Are all MT-G2 lights going to be somewhat floody?

LED Flashlights – General Info
41

I just checked the HD2010 tailcap current, meter between negative of battery and body, and got ~3.08 amps.

Like I said, first time with this meter, so I don’t have anything to go by, except the very hard to read “manual” :)…

With this meter, you press REC and MODE to put it into the record mode, and it records ‘x’ (50 by default) readings. Then, you press REC and HOLD and it shows the “Max” reading. That “Max” reading was what I put in the table above.

BTW, I just did the same test with my DST, and got 308 x10, or 3080 lux, I think.

Edit: P.S. What would that 40kcd be in lux?

Also, I think that the meter can be configured for “FC” which I think is “foot-candles”?

Edit 2: I just checked the EagTac voltage, and it’s at 4.13V. Topping it to 4.20V now…

42

Left: L2P 1x18650, dedomed XPG2 'cool white' (sorry, no specific tint available from seller), smooth XML p60 reflector, 3A Qlite driver, on HIGH mode

Right: S1100 stock other than w/MTG2 transplant, running on MEDIUM to make it possible to get both lights visible in the same picture; on high, the little XPG2 turns invisible.

The MTG2 is still brighter by a lot even on medium, but this is the closest match possible between the two very different lights. MTG2 center spot is bigger but only by about 1" at a distance of ~8 feet.

Of course outdoors the bigger light spreads out/gets scattered by the air more, and total lumens aren't comparable. But the beam patterns are remarkably similar, so much so that if someone else were running the lights one at a time indoors on a wall test, I would have a hard time telling which was which, and I built both of them.

43

I don’t remember if it was in this thread or another one, but I think that you said that the S1100 was the same in every way as the S2200, except for the emitter and the driver? Assuming my memory of that is correct, would you expect the S2200 to perform like the above?

44

S2200 has a textured reflector, I think they tried to make it less of a thrower, on purpose. The only difference in the driver is the UI with hidden blinkie modes. From tailcap readings the current delivery part of the driver looks to be identical.

45

Do you know/do you think that the parts would be interchangeable between an S1100 and an S2200, i.e., could you take the reflector from an S1100 and put it in an S2200? That might be a (expensive) way to get an MT-G2 emitter and an SMO reflector?

46

Every part of the light bodies will interchange. Buy a S1100 and put a MTG2 in it would be the easiest way, unless they will sell you a S2200 and the other smooth reflector separate.

47

That (being able to buy just the SMO reflector) would be ideal, but I’m not sure if they’d do that. If you didn’t have an S1100 already (with MT-G2) and that option (buy an S2200 and an SMO reflector separately) was available, would you have done that, rather than buy an S1100 and swap the emitter with the MT-G2?

48

Probably, if they'd been released at the same time. But then I wouldn't have had a chance to see first hand how useless 'extreme throwers' are in real-life use. :) It was an excellent learning experience.

49

Tom,

I decided to try the test with the HD2010 again, but with the Efest battery, but only got 2880 lux, even then.

I’ve run the tests a couple of times now, and keep getting about the same numbers, so not sure why my numbers are coinciding with what you think are “correct”. I’m still using that Record function though.

If you don’t have a Record function, where it records the max lux, how do you do a test in a dark room and be able to read the meter?

Edit: I figured/found another way to operate the meter. After powering it on, you can put it in the “Max” mode, where it displays the maximum lux that it has “seen”.

So, for testing, I:

- Power the meter on

- Turn off the room light

- Make my way over to the 14 foot spot

- Turn the light on and point it to the meter sensor, trying to move the beam so that different parts of the beam are caught by the sensor

- Turn off the light

- Turn on the room light

  • Walk over to the meter to read the lux

However, doing the above, rather than using the Record mode, seems to yield about the same results that I got using the Record mode, so I’m wondering if the lux meter may be out of calibration :(.

Is there some way to calibrate the lux meter with a known source?

Jim

50

Tried again. This time, I:

- Used the same set of batteries for each light, topping to ~4.20V before each test.

- Moved the meter to a different location (kitchen… earlier it was in dining room, shooting over dining table). Re-measured 14 feet, marked spot.

  • Used the meter “Max” function instead of “Record” function.
Light LUX Comments
HD2010 2850 1 x Efest, 4.20V - ~4.16 amps
Trustfire X6 2350 3 x Efest, 4.20V - ~1.76 amps
CPF MT-G2 982 2 x Efest, 4.20V - ~3.16 amps
DST 3430 1 x Efest, 4.20V

I don’t have an explanation why some numbers went down, vs. others going up :(…

Man, this is getting way too much like work :(….

Edit: BTW, has anyone done any lux measurements on any of the MT-G2 lights that are commercially available, like the S2200 and 7G10?

51

Nice work ohaya. Thank you for all the effort and reporting. It’s impressive how fast you have grown in this hobby. It seems you just started yesterday.

comfychair, do you have a DST? If you do, how would you compare the S1100 beam to it? Sounds like the S1100 (without mgt2) had a much narrower hot spot.

52

No, no DST to compare. The beam pattern was remarkably similar with the XML, the two-stage hotspot just got scaled up by about 50% (and a lot nicer color). I've looked and can't find any wall shots of it from before the swap.

Surely it won't be long before someone around here ends up with both a S1100 & S2200 and can show a direct comparison, hopefully also with the reflectors swapped between them to find out which part makes the biggest difference, the reflector or the LED.

