3T6 with DRY driver mod

Flashlight Modding and DIY Parts
1

Well it is what it is. I stuck a DRY driver in my Trustfire 3T6.

The good: four modes; nice low, good medium, very bright high, scary high turbo

the bad: Only runs with three batteries, two is just a tiny tiny bit of light. (Quick turn it off something is wrong here)

the ugly: Even with a boatload of tinfoil there is no possible way to run this on turbo for any period of time. Thirty seconds tops and then it’s hot hot hot.

The upside was it was very easy to do and would be a breeze to swap back. I think for now I’ll leave it. I’m liking the four modes and the ability to zap it into turbo just to impress myself.

It would be fairly easy to swap out the T6’s for L2’s but I don’t think I will bother. With the heat sinking issue I don’t think it will be worth it. I will say this though now on high it competes with the SRK and it’s nice having the real low. The turbo is a bit crazy.

I got the driver free but they are only $5 at Fancy Flashlights.

http://www.fancyflashlights.com/goods.php?id=114

2

Ok, I’ll bite….

I’m a little let down by the KD driver I just put in my 3T6, especially as it was 3x the price of this one…

I’m going to grab one of these for a comparison.

3

I noticed that the one you had said it becomes a buck driver with 3 cells in use. I believe the DRY is Direct drive when used with 3 18650’s. So as long as you have some good cells it should be brighter on Turbo. The DRY driver is supposed to kick down to high after 120 seconds I haven’t let it go that long yet.

Well anyway good luck and I hope it works out better for you. If this doesn’t work for you I don’t know what will because I can’t see pushing 3 T6 led’s any harder in this host.

4

Thanks for sharing 18sixfifty. Did you change the wiring on the led’s or just put this driver in?

What was wrong with this driver and what currents did you get out off it?

5

You’re Welcome.

I just put it in and I might very well go back and change them if I decide to keep it this way. The wires were thin thin.

6

I’m getting about 3.3a at the tail - more detail here.

7

What sort off batteries are you using and how many, two or three?

8

3.3a with either 2*Sanyo UR18650F or Solarforce black 2600’s

I also have a pair of Solarforce black 2600’s that I’ve removed the protection board from, but the reading is the same.

Multi-meter has beefed up short leads as well….

I’m wondering if I need some better high-drain or low resistance batteries; I’m in ‘search mode’ for some @ the moment…. feel free to recommend some.

9

The batteries should be fine and you will be getting slightly more than 2 amps per emitter. I have used this driver in a single led flashlight and on high is 6 amps which is around what you are getting. I would suggest that this driver is working ok in your light. How does it compare now compared to the stock light?

10

that’s the problem; I used the light with the stock driver very briefly, took a couple of photos at night, which are now MIA…

I know the KD driver is brighter, but without putting the stock driver back in, I don’t have a side-by-side comparison.

I guess that I really wanted to be ‘wowed’ by this light, but so-far, it’s really been only so-so….

I figured that other high-end lights with this configuration (TK75 etc) seemed to have great performance, & that if I drove the TR-3T6 hard enough, it’d be in the same ballpark, but maybe I’m missing something??

11

cool idea! turbo is direct drive yes? it might not have as much of a heat problem once your battery voltage gets below 4v

12

Question what is a “DRY” driver? does it mean direct drive?

13

DRY: http://www.cnqualitygoods.com/goods.php?id=1177

DRY driver: http://www.cnqualitygoods.com/goods.php?id=1349

14

Hmm, I noticed that cnqualitygoods used to sell a different DRY driver, a 24mm one, with 2 boards.

The new one is 32mm, only one board. Also it seems the turbo can now be run for 180 seconds, on the older model 120 seconds.

15

Anyway respect for 18sixfifty, one of the cazyest moders around,
He was from what I know the first to super mod the trustfire tr-j19 with dedomed xml2`s and xpg2`s, inspiring me to choose my super thrower project !

16

Yes, and as I asked Ric the BTU Shocker with DRY driver will be phased out soon, as this new version of DRY driver cannot be fitted inside the Shocker anymore. On the other hand I am pretty sure that the DRY flashlight driver compartment has been modified to fit this new driver as well. Don’t know what is the reason behind to modify this DRY driver by them.

17

Where to buy a Dry driver? CNQ seems to be dead and the new one I think is too big to fit. Need the older 20something mm.

18

I assume CNQG is only down temporarily, but I’m told that Ric will no longer stock the old DRY driver anyway. Some of the drivers carried at LCK-LED may be good choices:
www.lck-led.com/flashlight-driver-c-135.html

HKJ reviewed at least one of those. Several are available through various sources. Check the links at the top of my 17mm QX5241 driver thread for more options.

19

As I asked Ric last time he told me they have stopped producing and selling the DRY driver anymore. I wonder what driver do they use in their DRY flashlight then.