Hmm, well you have confirmed that the LED’s work when properly cooled. If the mcpcb wobbles at all in the L6 that could easily cause the LED to overheat at high power levels.
Very strange that you have so many issues with this though and with 2 seprate hosts. I just swapped my L6 again the other day twice to try different tints and had no issues just “tossing it together”.
Success. Mounted both of my newly reflowed emitters to both hosts (one at a time). added arctic silver 5, tightened the stars down, and proceeded very cautiously as I ramped them up.
Got ~6900 lumens out of the op reflector (with liitokalas) and about ~5800 out of the smooth (using the efests). Still need to measure tailcap amperage.
Man, I really got a renewed confidence boost here.
Still not a good idea what exactly was wrong (maybe a combo of what’s below).
Here’s the ideas:
Regardless, thank you all for the helpful comments and encouragement. Hopefully my errors will save someone the frustration.
Next up, q8 should be here in the next few days. Got some xlp2’s and sira20dp’s ready to go in.
I must have notifications turned off for this thread. only saw your responses.
DB Custom, where can i source said Tritium vials, are they expensive?
JasonWW, i had a look in the thread in you sig. am i right in thinking i need to add a resistor?
thanks heaps Guys.
EDIT: with a little more googling and searching ive answered both my questions, thank you guys 
Just checked with fresh batteries:
Using emitter part number XHP70B-00-0000-0D0BP20E2 from arrow. 70+ CRI, P2 bin, 5700k
L6 with op reflector and MTN driver, using fresh liitokalas off the charger, got 7600 lumens at start (20.67a at the tail), and 6400 lumens at 30 seconds
L6 with smo reflector and MTN driver, using fresh liitokalas off the charger, got 5860 lumens at start (17.2a at the tail), and 5400 lumens at 30 seconds
Slightly lower #s with purple efest batteries. OP got 7200 lumens at start and 18.11a, SMO got 5700 @ start at 17.2a
Both running xhp70.2 (from arrow) on sinkpads, 20ga to the driver, 20ga turnigy bypasses at the tailswitches
Tried to get 18ga through the driver board and was no-go, drilled it out slightly and I think I killed the board, as that one doesn’t work. Gotta test it later to make sure, but I got no light flash with the tailswitch and no power otherwise.
Ordered two more pairs of liitokalas (black) because they seem to be the way to go. I drop a small blob on the + and they contact eachother well. Fit the tube like a glove too. Dropping them out, they slide super slow due to the small amount of air that can get around them. Efests have a little bit of rattle.
Strange the numbers are so low but most likely just sphere calibration. Most of us are seeing around 9000 lumens at those power levels.
Also very strange that the SMO reflector nets you lower numbers, how is your sphere setup?
Either glad they are working this time around!
It’s my copy of yours, actually.
ended up with a few sheets of tissue paper and 2 pieces of white contact paper on a piece of clear acrylic - compared to your foam insert
Here’s what I’ve got on it so far.
https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1IbqSD4ovvGC_1MDzzlFbKf8t38Q8j1wkuu8g_Q27jPk/edit?usp=sharing
The xhp70.2 i orderd is the same size mcpcb as the standard mcpcb.
I will run it with a lexel driver(dont now how many amps that is)
Do i need to check if the led is flat on the shelf? I have a couple of whetstones i can flat the mcpcb with…
I will first try out the xhp70.2 with stock driver and smo reflector to see how the beam is.
I have to say i really like the stock UI…
Just from my experience, I’d check it for flatness, although my case seems to be unique. Put it against a piece of glass, if you can, and press down on the corners to see if you’ve got any wobble.
As far as the smooth reflector, mine is perfect to my eye, no dark center spot I could see. The XHP70 had a dark star shaped center with that same reflector.
Interesting, most likely just a calibration difference, although the SMO reading lower is still pretty strange, I don’t remember any real difference when I tried mine.
Not a big deal, no 2 spheres will read the same anyways since they are all standard calibrated and all of our standard test sources vary.
They’re separate lights too. I’ll test swapping reflectors. Batteries are on the charger now.
Oh, ok that makes a lot more sense.
Yeah, try swapping the reflectors and see what the results are.
5800 at start OP in the black host 5400 in 30s
same host (black) did 5860 and 5390 with the smooth reflector
7700 at start SMO in the clear host 6800 at 30s
same host (clear) did 7600 and 6400 with the OP reflector
same driver, same battery, same emitter
I am 95% sure I did 20ga from driver to emitter in both (for sure in the clear), but the lower one (blk) might have 22ga, which explains a bit
I’ll disassemble and check tomorrow at some point
smooth reflector seems to actually add a few lumens in this light, all other variables considered
While this is technically true, it can have a small effect on out the front lumens, which is what is being messured here. I would say these results are within the margin of error I would attribute to a very heavy OP reflector like the L6.
This is mostly due to some of the light getting bounced around the inside of the reflector and never making it past the glass. 1% change in OTF lumens is reasonable IMHO.
So you’re saying a well made reflector with a highly reflective surface wouldn’t put more lumens out the front than, say, a hand polished reflector? Same make, different finish, would of course yield different results. Thus, given a handful of the same reflectors you will indeed find some have higher lumens output than others. Sheer differential of efficiency…
Edit: To clarify, I’ve tried 15 different stock reflectors in a given light looking for the maximum output of that light, there truly are differences in output even if no visible difference in the reflector is apparent.
Before putting a fed driver in my l6 i would like to try the resistor mod.
Where could i get a r120 resistor(of maybe one which boosts the current more)
Maybe someone has a link to one?(the sell by 100 pieces?)
Thank you! Does it matter how you solder it onto the other resistor?(like numbers the same way or mirrored?)
Resistors are unpolarized. The electronics don’t care.
Has anyone tried removing material from the base of the L6 OP reflector to improve throw yet, like they do with the SMO reflector? On a slightly different note, what kind of difference in throw would the same emitter see between the L2 and SMO L6 reflectors?
I just got around to mod my l6 with a lexel driver with ramping modes.
I asked for a switchboard that was connected to the board, to bad the switchboard doesnt fit threw the side hole lol :person_facepalming: i used a file to make two little notches into the aluminium…
One problem: If i screw the bezel on all the way the light goes off and stays off… after a couple tries its now on there all the way and the light works fine. Does this mean the wires are touching the reflector? And soldering is hard maybe i need to get some proper tools :+1: