TrustFire X9 - Thoughts and beamshots

love the x9..at 1.7a it was bright,,a nangk 2800 driver later and it's a monster..tighter beam than my 980l..awesome!! :)

You can use the grip rings from an L2T or the Tiablo combat rings to make the X9 look more alike the M3LT, it also gives a nicer grip feeling and the possibilty for cigar grip, I like them on my X9.

Pounder,

Can you please give a link for the nangk 2800 driver? I also want to swap drivers on my X9. Can you give me a SOP on how to change the driver, this would be my first "mod". Thanks

here is the link http://www.kaidomain.com/ProductDetails.aspx?ProductID=10995

step 1. remove the old driver..desolder the driver or scrape away the solder with a awl or something sharp and unscrew the led side and use a screwdriver to punch it away from the pill..the solder they use is hard to desolder I find and easier to scrap away for connection from the pill and board and just push the driver out..

step 2..make sure the driver fits..it's a tight fit in the pill for this driver and I had to sand the outer edges some to get it to seat properly..

step 3. solder the connections to the board..test it with a cable and a battery to make the proper connections..if it works seat the driver..test it again..you may have a ground fault..if so resolder your board connections to they clear the pill sides and do not make contact when the board is seated..

step 4. if all is well when you seat the board then solder the sides of the driver to the pill..

step 5. if you need room for protected batteries (and you will) take out the white washer in the tail cap and sand it down to gain some clearance for the batteries..

all done!

Thank you very much pounder!!

any time! ;)

Thanks from agedbriar too!

i am about to get x9 too!. from what i've read, the onboard x9 driver is capable to draw max 1.7 only???

that's what I got from a trustfire flame that will do 4a on my 980l..this is using a good accurate meter with 14 awg wire as leads..it was bright still because of the size of the hotspot (bout half the size of my 980l) ..with the 2.8a driver the hotspot is brighter than my 980l, but the 980l appears have more lumens on a ceiling bounce test..as well it should given the 980l is driven harder than the x9..both are great lights but the x9 seems more trustworthy at longer run times given the regulated current of 2.8a..

well, i mean, before you mods with 2.8 driver, what's the current drawn by the onboard driver?

stock driver was ~1.7a..

so, are you actually recommending to change the driver? or should i just stick with the current driver?

not recommending anything..just stating the facts..2800mah is much brighter than the stock driver, but if you like the stock set-up then stick with it..for me it was a no brainer to swap the driver, but to someone else they might be completely satisfied stock..

pounder,

How much brighter is it visibly out 100 yards, for example?

well you know as much as me that brightness gets hard to judge when you get this bright and 4 times the lumens to our eyes appears twice as bright..well the best way I can see the difference was with my 980l..before the beam intensity was about on par with the 980l..the 980l had a bigger hotspot so accounted for the increase in brightness..now the spot intensity is brighter than the 980l..I would guess it 1.5x the lumens..so if the x9 was 600 or so lumens i'd guess it's close to 900 now..hard to explain the brightness increase in words..it's brighter no doubt..the x9 was almost identical to my xp-g running at 1.7a..so take a hard driven xp-g vs a properly driven xm-l and you have your difference..

Thanks! I was just curious what you thought of it in comparison, kind of like you explained. I don't expect you to judge lumens and such. I just meant if you were comparing it to the ~1.7A driver how much of a difference you see at 100+ yards. A lot of people are just concerned with intensity, but I'm seriously curious about throw because that's what mine (now my dad's) is used for. I'm wondering if it's really worth the hassle for a guy who isn't too familiar with flashlight modding.

well throw will be amplified because of the added brightness..with the new driver you will put more light on target at 100 yards 1.5x times as much..it's really not that hard to mod but if you're worried about it then start small on cheaper lights and get comfortable..grab a 12$ xm-l pill from manafont and put a kd driver in it..good place to start (that's where I did) I ordered the hi-low-strobe version of the manafont xml drop-in and hated the driver so I did the swap..just have a decent 25ish watt soldering iron, desoldering braid and some good flux thin solder..

Anyone contemplating a controller swap based on the low stock current readings alone, should consider the fact that due to the internal resistance of the DMM itself, the current metered with the original direct drive controller in place is lower (perhaps substantially so - depending on DMM and leads) than the current that flows in normal use (with no ammeter obstructing it).

On the other hand, the current measured with a regulated driver installed, is the same as in normal use. The DMM inclusion has no ill effect here, since the current is regulated. Thus, the actual current gain from the swap will be less than usually expected.

That being said, I have a NANJG 2.8A ready for possible swap. Wink But I'll try better unprotected batteries first.

Reason I use 14 awg wire as leads…my 980l pulls up to 4.6a on my trustfire flames…no problems with innacurate readings here :wink: