Convoy L6... XHP70 Beast!

DB_Custom · May 21, 2016, 2:07pm

My S70 also has a dark center where a hot spot is expected to be.

My L6 is on the mail truck to be delivered in the next few hours.

Mukcep, thieves or not, they’re using a dump truck and loading materials by hand, that’s hard work brother I don’t care how you look at it!

See? Perspective. You get used to seeing what’s outside your window and you like it or hate it but it’s there, every day. Someone else see’s it and says “Wow!” mainly because it’s a new view for them. I live in the middle of cattle pastures, rolling hills, boring. You might look at it and say “Wow! Look at all that room! And no city!” lol

We’re sick that the city has moved out close enough to us that all it’s high pressure sodium lights messes up our night sky. We used to have a truly massive view of a star filled Milky Way, but now to the South of us the sky is orange hued from parking lot lights, dock lights, too many lights! And truck’s with their back-up beepbeepbeep from a mile away. Yuck!

Perspectives.

Edit:
The view of my home from the passenger window of my cousin’s Cessna. Home is the middle house, with the teardrop driveway.

I can go days, a week, sometimes longer, without seeing anyone other than my own immediate family. I go to town for something and everyone is driving like fools, flipping people off, speeding, talking on their cell phones while driving, cutting you off so they can get one car further in the line. Makes me glad I can stay in the country and miss out on that.

J-Dub74 · May 21, 2016, 6:25pm

DB Custom:

My S70 also has a dark center where a hot spot is expected to be.

My L6 is on the mail truck to be delivered in the next few hours.

Mukcep, thieves or not, they’re using a dump truck and loading materials by hand, that’s hard work brother I don’t care how you look at it!

See? Perspective. You get used to seeing what’s outside your window and you like it or hate it but it’s there, every day. Someone else see’s it and says “Wow!” mainly because it’s a new view for them. I live in the middle of cattle pastures, rolling hills, boring. You might look at it and say “Wow! Look at all that room! And no city!” lol

We’re sick that the city has moved out close enough to us that all it’s high pressure sodium lights messes up our night sky. We used to have a truly massive view of a star filled Milky Way, but now to the South of us the sky is orange hued from parking lot lights, dock lights, too many lights! And truck’s with their back-up beepbeepbeep from a mile away. Yuck!

Perspectives.

Edit:
The view of my home from the passenger window of my cousin’s Cessna. Home is the middle house, with the teardrop driveway.

I can go days, a week, sometimes longer, without seeing anyone other than my own immediate family. I go to town for something and everyone is driving like fools, flipping people off, speeding, talking on their cell phones while driving, cutting you off so they can get one car further in the line. Makes me glad I can stay in the country and miss out on that.

I’m a country boy myself for the same reasons. I have to drive into the city typically 5 days a week so I experience both sides regularly and it makes me happy with my decision to move away from the city. Here is my home from above roughly in the middle of the picture. The white rectangle below my house is the pole barn you see me aiming at in my beam shots.

This shows a bit of the bigger picture. My house is in the center in this shot as well.

I’m roughly 4 miles from the nearest city but even that is a small city so there’s no light pollution. Clear nights out here look much different than in the city. Country life isn’t for everyone. I know many who truly enjoy the busy city life and they can’t understand how I could enjoy living out here…“Don’t you get bored?” they ask. My cousin has lived for years in downtown Manhattan. You want to talk about busy!

rag · May 21, 2016, 6:33pm

J-Dub74:

rag:

I couldn’t get it to work with the tactical ring.

Ha! Another victim of excellent build quality. Look closely where you think the tactical ring should thread on. You’ll find that Simon ships these with the simple ring installed. Just unthread the plain ring. It blends in so well with the tube when people first look they don’t even see it. It just looks like part of the tube. I did the same thing when I got my first long tube for the L2 I looked at it and thought “What the heck! Simon forgot to thread the tube for the tactical ring!” I had to giggle when I realized what was actually going on.

This picture shows the L6 as it ships with the simple ring threaded on.

The simple ring is right here…

Just grab it there and spin. The ring should come right off. Some people like to take the o-ring off when swapping them to avoid possibly damaging it.

Thanks J-Dub! I only had a few minutes to play with it, but I still feel like an idiot :person_facepalming:

264 · May 21, 2016, 6:35pm

Hey how about the Thorfire S50. Does it have a doughnut hole?

atbglenn · May 21, 2016, 6:55pm

J-Dub74:

DB Custom:

My S70 also has a dark center where a hot spot is expected to be.

