Review: Modified Ledoman 6x XM-L 3 Mode Bike Light "Ledoman X6"

I love your mod and what a fantastic read. Thanks for sharing. The machinist doesn't look to happy in the second picture and he must use that four jaw chuck on his lathe for everything he does. I'd hate to have to lift it of manually. Excellent effort.

Thanks NightSpy!

Just like the old driver, the new DX driver was press fit into the housing. That’s why we had to ensure during the lathe work that the inner diameter of the newly fabricated housing opening is exactly the same as the outer diameter of the DX driver.

Also the driver is not a perfect circle. There is a portion in the PCB where it was supposed to be connected to another PCB during manufacturing so you shouldn’t file/smoothen that up. You’ll need that to ensure that the driver will fit snugly to the housing. :slight_smile:

Thank you ledoman!

I’ll add the gathered data on the current/wattage readings of all levels in this review. I haven’t tried it yet since I spend most of my time last night setting up then resetting up my equipment at flashlights outside because of the on-and-off shower. That’s why a car was included in the pictures because it was used to secure/hide everything in case rain would suddenly fall. :~

For the centering rings, I simply used a nail file taken from my wife’s manicure set and it did the trick. It can be seen in the foreground in one of the pictures. Actually I also took a nail clipper from that set to nip the DX switch. :bigsmile:

Thanks MRsDNF!

Yes your observations are correct. He’s used to working on large and heavy flanges and the smallest he’s worked on, before working on this light, was 10 inches in diameter and weighing 5 kilograms. This is actually the smallest thing - and the most delicate - he’s worked on so far so he had to make a lot of fine adjustments before starting the Lathe Machine. :frowning:

Actually he told me afterwards that if it was somebody else who asked him to do this lathe work then he probably won’t. I guess its a good thing to have good friends wherever you go. :wink:

Nightbird95, no need to hurryy now. Take your time to discover it's features. Also note when something unusual happens ie. falling back to "safe" mode cause of temperature rise or voltage drop.

Last night I've put together mine 6x light and fix the driver into its final position. Flickering with 3S2P pack has almost gone. Trying before with 3S1P while driver was still hanging out still showed flickering. So it looks its good position of outer ring in the light is curing that.

It is obvious that it takes much more power from the batteries when powered with 3S2P pack comparing to 2S2P (or 2S3P). I'm wondering how long it can actualy run under so much power. I'm bit sceptical.

Tonight it is going on a ride with some other lights. Will try to take some pictures.

ledoman, got the data already! :wink:

Having used the battery case a lot during last night’s beam shots, its remaining voltage is only 11.97 volts.

Level 1 draws 100 mA from the battery pack. That’s equal to 1.2 watts

Level 2 draws 130 mA or equal to 1.6 watts

Level 3 draws 320 mA or 3.8 watts

Level 4 draws 580 mA or 6.9 watts

Level 5 draws 890 mA or 10.6 watts

Level 6 draws 1240 mA or 14.8 watts

Level 7 draws 1610 mA or 19.3 watts

Level 8 draws 2030 mA or 24.3 watts

Level 9 draws 2530 mA or 30.3 watts

And finally Level 10 draws 3380 mA or 40.5 watts

For my use, I set mode 1 to level 10, mode 2 to level 5, and mode 3 to level 1. :slight_smile:

Have you done watage calculation based on starting voltage? If so I find it wrong as when the current rise the voltage is dropping. You should read the voltage and current at the same moment. Then you'll get some lower power readings than those you published. If I'm wrong, take my apology.

We should put results in the table and/or graph for easy reading, but take it easy .

I see. :slight_smile:

The volt meter/amp meter from eBay that you recommended just arrived this afternoon. The problem is that I cant make it work. :~

This gadget should make it easier to get the actual voltage readings while the light is in use.

Where the heck is 40 watts of light throwing heat gonna go on that small head?

Better be riding pretty darn fast :stuck_out_tongue:

Either way, wicked cool mod, great job!

Wonderful job, bro! Deserving winner of that light.

Ok. I assume you don't know exactly how to wire it, right? Here we go:

If you want to check charging batteries you just reverse the connectors (assuming you are using tipical 5.5x2.1mm connectors). That way you can check how Li-Ion 8.4V chargers are working. Found one which doesn't stop charging at all. It came with some red letters on the label. Probably sign of red flag ;-)

PS. Voltage reading could be little lower than without it because of voltage drop over this gadget. I've experienced 0.1V difference but this is also the smallest increment when showing figures above 10V, so the exact difference is unknow, but should be below 0.1V. This would result in a error of +/- 0.4W reading at max. No big deal.

Thanks WarHawk!

Yeah, you’re right. That’s why I’ve programmed mode 2 (mid) to level 5 which is only about 10.7 watts and I’ll be using this most of the time when riding my bike. The high mode (40 watts) will be only used when necessary. :slight_smile:

Now it will be necessary to use high when its time to brag my bike light to my friends. That’s one of the perks of being a member of BLF, right? :bigsmile:

Thank you bro!

My sights are on your latest group buy. That Courui bighead has a LOT of potential. J)

Thank you ledoman!

I ‘googled’ the instructions of using this gadget last night and ended up with many contradicting instructions. Well I think I finally made it work and one thing I observed was that the voltage of my power source being measured is 11.7 in my DMM but only 11.4 in this gadget.

I’ll try this diagram tonight and see the difference.

Ledoman, my Volmeter/Ammeter seems to be defective. I tried following the diagram you posted and these are the results:

With all the components connected but with the X6 power supply (Shocker Battery Case) still off, volts and amps both read zero

However, when the X6 power supply is turned on, the ‘gadget’ reads the voltage of the power supply which is 11.8 volts, but says 49.7 amps. The Ledoman X6 is still off when this reading is taken. And in fact I cannot turn it on at all.

Here’s a closer view of the connections. Have I done it wrong? :~

In my frustration, I decided to convert a Nokia Car Charger which is not being used, into a power source for the Ledoman X6. I used the battery pack cable sent with the X6.

Having nothing else to do, I decided to test the Ledoman X6 using the cigarette lighter jack as my power source and compare it with my car lights.

Here’s the beam shot of my car headlights at low. They’re 2x H4 Halogen with 90 Watts output at Low.

Here’s the beam shot of my car headlights at high. The H4 output at high is 110 watts each and it has additional projector halogens.

And here’s the X6 powered by my car’s cigarette lighter jack.

I think this would make a good flood/search lamp for my car while I’m still waiting for my 3S1P battery cases. :stuck_out_tongue:

-Garry

Nightbird95 how are you doing with this light now?

I temporarily attached it to my car as fog/flood light. My Samsung INR18650-29Es are still on ‘transit’ and so is the cable from DX and the 2 pcs 3S1P 18650 holders so I cannot use it on my bike yet. :~

If my batteries still won’t arrive a week from now then I’m planning of re-installing the original driver so that I can use it on my bike using my Pannovo battery case as power supply. :slight_smile:

Currently the X6 is very very effective in ‘reminding’ the drivers of oncoming traffic to be courteous and never put their headlights to Hi when another vehicle is at the opposite lane (despite repeated signals from the other driver). And actually I love how they react when I turn the X6 on. J) I’m not saying its the right thing to do but sometimes you have to do certain things to remind others that they do not own the road.