Whatever you do don’t use Convoy’s 5A driver with the NM1 white, I’ve had multiple turn purple and/or burn out. Convoy’s solution is to use the 3A. I only stock in my store the S2, C8, and L21B NM1 white running 3A drivers. On the chips that run okay on the 5.7A, but slightly purple, only lose 30m at 3A. It’s clear that 3A is around the sweet spot for the chip
I bet that’s because of what I’ve written above and the 5.7A has damaged the chip. I order them with Convoy’s 3A driver and measure just under 350m and quite nicely light up trees at 140-150m. I bundle them with a remote switch to hunters and they love them.
I have an S2+ on the way with a W1. But I struggle to believe 350 meters. The reflector on the S2+ is super shallow.
Guess I’ll be able to see when it arrives. I’m keen to see how it does compared to my XP-L HI S2 (not a +) which has a much deeper reflector and my Convoy S4’s also with a deep reflector. The S4 has a de-domed XP-G2 and 3amp driver. The XP-L HI the BLF A6 driver.
Might be a fun little project, maybe I’ll get bored enough over the winter to try it.
No, I have seen the threads from you and others regarding the CSLNM1’s output and the overpowered 5A drivers. I only run mine on the 50% setting. It’s just because of the reflector size; the beam is much tighter with the C8+ (as is to be expected).
Surely 50% power must be pretty low output overall…… have you measured tailcap amps or anyway of measuring throw?
Just an FYI, you could use the Wurkkos 20350 HD20 short tube with the S21B CULPM1 and it makes a very nice compact and light thrower.
Threw an Ultrafire pretty far in the back yard one time because it had a flaky switch and pizzed me off, so Yeah,
Ultrafire for the win 
I haven’t measure lumens or throw but others here have; apparently the output is almost identical at 50% vs 100, due to the LED being overdriven at 100. Here’s Funtastic’s thread measuring throw:
Convoy 5A driver killing Osram CSLNM1.
There is another BLF thread on the CSLNM1 where someone measures lumens at 50% and 100% and from memory the results are within 30 lumens.
I measured tailcap amps; my S2+ with CSLNM1 @ 50% power = 2.65A.
For comparison: my S2+ with XM-L2, and after I fitted an old 3.04A Qlite driver @ 100% power = 2.10A.
Also, Funtastic, sorry if my post was misleading earlier. When I sad the S2+ with CSLNM1 “…is lucky to really illuminate something 50m away…” I don’t mean that the light doesn’t reach 50m, I mean if you really needed to see something bright and clear like identify someones face or uniform, or spot and track a dangerous animal (mountain lion, etc) I wouldn’t trust the S2+ to be useful for more than 50m. It does light up things a lot further than that, just poorly, and for anything over 50m I would grab my C8+ with CSLNM1 instead.
Still not sure I follow tbh.
More lumens should increase throw and be quite visibly different. I have the 5amp Convoy SST-40 driver in a couple of lights with the Osram W1, not sure if it is the same driver. But 100% is clearly quite a bit brighter than the mode below. I see 4.75amps tailcap on one of them. Neither look to be overdriving the LED and the tint remains nice and white.
In a C8 with this setup I’m getting 107,939cd and 657m. And that is using an OP reflector, a SMO would be even bigger numbers. My lightbox says a PEAK of 555 lumens OTF.
As an aside I use the Qlite in a lot of lights, tailcap amps can vary on the on the LED and measurement setup, but I’ve always seen right around the 3amp mark in most cases. I run it on XP-L, XM-L2, XP-G2, XP-G2 triples and Nichia 219b.
The 5A drivers used to be 4.8A until a bug was discovered on the 12 groups firmware causing a mode reset. The fix involved changing components and that increased the current up to as high as 5.7A. There was quite a big thread about it.
You’d have the earlier version of the driver.
That aside, I assume 50% or a mode down from High would still produce significantly less lumens and throw than a driver operating correctly at the maximum intended amps.
I still have 3 units with the 5A driver, so I grabbed one and measured it on 50% at 8 meters and achieve 335 meters. I then turned it onto 100% at 5.7A and instant purple tint.
These photos are taken at 50%, I measured 2.8A and the tree and house are 150m away from me.
Benz - If it’s only offering decent lighting out to 50m then there’s something wrong with your flashlight or maybe you need glasses. I thought my BLF GT was under performing until I got an eye test! lol
.
Thanks. But that is with a faulty driver. If it was working correctly, High (100) should still offer more throw and lumens than Medium (50). Which is more the point I was trying to make.
Not faulty, just pushing too high amps, Convoy have been installing these for about a year now.
