Starting with the cell as it arrived (4.15v) I ran it on High mode for nearly 3 hours, which is longer than the specs show, it did get somewhat hot but didn’t appear to step-down in brightness at all, and the cell discharged down to 3.4 volts. This was at room temp around 68-70 degrees. So either the “Temperature Control System” isn’t working or it didn’t get hot enough.
. USB charging:
From 3.4v it charged back up within 3hrs. (I didn’t time it exactly, could have been less) Charge terminated at 4.21v
Soon as I connected the charger the switch began flashing green, and was still flashing green when fully charged, this is not what shows in the user manual: “Blinks redduring charging, will be green when charge is done”
Although the description in Amazon shows different: “Blinking Green is in Charging,Green is completed”
But mine never went to steady green, maybe it was still charging? (hope not!) So I’m wondering if mine is defective, has anyone else tried the USB charging?
EDIT: So I reconnected it for a while and the light finally went steady on green (guess I just didn’t wait long enough)
So the instructions in amazon are the correct ones.
Cell came off at 4.2v …Perfect!
So this light has a good cell, nice charger, great build quality, great “hand-feel”, a switch that’s small and stiff enough lockout isn’t needed and the entire thing is at a great price!
Ok, I manage to get this NiteNumen light disassembled. It uses a RX6810 controller. The usb charging and driver with switch is all made on one board. This controller has been seen before here. Warsun CT9T how to do resitor mod
It looks very similar to my driver. I’ll try to get some pics up.
The pill is held in by one T5 screw that’s located under the usb charger cap. Unscrew it and then the bezel, take the reflector out and you should see the led. The usb cap has like a plug on the end of it, you will need a small screw driver to push the plug back through the small hole in the head. Once thats out, take a long screw driver and push from the tail cap end on the + side of the driver. The pill will slide right out the bezel end.
Switch side.
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Usb charging side.
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Battery positive side.
You’ll need to unscrew the 2 T5 screws from the driver that has already been removed in the pic above. Then the driver will pry right out and you can unsolder the led wires before or after the driver frees from the pill.
The aluminum pill.
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The driver.
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Now that it’s out, what to do with it. :person_facepalming:
On this driver pin 6 and 7 are bridged. Unsolder the bridge and then bridge pin 5 to 6. No modes, just off and on. I went by the datasheet in that thread.
No more crappie UI. :+1:
I just did this to mine and confirm this works. I went ahead and did a resistor mod for hopefully more current while I was there.
Stock resistor .250, I replaced mine with a .150
Don’t have a fresh cell to check tail cap current, maybe I’ll get around to it tomorrow. Can some one check the tail cap current from a stock light. I forgot to check mine before I got deep into this mod. :person_facepalming:
I got a tail cap reading of 2.2 amps after the resistor mod. I took this thing apart again trying to figure out how to add another driver with a good UI. I just don’t think it’s possible with out a lot of tedious work and loosing the ability to use protected cells. If the cells to long the tail cap will not make contact to the tube. Sandwich another driver to the original will add extra length pushing the battery out the tube further. Might be possible with unprotected cells but it’s more of a complicated mod than I’am willing to take on right now. One mode it is then. Should get very decent run times with that current draw though. Such a nice light, with a crappie UI. Fix the UI NiteNumen and you got a very versatile flashlight.
I’m getting 1.65A on High with the stock light. Using a regular multi-meter (auto ranging) with 6in. long #12ga. solid copper leads soldered to banana plugs, bare wire ends at the flashlight.
I don’t think I’m willing to lose the lower modes but I’d like to know which resistor to swap. TBH I think I dislike the bulky USB “lug” worse than scrolling through the modes. The rubber cover is huge too and it sometimes dislodges a bit when pulling it out from pocket clipped.
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The one marked R250 beside the led negative wire, Its upside down .You can also add resistor in parallel to lower the total resistance. Adding another R250 would give you a total of .125 ohms.
Thanks for the info and photo! Piggybacking sounds easy too. I haven’t tried any resistor mods before, where do you buy these resistors, is there a certain type I’d need?
I have some salvage circuit/control boards that might have them but I have no idea if they would be the right type.
Thanks for the work on checking and modding the driver.
I’m not sure I’d want to make mine single-mode. I find single-mode lights to be somewhat less useful these days. What we really need is someone to flash the MCU with a better UI …
I think I’ve found another excuse to buy and sample flashlights! I started ordering lights for field crews and after receiving the order for this one, I’ve found a winner! At least until the stock runs out.
I got 1.9A with the stock set-up and supplied battery. 2.1A with a 25R. I have XP-L Hi, NW Convoy S2 & S2+ from GB and prefer those over this light but the price, strong clip, USB charger, battery and real XM-L2 are hard to beat for a work light where most of the activity is during the day used for inspecting sewer access and utility vaults. Sure, the UI stinks but hi mode is what you want in those working conditions.
That was kind of my thoughts to. Throw it in the truck and use it when I need it. If it needs charged I can just plug it up in the truck. I will never be with out a way to make some light out on the go if needed.
Nope not me, All I got was a usb cord, O-ring and a extra usb port seal and the light.
I had to go back and look at the description, this is what it says
“Included:lanyard,Holster,body clip,Spare O-ring,3400mAh 3.7V 18650 Li-ion Protected Rechargeable Batteries.”
I didn’t get lanyard or the holster.
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Another note: description says “batteries” I only got one.
.You can also add resistor in parallel to lower the total resistance. Adding another R250 would give you a total of .125 ohms.
