Help understanding and upgrading a light

I used the same battery in all 3 lights and checked them back to back. I have also been sitting here playing with the lights, swapping reflectors and holding them in place to check out that aspect, and the reflectors have nothing to do with the brightness at all. My monster p60 drop in is brighter than all with any of the 3 reflectors on it, no question. The 'hotspots' aren't even much different!

If I get you pictures of the p60 driver can you guys help me identify it and find someplace that sells the same or better drivers? They both (all 3 lights actually) look like they're the same size.

Where did you buy the P60?

A normal 8*7135 driver will do 2.8amps under perfect conditions. If the driver in the Convoy is ACTUALLY an 8*7135 driver, then the problem is not the driver. Like others have said, the issue is most likely the battery, springs, and wires. High Vf at the emitter could be contributing as well.

I guess the only thing I can do then is start eliminating the potential issues you guys have pointed out. i'll dig up some decent wires, 18ga speaker wire to solder to the top and bottom of the springs, maybe to the led too if it will fit, I'm guess it might be too heavy? Does it have to be high heat insulation? I can dig up some wires from an old 220v heater If I have to.

I just don't understand how (with the same battery) the convoys aren't putting out like the others, Hopefully this will cure it. Lux meter readings on my phone were 11,500 with my monster brand p60 light, and 9,000 with the convoy. Didn't check the p12 yet. Will update with pics, thanks!

I fail to understand why you won’t accept that your batteries might be the reason.

You have also not replied to what batteries you are using.

The Nitecore is a much more expensive product, using different electronics, so it maybe just copes better with crappy cells.

But without seeing anything it’s hard to tell. Are you able to post any pics or beamshots? (using a static exposure and aperture).

Also have you checked that your Convoy’s really are 7135*8 driver ones? If not, then no matter what you do, they will never offer up the lumens.

There really should be no need to mess about with wires and braided springs —- find the issue and solve that first. Then try modding. :slight_smile:

As the others sayes, try another battery. Way to low amp readings.

I am sorry I forgot to mention the batteries are Sanyo 2400mAH laptop pulls. About 4 years old.

now my problem might be the batteries are a bottleneck. I replaced the lead wires with a thicker gauge wire, can't say what it is exactly I took a 20awg wire and pulled half the strands out, but it's still thicker than what was in there.

confirmed 100% it is a 7135*8 driver.

im the worst at taking pics when I really get into something. i have good news and bad news. Replacing those wires does bump up the amps to 1.7-1.9. But I lost all my modes. The light works on high mode only.

I am having trouble getting the copper hot enough to seal the board back in it.

Lux reading is jumping over 11,500, almost up to 12,000! And the light gets hotyet faster, which would be fine since I only need high mode in short bursts, if I just had low and medium modes I'd be in good shape and ready to buy a better battery.

You now have a short to ground since you lost all modes, you are running direct drive bypassing the driver which further proves that the batteries are your bottleneck.

Bottleneck from 1.9amps to 2.8, but if the light wouldn't go past 1.4amps with a crappy battery it also wouldn't go past 1.4 amps with a good battery Would it?

is this my bridge to ground?

Its all all I can think of that would cause a problem.

What are you using for a soldering iron? Are you using any flux or are you just trying to reflow the solder thats already there without adding new flux?

Have you tried your fiends P12 battery in yours or the other way and get a reading?

Yes it would.

You have 2 legs on the MCU shorted. The MCU is the large chip with 8 pins/legs. Remove the bridge with your soldering iron.

Something to consider, the s7 is stainless and not a good conducter of heat, mine with 8* gets pretty hot after several minutes, this might not be the best host for a hot rod

he didn't get batteries he's using ones I gave him.

I took the bridge out of those legs. It had a low/strobe/sos mode for a minute, I took it apart again and looked, put it back together and now it won't turn on :/

i I can bypass it and get 2.5A from the bottom of the battery to the + on the led

Ok so... The reason the light didn't work at the end was because of the tailcap switch, it broke, again. I think I got it this time it wasn't sitting flat on the board, so I popped both sides loose and re soldered them After making sure it was sitting perfectly flat.

so the circuit board/driver might be ok, but it was too late haha.. I already found a piece of delrin, turned it down to house a spring that is actually a helicoil cut in half, and one wire going down to the + post on the emitter board. I bridged the - side straight to the copper pill.

Its drawing upward ward of 3.1 amps with spikes As high as 3.4 with a battery reading 3.16V.

I'll probably leave this light the way it is for now and see what happens when the other one comes in. It's every bit as bright as my p60 now, possibly a hair brighter, but it (the p60) still only reads 1.8A?!?!?!!!!

I guess the next phase would be to overdrive it, I think that's what the boost drivers are for isn't it? I don't care about battery life I have a bunch of them.

So the battery is directly driving the emitter now? If so, that’s as much as you’ll get. A boost driver ups the voltage at the expense of current. You can’t get any more power than your battery can provide.

You should be using a fully charged battery for taking current readings.

Boost drivers increase voltage, an example would be when driving a 3.2 vf emitter from a 1.5 volt Alkaline or 1.2 volt NI-MH.

The first couple posts were all from the same fully charged battery. when I got done with the light all I had was that one battery on me.

I just want to apologize to you guys lol, I have a problem, and I really can't stop myself, and not sure if I even want to if I could. I like to 'tinker'.......with everything. I really like this forum you guys are great so far and the search function works very well! I do some stupid stuff occasionally...well alot... but eventually I will get it right, and usually when I do, it's so right it's not right! My wife is glad my focus has shifted a little lately, so she unknowingly thanks you guys too. Flashlights are a whole lot cheaper than custom cars. :) When I started this thread I didn't know anything about "direct drive," it popped up in a search and when I accidentally bypassed the driver the first time I wanted to see that fully functional... I'll probably keep this one how it is until I get some GOOD batteries and screw up modify the s7 when it gets here. Should know more about these current batteries soon, I received the XTAR vc2 charger today, it gives mAH ratings.

No worries, we all start somewhere.

As soon as I was old enough to hold a screwdriver I would take everything apart just to see how it worked, as you can imagine my parents were not to happy about it either… until I started repairing everything that broke and saving them lots of cash.

Alright a little update. The LED is accidentally dedomed, and where I thought I had fried it, it had actually twisted when I had the pill so hot bypassing and direct driving it. I got the pill hot again, twisted the led back and let it cool, and now it works fine. The problem with it now is the contact pad on the pcb, the piece of copper the + wire would solder to is ripped off. I scratched the board back toward the emitter to show a little more copper but it's impossible for me to get a good solder blob on it that will stick.

So I'm excited to have a good working fully dedomed xml2-U2 laying around but Kinda mad at myself for ruining the pcb. Maybe I'll use the LED on a future light? Ive been reading up on how someone just mounted the LeD to a solid copper disk, but I don't know what he's talking about when he says he filed something on the LED down to reveal spots to solder to on the corners?!

The driver board may still be good but I'm going to use it to practice stacking drivers. I have a "build" in mind for a modified convoy c8 that I want to try but I don't know how if it will even work.