A17DD-L Drawing Only 2.75a?

[joediese]

@mattlward

Lots of things going on here… that is a fairly high Vf led, this will reduce current. Your tail switch and board may be in question… try an Omten 1288 switch and this board. You may want to get some good silicone wire for the leds, use the very find stranded wire for good flex and think 18 gauge if it will fit. If not go to 22 gauge or 20 gauge. Also, your springs can be as big a problem as any other part here. The gen 3 Bluesword springs are wonderful for current draw. You can also set a small spring inside a larger spring for more current. Bypasses can sometimes be difficult and when they fail they can cause nasty shorts in places you do not want to have one.

When measuring current, I use a good clamp and about 6 inches of 10 gauge ultra fine braided wire with a silicone jacket. This allows one to center it in the clamp and makes sure that your test lead is not a source of limited current.

The quest for every last amp and become frustrating. Please remember that you can hit a point of diminishing returns where more amps actually reduces output and damages leds.

Thanks for the reply bud, a lot of good info there.

The switch PCB was a definite bottleneck, which is why it failed when I accidentally shorted the emitter POS to the reflector. The OshPark board is 17mm, I’ll see if there is a 20mm which would be compatible with my tailcap.

The springs were bypassed internally, and I haven’t had one like that fail before, but I may give double springs a go with the new switch/driver.

I am using solid core household wiring in my clamp meter at the moment, less ideal than stranded heavy-gauge wire, but it was all I had on hand.

I hope to get this light up and running again in the next week and see if any tweaks pull more amps, I’m aiming for 4.75a as a guess, I think this LED will go about 6a, but gives no more output above 5a.