As of today, I now have another convoy l2 host, two five amp drivers, some xp-g2’s on noctigons, two bare xm-l2 u2’s, some xm-l noctigons and a light meter.
When I sober up, I intend to do something scientific based to decide what is the best, as in most usable convoy l2 configuration with the greatest usable throw.
This should be fun.
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Hi Gords.
I’ll be watching with interest.
My L2 is still sitting here. I’m waiting for my reflector to arrive to see if I can go ahead and use it as a host for an MT-G2 triple. I may need to order another L2 just to get an extension for 3 X 26650.
I’m jealous. All my parts are still in shipping. Well I got one driver last week but not the rest of the stuff to go with it. 5MT-G2’s, 6 XM-L2 U2’s, 1 XP-G2 all on octagons. 3 drivers and four hosts as well. Now I’m just busy stalking the mailman, well Maillady in my case.
I did put 6 XM-L U3’s in a 6x and the 18 dollar 9 emitter driver together. WOW is all I can say. Gotta be 5,000 lumens easy maybe 6,000. It’s so dang bright it even throws through sheer willpower. It just says screw-it and lights up everything.
Drink one for me.
I'm in for the group buy on the K40, but now I'm looking at the L2 thinking with some modding it can be an amazing thrower.
Looking forward to your results!!
due to working a stupid amount and going through with a house buy, I have done nothing yet tbh.
I’m hoping to assemble one iteration tomorrow night and then try them both out on the lux meter, then I can do some re flowing and dedoming to try a slightly different set up.
I do highly rate this host as a thrower, yeah its pretty big but its a nice pleasant big and not in the least bit unpleasant to carry, it also comes with a lot of the bits you would add to a build or desire in a build, ar lense, screw in reflector, direct to head screw in emitter mounting. I just wish it had a larger driver cavity and a side switch, they are the only things I would add to make it perfect for very high output applications. It can also be built single cell if you desire but in my opinion, I prefer two cells to deal with the higher vf at high current and give a much longer regulated run time, its certainly my go to light for mooching about at night and would definitely get a place on a night hike as with a domed xp-g2 it gives a really good balance of spill and throw without being blinding close up.
Looking forward to hearing/seeing some results… Hopefully comparison pictures too… 
XP-G2 will take the LUX win, but XM-L2 will be way more powerful and useful.
I have a feeling you will end up with a good compromise. De-domed XM-L2.
I have a bunch of XM-L2 U2s on the way (already on 20mm noctigons) and a Convoy L2 that’s begging for a 4-5 amp driver and de-domed XM-L2 so am very keen to see the results. Never did get that XP-G2 to focus through.
If you mind me asking: what drivers are you using…. and if they are the LD-29 / stock with resistor mod what resistor value have you used to bump up the current?
I’m using an ld-v 3a driver at the moment. I received 2 of the lck led 5a drivers but the drivers that arrived now match the picture so its fingers crossed they actually fit……they used to be smaller lol.
I just used the xm-l centring device supplied with the l2, you get some disappointing rings if you don’t, it seems pretty well focused.
I kind of expect to end up with a dedomed xm-l2 u2 1c as the best compromise between throw and usability but I expect the dedomed xp-g2 to be the throw king of the group. I’m also building two up so I should be able to do some white wall comparisons. I just really hope the drivers fit or I’ll be resistor modding the 3a drivers for more output, not ideal but there you go.
Same thing happened to me with the drivers - two turned up earlier this week, & they now match the picture…. haven’t tried to see if they fit yet either.
If you end up modding the 3amp driver, make sure you post a couple of pictures of the modded one.
it has begun……
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nw 3a convoy l2 on the left, cw 5a noctigon xp-g2 on the right.
only reason the hotspots are different size is because I had to turn the exposure down to stop the 5a one whiting out the shot, in real life the hotspots are the same size but the 5a one blanks out the 3a one.
I’m now waiting for another r5 2b’s dome to fall off then I can reflow an xm-l2 u2 and dedome that for testing too.
I’ll do some lux tests tomorrow as this is as close to like for like as I’ll get, the 5a driver drops in on the supplied contact board (supplied with the driver) then you just have to wriggle in as much thermal pad as you can.
I do really like this host a lot, cant wait to build mine up now.
So wait, you're running an XP-G2 at 5 amps? Or am I reading that wrong?
certainly am, it is mounted on a noctigon to be fair, but yes, xp-g2, 5a 3 mode and you can build it in an hour, I’ve not tried to do any lux readings yet but I expect to be around 70kcd and will be happy if its higher.
next step is dedomed emitters, again copper mounted, another xp-g2 r5 2b and an xm-l2 u2 1c once it is reflowed onto another noctigon board. Hopefully at 5a these will break the 100kcd barrier, but until I test, I cant say for sure.
I can say that they are extremely useful in both this and the 3a configuration, and very simple to assemble.
Very nice. Looking forward to some comparison shots.
I ordered one of those 26650 extension tubes from CNQG just to see if it will fit the L2. I’ll let you know.
on the first build I compared it to an stl-v2, that was an xp-g2 on alu at 3a and it wiped the floor with it.
I will be trying to take comparison shots of each iteration as I have two to go at.
The final spec will be the one that goes to the other member that ordered as I know what he wants, my personal one will be the most usefull spec I find from testing, possibly 5a dedomed xm-l2 u2 but we’ll see
no problem ouchy, this driver will take 3 cells so it may be useful, , although its only drawing 2.5a/cell at the moment so it’ll even run on my crappy keygos cells, just another reason I like a 2s set up.
I got with DD xm-l2 u2 on sinkpad 208kcd@3amp,and 275kcd@5.8amp,so you must be in 350kcd territory with DD xp-g2@5amp.
that’ll be awesome, I’m British, and and engineermwe’re always conservative with our estimates, saves you looking like a plonker if it severely under performs.
