Who ever bought the ten of these woke on the smart side of the bed .
Very nice budget buy
Got mine today. DISAPPOINTING output, but the build quality (on mine anyway) is pretty darn nice. Solid ano (or paint). No machining issues. Actually one of the better builds I have seen, and I have seen quite a few. Says Trustfire TR-3T6 on barrel. Great looking BIG solid pill (haven’t disaasembled completely). Emitters could be centered better but I have seen worse. Getting 1.65 off the tailcap on high with two 4.20v Samsung protected 2800s from FT. Light meter shows 6k lux at 15 feet in my pitch dark test range garage, but for example SRK puts out 15k without even trying.
However, it does have one of those funky thin spring getups transferring the ground from the rear battery barrel to the front pill/reflector. On similar lights, I have achieved phenomenal power increases by coppering that cheesy spring, or replacing it entirely with copper wire. Also has a HUGE positive driver spring that is also contributing to high resistance. But even futzing around with those — I do not think — will bring this up to SRK brightness without a driver mod or new driver entirely.
Haven’t read the threads on modding the 3T6 before and I see there are a few threads about it. Maybe something there. Will read later. As always. I’m out the door to the PO.
Just wanted to throw out the initial impressions. The build quality — upon a QUICK look seems not bad, not bad at all — but it’s WAY underpowered. Looks like a candidate for a super mod.
Anyone else get theirs yet?
Ubehebe,
Glad to hear your’s arrived. Pretty darn fast shipping for December!
Tracking on mine has it near me, so soon.
As far as that spring, I just got done putting a braid on the driver spring on this cheap Q5 mini thrower and it instantly gave me .43 amps gain.
http://www.ebay.com/itm/121161815130?ssPageName=STRK:MEWAX:IT&\_trksid=p3984.m1423.l2649 (Darn nice light for $7 by the way)
Doesn’t sound like a ton but when you consider it only had 2.20 amps to begin with and now is at 2.63 that is somewhat significant.
Anyway, I got another light to more than double the amperage by modding that big funky ground spring. (Does anyone sell better replacement Big Funky Springs?)
Just got a soldering station today and some helping hands, so I am ready to mod:)
Will update when I get my 3T6.
If nothing else, For less than $15, Part is Parts!
Later,
Keith
Hi Ubehebe. Thanks for the report. Hopefully, there is just a resistance issue somewhere. Does the driver have "TF" imprinted on the battery side of the driver?
If it’s a real TF it will have a sticker on the inside of the battery tube, won’t it? My X9 has both the battery tube sticker and a sticker on the unfinished side of the reflector.
>>>>>Does the driver have “TF” imprinted on the battery side of the driver?
No. Just T6X3.
>>>>If it’s a real TF it will have a sticker on the inside of the battery tube, won’t it?
No sticker.
I think this is one of those cases where whatever tin shack was building the TFs decided to strike out on their own, using the same parts they were using for the real TF (whatever a “real” TF is), EXCEPT for the driver. I haven’t dissembled the driver because it’s soldered to the aluminum pill and apparently not a press fit, so the chances of getting it back together and having the solder hold to aluminum doesn’t seem all that great, so I will leave that for others.
I used heavy copper wire to supplement the connector spring and used solder braid on the end cap and driver spring. Pushed it from 6k to 7k. No big deal.
This is not a cheap Meritline light, at least the one I got. You could use the pill for a boat anchor. So we have a pretty spiffy base of operations here that just doesn’t live up to its (bohahahahahah) 3800 Chinese lumens claim. No surprise there. Figure out a replacement driver and this would be one killer light.
It does get pretty warm pretty quickly. I’d expect more light output, but it’s not to be. I mean it’s half the output of a three-emitter “real” SRK (whatever “real SRK” really is.) Hopefully I got the only one with the non-TF driver.
The tube unscrews into two parts, but I don’t see what good that does. Tube remaining is WAY too long for a single 18650. Three 16340s maybe? (Now, that’s a sure way to blow your hand off.) I’m sure I’m missing its purpose as I usually do in these cases.
Now to find a new driver!
Mine did. I don't know if they still do these days. Mine looked something like these one (I think it had a halogram, but I'm not sure):
Here are a couple examples of the "TF" on the driver:
You know, I’ll have to revise my original brightness estimate. It finally just got dark, so I did a quick check outside. Brighter than I originally thought.
