Richard at Mountain Electronics made a Convoy S6 triple a year or two ago. I don’t know if he still sells it.
My current favorite budget triple is a s2+ mini triple powered by an IMR 18500, FET driver and triple XPL with modded Carclo optic. All parts purchased from RMM.
Pros - very small…. 84mm long. Very bright and floody. An amazing pocket rocket for something so tiny. If you shine it on your hand at close range it’s bright enough to give a burning sensation in seconds. I have no doubt the light output is enough to start a fire on something close range.
Cons - gets very hot very fast. Appropriate turbo timer is probably 30-40 seconds.
I don’t know of anyone who sells an off-the-shelf small triple other than the DQG 26650. If you want a small triple you’ll probably have to order a custom one from RMM or make your own. I didn’t buy the DQG 26650 because it’s a bit bigger than I’d like for EDC pocket carry.
I EDC a convoy S* triple (cannot remember if it’s s2, s6, etc… One of them.) the review is here
And when I say EDC I mean EDC. I holster carry cause it is a bit unwieldy. But I don’t miss a day.
All the necessary parts came from rmm.
XP-L’s dedomed. Carlco 10507 lens. Direct drive on turbo w/ a 30 second step down, off an imr 18650.
Shitta bright. I mean all kinds of light. Throw is obviously poor, few hundred feet anyway, but sheer volume of light in close proximity fantastical.
Heat… Well yeah it gets ridiculously hot. You could get away with a 45 second step down though.
Runtime… Is just not enough. I carry a spare battery. Short bursts for fun or show, a 2000mah battery is fine. But when you start leaning on the light, really using it for say a two hour transmission repair, you’ll need that second battery. Or run a higher capacity battery that isn’t capable of the high amp draw, and sacrifice the lumen output.
I really like it because it has the longer head and RMM sold the copper spacer.
FET driver etc. easy build all the parts just slot in. I did find that the driver retainer didn’t fit the blf17dd so it just soldered it to the pill(you need lots of heat). Lots of fun.
Is there anyone that sells custom mini-sized triples?
Or instructions on how to build your own (without hard-to-get components)?
I might have to pack out to Afghanistan soon and I could use a DQG 26650-sized light (or smaller) that could push 2500 lumens, even for 10-15 seconds. Or is 2500 lumens hopelessly unrealistic? I’m not worried about heat - just something ridiculously blinding for a few seconds, but can be used much longer at lower output.
If I could build a 2x18350 MT-G2, that could work too.
(sorry for the incoherent rambling)
-keith
The Convoy triples are super super easy. Two solder connections for wires and 4 solder connections as jumpers. Lots of room to work with.
Assemble driver, spacer, and board on pill (prefer single-sided 17DD so retaining ring can be used)
Trim wires to length...leave a few mm...there is room
Solder positive and negative
Solder jumper pads (just a drop on each..nothing fancy or tricky)
Place optic on board/spacer/pill assy and screw in from bottom (holding upright)
Assemble tube, install battery, put your seat belt on :)
Richard can program the modes, mode order, and step down for you. You can talk to him about your needs. He cannot assemble due to liability. You can even avoid step down if you are conscious of what the temp is and step it down yourself.
Edit...if going into the sand...get a few good high drain batteries like the Efest, Samsung, or LG..and a carrier, as well as a decent 4 bay charger
I have only built triples with the S2 and S6...S3 soon. I have a couple S4's coming so I will see what they are like inside. Maybe just install a 177DD or Wight's driver with a single emitter.
As far as I know, Richard will not build a Triple with an FET because of liability.....lawyers...sheesh! LOL. Wdkingery may know about that - I am pretty sure that is what was posted once when he showed off his triple and earned his bragging rights to some "associates" LOL. That said...I am fairly certain that Richard will build triples with 4.4 amps but don't consider that to be gospel.
