P60 with MTG2

The beam is pretty terrible in anything P60-sized, even if it's not an actual P60 reflector. C8 size is about the bare minimum to get something usable. If you want a wall-to-wall pure flooder, there are easier ways to get it than sticking a MTG2 in a too-small reflector. The beam also has ugly yellow lumps and spots in it, there are better options.

thanks. any suggestions? triples perhaps?

Yep, good pure-flood optics options for the triple XP boards. There are quads available now too, but I have no experience with the optics available for those.

I respectfully disagree. The dropin I just put together has a very nice beam pattern with the mtg2. One of the nicest I’ve made.

CC, can you possibly show a photo of this? My TC300 MT-G2 has a nasty yellow spot right in the middle, don’t know if its related to the reflector or if its possibly the pattern from the die being projected straight out the front. I’ve tried to capture it in a pic but there’s just to much light even on low for the camera to pick up.

I have built this combo before but quickly stripped them down to use the parts where they worked better.

You're going to have to use the manual settings on the camera, keep decreasing the shutter speed until the details start to show up.

Give me a day or so and I’ll have pics mt-g2 vs sportac triple nichia. Couple of my fav’s at the moment…. oh hang on…. there all fav’s :sushi: :beer:

So here’s the 2x P60 lights, both running 2s. I’ll spare the rest of the details since it’s not poignant.






Have you thought about a Solarforce K3 ?

thanks

I wanted something the same size as a regular P60

I completely agree. I like the feel and balance of the P60 style like the SolarForce L2 series. I also want a drop in that allows me to use 2, 3 or 4 RCR123’s. It seems a shame to have a host that allows mix and match parts where I can build a host that allows 2, 3 or 4 batteries but there are few drop ins that take advantage of this ability. All the SolarForce drop ins that have the voltage spread which allows 4RCR123’s only produce 300 lumens. Now that we have XP-G2, XM-L2 and MT-G2 LED’s we want a drop in that uses them in a format which allows us to use 4 RCR123 batteries. So I wrote SolarForce yesterday and asked them to consider adding drop ins like this to their catalog. Maybe if a few more write them they will take our requests seriously.

In any event, since I can’t build them myself has anyone found a source for drop ins like this that don’t cost multiples of what the hosts cost? I believe that custom builders deserve a profit for their work but considering what it costs for the parts some of the prices charged are just too too much.

One of the members here does custom drop-ins over in for sale section of the forums. 1 of my favorite three lights is an convoy S3 with an MTG2, I love it! I run it on a pair of 18350s and it cranks out a wall of light- no beam but a wall of light. When hiking and camping the little MTG2 is my wife’s favorite light as it shows everything and no rings or hot-spots. A couple of questions…

  1. Have you thought of using 2 x18350 batteries instead of the 4 primaries?
  2. Have you thought of a mule configuration for your MTG2?
  3. Are you looking for a more powerful beam of light, or a wall of light?

I can’t find the thread (I searched by failed), but I could’ve SWORN that there was someone who posted that they were going to start offering P60 drop-ins here on BLF recently. Anyone remember that?

Yup, Linkified!

I agree the P60 is the right size for a good carry light. I have my doubts about a MT-G2 without a larger reflector but this alternative was brought to my attention. I am unfamiliar with Kaidomain quality so I can’t recommend this dealer but I like this XP-L as an alternative to the MT-G2 It has a wide voltage spread which means it can be used with different battery configurations.

http://www.kaidomain.com/product/details.S023710

Why do you want to run 4 CR123a’s? All you are achieving is a huge amount of heat as the driver burns off the excess voltage. This wouldn’t be so bed if you got good runtime in return, but you don’t. In series you’ll only have the mah of a single CR123a.

You really need to start over and go back to the basics and study study study until it starts to make sense, because if you don't you're going to keep veering off into the wilderness and making assumptions based on stuff that's just not true.

This is not about your worth as a person, or your intelligence, or anything else, it's solely about that you don't yet have a grasp of the basics. This is also not about a disagreement or difference of opinion over which hardware is suitable for what, it's that you don't yet know enough about this stuff to know what you don't know. Go forth and read, Grasshopper. Please ask questions about anything you find that you don't understand. And please pay attention to the answers you are given in response (and please don't ignore this last part).

For someone who asks a lot of questions he sure doesn’t like to take on much information that people are giving him…

True, if it were using a linear driver, which is highly unlikely for any driver with a wide range of input voltage, so the excess voltage isn't being wasted. And the 'same-mAh-as-a-single-cell' is technically true, but if it uses a buck driver then the higher input voltage will give a lower input current, to get the same output voltage/current as the lower input voltage. If you ask 3 amps from a single 3v cell and the same 3 amps from 3 in series, then yes, the capacity will be the same, but 9v @ 3A is 3x the power of 3v @ 3A. In reality you would only need 1 amp @ 9v to get the same power in watts. So, assuming the driver isn't stupid, then 3 cells will indeed triple the capacity.

I like the animation. I certainly feels like that sometimes. It is easy for one who understands the information to read an answer and “get it”. It’s not quite so easy for someone who doesn’t understand the topic to get the knowledge out of an answer. Add to that the disagreement between posters on how all this stuff works and it gets even harder to understand how it all fits together. But I am working on it. :>)