I’m running mine at 50% max and it’s still awesome, and 50% helps keep the heat down in the body a bit and take some load off the battery as well.
Well, I have a couple of extra brand new Samsung 30Q batteries that I had planned to use with it — at 15 amps. I also have a couple of old Panasonic 18650B batteries at 5 amps. I guess it is time to see if those still perform, or just use the Samsungs at a group that does not exceed 50%.
This isn’t a fet driver…it’s still controlling the current. A battery doesn’t “give” its rated current, it just means that it’s comfortable at that current (if the electronics will allow it to feed that much). Lower heat, less voltage sag compared to a lower drain battery like the 35E, etc. The emitter also comes into play with its own resistance so between it and the driver, wires, etc. that’s how much juice will flow, regardless of the battery…mostly. On the flip side if you have a driver (like a gates-are-full-open fet design) then a lower drain battery will just sag more and the end result is you get less light output (and a battery that will get warmer, perhaps have reduced cycle life). By using a lower drain 8A cell in this light it’ll still be within its comfortable operating range (usually 80-ish of its rated/tested max current), but it will get tired a little faster than the higher drain 30Q, especially if running the light for longer periods (no voltage rebound). If the driver is still putting out more amps than ideal, limiting the 100 mode to shorter bursts should be fine even with the 30Q…and if not then the lower settings or a driver swap (or working out something else with Simon).
Understood. And thank you. All that being said, I’m not wild about bothering to buy a special battery for a $22 “fun” flashlight when I have some 18650s already sitting around. I’ll probably just use whatever’s handy and charged between the 5A Panasonics and the 15A Samsungs. And, hell, maybe just set the group to 8 or 9 and live with the 50% setting. I’m now quite curious to see whether my naked eye can tell any difference between 50% and 100%.
It’s very hard to tell the difference between 35% and 100%
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Yep, it's the same with my Convoy flashlights.
I do appreciate having 35% and 100% to choose from, though. 
Yes, absolutely you should, but how much kinda depends on the situation. At near-ish range or on a wall, it may not seem like a lot, but outdoors you will certainly notice the difference down range (assuming relatively clear air).
What would you consider the maximum “shorter bursts” at 100% that would not eventually fry it? Five seconds? One minute? I guess that I did buy this C8+ CSLNM1 to play with it. :+1: Maybe I will just run this thing hard and if it fails, report back later.
I should note that the S2+ was the model where I had 8 out of 20 units fail with the 5A driver. The other units were holding their output at roughly 760 lumens, but still tint shifting to a slight blue. It’s possible that since there’s no screws to clamp down the mcpcb, it wasn’t able to get rid of the heat properly. You could be okay with any model like the C8+ that uses screws, but I personally don’t sell the 5A driver version to customers anymore. One thing to note is that the Osram LEDs are quite often a nightmare to center perfectly and this has resulted in the Convoy factory leaving the screws loose, this is so that the reflector can move the LED to center it. The major issue is that you run the risk of poor heat transfer, so please check that they are tight.
I appreciate that advice and will check those screws!
I don’t know about time but if it were me I’d just look for that angry blue to see if/when it’s appearing. I only have two lights with this emitter (swapped them in myself)….S2+ at 2.8A and L2 at 4A. Only the L2 sees significant run time and it’s doing just fine but that’s a large host with a lot of cooling, and lower current (Biscotti driver and Led4Power driver, respectively).
Yes, for a time I was assembling and selling the C8+ with a 4.2A driver and the tint was fine, same with Convoy’s old 5A driver at 4.8A. I recall Djozz telling me that he’d never recommend selling the NM1 at anything higher than 3A.
Very puzzling how Simon doesn’t seem to care about this and mentioned they’ll handle even 6A fine. Then he refuses to provide a warranty if I pair the SST40 with an 8A driver due to the risk of the LED failing lol.
Screws were loose! Quite so. But I have now run it pretty hard and all seems well. Crazy how far it throws.
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