I agree it seems a bit low. Two things I would do before messing with the focus, confirm the batteries in your meter are fully charged and take you measurements from a longer distance. I measure my throwers at 9 meters, if I had more room I’d go out a bit farther.
For reference my stock D01 measured 77.3kCd stock and 82.9kCd after resistance mods, both converted from 9 meters using an HS1010A. That was with the driver you’re using now in stock trim and the dome on.
The batteries were the "heavy duty" ones that came with the meter and were never used until last night, but I'll try some fresh alkalines. I did this in my basement, so I'm limited how far I can go. I might be able to backup to 7 meters.
-Garry
Something’s amiss if you are only measuring ~3A. Do you have any high-drain cells to compare with?
Even with the newer emitters you should be getting more than that.
I picked up one LG high drain cell. I'll have to charge it up though. I don't see why I need a high drain cell though. Even 2 reg cells should push 5 to 6 amps - especially 4.35v cells. Maybe it's an issue remaining from when I shorted the reflector across the emitter wires.
-Garry
Nightbird95 measured 3.62 Amps reading at the tail cap with batteries @ 4.13 volts, with the same mods as I, although he didn't say what battery he was using.
I know I measured just over 4.5A from my setup with a fully charged 25R, with resistor bridged; The same cell, thrown into my A60 w/Nanjg-105 fet modded driver pulls ~5.5amps.
Even though it's a FET based driver, I wouldn't be expecting big output like we are getting from the BLF-DD type FET drivers. 5-6 amps isn't going to happen with the stock Courui driver.
I managed to have a few minutes last night to take another lux reading, this time at 20 feet (6.096 meters). I measured 3340 lux which calculates to 124kcd. I was slowly moving the light around to check for the highest reading and it was really "touchy" as if the highest reading is only from the exact center of the beam. A millimeter of movement and the reading dropped significantly. (I suppose this is normal, especially with a dedomed emitter.) I did not try other batteries in the meter; If I get chance I will and also try measuring at 24 feet (longest I can do in my basement).
Charging up my high drain cell now for current measurement tonight.
-Garry
Will be interesting to get an Amp reading from the high-drain cell.
Sorry if I missed it somewhere, but what exactly are the “leica m39 m42 adapter” being used for?
I used it to lock down the pill tightly to the "step" it rests on. Stock the pill is loose. I'll try to upload a pic shortly. EDIT - sorry, pic I won't have access to the pic until tomorrow morning. I thought it was still on my phone. Basically, you thread in the pill all the way then thread that ring in against the pill.
-Garry
Here -
Thanks to Go0se, I went down this path. Didn’t have to worry about threads.
Ok on LG HE2 I'm measuring 2.98A. On a protected Panny PF I'm only getting 2.51A. Perhaps I should just remove all my sense resistors and bridge the pads with solder.
-Garry.
Took new lux readings at 23.0 feet (7.010m) with new fresh alkalines in the lux meter and now I'm getting 136kcd. For comparison a stock ZY-T08 is measuring 31kcd and a stock Jacob A60 at 31kcd (both of those on fresh cells). They seem a bit low but I'd have to search and compare to others measurements.
-Garry
Not sure what’s going on with your D01 but is sounds like your throw readings are going in the right directions. Your numbers on the T08 and A60 sound really low though, my A60 measured 74k stock and T08 was 77k stock.
I spent some time tonight trying to dial in my T08 focus a little better, initially made it much worse but after an hour ended up where I started.
I’m beginning to think I should just stop measuring amps and lux, just mod and if it’s brighter be happy. All this effort to gain 0.5 amps or 1k lux is taking all the fun out of this hobby.
I even used the "max" mode of the meter this time (it was getting awfully hard to read those digits from 23 feet away). My readings were also after 30 seconds. My T08 appears very bright and well focused by eye.
-Garry
!
!
Here’s a pic showing the adapter ring to hold down a copper disc I made with no threading.
(I am having a bugger of a time getting good focus though) :~
So between this and the zy-t08, which one is the bigger pain to get a dedomed XP-L properly focused?
Finished my D01 tonight.
I used a Star Momentary Q-Lite +8 from Mtn, XP-L V6 3C de-domed on a Noctigon XP32 MCPCB sitting on one of the big copper discs mentioned in one of these D01 threads. A UCLp AR Lens from flashlightlens.com, Omten lock-out switch and spring braiding round out the build.
A couple of things about this build had me about ready to give up. First, and not that bad, was the amount of filing I had to do to get the top of the copper disc flat. I just left my file in the vise and every time I had the time I went downstairs and filed away for 20 minutes or so.
Second and a real pain in the butt was getting the reflector where it needed to be. Even with the 32mm MCPCB the reflector still partially covers the solder pads.
I started by taking one of those bow tie shaped gaskets and cutting the wings off so it was perfectly round, it ended up the same diameter as the opening in the reflector. I then glued it down on the MCPCB.
I had to solder, re-solder and re-solder the wires repeatedly to get all the clearance possible, even with carful filing of the reflector.
When done I used the dremel to clean up and provide just a bit more clearance for kapton tape.
All the aggravation was worth it, the reflector sits right down on the MCPCB. It is the most perfectly centered, tightest beam I have ever seen.
Lux (converted from 9 meters and relative only to my measurements):
Before mod 77k
After mod 289k
I’ll have to wait until I get up to the lake to really see what it can do, no good open areas around here.
Sounds great! So how many amps you pulling on which cells?
-Garry
I haven’t checked yet, I need to rig something up again so I can check with multiple cells. The cells I used for Lux measurement were protected Panasonic NCR18650Bs that I bought for this light. Three in parallel should have no problem providing 6A so no need for high output cells with this driver.
This light is part of Gearbest’s Ist anniversary sale. For a limited time (until March 31st), the price goes down to $27.99.
Edit: and the Opus BT-C3100 v2.1 is now @ $36.78 only (among other items)