My L6 is on the mail truck to be delivered in the next few hours.

Mukcep, thieves or not, they’re using a dump truck and loading materials by hand, that’s hard work brother I don’t care how you look at it!

See? Perspective. You get used to seeing what’s outside your window and you like it or hate it but it’s there, every day. Someone else see’s it and says “Wow!” mainly because it’s a new view for them. I live in the middle of cattle pastures, rolling hills, boring. You might look at it and say “Wow! Look at all that room! And no city!” lol

We’re sick that the city has moved out close enough to us that all it’s high pressure sodium lights messes up our night sky. We used to have a truly massive view of a star filled Milky Way, but now to the South of us the sky is orange hued from parking lot lights, dock lights, too many lights! And truck’s with their back-up beepbeepbeep from a mile away. Yuck!

Perspectives.

Edit:
The view of my home from the passenger window of my cousin’s Cessna. Home is the middle house, with the teardrop driveway.

I can go days, a week, sometimes longer, without seeing anyone other than my own immediate family. I go to town for something and everyone is driving like fools, flipping people off, speeding, talking on their cell phones while driving, cutting you off so they can get one car further in the line. Makes me glad I can stay in the country and miss out on that.

I’m a country boy myself for the same reasons. I have to drive into the city typically 5 days a week so I experience both sides regularly and it makes me happy with my decision to move away from the city. Here is my home from above roughly in the middle of the picture. The white rectangle below my house is the pole barn you see me aiming at in my beam shots.

This shows a bit of the bigger picture. My house is in the center in this shot as well.

I’m roughly 4 miles from the nearest city but even that is a small city so there’s no light pollution. Clear nights out here look much different than in the city. Country life isn’t for everyone. I know many who truly enjoy the busy city life and they can’t understand how I could enjoy living out here…“Don’t you get bored?” they ask. My cousin has lived for years in downtown Manhattan. You want to talk about busy!

I’m jealous of you country boys. The only positive where I live, I can walk to the supermarket, bank, dentist, Insurance Company, Mall, Best Buy, etc, etc, which is about one quarter to a half mile from my house.

SteveBS · May 21, 2016, 7:07pm

Very interesting… What is the context to the L6???

atbglenn · May 21, 2016, 7:11pm

Good question. I have no idea. Some of us, including me, go off topic occasionally. It is what it is…

SteveBS · May 21, 2016, 7:16pm

Ok. So I am wondering what you plan to do with such a powerful lamp. In your city area you do not need such a lamp. I am a hunter and I have multiple scenarios where I need a good light…

J-Dub74 · May 21, 2016, 7:18pm

HA! SteveBS just called BS on us going off topic. Irony?
Really it just comes down to BLF being about real people being real with each other. When I have conversations with my friends we spin out regularly and have to remind ourselves what we were talking about in the first place. BLF is a very friendly place and as such we sometimes end up talking about how our day went or car troubles or what our pets did today…

Now… Back to the L6!

atbglenn · May 21, 2016, 7:19pm

I don’t need it, I want it. I’m a flashoholic. That’s what I am. And I’m damn proud of it….lol!

J-Dub74 · May 21, 2016, 7:28pm

rag:

J-Dub74:

rag:

I couldn’t get it to work with the tactical ring.

Ha! Another victim of excellent build quality. Look closely where you think the tactical ring should thread on. You’ll find that Simon ships these with the simple ring installed. Just unthread the plain ring. It blends in so well with the tube when people first look they don’t even see it. It just looks like part of the tube. I did the same thing when I got my first long tube for the L2 I looked at it and thought “What the heck! Simon forgot to thread the tube for the tactical ring!” I had to giggle when I realized what was actually going on.

This picture shows the L6 as it ships with the simple ring threaded on.

The simple ring is right here…

Just grab it there and spin. The ring should come right off. Some people like to take the o-ring off when swapping them to avoid possibly damaging it.

Thanks J-Dub! I only had a few minutes to play with it, but I still feel like an idiot :person_facepalming:

I’m laughing with you buddy, not at you. I did the exact same thing as did many others here. If you looked through the L2 thread you’d find half a dozen posts about people having the same “problem” and that’s only the ones who admitted it!

When a Convoy problem ends up to be caused by Simon making something that is machined so well that people can’t tell where threaded pieces come apart it just reinforces why I do this.

Cheers!

Docp723 · May 21, 2016, 9:21pm

How do you get the 15% discount for this light? Is there a coupon code? Just signed up with blf, new to the flashlight world (even though i have 30 or so). My wife said i needed to lay off the knife purchases, so this is becoming a new obsession for me.

