High current drivers for single XM-L2

I tested these (above) “5A” Lightmalls drivers today and got 2.9A.

I also ordered One of these, and one of these. (below)

I received two of these instead. 2.3A

I also received two other drivers that are not as pictured and do not meet stated specs.
My first and last order from Lightmalls.

Sorry to hear that, im keeping my eye on this thread to see if anyone post a good working 4A amp driver

I tested three old IOS 3.5A drivers I’ve never used. Two had a red wire, and one had a pink wire. The pink wire driver tested at 4.6A. One of the red wire ones tested at 3.0A, and the other one was really strange. All I get is a constant reading of 0.5A. Sometimes it would flash a momentary 3.0A or 1.24A reading and immediately jump back to 0.5A.

I have given up on these drivers because of the experiences so many others have posted. I am following this other threadHomemade East 92 Driver
I will try building my own. I figure I can’t do much worse.

That is disappointing. How do I test how much amps comes out of the driver? Is it possible to mod the “5A” driver you got from Lightmalls into 5A, and if so, how?

Hmmm…it might look like I need to spend some more time looking for a driver to drive that Convoy L2 thrower I am looking at building. :frowning:

After discovering that the Lightmalls 5.0A driver only puts out 2.9A, I decided to do my very first resistor mod.
Man, those things are tinier in real life than in forum close-ups.

A pair of R200 resisters on stock driver

I stacked one R100 resistor on top. It isn’t pretty, but it works.

I tested it with a jury rigged rats nest of alligator clips and magnets.

High - 4.82A
Med. - 1.42A
Low. - 0.23A

I didn’t run it too long, but, on high, I could see the current dropping…4.8…4.7…4.6. I think this was heat sag, since my test LED was only mounted on an aluminum board, and 4.8A were heating it up pretty fast.

Ouchyfoot if u do more testing on that driver and can get a stable around 4A to 4.5 let me no im looking for a good driver for my new projects :slight_smile:

Thanks for the testing and feedback ouchy!

I hope you confront LM on this and get a partial refund. Its just not acceptable that they sent you the wrong product. This seems to happen all the time from various vendors with this driver. If people accept these mistakes than there is no reason why it should not easily happen with others..

The only vendor that seems to get this right (intl-outdoor) have even stopped selling their high output 4,5A version..

I ordered 4 of this 3A driver from lck-led in the weekend, despite that I hate ordering from them. They always screw up one or three things... Hopefully they screw up once again and send me the high output version.. :p Either way I plan on resistor modding it for higher output. For the record, they were only 4,6$ a piece when I ordered. Now they are 8,75$.. Maybe their screw up this time was the price before I ordered. :)

I also got one of these 3.0A Drivers from Lightmalls. It appears to be the exact same driver, minus the contact board. I’ll try a resistor mod on it also. It has a built on battery contact. It would sure make a small profile 5.0A driver.

I’m thinking about taking one of my ZY-T08s, converting it to series (I already have done this with an MT-G2 build; got the idea from relic), and running one of these drivers with an XM-L2. Should be able to push it harder with better regulation than in parallel, taking full advantage of the copper MCPCB. There is probably enough room in that driver cavity to fit a trimpot on the sense resistors so that’s what I’ll probably end up doing to adjust current.

I put the 5.0A driver from LCK in my ZY-T08. There’s tons of room in the pill.

Yupp.... Small profile and high output is my plan.. I have put a lot of links to LM and various other vendors here in the review thread.

Im still not sure which is better in terms of handling a resistor mod. The 3A version of this with resistor mod, or the LD-29 with resistor mod.

LD-29 have better efficiency, but the 3A driver will probably have no issues with 5A as long as its got some heatsinking..

Ill be using the TR-3T6 driver in my ZY-T08. Modded for around 6,3A in my case added one R120...

Got mine from MF (currently they are not taking orders). I considered that or the SST90 driver (18sixfity) says it will fit with a little trimming..

I ended up with the TR-3T6 because I wanted to test the size in another light and it might have better efficiency than the SST90 based on what I have read some places..

The MF TR-3T6 is very similar to this SST50 driver, but the SST50 seems to be lacking two components and its slightly taller compared to the version MF normally sells cheaper..

Interesting. I’ve got a 3T6 driver also that I might have to try also.

Ouchy - that’s exactly what I had to do to get ~5A, albeit with the large toroid version of the driver.

Rod911 - options are limited for the driver cavity of the L2 - I personally have had both the large & small toroid ‘FL-2’ driver in my L2.

The smaller toroid one is a much easier fit - I currently have it in my L2, running an XP-G2 @ 5A. If it’s a thrower you want, then look no further… :beer:

I had placed an order for the same “5A driver” value pack as Ouchy from lightmalls at around the same time as him, and I just placed an order for some LD-29 drivers. I’ll see which of the two drivers fit in the Convoy L2 and just mod it to get me around the 5A area.

From posts by Gords, he did mention that the lightmalls “5A” driver (or the ones that looked like it) did fit the Convoy L2, but it was a tight fit.

The value pack driver and the LD-29 will easily fit in the L2. The 5a driver from LCK will indeed be a tight fit. The pill might have to be extended by a couple mm. It’s doable.

I don’t think it will stand the heat generated at 5amps without some good heat sinking.

I have two L2 hosts. I love them, but haven’t built a damn thing. Everything I want to do gets shot down because of the limited driver space or room to add additional heat sinking.

You might hack this up, making it a little smaller and thermal glue it to the FET. Then pot the driver in the pill with some thermal glue.
It might last then. :slight_smile:

No, it’s not that. I want to fit things like 9A drivers in it. Add heavy copper inside. I’m trying to find a triple reflector that fits MT-G2. A deeper one, not those shallow cups. I might even ream out the pill, and cut off the base for the MCPCB. It’s going to be a long winter. I have lots of plans in my head. I have enough extensions for my L2 that I could run it with 6 x 26650 if I wanted.

I’ve got lots of copper for heat management.