I love the copper idea too, but in practice it does create a smell on the hands, needs some maintenance to look good, and I’m trying to keep everything running 18650s (except for my big lights) so that when I put them all in my pack the jkk13 can either charge anything or donate an 18650. So I can understand some non-K6 love out there…but I still don’t want to sell mine!
I’m more wishing I didn’t buy more than one BLF X6 for myself since they were almost unused already, and once this set is in my hands, they will never be taken outside! Anyone want to buy a couple of those?
How much? I might help you with a couple of those old X6’s… the one I built up today is doing some 3200 lumens in XP-L 3D tint. I find them still very useful…
Yes your builds are awesome, that’s exactly what I’ve wanted to do with mine! I’ve been swamped this year so my intent of learning to mod has kind of gone by the wayside, and with the stock driver I really detest the unnecessary step down and waste of great cooling capability. I kind of think shipping would really kill budget sales though, since I’m not really willing to take a loss on it — I still imagine I’m going to mod it someday.
Even if you were willing, I think my view just changed: I took the extra outside for my latest dogwalk after I posted what I wrote above (I hadn’t tested this one) it appeared brighter than I’d remembered, and the step down was after about 3 and a half minutes I noticed, counting seconds, not 60! I tested again and yup, I counted 210s. It also was getting a little warm, which my other X6s weren’t able to do!
I really didn’t mod it in my sleep, so I just tested once I got back and 3 min 20s is the official stopwatch here! I may have gotten a different driver in the 4C tint? I visually tested against my 3C BLF D80 hitting 4A+ and I think it may equal or even slightly win taking tint into account? I’m going to have to test this out with a new multimeter (blew the A reader again, I’m just great at doing that) to see how many A I’m getting, but if my temperature and vision are as accurate as my time sense was, I’ve got a good one here somehow that seems pre-modded! Any ideas? The only difference is I am using a Samsung 30Q, but this should not change the stepdown timer, and I’d used several high drains in the others and it didn’t behave this way…
I don’t remember anyone else reporting an improved BLF X6 4C from the group buy or drastic improvement with a Samsung 30Q!
That’s really strange on the step down as it shouldn’t be possible. There are 255 ticks available to us on the 8 bit mcu, so the timing shouldn’t allow a 3 minute 20 second step down, 2 minutes is about the max (240 ticks). That’s how I understand it, anyway. I’ve tried to set em for longer before and they just don’t step down if you set it for more than 255 in the firmware.
Of course, that’s talking about the STAR firmware and specifically TK’s A6 driver. Does that one have an FET driver in it? A factory driver? Hmmm, send it to me and I’ll check it out… LOL
Yeah Dustin, a triple XP-L V6 3D on a 32mm Noctigon soldered to a copper spacer/heat sink. 18ga wires throughout. Ledil CUTE-3 optic, polished face. And with a 35mm UCLp AR lens. The addition of the AR lens added over 400 lumens out the front, simple swap. It really is true, what they say… the Devil is in the Details!
Edit: FWIW, Nitro is having another run of the heat sink/spacers made.
Perhaps, since there appears to be some amount of interest in getting either one or the other from the SS/CU set, someone could start a thread where people can discuss Buying, Selling, and Trading these lights? That way, everyone who is interested in such an arrangement can find each other and finalize whatever deals they want to make, and the question of whether one could be sold without the other will not have to be asked again every couple dozen posts here!
Perhaps that should come AFTER the lights are actually made and in people hands. At this point it’s not even a given that the lights will be produced as numbers haven’t been met.
I think it is a great idea! But, as Dale advised, lets get that going after the next round of samples arrives and the minimums are reached. The next round of samples are undergoing some last minute tweaks and über-secret upgrades, but should ship to us in about 1-2 weeks.
So is there a risk that Nitro’s spacers (made for the EE v1) will not be compatible with the new Manker v2? Remember the A6 threads.
Are the samples going to be checked for spacer compatibility and does Manker know that this is a significant point in manufacturing?
Since most of us readers here don’t know what’s on the list, suggesting questions for it (for most of us) is kind of like the “battleship” game, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battleship\_(game)
“the game that stresses analytical thought over (relatively) blind guessing.”
Or maybe like depth charging blindly for submarines, depending on how well we remember the previous 17,000 responses (grin)
So anyhow that should count as two questions:
Are the samples going to be checked for spacer compatibility?
and
does Manker know that this is a significant point in manufacturing?
(I dunno if there’s a prize for hitting or missing anything …)
The tick length can be changed, and the tick counter can be converted to 16-bit or 32-bit. It’s not strictly limited to 255.
OTOH, some people tried a 5-hour timer and had trouble getting it to go off reliably. I get the impression that the MCU might sometimes reboot after a few hours of operation, but the actual answer isn’t confirmed yet.
If I understand correctly, yes and yes. But I hear aluminum tends to cause “aggressive galvanic corrosion” when it’s in contact with steel or copper, so the SS/Cu model won’t lego with the aluminum models. Not a good idea to put the wrong metals together.
I think that is pity, I wanted to mix some parts.The corrosion only happens when the flashlight is wet for a while. And wouldn't aluminium build up its non-conducting waterproof oxide layer that stops further corrosion?
We tried, but in addition to galvanic corrosion concerns, there were other challenges. For instance, the copper and stainless tubing we are using is a different size than what Eagle Eye uses on the X6. To get it to be compatible with their Aluminum version, too much material would have to be machined off, which would cause costs to rise dramatically. We also looked at compatible sized tubing, but costs would have risen over 50%!
The good news is that the Aluminum versions will be completely compatible with the original Eagle Eye version.
Unfortunately no. Using Noalox will help massively, but as long as they are both part of the electrical path some corrosion is likely where the threads press against each other and displace the dielectric grease.
It’d be one reason we see gunge collecting where threads wear on each other even when they’re both aluminum — the exposed aluminum oxidizes fast, but not perfectly smoothly.
And wherever copper or brass or steel or plated springs contact aluminum, for example. Or where copper/brass base plates on cells with overload circuits contact aluminum battery tubes in the absence of a spring.
Ha, I’ll have to both open it up and test max A discharge this week, but yes, 3 min 20 sec consistently for stepdown…not too bad esp combined with higher output…and since I’m not you, I’m certain I didn’t mod it in my sleep
No legoability on the ss, thats a damn shame as that was part of the appeal, mixing and matching.
So the ss version will have unique threads? A couple more passes on a cnc machine should have brought it within tolerance I would have thought.
I guess that’s part of why only bezels are usually made of steel. It’s not part of the electrical path, so it can take full advantage of the aluminum anodizing to prevent corrosion.
^ Heard something about it long ago and never really thought of it since. Not sure why you would want to Lego the expensive Ss version with Al though really.
TK any guesses on how an old BLF X6 driver is mistakenly being set to 3min 20s?
