Yezl Y3 - a picture breakdown

Guess you have no pics, but I'd like the details of exactly how you piggybacked the drivers, what gauge wire you used, etc.

From what all I did with mine, I’ve learned that with one cell, you aren’t going to see a DMM register over 2.5 or 2.8 no matter what you do. The voltage sag of the battery above 2A plus the resistance of all the components plus the DMM’s inherent resistance is going to drop the voltage to close to or below the forward voltage of the LED and because the Y3 has a cc buck driver, it won’t pull the amps you want as the V-in has to be above V-out for a buck driver to function properly. It’ll require two cells to get over 3A no matter what you do with the resistors. That’s how mine worked, anyway.

If you’re set on using one cell, you’ll have to swap or piggyback the driver.

As promised… it’s time for some beamshots!

For reference, it’s roughly 30 meters to the shed and roughly 50 meters to two trees at which all the lights are aimed in the middle of the frame.

Control Shot

Nitecore P12

L2M w/ sliced MT-G2 P0 @3A

L2D w/ 3-up XP-Ls @~6A (DD)

Y3 w/ Dedomed Stock XM-L2 @5+A

Y3 w/ MT-G2 Q0 @6A

Mini Maglight LED Pro (… for science.)

And now for a longer shot. Sorry, lots of ambient light around here. Yes, it does actually kinda look like the control shot to the naked eye. No, that is not a creepy werewolf plotting my imminent demise. That’s my dog, Sawyer.

Google says it’s 230 meters to the steeple, and 320 meters to the trees behind and to the right of the steeple from where the light is.

Control Shot

L2D w/ 3-up XP-Ls @6A

Y3 w/ Dedomed Stock XM-L2 @5+A

Y3 w/ MT-G2 Q0 @6A

All beamshots taken with Sony NEX-7 at 10mm (15mm full-frame equivalent), F4, 2.5 seconds, ISO 400, auto white balance.

All in all, the Y3 with the MT-G2 is throwing pretty far considering just how much light and how broad of a beam it’s kicking out. It’s definitely hitting the trees behind the church which are well over 300 yards away. The Y3 with the XM-L2 is throwing much, much further than that. I tried to get the exposure on these as close to reality as possible, and I think they came out fairly accurate, all things (crapton of ambient light) considered.

Let me know what you think. This is now the second time ever I’ve taken beamshots. Pointers for taking better ones always welcome.

The beamshots are good! Thank you. :beer:

will the LD34 driver fit/work for the y3 flashlight ? anyone tried?

Well, from my OP, the Y3 driver I measured just under 23 mm while the LD-34 is listed at 23.6mm - maybe it can be filed/sanded down to fit, but the Y3 driver has two bump outs 90 degs off from the switch, while the LD-34 has only one 180 degs off from the switch, so again, some moddind would be needed.

Not sure why you would want an LD-34 in there, but it may be adoptable - not sure...

i dont want to replace it , i just saw this today and i thought would be a nice alternative if we blow the stock driver.

Well,I bought Y3 from CQG group buy,and I was disappointed,very anemic output and lots of scratches/dents.

Also I couldn't get more than 2Amps,no matter which battery I used.Then,I measured led's Vf and guess what,3.7V at 1.8Amp!

Most crappy xm-l2 I've seen. So,if you use stock led in Y3,it's good idea to check forward voltage,because I'm sure I'm not the only one who got crap grade xm-l2.

2nd,when you use LD-1 in lights with >17mm driver place,it's very important where you solder GND wire on LD-1;best place is closest to sense resistor,or even on sense resistor GND pad(if wire is not too thick).This ensures minimum resistance.Soldering wire on gnd ring that's far away from sense resistor can add significant amount of parasitic resistance,since current must flow through the gnd ring to sense resistor.

what batteries do you suggest ,for use 3x26650 ?
i found this KeepPower 5200mAh 26650 ,if the specs are correct its “small” 6.6 x 2.6 x 2.6 cm ,usually 5000ah batteries are 7+cm lenth

your link goes to the imr this is indeed shorter and 67mm could be right but they are unprotected and no real imr(the discharge curves match the normal 5200mAH cell)
it’s plausible that they are a bit shorter than the normal protected 5200 cells which are 71mm

Link to HJKs 26650 comparator

I have the imr4200(best battery available in terms of voltage under current) with the imr wrapper from gearbest and it is 67.5mm

thanks , you are talking about those ,correct? i believe 67.5 will be fine for 3x use.

[quote=led4power]

Yep, the first one that i bought was exacly like that, i had some difficulties with ataching your driver inside but i cleared them
Thanks for the resistor tip, its realy a good advice!

Anyway, i ordered a total of 6 so far, and its my best 26650 side switch host: especialy modded with LD1, when the emitter is dedomed( u2 1A) + efest green 26650 4200ma it both outthrows and outruns Olight Javelot
The last batches from that light came with nearly perfect refelctor, non damaged anodisation and a better driver: at default it pulls 2.8

[quote=Mitko]

Mitko, where have you purchased your latest ones from?

Gearbest
In fact, they didnt have it in stock for months! I ordered 2 pcs back in october, they shipped them in 10th of january, when i saw they do differ from the last that i got i ordered more

I still have 3 Y3s( watings for LD1 drivers :bigsmile: ) , i can make some videos if you want, they do differ from the first one- even the 18650 inside is a bit different

I replaced the stock wires.

bypassed springs

changed to maxtoch mcpcb

dedomed xml2

still just hitting 100kcd

been playing with the reflector, up and down, but still just hitting 115kcd max.

do you guys use magic or so?

why am I not seeing 200kcd+?

cell is blue samsung 25r

I have here 3 different luxmeters, and every has its own opinion :bigsmile: thge difference sometimes is +–30%

For a Notigon PCB, i have to use 1.5mm CU thermal pad under it in order to maintain the best light-spot

I added a R100 resistor, and replaced the wires again.

now maximum with 2 cells is 125000cd

How much is the stock current and what is the original resistor value?

I just realized that the OP has shown these information already. The original resistors are R150 and R180, current at the tail is around 2.4A. So after adding an R100 resistor you should be seeing around 4.36A at the tail (with a single cell, theoretically).

Do you have other lux measurements of some “known” lights to compare with? For example if you have a K40M and it was measured 70~80kcd then at least we can confirm that your lux meter is fine, or vice versa.

just checked my K40M and showed 66500cd.

during my review on the K40M , it showed 62500.

and their production page shows 65000, so I think its not my meter...

Quick Yezl Y3 MT-G2 mod

-MT-G2 Q0 mounted on 26mm Maxtoch MCPCB
-Another blank Maxtoch board as spacer, sand off dielectric layer first, solder together using heat gun.
-The LED contact surface of the Y3 is not flat, but rather U-shaped… it took tons of thermal paste to fill it.
-Stock driver and 1 extension to use with 2 EVVA 5200mAh 26650 cells.
-With 2 maxtoch boards the height was same as stock and the head is able to fully tighten down, there is zero rattle, the reflector opening fits the MT-G2 perfectly.

The result: Very easy and clean mod, nice throwy beam, drawing 2.26A from 2 freshly charged 26650 and putting 25,000Lux @1M. Throw and output is very similar to my Nitecore TM26 in 1850Lm setting, but with a more usable beam. Does not get hot even after 20min in high. It makes the Y3 a great outdoor light with better color rendition, decent runtime and straightforward operation.

This mod should be labeled a “BLF Must-do”!! Will try to get some beamshots during the week.