I don’t know if it’s because of all the hype or something but I was expecting a bit more. My reflector is not completely clean, nor is the glass. It also flashes when cycling to low. I thought it would be like the SR52UT since the reflector is about the same size but the SR52UT still has a bit tighter hotspot and is noticeable more intense. Yea I know the SR52UT is driven harder but still.
I think the greatest gripe I have is with the placement of the reflector. It’s sitting way to high with respect to the led. If the led emits light in 135 degree and the reflector is sitting about 3 mm above the led, part of the light is not being collected by the reflector and is just hitting the wall of the host.
I don’t have any measuring equipment but to my eye I’d say the Convoy hotspot is about 60-70% as intense as the SR52UT.
I think the light is just ok. Would have been interesting to see the GID centering ring, would that throw a beam at close range.
Well you are comparing a $120 light to a $50 light but there’s no excuse for a dirty reflector or a dirty lens. I know Simon had trouble with some of the reflectors. My L2’s both have very tight hotspots. When did you order this one? I’m assuming you’re talking about the complete light, not the host right?
I also noticed the gap between the reflector and the MCPCB. I built my L2 up with an XP-L HI, and the beam is pretty ringy. I may attempt to shim the MCPCB to get the LED up into the reflector more, or I may just be lazy and do nothing.
I forgot to mention I got this from GearBest, about 4 weeks. I’m not saying the hotspot isn’t tight, just expected it to be tighter. I think having the reflector a few millimeters above the led really hurts it.
Anyway for those interested, Convoy on the left Olight on the right.
[L2 vs SR52UT](<a) href=“Photo Storage target=“_blank”>
mtnelectronics.com make a 20mm FET, but you’ll need to either go with 1 tube and a 3v LED, or get a zener mod go with a 6v LED. They also do a 17mm 4-5.5amp buck driver, which while it will need an adapter ring will give you both tubes with a 3v LED.
I have 2 of these, so I’m planning to do one with an XP-L HI 1C, and the 2nd with a MTG2.
Validium. What distance from the wall did you take those shots? I don’t have the Olight to compare but I’s like to see what my L2s look like “spot-wise” at the same distance.
This bothers me. My L2s are definitely not “ringy”. Simon told me he was having issues with consistency in the reflectors and was trying to resolve them. Maybe some were short? I have to tell you all that this CNY has been very frustrating. I’ve had very little communication with Simon for the last few weeks. I know it’s coming to an end but it can’t happen soon enough for me. I’m trying to be patient for at least a few more days. By then I should have some answers…
I’ll have to figure something out there. I don’t have a blank wall in my house where I could hit that distance. I may be able to find something at the office though. I can look around at lunch tomorrow for a room that meets the requirements. The wall may not be white but I think can find a wall to hit at the same distance. All I have is my cell phone but it’s a good camera as far as cell phones go. I mostly want to see the hotspot and how it compares to yours.
For what it’s worth, it was not ringy with an XM-L2, just with the XP-L HI. The XP-L HI is very sensitive to focusing compared to the XM-L2 in my experience.
Don’t stress too much - at the end of the day this is just a hobby for most everyone here. In my case, I’ll just either drop in an XM-L2 or shim up the XP-L HI and see if I can make it work. That’s part of the fun!
I had rings with and without the centering ring in place. I agree with you that the rings are light bouncing off the edge of the reflector. When I had an XM-L2 in the light, I did use the centering ring, and there were no rings that I recall.
Thanks for the info. Now the picture is becoming a bit clearer. Simon had not offered a light with an XPL-HI emitter prior to this. I actually pushed really hard for that. I’m betting that the focusing difference was unknown to him when putting this in play. I think we both had a bit of the “kid in a candy store” thing going at that time. When things settle down again I’ll talk to Simon about addressing that. I recall a few other posts mentioning shimming to get the proper focus but that was in hosts so I didn’t put too much thought into it. There may very well be a shelf height issue to be addressed or maybe some proper stock shims? I might like that idea even better but I’m open to suggestions.
More notes for the future.
Open to suggestions? I think an xhp 50 would fit nicely in there. I put the reflector over an xhp50 led and it wasn’t too shabby. Might need a larger board so that the wires don’t come in contact with reflector.
Not that I know anything at all about this yet, but I’d say that the driver should do just fine with that LED, but only with one battery, it’s 2.8-4.35v. There seems to be few drivers for 1 or 2 batteries, the LD-29 Simon uses being one of the few I’ve seen at least.
That driver you’ve linked is a so called fet driver.
Quoted from mtnelectronics:
“This is a ”direct drive” driver, meaning it doesn’t step up or down voltage that the LED sees. This driver can only be used with a single cells on the input (or multiple parallel cells) and a single XM-L2/XP-G2/XP-L/Nichia/etc. on the output (or multiple LEDs in parallel).”
