Possibly. The plastic spacer lifts the reflector a few millimeters so you have to do flat solders on the wire ends. If the solder is a tall blob it could touch and short. Sometimes you get a little kick up from the solder as you lift the iron from the blob. It can be tricky, but I use a flat metal rod and push down on the solder after I remove the iron. This flattens it out.
Also, you can add some tough tape to the reflector bottom to insulate it.
Yeey there is some solder on te wires… if it shortes does this damage the driver. I just tested it with keeppower 5200mah protected(other batteries are still on their way). It stays on turbo for 0.5 second and then turns completly off.(lexel driver)
The body of the flashlight is carrying the negative charge and then you have your red wire going through the driver touching the positive part of the battery. This positive wire goes directly to the positive side of the emitter then the negative side of the emitter has a wire that goes down to the driver and this is where the driver controls the current before releasing it back into the body of the flashlight.
So if the reflector accidentally touches the emitter wires solder blobs it will create a dead short and overload the batteries. So the protection circuitry in the batteries might be detecting the short circuit and turning the batteries off. The driver might not be involved.
I’ve shorted the FX 30 driver but it was only at the lowest output and it didn’t do any damage. I’ve heard that if it’s at the higher brightness level it possibly could do damage to the driver. It really just depends on the particular driver. Lexel could probably give you a more detailed idea of what would happen with his driver if it were shorted. The bottom line is don’t short it. Be very careful.
My soldering needs some improvement, so i will double check the next time…
The beam is nice with SMO and xph70.2. I like it way more then the OP xhp70.
Is there any simple mod for the L2 to increase intensity or throw without changing parts?
Lot to ask for no parts changes, but the best most noticeable output difference is a top cell.
I find the SST-40 works really well in the L2, a friend of mine has been doing some rather unorthodox experimenting in de-doming these and has had some nice success, certainly a lot to be said for the SST-40 with a clean de-dome and it pairs well with the L2 for sure.
It is more difficult to dedome than xp-g2/xm-l2 but at the same time easier than xp-l .
I have installed dedomed sst-40 in 3 lights , Convoy C8 , Convoy L6 (with SMO reflector & single cell) and Maxtoch 2X (swap it for a friend and member here) . I really love it in dedomed form , it has a nice tint , cooler than any other dd led , and still has great output (>=1700lm) when in direct drive .
C8 is making 1780 lumens & 155-160kcd , and i think L6 is making about 345kcd but i’m still working on a better focus .
I turned on my recently modded L2 this morning in FET node and the emitter was bright for a fraction of a second before becoming very dim. It now only illuminates very dimly, although I think there’s a very slight change in brightness when I switch from moonlight to the next mode.
Could I have cooked the emitter? A similar thing happened in my Comvoy M2, butt in that case it was after it had been on for a while and the die is only partially illuminated.
The emitter is the original XM-L2 which has never been removed, and I think it’s on an aluminium MCPCB. The driver is a TA from Lexel and I used 18AWG for the leads and spring bypass. Cell was a freshly charged 30Q.
Most likely. See this thread on XML2 test, Texas_Ace found his to die at 5.5Amps (with older production XML2’s going up a bit higher to 9Amps or so) which you would have easily exceeded with your mod and driver. On the plus side this is a good opportunity to upgrade to a newer LED and MCPCB to take full advantage of all that current.
SST40 is the way 
SST40 is a good idea but with a fresh battery and not so great MCPCB he could blow that too with his thick wires and bypass couldnt he?
Replace the old led with MCPCB to a copper DTP. I have one L2 built like that with TA fet driver. Bypassed springs everywhere and no problem. Mayve try 20 AWG wires at led and no problem.
Thanks contactcr & ZozzV6.
I knew the 18 AWG wire was unnecessary, but it hadn’t actually clicked that it could provide enough current to kill the LED. :person_facepalming:
I killed the XM-L2 in my Convoy M2 with a BLF X5/X6 driver too, but I just blamed the aluminium MCPCB. 
I have a TA driver with 18AWG wire and an XP-L HI on copper MCPCB in my C8. It has seen a bit more use and seems to be holding up. However, a quick google suggests that around 5-6A is the max current for an XP-L HI too. I might do a rebuild with 20 AWG emitter wires this weekend just to be safe.
Back on the L2, how would an SST-40 compare to an XP-L HI in terms of throw?
The XP-L HI can take a few more amps than you suggest, maybe 8A.
The SST-40 can throw a bit more maybe 10-15% better (I cant remember if this requires dome mods). Not sure what tints you like but the lowest one is 6500K, otherwise it has high output and throw.
In L2 I only tried dedomed XM-L2 (1048m) and SST40 (830m) and dedomed XP-G2 (1150m) with FET driver with XPL-HI I only have stock L2 (752m)measurements.
If that helps something I have FET driver measurements in C8 with SST40, SST40 dedomed and XP-L HI in my measurement google tables
It is worth to look at the tables because I have a lot of beamshots there 
Convoy C8 AR lens TA17 XP-L HI V2 1A 5.9A 1434lumens 93100cd 610,2m
Convoy C8 AR lens TA17 SST-40 N4 BA 8,6A 2232lumens 70500cd 531,0m
Convoy C8 AR lens TA17 SST-40 N4 BA dedomed 8,6A 2000lumens 136300cd 738,4m
XP-L HI never draw 8A from a single cell in my builds. Max 6A
The XP-L HI throws a bit better as you can see above numbers in C8 but the SST40 has bigger hot spot and more usable light.
What MOSFET are you using in your driver builds? The XP-L HI V3 is capable of 7+ amps. I have a few running 7.05-7.15amps running the SIR404 MOSFET.
My BLF GT XHP70.2 P2-1A 6v Running the Infineon MOSFET DD and 8 x 30Q’s pulls 22.3amps at the emitter, the SIR404 MOSFET barely broke 20amps.
My latest builds I used NEXPERIA PSMN1R0-30YLDX
My Convoy L6 XHP70.2 draws 17,6A with this and 18 AWG wires on the led.
New at this mod thing, but if I put a XHP35-Hi in my L6, would that alone make it a thrower and do I need to change the driver or will it work as is?
The stock XHP70 is 6V led and XHP35 HI is 12V so you need to change the driver.