I made a video back when the 5A driver was pushing 4.8A and measured a range of 367m, so it doesn’t gain much in output, it’s mostly just an increase in heat.
I am glad you are questioning my comments. I don’t know a heap about flashlights and what I do know I have learned here. If something doesn’t sound right please let me know because I don’t have the experience to know myself.
I have read from Funtastic that over-amping these CSLNM1 emitters can damage them and I don’t want to/can’t afford to do that so have left both my S2+ and C8+ at 50% output for now. Either way, both my distance comments (50m and 200-300m) were tested/compared on the 50% setting of the “5A driver”. I am ok with that for now anyway as 5-6A draw from an 18650 will run the cell down quickly and generate a lot of heat in either body.
Maybe my S2+ is faulty? Maybe the LED is already damaged? I don’t know, because I don’t have a lot of other lights to compare them to. The S2+ with CSLNM1 is awesome at shorter distances, it just has a (relatively) big hotspot so I am not surprised it doesn’t throw to the moon.
Thanks again. I included the Qlite reading just to show the comparative performance of my $10 multimeter with its thin leads, and put the “Convoy 5A driver” tailcap reading into perspective.
Also, to get the 50% mode I am changing to group 8 where the maximum output is 50. I am not just going to the mode below 100, because that is 35% typically.
I have a photography background so my idea of “well lit” is usually different to most people, but that’s why I included my examples. Maybe they just weren’t the best examples though? I can’t measure lumens or lux so I don’t really have a way to test lights or give useful info for others to compare to. I’m extremely happy with my C8+ at 200m so I’m leaning more towards a faulty S2+ over me having bad eyesight!
For a tube light, and by that I think you mean the whole light is a tube and doesn’t have a flared head, the S21B with CULPM1 is indeed pretty much the king at ~480m.
The Fenix PD32 V2 is great as well if you want 18650 and something significantly smaller, thinner, and lighter. It uses the CSLPM1, and throws ~395m. The advantage over the S21B is that is also has a buck driver. That’s the king of 18650 tube throwers IMO.
The Eagtac PX30LC2 can be ordered with a CSLPM1, and that would perform a bit better than the Fenix, maybe ~410m. It’s super thin and light with a 22mm body that flares to only a 25mm head. Not technically a tube, but basically the same in terms of how it carries, and a heck of a lot lighter and easier to carry than the S21B. Also uses a nice buck driver.
Otherwise, with a slightly flared head, the convoy M2 with CULPM1 or CSLNM1 is good. It has a 31.6mm head (vs the S21B’s 27.2mm), so it should out-throw the S21B even though the CULPM1 version is only 5A. Uses 18650 so it should be a little lighter with a battery too.
The Acebeam P16 is also 18650, has a 32mm bezel, and throws 480m with a TIR and SFT-40, so it’ll have more lumens and a larger hotspot than the S21B. Plus a buck driver with great regulation. Not really a “tube” at that point, but as a compact thrower it is very good.
For the modded route, a lot of people have got incredibly good throw out of an FW1A with an aftermarket reflector and CULPM1/SFT40. It’s just FET though, so throw will drop as the battery drains, which IMO isn’t great for a thrower. Then again, some have got over 500m throw on theirs so even as it drops it’ll keep pretty good throw.
I had a PD32 V2 for a while, that’s a great light
My Osram W1 Convoy S2+ has eventually turned up.
The throw is impressive, it convincingly out throws my de-domed XP-G2 Convoy S4. Which means it will also out throw my XP-L HI (BLF A6 driver) Convoy S2 (not a plus a deep reflector S2).
The tint is somewhat ice blue white compared to my W2 lights and the hot spot close up on lower modes is not very round, sort of lots of overlapping ovals. But it is quite a usable beam, just don’t compare the tint side by with other lights.
Another note on the tint, the tint is consistent on all modes, it doesn’t look to be over driving it and giving a horrid tint. I’ve seen that on a number of other lights and this just doesn’t seem to be doing that (at least not yet). Or put it this way, the tint is similar to my Convoy C8 with a retro fitted Osram W1.
Not managed to get any cd readings yet. I am seeing 5.22amps at the tailcap on high.
My lightbox is also suggesting 632 lumens OTF at start up and 534 lumens at 30 sec.
It does get pretty darn hot though on high.
Just wanted t point out that the 5.7A bug in the S2+ would make it a slightly better light than before with the SFT40. In theory, it should be getting over 2000lm now.
Also: just speculating, but I wonder if Convoy has a bunch of pre-made grey 18350 S2+ lights with the old driver. I have one with the CSLNM1 that has not had any issues and I've recently seen a lumen test on the same light with a SFT40 and it only produced 1500lm.