yeah go's to show its wise to use tailcap readings as a rough guide only , my x9 's a great light to say the least , took it out bush last night for a shootout along with the Solarfoce MMP 1 head on L2T body ,both loaded with fresh SF protected cells ....both lights a good throwers the MMP1 nice tight clean beam plenty'a throw for my use hunting , the x9 fantastic to just light'em up throws as far as the MP plenty'a usefull spill but no so much as to greatly hinder ya night vision . both lights are very well made and look to be water thight
just took these readings now using
4.21 v solarforce protected Battery
my MultiMetre thick leads
x9
2.2a
I was naive and tried 2xCR123 before I ever tried 18650 because I didn't have any around at the time. They were at 3V and it ran without any poof. I only had it on for maybe 15 seconds.
Did the brightness seem like it was 2.6A when you were getting low readings? I ask , because i get 1.6A with my HF DMM and the output is not very bright . I don't want to buy an expensive DMM and have high readings and the output not show it.
@gen1.3 My x9 is very bright and has been since I got it. There is no doubt that it is driven at 2.6. That’s why I decided to get a new DMM. I knew it was reading low. Still read low until I got good leads.
Ian, I have tried 2 CR123a's with no problems. It puts out about 40K lux compared to 36K with an 18650.
It is noticeably brighter when shining on far away objects. The longest I've had it on at one time is 30 sec. Ive already gone thru a pair of cells and I'm on my 2nd set.
Make sure you check the current first to see if your X9 can handle it.
I use the equus 3320 multimeter. It is talked about in the Harbor Freight DMM thread. Bought it at walmart. The leads that came with it were very thin, got low readings. I put a set of leads from an OLD harbor freight DMM on it and now the tailcap readings seem to be right on. The Harbor Freight leads are pretty thick, I don’t think the newer ones are as nice.
My meter seems not to work properly and relied just on post made here and what my eyes perceive in terms of brightness, also compared the X9 amp draw with my 2.5a ultrafire driver and thats how I came up with my numbers. Will have to buy first a better Multi meter.
Is there a way to know if the driver could handle 2xCR123 without testing with batteries?
That's strange since mine gives the exact opposite. HF leads give me low reading (under 1.0A) and Equus reads ~1.8A like many have stated. The HF leads also read ~1.3A from my Manafont UF XM-L drop-in while the Equus reads the upper 2 amp range like it should. However, the gauge looks to be the same.
RQ w/ xml and Ultrafire driver rated at 2.5 A - 1.85
X9 stock - 1.13
Solarforce L2 w/ 0.8-4.2v dropin modded with XML - 1.7
AW 14500 @4.11v
L2m w/ 0.8-4.2v dropin modded with XML -1.60
Xeno E03 - 1.4
In the process of doing this I dropped my fav light (Tank007 506 Steel modded with R5) 5feet to the floor, luckily it survived damaging only the wooden floor. lol
I thought I forgot to buy something earlier today when I went to the mall, realize its the multi meter and soldering iron.
Your reading from the UF dropin should be higher than the higher 2A range. The equus leads are just too thin to measure the current properly. The HF leads I use are very thick. They are from an old meter. New HF leads are not the same. You need to find or make some better leads.
Well, I'm aware I could be getting more from the UF drop-in, but it seems many others here are drawing in the upper 2A range as well. What if not all of those drop-ins are equal? Drawing around 2.8A would seem normal then. What do you define as "new" for the HF leads? One set I used are several years old and the other maybe as old as two years. However, I do plan on eventually making new leads. It just hasn't been a high priority for now.