj: ohaya: Chicken Drumstick:Has anyone else notice the beam is a little weird. The hot spot is a perfect circle, odd for a LED with a square die. And the hot spot is larger than other XM-L lights I have (both bigger and smaller SMO reflectors). Anyhow I removed the reflector and the white centring ring. The reflector then drops a lot further over the LED. But sadly this doesn’t improve the focusing, it makes for a very defused hot spot. You actually need to elevate the reflector a bit to get the best focus, but without the white centring ring the focus is still poor, not all that tight and ringy. Makes me wonder if this lens isn’t really optimised for an XM-L size emitter and output angle. With the white ring back in place it returns to what on a white wall looks like a good hot spot, very round, very well defined and very large. But it must be an effect of the white plastic ring causing this. Shine another XM-L light next to it and you’ll see a slightly less round smaller hot spot but much more intense (even one pulling less amps). This translates outside, the throw on my F13 is quite poor. My Convoy M1 OP reflector easily out throws it by quite a margin. Not sure if any of this makes any sense of not. Probably easier to see in person than words.
No, you are making sense. I did much the same experiment last night, by removing the centering ring and putting tape on the end of the reflector instead to insulate it. Just as a test, because without the centering ring, it was hard to get the reflector to center (it moved when screwing in the head). That got rid of the doughnut at close range, but the beam had lots of rings. I noticed that the reflector has a kind of large flat area around where the emitter is, compared to other XM-L lights, which looks a little strange?
I tried without the centering last night, too. I was surprised how much the reflector could drop and disappointed with the beam, but then I thought it might be very helpful with a de-domed emitter. Everyone complains about not being able to get the reflector low enough after de-doming, maybe this will turn out to be a plus.
What did you do to insulate the reflector (prevent it from shorting)? Did you put tape on the end? I keep thinking that an MT-G2 would fit nicely in that reflector opening, but don’t have an extra one at hand…
It was just a quick look to see what difference removing the centering ring would do so I didn't insulate it. Not a problem with the small reflector and 20mm star. The opening is only 7mm, an MT-G2 needs 9mm just for the dome.
ohaya: Gj: ohaya: Chicken Drumstick:Has anyone else notice the beam is a little weird. The hot spot is a perfect circle, odd for a LED with a square die. And the hot spot is larger than other XM-L lights I have (both bigger and smaller SMO reflectors). Anyhow I removed the reflector and the white centring ring. The reflector then drops a lot further over the LED. But sadly this doesn’t improve the focusing, it makes for a very defused hot spot. You actually need to elevate the reflector a bit to get the best focus, but without the white centring ring the focus is still poor, not all that tight and ringy. Makes me wonder if this lens isn’t really optimised for an XM-L size emitter and output angle. With the white ring back in place it returns to what on a white wall looks like a good hot spot, very round, very well defined and very large. But it must be an effect of the white plastic ring causing this. Shine another XM-L light next to it and you’ll see a slightly less round smaller hot spot but much more intense (even one pulling less amps). This translates outside, the throw on my F13 is quite poor. My Convoy M1 OP reflector easily out throws it by quite a margin. Not sure if any of this makes any sense of not. Probably easier to see in person than words.
No, you are making sense. I did much the same experiment last night, by removing the centering ring and putting tape on the end of the reflector instead to insulate it. Just as a test, because without the centering ring, it was hard to get the reflector to center (it moved when screwing in the head). That got rid of the doughnut at close range, but the beam had lots of rings. I noticed that the reflector has a kind of large flat area around where the emitter is, compared to other XM-L lights, which looks a little strange?
I tried without the centering last night, too. I was surprised how much the reflector could drop and disappointed with the beam, but then I thought it might be very helpful with a de-domed emitter. Everyone complains about not being able to get the reflector low enough after de-doming, maybe this will turn out to be a plus.
What did you do to insulate the reflector (prevent it from shorting)? Did you put tape on the end? I keep thinking that an MT-G2 would fit nicely in that reflector opening, but don’t have an extra one at hand…
It was just a quick look to see what difference removing the centering ring would do so I didn’t insulate it. Not a problem with the small reflector and 20mm star. The opening is only 7mm, an MT-G2 needs 9mm just for the dome.
I was thinking that the F13 reflector has that rather large flat area around the emitter area, and that the opening could be opened up a few mm to fit an MT-G2…
Gj: ohaya: Gj:I tried without the centering last night, too. I was surprised how much the reflector could drop and disappointed with the beam, but then I thought it might be very helpful with a de-domed emitter. Everyone complains about not being able to get the reflector low enough after de-doming, maybe this will turn out to be a plus.
What did you do to insulate the reflector (prevent it from shorting)? Did you put tape on the end? I keep thinking that an MT-G2 would fit nicely in that reflector opening, but don’t have an extra one at hand…
It was just a quick look to see what difference removing the centering ring would do so I didn't insulate it. Not a problem with the small reflector and 20mm star. The opening is only 7mm, an MT-G2 needs 9mm just for the dome.
