WOW Nice work… Everyone just MAKE SURE you upgrade your springs with copper braid wire if you do this mod. The stock springs can barely take the OEM ~30W driver. Doubling that current will cook them for sure.
Hopefully these pics will leave a lasting impression…
I melted my spring with the stock 30W driver. I was able to re-stretch it and add copper braid wire and all is good. I think this is a MUST-do if you are up-ing the ante to ~55W.
Yea, I need to find where to get copper braid. Actually, any wire should do the trick, I have plenty of 12ga speaker wire that I could add into the spring.
Sorry, not really into the scene nowadays, so i need to ask questions.
No Problem… ask away!!
I have a J12, so this new driver is a direct fit needing no mods?
That still remains to be seen for sure. It definitely looks like a drop in replacement, or near-to that with a little file/dremel work.
The 5 XM-Ls in the J12 are wired in series? (i thought they were in parallel)
They are DEFINITELY series wired.
So this one would drive each XM-L in the J12 at about 2.5-2.8 amps?
Thats what it claims, but again… that remains to be seen.
And lastly, what would the current draw at the tail with 2S and 3S? I reckon 2S is really going to be really hard on the cells (even 26650s)
If its anything like the OEM stock driver in the J12, its a regulated boost circuit. It takes either 8.4-12.6V and boosts it up to about 15-16V for the 5-XML in series. So its lowest current draw will be with fresh 4.2V cells. The stock TR-J12 draws about 29 Watts (3.5A at 8.4V). Stock driver current draw increases (substantially) as the cell voltage drops in order to maintain the ~29 Watt pull. I have measured peak current at ~6.5-7A when my 26650 cells deplete.
Transposing that over to this new driver that pulls ~55W, equates to a 6.5 current draw at 8.4V (55W / 8.4). If its designed like the OEM J12 driver, current pull will increase as cell voltage drops in order to maintain a ~55W pull.
Don’t want to get the X100, so this would be great as a 5 XM-L DRY!
I kind of see it like that too… short burst only at the highest settings.
Yea, the 100% will be a minute or 2 at max, 75% could be for maybe 5-10 minutes, 50% will be closest to the max on the J12 as it is stock so will probably use that most. Also, like I said, PWM frequency is 1 kHz on these 5 mode ones, so should not see much if any PWM flicker on the lower modes, unlike the stock driver
Yeah I used rubber gloves, gripped it and gave it a twist. The rubber gasket makes a TIGHT seal and they dont lube it or anything so its on there TIGHT.
Sorry for my English.
Some thoughts about the driver of the “”Kaidomain”:http://kaidomain.com/product/details.S020417”.
The most important thing is to protect against overheating above 50-55C
I tried to connect a 12V car battery. Currents immediately begin to fall, after 4 min current is 1.2 A (14.4 W to the driver). Dipped into the water head torch, the current up to 2A (24W to the driver).
Please tell us for thermal camera setup and about measurement. What I can see you noticed high temps around 62. It is at 100% power from driver or lesser?