Another indication of brightness was my neighbor cursing: “My god. My eyes! My eyes! You’ll hear from my lawyer” as he careened into his house with his hands over his eyes.
Heh heh. Oops didn’t see him there emptying his nightly 3/4s of a ton of empty beer cans and bottles into his trash can, and I inadvertantly sorta-maybe-on-purpose shined the light through the fence and in his face. (Every night it sounds like someone is behind my bedroom wall dropping bowling balls from the top of a skyscraper into a swimming pool filled with bottles and cans.)
But seriously folks (snare roll, cymbal crash): It’s really not that dim. (the light, not my neighbor. My neighbor is PLENTY dim.)
Maybe 3/4s of a SRK? Certainly a heckuva lot brighter than any single T6 flood I own (zooms pulled back all the way). The usual Ubehebe miscalculation can be blamed this time on the fact that this is much more floody than the SRK and therefore a spot light meter reading doesn’t tell all.
Still underpowered though. Just not as bad as I originally thought. Will be interested in what others say.
>>>>>Mine did. I don’t know if they still do these days.
>>>>>Mine looked something like these one (I think it had a halogram, but I’m not sure):
Interesting. Thanks for the pix. That sure looks like the behemoth aluminum combo pill/refelctor in mine. Even more strangely, it also looks like the exact same driver spring. When I was soldering the desoldering braid into it, I commented to myself that it was a strange spring.
No TF sticker and no “TF” on the driver.
Thanks for the info Ubehebe. Maybe you're just missing some sense resisters. You should have one R100, R200, and R250. Or some combination that effectively gives you .05 ohms resistance.
Have you tried to run it with one cell just by shorting the cell negative to the tube end/treads?
And there is a sticker in the battery tube which looks like this:
I missed out on these, but without the extension try 2*18500 …
Oh, I also found this week my similar single T6 is my only LED light of several I’ve tried that throws out substantial radio interference.
Two 18500 or 3 16340 fit the smaller tube. Maybe even three 18350…
Same as Ubehebe’s light, I am seeing 1.60-1.63 amp draw no matter the battery, this light is regulated hard.
Might try the 18500 thing later this evening as I have a few of them.
Anyway, the build quality is very good, surprising actually, one emitter is just a hair off center but not enough that I think it would matter.
Wish it came with the 3 cell extender but that is probably being greedy seeing as it was less than $15.
I can’t get the head loose to get the lens out to get at the driver, I need a new strap wrench. Where is the best place to get one of those cheap but good?
After you guys burn up your drivers modifying them I will try what eventually works the right way:)
Thanks,
Keith
And the 1.6A is in high mode?
Have you tried half empty batteries? Does the current increase?
High should be around 2A with two cells. You can try 3 cells without tube, just put the cell on the others and close the circuit with your test probes…
———-
Check this side for my current measurements of the “original” 3T6driver and how to mod.
Got mine. Looks good. Anno is a little shinier than older trustfires. So extensions from one of those lights won't match sheen wise. The tail threads are typical low budget quality.
Love the beam. Much more throwy than a SRK. My tint is nice. Mostly just white with a slight neutral tint.
Don't bother buying an extension unless you want to run on Ni-mh or equivalent. It isn't stable on 3 li-ions. It lit up, but modes were not controllable and it started to smell like something was burning within 30 seconds or less. It does run fine on one cell though. I get 3.2 amps at the tail on one cell at start up. It slowly drifts down to 2.9's during the first few minutes. I don't know if it's thermal sag or just the cell draining. Given that 2 cells is steady, I'm guessing it was just the one cell draining.
With 2 cells I get 1.6 amps steady like everyone else so far. I like how consistent our readings are. Sounds like the driver regulates well. Hoping that means this is a solidly designed driver that will also handle resister mods well.
I was going to dispute if it didn't have a true Trustfire driver, but I think this light is a decent deal. I'll probably keep it.
In shorty mode it accepted 2 unprotected NOS laptop pull 18500’s and ran fine, I think this is the way I will use it, at least until it gets modded to where it needs more amperage.
Thanks,
Keith
Sounds like a good plan Muto. I may do the same thing and put it in my car's center console.
I have not looked at all yet. Been too busy. But does anyone have a line on a replacement driver that would bring this up to SRK levels? Or details on a driver mod?
Like everyone says, it’s a well-built light. Just doesn’t have any ooomph, brightness wise.
Without knowing which driver your light has in it it is hard to find a fitting replacement…?