53

Sounds like you have good readings to me. The HD2010 calculates out to about 51.9K which is right about where a stock one should be. I’ve never tested the other 3 lights, but as long as you are doing them consistant, you should be good to go and have good #’s.

54

Agree - if you do the math, 10 feet 14 feet = 4.2672 meters, sqr'd is 18.20899584, * 2850 = 51,896, which is 51.9 kcd, much better for a stock HD 2010. Distance is very important to get close to exact, since it's squared in the equation. At these short distances, just moving the light an inch or two closer will have a measurable difference, so when you say 14 feet, it must be pretty precise, not off by an inch or 2.

55

Hi,

Thanks. I was only half joking, when I said that it was a lot of work… it really was. But, I think that I learned some stuff, mainly that it really is hard to judge throw just by sight. I was very surprised by how well the HD2010 did, especially, and a little surprised how not-so-well the X6 did (I think that I’ll probably need to try to mod it :), and yes, I’ve seen the posts about how difficult it is to get to the pill.).

56

FYI, I’ve written to SolarForce/JO, to see if they’d consider either selling the S2200 with the SMO reflector and/or sell the S1100 SMO reflector separately. You all might want to email them also. This is a bit self-serving, because I’m considering asking for an S2200 (with an SMO) for my Father’s day gift this year :)!

57

Hi,

The distance was 4.3 meters (per post #35), so about 14 feet, rather than 10 feet:

https://www.google.com/search?q=4.3+meters+in+feet&rlz=1C1CHFX_enUS519US519&oq=4.3+meters+in+feet&aqs=chrome.0.57j0l2j62l3.10400j0&sourceid=chrome&ie=UTF-8

Or, did I mess that up?

The distance I marked for the tests was 14 feet. Our kitchen has 8” square tiles, so that was 21 tiles from the place where I secured the lux meter to where I marked for shooting the light. I also tried to keep the front/lens of the light about that mark for each test.

Is that right?

58

Ooops - typo, original post edited -- meant to say 14 feet not 10 feet. The calcs are properly based on 14 feet. Sounds like you were careful in the measurement and like rdrfronty says, the kcd # for the stock HD 2010 sounds right.

59

But….

I seem to be obsessed with finding out not so much the question I posed in the OP, but the opposite, i.e., can a light with an MT-G2 be really throwy.

But….

I am also impatient (not nuts, but may impatient) to try to find out the answer to that question.

But….

None of the new MT-G2 lights, except maybe the ones we haven’t seen, like the Niwalker, seem to be purposefully designed to be throwy.

So, combine all of the above, and it doesn’t look like I’d be able to get an answer to my question if I just sit around waiting…

And, I think that I am still new enough at all of this that if I do something really stupid, I can claim that “I didn’t know that”…. “Ignorance is Bliss”, as the saying goes….

So, I did this kind of weird “lego-ing” experiment tonight.

Components:

- Pill: CPF MT-G2 (from this thread)

- Head/Reflector/neck: DST (see garry bunk’s giant DST thread)

- Body: Clone A8 (see garrybunk’s giant DST thread)

  • 2 x Efest 18500 batteries (fully charged, ~4.20V)

I put all of those pieces together to make a “new” kind of Frankenstein-ish combination of a shorty DST and an MT-G2 light.

The pill from the MT-G2 light was slightly smaller diameter than the DST pill. I was originally guessing that the pills were the same size, but they weren’t, so to get the pill from the MT-G2 light into the DST head/reflector, and to provide contact from the emitter to the body, I wrapped it in aluminum foil, and shoved it (really hard) into the neck of the DST, then carefully screwed the DST head down, watching the MT-G2 emitter as I did that, to make sure that it stayed centered.

It took quite a few tries, but eventually, I got the head screwed down, and the emitter somewhat close to centered (see pic below).

I then screwed the clone A8 tube onto the DST neck, dropped a pair of 18500 batteries into the tube, then screwed on the clone A8’s tailcap.

I tested the “new” light with a pair of Trustfire “flames” 18500s first, just to make sure it worked.

It did, so I was ready to test, so I put in the 2 Efest 18500s.

Test setup is the same as last night, 14 feet from light to lux meter sensor. Meter was set to “Max” mode.

Test results was 2070 lux :(…

Overall, I’m somewhat happy that I was able to get it working…. but somewhat disappointed in the results.

I’m also trying to tell myself that “this was just a test”, and to not generalize the results to the answer of my question, but, between the testing last night, and this light, and the results tonight, I’m starting to wonder if I already know the answer to my question :(…

Some pics:

The “Franken-dst-mt-g2” light:

The MT-G2 emitter in the DST head and reflector:

Edit: I forgot to mention: I did tailcap current measurement with the Efest 18500s in the light, and that was ~3 amps.

60

That pic may be deceptive, but it looks to be completely wrong to get the correct focus with the MTG2, LED needs to be higher in the reflector. It's not the LED's fault or a inherent characteristic, it's that very few reflectors work well with it (so far).

I cannot for the life of me get anything usable out of any style p60 reflector + MTG2. I have cut up about 10 reflectors in the last few days, all possible combinations of emitter hole size and spacing off the LED package, none of them work, they all give no recognizable hotspot AT ALL. But the same LED works in the S1100 (you have seen the tight spot that one has). So don't blame the LED, blame the reflector.