SmallSun ZY-T08 Mod (Dissapointing)

I have received all my parts and done the T08 mod on last week. I modded it with dedomed XM-L2 U2 1A from KD reflowed on 20mm Noctigon, cells are budget Trustfire “3000mAh” Flames.

So here are my dissapointing results, measured with this light meter :
First approach: Direct-drive, can’t measure the current as my multimeter is under reading. I measured with 5m distance, and calculated around 150kcd (average of 5 readings taken).

Second approach: 13x7135 Qlite rev.A driver from IO. The lux reading was still around 150kcd.

If I remember correctly Tom E has done the exact same mod and getting a lux reading of 210kcd.

Some of my thoughts,
Light meter under reading? Well, I obtained a reading of around 125kcd with my stock BTU Shocker with AR coated lens, so I guess the light meter should be fine.

Cells? Yeah I know they are Trustfire Flames, but that really make that much of difference Vs. Panasonic or Samsung cells?

LED focusing accuracy with the reflector? I think this can be the case. I never grind or do any kind of work with the reflector, and the LED is sitting a little backward than stock.

Would appreciate if anyone here can provide some ideas… :frowning:

You can mod the battery carrier to so that the batteries run in series and put a 7 amp driver in. That is what I did and it screams.

How many amps are we talking about in both scenarios?

Oh and yeah I did grind the base of mine to let more light into the reflector. The problem might be that you are not high enough into the reflector as well. As you know the star you are using is not as thick as the one it came with. I think opening up the bottom of the light solves that problem.

I am sorry, my multimeter cannot read the current accurately, that is also the parameter that I need to know. :frowning:

Well we can fix that. Just get some copper wire thick enough that you need to bend somewhat forcefully. Roll the end a bit if its too thin to stay in the leads’ holes in your dmm. Now you’ll get some better readings.

That is a lot of work to do to me (lazy?). I do not have good skill to make sure the parallel-to-series mod will be success and stable. Plus I think the parallel configuration is good.

I have read through some modding threads and seems like most of the people do grind the base of the reflector to allow the LED sitting inward, but I have two doubts with this,

  1. What method do you guys use to grind without damaging the reflector surface?
  2. I do not know how much do I need to grind to yield the optimum throw. I guess grinding too much will cause the opposite effect as well.

I use a small round file and on this mod you can take out the entire bottom part.

Oh and one more thing you are limited to the amps coming from the parallel batteries so you should be using heavy gauge wire otherwise smaller gauge wire will be your resistance point.

Just for reference, I got 175kcd with a dedomed xm-l2 T6 with stock lens about at 4.5A.

kd xm-l won’t be the u2 bin for sure, trustfire may not provide enough current, long and thin led leads and cheap springs could affect the current too…

Well this is it! Stop searching I had same problem…

Drop in some Sanyo 2600 and you will be surprised…

Jacob with 8×7135 driver and crappyfire flames does 90 KCD…

When I drop in Sanyo 2600 it does 130KCD

So when you put better battery you will have around 200KCD like other guys.

So sanyo 2600 red or Pana NCR18650PD as you mentioned.

+1 on both issues. Can't imagine getting high amps out of TF flames in a T08. I'll quote/measure with Samsung 20R's, or at least, Pana PD's. Best deal right now is Hank's U2 1A's on Noctigons.

Also all my T08 builds use a UCL/p lens which seems to always help well with throw, and I use 22 gauge silicone. Without the ability to measure amps, you are not seeing how bad those cells do compared to good cells. The 20R's are the reigning kings for XM-L2's on copper as far as I'm concerned - I've proven that over and over - better than Pana PD's, Pana CH's, better than 20Q's, better than the SONY 30A rated cells. The 20R's are HKJ's lowest resistance tested flashlight cell.

On T08's, I use a copper disc, lapped, under the star, soldered to the star. Gets the emitter into the reflector better.

At what distance do you guys measure the lux value? I use 5 meters.

I use 3.4 meters, which is probably too short, but it's the easiest for me to do, and if anything, produces lower results, so I'm confident in the #'s I measure and post that they are good or lower than actual OTF throw.

Yesterday I tried to grind down the base of the reflector a bit. I found that the chips and dust resulted from the grinding will stick on the reflector surface, how do you deal with that? I didn’t want them to damage my reflector surface so I didn’t grind much.

Don’t wipe them off, blow them off and you will be fine. Canned air or even a blow dryer or something like that. I usually just blow them away like a birthday candle.

I ended up washing them away with soap without hand touching them and under the tap water. Is it a good alternative way to do it?

Yep I have heard that works well also.

Ohh - something to add here is the KD U2 1A's I've tested are poor performers, most likely T6's.