Us old school copper lovers in Texas have learned from years of experience that plastic melts. Plastic gets hot and brittle and breaks. We have 100 days of 100º in the summer, stuff falls apart. Plastic sucks. Way of life. Give me aircraft quality aluminum or watch me take my business elsewhere. Really that simple.
I’m not a wuss, I can carry a few ounces. What’s all this “weight” everyone keeps referring to? It’s small, it can only be so heavy for crying out loud! I’ve carried construction materials all my life, the very thought of needing to keep weight down in a light seems very silly to me. I remember when MagLights first came out and took the flashlight market by storm…BECAUSE they were heavy and BECAUSE they were solid and had very little plastic in them! (Their reflectors have always been plastic and always been their weakness, IMHO)
Part of my other questions were just ribbing Tom. Please feel free to throw in whatever observations you might have as many of us are still on the edge of our seats regarding this light. I’ve never even seen one, so don’t know anything about how it might compare say to a TK61 or any other.
Also interested in the throw comparisons, as my previous best thrower is a MAXToch SN6X-2X that doesn’t have anywhere near the diameter of these big lights but still hits 365Kcd. Still learning, still experimenting, still playing.
And still not happy with my TK61. Easily getting 341Kcd from the Courui. At considerably less monies. Perhaps when I get everything in the TK playing nicely with each other I might change my opinion.
I just put an UCLp lens in my Courui big head with a de-domed XM-L2 emitter. Before the swap…341.25Kcd (1168.76M). After the swap…369.25Kcd (1215.32M)! Niiice!
Keep that in mind for the big K50 V2 guys… I know it’s supposed to have an AR lens, but does it stack up to what flashlightlens.com can do?
So, have any of you guys worked out what to do with the driver yet given the differences to the normal TN31/K40 one? I’m looking at you Tom….
I’m keen to pull mine apart as soon as it arrives but unlike a lot of you guys, I do not understand what most of the components on these drivers do. so I am really relying on someone else to tell me what to solder where haha
LSX, I’m with you…I don’t know all the ins and outs of the electronics, just show me where to touch some solder and what component to add or subtract and I’m good!
Cant say if its reliable yet. Ive not assembled the light fully. And I think it might be wise for me to "pot" the resistor area of the driver like it was when stock.
Outout seems to be sinking FAST. I could say its 7-8A. But its more like 7A it seems. Ill have to do more testing. But not feeling like pushing it unless the driver is properly cooled.
Ill get back when I know more. No need for others to try and replicate what Ive done just yet.
Edit: Ryan, no need to update OP yet. 8A is not a representative number for the output. Btw, Ive posted stock numbers too.
Sorry to hear that RaceR86, but pumping 8A through XM-L2 seems a bit too much, 6A is powerful enough while not putting the LED into life-threatening zone. Thanks for testing this out for us.
Please feel free to throw in whatever observations you might have as many of us are still on the edge of our seats regarding this light. I’ve never even seen one, so don’t know anything about how it might compare say to a TK61 or any other.
Crap gotta go - fun to have some fun BBQ/Beer/ice luge/live band....
