Patrol King

LED Flashlights – General Info 26650 Flashlights
16

This makes me want that Conrui!

17

This pic by _the_ also looks somewhat dull. Maybe its the lens.

I added an edit to my previous post.

18

I thought the J18 had a bigger head??

19

That Courui sure does look sweet. Anyone know what the best deal on those are these days?

EDIT: Never mind. Parallel cells. Don't feel like trying to convert to series.

I have a PK on the way to me. So I will make the best of it. "C" cells fit the J18 nicely. So with an extension, it should hold 4 nicely. That would be a good voltage level to drive an xml well and make a nice gift for my father.

20

Maybe you're thinking of the TR-9T6.

21

I really thought the tr-j12 and tr-j18 were different but a quick look at them both on google and they look the same. They just have different number of emitters. :zipper_mouth_face:

22

Thank you for clearing this for me pp3310.

It is a great light you put together there. Looks like it can take some heat and shed it!

Nice one :-)

23

I didn’t put anything together. Stock standard. Kind of why I made this thread, performance to price ratio.

24

I must not have read through it carefully. Sorry about that. :-(

25

My Patrol King arrived today. Patrol King is a very apt name for this light. Very nice balance with 2 cells, excellent mixture of throw and spill, decent cell capacity, and heat sinking would make this a good patrol duty light. I really like it.

I was going to add an extension, but this light looks good and is nicely balanced with 2 cells. The reflector has an excellent finish once it was rinsed off with filtered water. It's also very thick and strong. I wouldn't put anything bigger than an XML emitter in it. The lens sucks though. I put an AR lens in it. Check it out:

So the important stuff (stuff that I can't fix) is good. The light has a few issues that I look forward to fixing as follows:

  • Next mode memory. The driver works just as well with one cell which is nice.
    • Will hack in a different MCU and up the current. If it can't give me the current I want, I can use this driver in another light.
  • Aluminum emitter base
    • Fix is obvious. Will swap in an a XM-L2 while at it.
  • Pill is not the thick pill like in RaceR86's light. The threads only go partially down its length and only a few threads make loose contact with the head.
      • There is a nice ledge in the head to sit some copper disks on. There is also extra cell space length wise. So the pill can just be screwed deeper into the head and butt up against the copper disks. I'll probably just toss the pill and solder a copper tube to the bottom of the disks for a driver housing.

Here a picture of the pill:

Here is how high it sits in the head. Hard to see from this angle, but about half the treads are in the air.

Only the bottom 3 threads make contact and they are a loose fit. The portion under the caliper jaws makes no contact with the head.

Throw calculated to 36kcd with the AR lens at 10 feet.

EDIT: Just read RaceR86 info on the driver. Doesn't take high current well. I swap in a different driver.

26

Thanks for the info & pictures guys. Driver pics please?

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Will do next time I open up the light. RaceR86 has a pic and some info here. The cell side has no components.

He has top and bottom picture here.

28

Thanks for the link ImA4Wheelr. Looks like another QX9920 based driver. The modes chip seems to be detailed here.

29

:)

I never used mine stock. But the modded light was included in this beamshot comparison. I named it the TR-J18 "thrower". Used an MT-G2 in proper direct drive with two green Sony 50A 26650 cells.

30

Ah, I saw J18 and thrower and assumed it was one of your dedomed multiemitter mods. Since I'm not huge on multiemitters, I didn't give the beam shot much attention. Thanks for the correction. Looking at it now, it's obviously not one your multiemitter builds because it would be a much better beam and would have better throw.

The beam looks like what I would expect from an MT-G2 in a reflector this size. Turns into a big even beam, almost like a zoomie in flood mode. Just doesn't work for me. Thank you for sharing that RaceR86. Definitely helps with making a mod decision.

EDIT: Thanks for the MCU link wight. If possible, I want to try to mod this driver for a lower current build. I hate seeing buck drivers go to waste.

31

Now that I have followed a few of the posted links, I see I am nearly a full year behind :stuck_out_tongue: :bigsmile: - Single XM-L TR-J18-like

The AR lens looks like a good improvement 4wheelr.

32

You and I both, but I don't think this light was really ever fully explored. It's like something newer and more exciting came out just when the light was starting to be dug into.

With a couple little fixes, I see me using this light a lot. It has my favorite kind of beam pattern with a domed xml. Looking forward to upping the amps with a domed xml2.

I wish that the xml came in a high CRI neutral white. That would really make this light for me. I guess I have to be patient for the future.

33

I agree with ImA4Wheelr in that I’m glad you brought it up. It looks like fun, as soon as I get a couple of other things wrapped up I think I’d like to get one and do some modding. How is the quality of the threads?

@ ImA4Wheelr:

  • The modes chip is definitely not considered an MCU. That’s seems to be a difficult terminology issue for this forum in general. I’m not calling you out - I’m calling BLF out. I just call it a modes chip, but it’s actually a full-blown DD controller chip if you want use it that way. Either way, I think the proper classification of the chip would be an ASIC. (EDIT: but I’m not sure… what’s why I just call it the modes chip ;-). Maybe someday someone will tell me exactly how it should be classified.)
  • Back to business: There are two separate PWM outputs from the modes chip that could be tied into either the enable pin (EN) or the off time selection / PWM (TOFF) pin. It should be fairly easy for us to pin that down and get an ATtiny in there if that’s what you want to do, I just can’t make it out from RaceR86’s (good!) pictures. It would definitely be nice to get a little use out of any surplus buck controllers.
34

Thanks for the correction wight. I noticed you said modes chip (here and in the past too. Don't remember where) and figured it was on purpose, but I didn't know what it meant.

Based on the help you gave me in the HX-1175b thread, I think I may be able to figure out the Attiny13a hack myself. I'll take a stab at it at least.

Once I pull that off, I will do a sense resister mod to increase current. I'm sure something will start getting hot. At that point I will seek you out for ideas. RaceR86's thread on this driver seems like the best place for that.

I feel like I have highjacked PinkPanda's thread. Totally not my intention bro. I'm just excited about this light and happy you started this thread.

35

No issues at all. I hadn’t seen this light before so I figured I’d post for the benefit of others. My end goal seems to be achieved so you can run with it 8)

With regard to the threads I think they are half decent. The tail is different size to the front but the front of tube is the same size as the pill. The pill can screw right through the head, front to back. I do wish there were a few more threads on the front of the tube though.