Didn’t get out to the farm last night, ended up watching big brother with my wife. But I snuck out back and took these shots xd I know some are blurry like the 3rd shot, it’s our lemon and growing pomegranate… Backyard not lookin too good, but were not allowed to water (drought). Just hand water certain trees so they don’t die this year- been rough Anyways here’s the shots
This is the 5 led Supernight (2x 26650). Very yellow. Doesn’t heat up enough to matter, stock.
This is the 15 led Supernight (4x 26650) Modded to remove all modes but high, pencil modded to 4a. It’s just a nice light. Nice cool white and lights up everything in front and sides. This picture really doesn’t do it justice. Gets ridiculously hot in about 15 minutes. 45+ minute strait runtime. Used the most. Can run protected or non protected.
This is the Y3 with a MT-G2 replacement (2x 26650). Sense resistor mod .042. My initial opinion of this light is the tint is sweet but holy cow it gets hot. Needs a leather handle made. It’s not dedomed but looks to have some decent throw to it anyway. It has 4 modes on the eswitch and you have to use them. Non protected 2+ cells only.
Y3 with a U2 D1 replacement dedomed (2x 26650). Sense resistor mod .045. This is just a laser xd I guess it could be better with a A1 bin after reading the dedome thread, but I’m pretty happy with the throw and heat. I had to stick the emitter way into the reflector. It doesn’t heat up like the MT-G2. I noticed the inductor is bigger in this driver from cnqualitygoods than the one from gearbest. Can run 1 protected or 2+ cells non protected (I really don’t know why 1 cell doesn’t trip, unless the driver is ignoring the sense).
Edit: Here’s a reference shot so you can see the true colors. I don’t know how you guys like your beamshots done, only way I can see the color difference
Yeah DnF was the the inductor as far I could see. I guess they wanted to save a bit there with a smaller one. It still works good though. Making copper shims takes a while too. How do you guys shim the mcpcb up higher?
I like to take copper pipe bought by the foot and cut it then hit it with the torch until it’s pliable and hammer it flat as a pancake. You can make all the flat copper you need that way- cheap If the copper ever gets too hard from bending or whatever, hit it with the torch and it goes right back to workable. Love copper really you can make practically anything with it, and it’s food safe too
Hey aoeu… You can always bypass the protection. Weird I know, my 15 led doesnt trip protection but these lights do strait away. I was just unwrapping the battery and put tape down the positive rail. The negative, get a copper braid and slip it under the negative rail (be bent on the underside) and wrap it around to the back of battery, tape. You can remove it for other lights. A pain but it works.
Waiting on some efest batteries to get here. Those high drain should be good. On the copper- you can use it to pull sulfides out of boiling liquids Gj. Good read on copper toxicity though. I’ve never made a plate with it thankfully
Lol A mtg2 at 8A… :bigsmile:
I guess you should see no protection problems there…
To achieve such high current in real life you will need a very good driver and cells…to achieve this will give you a hard time…
If you plan a direct drive, with two of your cells the voltage will break in a lot at 8A and that limits the current on itself. And of course every bit of wire in between will drop also a lot of voltage at higher currents(for example a spring with 50mohm will drop 8*50=400mV)
Werner, maybe not as much as you would think. I have an M8 with BLF17DD pushing 12+A from 2 18650’s powering the MT-G2.
Just yesterday I put an MT-G2 in an Eagle Eye X6 using 2 Efest Purple 18350’s that draws 7.17A at the tail and makes 3485 lumens OTF.
I’ve got 10 lights with MT-G2 emitters, passing 8A is too easy, limiting it so switches don’t fry is the bigger problem (or making the switches capable of handling 100%)
So previously it was mentioned the stock driver would be putting out 3a to the emitter. What would be fed to the emitter on a stock driver if I put an MTG2 in there? Is it still going to be 3a?
And also, what do you guys think would be the right resistor addition to give a nice balance of heat management + runtime? I don’t want any hand grenades but a nice balance of brightness and manageable heat.
Your builds are always crazy and hard to reach.
12A on two IMR might work( for a short time) but a you have to consider that a normal 26650 breaks in a lot more on startup, especially when it’s protected and run at 7A. Check out HKJs graph for the keepower 26650 at 7A multiply the voltage by two and compare it to the forward voltage djozz has provided and you will see that it should be in a safe region. Especially if you consider that you can easy loose half a volt an the I between resistance…
I can't help you with this... I did a resistor mod before upgrading to a MT-G2 but am suspecting you'd get the 3A in the stock configuration, and the balance heat/runtime issue is all a matter of personnal preference, operating usage, etc. - impossible for me to answer that for any flashlight. 90F outdoor temps is very different from 20F outdoor temps for example, also holding it vs. standing it idle.
I think I read earlier that this was a 10 Watt driver. If you get 3A at the emitter that would make it at least 18W with a 6V MT-G2. Maybe even a little more depending on Vf.
I would go directly for a resistor mod, a mtg driven at <3A isn’t so impressive at all. I have one with 3-4A and I wish I had powered it up more because it just gives 2000lm which is what you will get also from a srk style light easyly…
I don’t do anything any differently than what’s available to everyone else here. I buy the pcb’s from OSHPark, populate them with components from DigiKey and use commonly available cells and wires. Richard matches my lights and goes beyond them, as does Tom E and RaceR86 and CerealKiller and ComfyChair and and and…
Some of those guys figure out how to tweak stuff and make it better. I just assemble parts. I know squat about electronics. Ask Richard, I’m begging his and Comfy’s help all the time from simple things I’ve screwed up.
I just don’t have sense enough to not put a big lights components in a small light. <—- straight from the horses mouth.
I just really like the color of the MTG2… It gives a natural coloring to everything you shine it on. The throw is good too at .042 (R090 in parallel with the R180 and R150)
There was one guy remember reading. He said he liked it stock but I dunno what that looks like. Put the resistor in with the emitter too
Have to ask wight or someone else. I know with the u2 it should be ~6a… I have it on a noctigon and that’s sitting on a custom pure copper shim. Using alumina to set the shim on the pill and some thermalright for the emitter. It hasn’t blown up so far, and think it’s getting as good a path without potting or modding.
Used copper braid to the emitter so I could get the reflector down into the emitter as deep as possible. That helped quite a bit too with the reflector getting contact to the emitter to absorb some of that heat. On the driver I used copper braid on the fet and ran it to the outside of the driver to transfer some of that heat to the pill. This was all mainly from wights suggestions early on when messing around. Not sure if it needs it or not. I was going to put low esr capacitors on the output too, but it seems fine without xd Also have cheap tim on the threads connecting the head to the pill.
I like both the thrower and mtg2… They have different jobs but at .042, the mtg2 I can tell you honestly, it will heat up even and quickly and fast. The u2 heats over time and seems fine at .045. The mtg2 just can’t wait to dump it’s heat off into your hand on high. The driver and led seems to be able to handle it though- I let it run awhile… well until I was just being a showoff
I was thinking about switching out the reverse clicky for a forward clicky, but I’m not able to get the retaining ring off since it’s so tight. Anyone else have this issue?
Anyways here’s the shots