I was thinking that the F13 reflector has that rather large flat area around the emitter area, and that the opening could be opened up a few mm to fit an MT-G2…
Not too difficult to get 9mm for the dome, might be tricky if you want to set down over the entire square package.
ohaya: Gj: ohaya: Gj:I tried without the centering last night, too. I was surprised how much the reflector could drop and disappointed with the beam, but then I thought it might be very helpful with a de-domed emitter. Everyone complains about not being able to get the reflector low enough after de-doming, maybe this will turn out to be a plus.
What did you do to insulate the reflector (prevent it from shorting)? Did you put tape on the end? I keep thinking that an MT-G2 would fit nicely in that reflector opening, but don’t have an extra one at hand…
It was just a quick look to see what difference removing the centering ring would do so I didn’t insulate it. Not a problem with the small reflector and 20mm star. The opening is only 7mm, an MT-G2 needs 9mm just for the dome.
I was thinking that the F13 reflector has that rather large flat area around the emitter area, and that the opening could be opened up a few mm to fit an MT-G2…
Not too difficult to get 9mm for the dome, might be tricky if you want to set down over the entire die.
I have another (different) light that i put an MT-G2 into, where the reflector opening just barely fit the dome (the entire dome, but not the die), and that has a very nice beam… no rings, etc., so I think that the opening wouldn’t have to be large enough for the die, just the dome. Unfortunately, as I said, I don’t have a spare MT-G2 at this time to try it though…
Let’s keep our terms straight. You two are referring to the ‘package’. The ‘die’ is something else.
Let’s keep our terms straight. You two are referring to the ‘package’. The ‘die’ is something else.
Sorry, you’re right :)…
Right, edited to prevent future confusion.
The problem with just clearing the dome is the that the reflector can cut into the soft surface.
Finally brokedown and ordered. Paid $7 after GB points
Ordered one, this will be a hold me over and a comparitive flashlight for when I get this Xpower 26650 @FT
Has anyone tried to fit an mt-g2 in the light?
Did some mods to mine yesterday.
Recap mine was pulling 2.11amps on high with a KingKong 26650 INR.
I was disappointed with the throw and colour despite the good amp draw.
First thing I did was the pencil mod which I hasten to say worked brilliantly. I then moved the red wire to the output1+ with no other changes.
It was now pulling 2.86amps on start up and just over 3.0amps after about 20 secs.
The beam was still horrible though.
I then removed the reflector and the driver and NOTE the led just falls out. There is nothing, no thermal compound or anything holding it in place. The only thing I could see was something that looked like a few drops of something oily.
Next step was to fit an XP-G2 NW on a noctigon. Anyone else doing this I highly recommend using a 20mm star. I only had a 16mm. In order to get the reflector to clear the solder points I have to file the square edge off of the outside of the reflector base. Sadly it still just fouls the solder points, but does allow the white centering ring to seat on the star now. Ideally I’d have liked not to use the white plastic centering ring.
I beefed up the wire (20 or 22 gauge I think) and resolder the driver.
It now pulls 2.46amps on high (showing that an XP-G2 does indeed pull less amps than an XM-L on the same driver, not sure why, but have seen this on 3 other XP-G2 installs).
The colour is obviously way better and the beam is improved. Sadly I didn’t get the XP-G2 perfectly centered, another reason to use a 20mm star if you have one. But throw is massively improved, it now easily out throws my Imalent DDR2 XM-L2, which it was nowhere even close too before.
And oddly the white centering ring seems to work quite well with the XP-G2 giving an almost XM-L sized hotspot.
Overall I think the light is much improved for these changes, which really has only been a LED & star plus moving some wires about.
Thanks OL for the group buy.
I was fiddling with the reflector last night. The focal point seems to be ~3mm below the base. Can anyone confirm that? That's why they use such a tall centering ring.
I had tried removing the centering ring and substituting a 3mm thick o-ring. The beam was very floody. At ~40m, shining into a tree it was almost indistinguishable from my Convoy S6 w/XP-G2 S2 1B @3A, side by side.
nice and thank you for the review you made on GB site.
These are great lights…ready for either basic “tweaking” mods to all out barn burner mods
So far I have just done a very modest mod and this thing chucks some light, even using el-crapo and probably wore out laptop pull 18650’s w/ adapter
Recommended basic “tweaks”
Would I be able to put in the 20mm FET driver or will it slip through?
Still waiting on mine.
Would I be able to put in the 20mm FET driver or will it slip through?
22mm
But…there is a solution
With request of a few fellow BLF’ers and authorization from Mattaus I took his BLD20DD and more or less expanded the ground ring, added a capacitor on star 4 (for the off time firmware) and de-stopped the VIA’s everything else is completely the way Mattaus built it https://oshpark.com/shared_projects/D2dJbbBm Top [image] Bottom [image] Corrected for the correct board revision
Wasn’t sure since the shelf looked to be a little wider. Can I order just one of those complete?