Supbeam K50 V2 Mod Thread

^ It's a big light, but I don't think it's so big you would want clamp your bike to it.

Seriously though, won't the beam be a bit too narrow for biking? I'm guessing the spill will be a bit too faint.

i use mu yezl y3 on my bike

or a triple dedome xml bikelight with batterypack on combination with a UFT20 on far zoom :smiley:
on a dark bikeway everybody stop and go on side.

i gonne try for sure the k50 v2 too

Ummm. That might be a problem, for bicycle use I can foresee a new rule about light intensity. Especially if your are from the Netherlands or close to the Netherlands. They like to make many rules for bicycles.

On the road it needs some consideration using high powered lights. It can be very dangerous, blinding people. So be careful with what you are actually doing. Please behave a bit mature on those occasions.

No this is not a bike light. End of story!

LOL! :smiley:

Here’s what Bella said about the tracking numbers:

Thanks m8, back to the waiting game.

To ease some concerns, I got two K50's in this evening. So far the first one is coming apart pretty easy. The tail cap unscrews by hand and the bezel comes off fairly easy:

These sticky gloves were pretty cheap at Home Depot and worked great to loosen the bezel - its on pretty tight, but also clean of glue.

Don't mind the mess. Too many projects goin on right now...

Thanks for the pics Tom.
I’m currently out for a vacation with intermittent wifi so I’ll catch up later!

I accessed the driver - they use thermal epoxy on the area of the resistors, so you have to pry the cover off. I did it, cleaned up some - it's clearly a labeled K40 driver. I measured 1.7A at 16.4v at the carrier, so theoretical max of 6.4A to the LED but we know it doesn't get that much - lots of loss with this design. Think on a TN32 I'd measure like 10A equivalent to the LED, but measured only 5.5A - 6A at the LED.

Clearly though the resistor area has a stack of 3 resistors, top one is R120. But, there are other SMD components, 3 legs, looks almost like FET's. Also a fine wire/jumper is in this area -- have to be real careful in clearing the epoxy around that wire. These SMD's are not in a K40 or TN31 driver -- different for sure.

I measured lumens and throw - throw is a bit higher than others measured, actually I got over 200 kcd, but man, these things can really throw stock - checked outdoors too. On one K50, the lumens measured was almost dead on with the specs in all modes, but the other light was a bit higher. selfbuilt measured it much lower than the specs -- who knows...

So far, can't get the other threaded joint open - the one at the mag ring. It would make it easier getting that one open to work on the emitter area - I hate working down a big head. Didn't try the strap wrench's yet on it. I suppose next step is to wire up the LED neg. to test stock amps at the LED (no idea what that is), then pull off the stack of resistors and see what they are - doubt I'll get to this yet - maybe someone can beat me to it and post? SmileSmile

Tom, was it easy to pry the driver of the the cover?

Just got my light in today. Did some measurements and most of the teardown. Probably wont do anything more today.

Held the head of the light in one hand (with some grip help) and a strap wrench in the other. On the picture the strap wrench is not properly in place since Im holding the camera and the flashlight.

After cleaning. Mine had a little solder blob on it..

Top side of the driver.

Pill is about 2 mm thick.

Here are emitter amps from lowest to highest mode according to my cheap DMM.

Moon 0,00237 ( second time I measured 0,00245)

0,058

0,53

1,43

2,69

High starts at 5,03 and sinks to about 4,9A in a minute.

Basically 5A to the emitter.

187kcd (In comparison, I measured a stock TK61 to 181kcd with similar "correction increase". That light is driven with 2 amps less at the emitter.With a "stage 1 resistor mod" TK61 measured about 267kcd at 4,7A)

Measured about 1470lumen OTF. (Once again Ive added a bit to readings in order to get a bit closer to others on BLF. In comparison, a "stage 1" resistor modded TK61 showed 1533 at slightly lower amps)

Im still working on my correction numbers. Sometimes I used different values. Finding a balance between ANSI and the higher numbers typically posted on BLF is not easy.

RaceR, how much torque did you apply to get the head off? Thanks for the pics.

Thanks! Cool with the amps measurements. So you are working down the head to get access to the MCPCB? I'd prefer opeing the lower threaded connection, but it's almost always glued on the K40 and TN31's.

For the bottom side where the resistors are, did you have thermal epoxy over all the chips in that area? Mine did - a lot of epoxy, big blob stuck to the inside of the cover, so had to force the cover off by pryin it from the driver. I'm lucky I didn't pull the real fine jumper wire...

Gotta run upstairs to the desktop to post pics...

My measurements:

K50 #1: lumens from hi: 1,656 1,074, throw: 208 kcd (only 2 top modes measured)

K50 #2: lumens from hi: 1,612 1,030 619 248 26 0.6, throw: 207 kcd from 5 meters

I used a combo of Pana PD and PF cells - just good ones had laying around, charged. Who knows - my measurements seem high when always compared against selfbuilt's, but have been in line with rdrfronty's. The throw #'s were impressive though - wow.

Thank you RaceR86. So you are saying that the TK61 produces 267kcd driven at 4.7A, while K50 driven with 5A produces only 187kcd, so much difference?

Thanks for the photos. Are you able to post a picture of the spring side of the driver please?

Here's the pics I took of the spring side:

After cleaning it up being very careful around that wire jumper:

I'd love to know a little more bout what's going on in this area with those 3 leg chips and the jumper.

Update: Ahh, ok. Looked at my driver pics from the K40, and it has only one 3 leg chip and spots for two resistors. This is a definite mod, adding something that looks like a FET where a resistor pad is. Other than that, the drivers look the same, but without going through all the parts carefully.

Thanks for all the reporting and pictures Tom E and RaceR86. RaceR86, when you look at the TK61 and K50 reflectors, does the TK appear to have a more refined finish and or shape? Not asking you to get precise. Just hoping to hear your casual observation.

Does anyone know how these Hall sensor drivers generally work? It appears that each hall sensor has it own set of resistors and such. I'm wondering if all the non-blinky sensors regulate current by providing a specific amount resistance or voltage to the MCU or buck controller or something.

EDIT: It does appear that there are enough traces and pins on what appears to be the MCU, that each hall sensor may be just pulling up or down a specific pin on the MCU. All the different resistors would seem unnecessary if that is that case though. I think when I get mine, I'm going to put a magnet near a sensor and then slightly reduce resistance to one of its resistors to see if emitter current changes.

Ohh -crap, mis-understood. Well, there was some epoxy shown at the edge - cut through and scraped it away with a sharp screwdriver. Then used the same sharp, thin screwdriver tool to slip it in there (jam it in), and twisted it slowly, moving the screwdriver around the edge, again more twisting til eventually she loosened up enough, going slowly. Glad I went slow after seeing that fine wire jumper up in the air...

ImA4Wheeler - think these mag ring chips have been reverse engineered before, here on BLF. I believe there is a simple level reading coming into the MCU, like 0-255 (A-D/PWM) or 0-7 value on 3 pins, something like that, then the MCU handles it to set the output level accordingly. Forgot where or who but recall reading bout it. Might have to check the traces and look up the parts - could be a master controller that feeds the MCU.

From a SupBeam K40:

From a TN31:

Funny it's all the same...