I’ve been building and gifting/selling S2+ XPL triples for a few months now at an exceedingly lazy pace… I also EDC one of the lights I’ve built. I think almost all of the ones I’ve built so far for others are EDC’d by their new owners as well. I haven’t yet done a DD driver in one - specifically because of their intended EDC purpose. I have absolutely no way of measuring the lumens output, but I’ve been building them to run on high at 3A with 18650PF’s. My best guess on lumens out-the-front after losses from dedoming/optic/host/etc is somewhere in the 1,200-1,300 lumen range. I’ve only been using V5 2A’s, and the datasheet has them around 500 lumens (+/- 25 or so) at 1A, so I’m figuring roughly a 20% loss from the LED lumens to the OTF. Since mine are meant to be used/abused daily, I’m not building them to be the brightest ever… plus 1,200-1,300 lumens from a tiny little flashlight is still a whole, whole lot. Like - light up the inside of a dark 100,000 square-foot warehouse lot (had the opportunity to try that out a few weeks back… surprised at how much light actually made it from one end to the other. Threw further than I anticipated.).
I’ve got no idea what they’d be at with a DD driver with a high drain battery, but 3A to each LED doesn’t seem unreasonable. So using a 20% loss, that’d be roughly 2,400 lumens if you’ve got 9A leaving the driver on a full battery. Pretty close to the 2,500 lumen mark, but having no way of measuring I try to figure on the conservative end of things. Could be more, though I suppose. Based on another thread on here, it looks like XP-Ls don’t lose much output when dedomed, so who knows.
I have a triple xpg S2 with Fet driver and it is very floody and around 1700lm.
I used the clear triple carclo and the emitters are not dedomed, it’s to floody to be useful outside.
I was so disappointed I didn’t build the triple xml for which I have already the parts laying around…
It makes no sense to make these small triples, to less batterylife, too much depending on an imr battery and too much heat. That is why no manufacturer builds these.
Thanks for all the info. I thought that heat would be a problem but I think it’s about time I got into one of these pocket rockets. In true BLF fashion, I will probably buy both
You may be correct that they are of no practical use to a collector or flashlight junkie BUT they are not useless. It depends on the need.
They are definitely not throwers (like a friend in Northern Michigan really needs..yeah you Luke ) but in n urban setting and/or even my case at work where I am never usually more than 20-30 meters at the most and very often much much closer than that that large flood of light is very useful and beneficial. 10% of my coworkers now carry triples (those that did not get the X6-SE). They use the mid levels unless they need 100% or are fooling around, and their batteries run all night.
Again, depends on the needs. Right now I always have at work....the EE A6 dedomed XPL, S6 Triple, and Fenix PD35 as a spare/loaner (can't find my EE F30 ). Funny as it may sound..the correct light for the task makes my job much faster and easier. :)
Don’t forget that you will have to modify the optic for XPL. or you can dedome. I opened up the optic with a squire drive in a drill. I know it is a bit rough bit works a treat and didn’t affect beam much. With the FET driver and a Sony vtc5 it is seriously bright for 20seconds then it’s hot potato lol
When you need the brightest possible short-range light in the smallest possible package.
Compact triples aren’t great for:
throwing long distances. My brightest small triple only throws 25k lux. Decent, but can’t be sustained due to heat and single cell. You’re better off with a wider reflector or an aspheric lens when throw is needed.
providing a large amount of floody light for an extended period. Triples are all about being compact. Most lack the heatsinking or battery capacity for extended runtime at full power. If you need 1500 lumens of light for 2 hours, you should use a different light.
The XPL that I built ended up really floody when I opened the optic. Knowing now how easy they can be dedomed (did it to two by accident) one is better off in my opinion to leave the optic alone (for tighter beam) and dedome the coolest XPL's available. Even with the lumens loss it will still be brighter than the XPG2 if using an FET driver.
Caleb - I must have ruined/fried the nerves in my hand because I do not feel the heat like I used to...but my leg does if it accidentally gets turned on while in my pocket. LOL
There’s hardly any tint shift when I dedomed my XP-Ls with the heat method. I also did a dedome in gas to compare and it tuned into a nasty green tint.
I found out they will dedome by themselves just by making the board hot. I had to to buy a soldering station because I kept applying too much heat....something that never happened with XML2's. Mine warmed up but did not turn green.
) but in n urban setting and/or even my case at work where I am never usually more than 20-30 meters at the most and very often much much closer than that that large flood of light is very useful and beneficial. 10% of my coworkers now carry triples (those that did not get the X6-SE). They use the mid levels unless they need 100% or are fooling around, and their batteries run all night.
). Funny as it may sound..the correct light for the task makes my job much faster and easier. :)