You should see about 480kcd out of a 1405 with an S4 2B at 5 amps. Ask me how I know. 
That’s cool! I am waiting for my parts from Richard to arrive but I am going to push the dedomed S4 2B at “only” 4.5A for reliability concern. How much candela would you expect at 4.5A?
I don’t know, maybe 425-450kcd.
could you take some long distance beamshots of that white laser ??? I would love to see what this driver can do in a 1405!
I’m using a different, lesser quality 5A buck driver. I have yet to do one of the MTN-MAX drivers, but performance should be the same/similar.
I’m building my kit now. I think I’ve figured it out by process of elimination, but “CMAX” is the Buck IC bypass, right?
Correct. Make sure you get the thermal pad on the buck IC reflowed fully.
oh…
lol wish I had read this before I just soldered the thing into the pill
I think I’ve got it working, but next time I’ll just order the completed driver. I can deal with all the caps and tiny resistors, but I hate these components that have the pins under them.
I have the c682 coilcraft inductor. At the bottom it has 2 contact plates on each side and a black pad in the centre. I presume the black pad is the termal pad? Richard mentions one has to reflow the thermal pad? On the pcb underneath the black/thermal pad theres silkscreen, no place for reflowing? What is meant by reflowing the thermal pad of the inductor to the pcb?
Mmm, I realize now the thermal pad is that of the buck IC, not the inductor. Apologies! Please ignore my comment.
Some SMD parts have solder pads not exposed or visible with the part in place and these can’t be soldered using an iron but need a hot air reflow system, a reflow oven, or some way to heat the entire thing up to the solder melting temp. For some things you can use a hot plate and carefully monitor it but two sided pcb’s can get tricky if it has such parts on both sides. Otherwise you could reflow the difficult part first and then solder the remaining parts with an iron.
I’ve been struggling for some time now (2-3 weeks) to get my MTN-MAXlp HP build stable. I have already communicated directly with Richard around my issue, but I still don’t have a solution. It seems like Richard has had great success with this driver up to now. So, I’m taking a chance here, maybe somebody had a related issue.
My first driver build was fine. The only problem I had was that the mode switching was too slow, so I changed PLDN 19.1k to 4.7k. After this, the driver was great. I’ve configured it for 5.5 amps output running XM-L2 U4 - 4 modes, starting on Turbo. All was great, including the 478kcd!
I then built my 2nd driver, EXACTLY the way I’ve built the 1st one (including the same program). The issue now arose -> I could not switch/change modes. I only had max output, no matter how fast or slow I tried to change modes, no go. Just max output.
I then decided to build a 3rd driver. Once again, exactly the same build, the same program, the same issue! I then took this driver, reprogrammed it a few times setting a lower turbo mode, just to see if the driver will turn on at a lower amperage, which it did. The problem seems to be mode switching only, its start off at the correct mode. I’ve probably reflowed the MMU around 15 times during the diagnostic process, every time the same symptoms. I’ve replaced that MMU at the end with a fresh / new one (I’m so paranoid at the moment) - still the same issue.
I’ve fiddled around with the PLDN resistor going up & down with the resistance - did not help.
Has anybody experienced what I’m experiencing now? I’d very much appreciated any help.
Could there be a short in the traces of the board that means that it just goes into DD?
I do get lower amperage readings after reprogramming turbo mode with lower values…
Also, there is no way that there are that many bad boards, and I have been building them with boards from the same batch. I admit that I am a bit stumped as well. 
I just assembled one of these today (3.5a w/guppydrv) and it works great. The timing is definitely different but not in a bad way. My problem is I can’t get it into configuration mode. If I tap to fast it never changes modes, to slow and it just cycles thru. M-L-Med-H. For me it’s fine the way it is but I can’t help but wonder what’s wrong?
I’m just checking here… but did you assembled one of the drivers in this thread or the MTN17dd you mentioned recently?
Yes this one. 17mm MTN-MAXlp. The other post was for MTN17dd…
Just checking!