Can a driver somehow put out a good amount of power to the emitter with only .74 at the tailcap?
It’s a new 2x18650 light and really not that dim. It’s actually pretty darn bright and favorably competes with the defiant thrower and my hd 2010.
Using an incident light meter, it’s only 1/3 stop less bright than my HD2010 in a ceiling bounce situation, which is a fairly insignificant light-output difference. (Sorry. haven’t figured out how to do a lux reading yet.)
Also, last night, I ran the thing for about 40 minutes. After that, 2 Samsung 2600 18650 batteries read 3.8 volts down from 4.2. Seems weird to me that it would suck so much juice at .74? If it REALLY drew .74, I’d think 40 minutes would only drop TWO batteries maybe to 4.10 or something.
The massive finned head also gets slightly warm. I’d think at .74 that there would be no heat at all.
I’ve used this DMM to test stuff for a year. Cheap Chinese, but it seems to work well, so I don’t think it’s a DMM error.
So what is the deal? Is it a perpetual voltage driver that creates phantom voltage from the earth’s core or something?
I’m thinking of replacing the driver, but of course it’s a 23mm-24mm driver and nearly impossible to find.
Nunber one, its two cell so double your reading for a rough idea.
Second. Try changing your meters battery. Or check it on a nangj driver to confirm calibration. I get 2.79a on an 8 x 350ma 7135 driver, confirming both my meter and leads. :bigsmile:
So that’s roughly between 2 and 3.4a. Not so bad at all. One of my favorite two cell lights only reads 1.25a, 2.5 on one cell. It still does the job fine. That said it’s got a 3a ld-v driver from lck-led waiting to go in…. :bigsmile:
Changed the battery. It was on its way out. Only 7 volts. Thanks for the battery change suggestion. But the readings are the same.
This light has KILLER potential for the price, except for the weird driver size. Beam throw is close to the defiant and better than the 2010. Plenty of heat fins. Nice big pill.
But at best, it’s only doing 1.5 amps. meh.
>>>>>That said it’s got a 3a ld-v driver from lck-led waiting to go in….
I think you mentioned that driver before but it was sold out last time. Gotta link?
If it’s not 21-23mm, does anyone know where I can get a blank board in that size?
I know I can strip the existing driver, but that means no going back, which for me is usually too final. :–0
Thanks to everyone for their help. I really appreciate it. I knew the meritline version was a risk, but I couldn’t control my cheapness gene.
Here’s a 24mm board that would give that xm-l a real kick in the arse, I’ve just used one in a build and its good, though I’m driving an mt-g2 with it.
Intloutdoor also has a 3.5a driver, its got a 22mm contact board, I think I have a 24mm board I could post across the pond if you need? It was atrached to the 5a driver I linked.
Gords, dude, thanks for all your help and suggestions. I gotta go away from the computer for a while. I will check all all your suggestions out ASAP. Just didn’t want to leave you hanging after getting some super suggestions back to me so quickly. Thanks again.
The reflector on the light is ALMOST the same size as the defiant. 54ish mm vs 56ish for the defiant, and also a similar depth. So the modding possibilities seem pretty good, perhaps better than the defiant, because it has 2x18650s and not that giant 3C tube, plus plenty of heat sinking for a hard-driven driver.
The torch itself is extremely well built and annodized. Even under-driven in its stock state, it’s a superb thrower … Has to be if it’s so close to brightness to a 2010 and the defiant when only being driven at 1.4. More later. Gotta jump.
Convoy M2 tube fits EXACTLY to run the head on 1 cell, BUT it’s just a little long. Have to find a spacer to make the 18650 longer, but this thing would be a pocket rocket with a 1-battery tube.
That ld-v9 driver won’t work without a 22mm blank board with the normal outer edge being ground. It’s hard to explain but a secondary spring carries the negative contact from the battery tube to the circuit board. So it must have have an outside ring on the bare driver board like this:
The existing board looks to be 22mm as best as I can measure it. So if I can find a 22mm driver (probably impossible) or a 22mm blank board, I will be cooking. So your 24mm would be too big. Thanks for the offer though. If I shave it down, if it has the ground ring, it may make the ground ring too small through shaving.
So the search begins for a 22mm board. If anyone knows where I can find one, please let me know.
I don’t think I can use a 21mm driver/board and do that bent piece of wire trick because of the second ground spring.
I wish they would standardize these stupid drivers, or at least make easy-to-find blank boards in 19, 20, 21, 22, 23 and 24 mm. It would make the whole process incredibly easy. No such luck. Urgggggh.
This light could bury the defiant with the right driver. I’m 90% sure of it.
And yes the L1 looks great, just pricey. I thought I read someone pulled the trigger and we’re waiting to hear.
Nice find but the description lower on the page says 20mm :~
I’ve not seen anything bad about banggood yet, but that discrepancy is annoying. Particularly since I need a 22mm contact board myself. I’m thinking I’ll just strip the original driver and go from there ( next mode memory driver). The light I have was real cheap (less than ten pounds delivered) but was bought to fit a 3a nanjg and xm-l 4c for use at work.
>>>>>Nice find but the description lower on the page says 20mm
Figures. Didn’t see that ——- arggghhhh.
Well, I ordered 5. I will let you know the size. I think a few people have ordered from bang good, despite the hilarious name.
Also ordered some 21mm blank boards from them, which will probably turn out to be nosavvy-brand 17mm blanks.
I ordred some clicky boots from another site that did something similar. I was looking for some odd size — as always — and the ad said they were that size, but also like 3 other sizes as well. Of course they were the standard clicky shroud size and compteley useless.
I might look for some more 22mm boards when I geta chance. If it didn’t need that darn neg outside ring, I could cut down any size.
Next project will be a BEHEMOTH emitter star for a A0 clone. Want to get a u3 in there. Well, one frustrating project at a time.
Oh and I did order the Gords-memorial lck driver. Two of em actually because me being fumble fingers will destroy at least one of them. Or the cat will eat it or sasquatch will appear from nowhere and step on it.
That ld-v9 is really nice, no mode groups, memory, no pwm its just really nice
I even thought of dropping one in my new jacobs a60 and using 18350 cells but decided against.
It will be going into a wf500 drop-in. I have a spiderfire xenon light, a u2 one mode drop-in, , the xenon didn’t survive my two year old, the spider fire is a twisty/momentary/pressure pad tail (gun light). I figure put the 1 mode in that and build a nw xm-l2 drop-in for my trustfire t1 with a 3 mode ld-v9. Should make it a really nice grab and go light.