Mr.Scott · May 21, 2016, 9:40pm

Steve,

I don’t understand your question. What does “need” have to do with anything?

DB_Custom · May 21, 2016, 10:31pm

The relevancy was real, Mukcep posted a pic with the Thorfire S70 and L6 shining at 200M from his view on things. He claimed it to be dirty and wasn’t particularly fond of the view apparently. So I showed my country scene, where I shine my lights at coyotes and foxes and jackrabbits and cottontails and skunks and neighbors that talk too loud at 1AM. It was about perspective in use of a large powerful light. I went to that tangent in trying to understand what someone in the city would do with a 3500-4000 lumen flashlight, with all the streetlights and cars and cops and what not.

My L6 came today, beautiful light, I really like the dimensions and style, the beam is fantastic and I can’t wait for it to get dark so I can take it for a spin. Perhaps I’ll walk to the back 40 for some different shots…

saypat · May 21, 2016, 10:38pm

please, teach us how, or me anyways.

troisanh · May 22, 2016, 12:42am

Finally got my L6 this afternoon and compared to S70. The beam, as others have attested to, has no x pattern and is much tighter. Overall i like it but tailcap switch feels cheap compared to S70.

Gotta see if that can be improved on, otherwise killer deal.

HorizontalHunter · May 22, 2016, 1:55am

I guess I “need” another good blood trailing lamp. Which emitter did you pick and why?

Bob

jescereal · May 22, 2016, 4:11am

Nope! I don’t see one on my S50.

The_Miller · May 22, 2016, 10:41am

Don’t see it on the S50 either
But I also have a hard time seeing it on the S70 (have the first batch with white button cover)

DB_Custom · May 22, 2016, 2:24pm

Decided to play around some with the new L6, recut the emitter shelf to accept a 31mm MaxToch copper DTP mcpcb for a new top level XHP-70 from Cutter. P2 1C binning, rated at 1830 lumens as compared to 1710? of the N4. Then I did a wee bump on the driver by stacking a R140 on top of the two R082 sense resistors (reducing resistance from .041 to .031) for an increase tail amperage reading from 4.83A to 6.33A, it’s now doing 4505 lumens out the front. Sweet! The L6 is a very nice light, love the design and overall perspectives of it, Simon nailed it with the reflector, no donut hole, good hot spot area from the big 4die emitter, gotta love that, his first (I think) in this arena and very well done.

Initially I was seeing a low of 17 lumens, Turbo at 3500. I’m not at my notes at the moment but I think 2nd level was around 249 and third was 1500. Low, being only 17 lumens, really shows the lack of dark shadow in the center. Hot spot is about all you get in this mode. Very cool.

Side by side with the S70, also modified with spring bypasses (Simon already did these on the stock L6) the hot spot area is a bit tighter, no donut hole in the L6 beam but my S70 shows a definite shadow in the center which is somewhat deceptive as the mind expects more intensity in the middle of the beam, not less. For all practical purposes though the donut hole is or can be difficult to see. Shining it on anything really solid, especially lighter in color, at a distance of out to 50 yds or so, moving the light around, the dark center is very obvious. Shining the S70 directly at, say, a rabbit at 30 yds, you look at the rabbit and not the light quality, so you don’t notice really as the rabbit is darker anyway. So it depends on what you’re shining it on, how you’re using it, as to whether it’s a nuisance in the S70. Also, side by side the L6 is just a visually nicer light. The matte black ano looks more high end compared to the shinier surface of the S70. Reflector surface appears similar in both lights, but the base is executed differently, with the Convoy having a slight taper down toward the emitter while the S70 base is flat. This might be what solved the donut hole issue, not sure exactly. I don’t know that the dark center is enough to truly be disappointed about in the Thorfire light, but the beam profile of the L6 is certainly pleasing and well received.

At any rate, the shadowed center is not present in the L6 so even shining it on pure white fresh snow while scanning, searching, you wouldn’t see that shadow. (like I know all that much about snow! )

I’ll have to get another of these emitters now, as I got this one with the intention of putting it in JDub’s light. lol Sorry Jared, all in the interest of experimentation don’t ya know!

I’m gonna be straight up with you guys, my L6, being one of the first 3 out the door, had an issue. This seemed to stem from the non DTP mcpcb that Simon used in these first 3 lights. Replacing the mcpcb/emitter made the issue go away. But it was weird as it involved the side switch not working the levels consistently, like the output would get stuck in Turbo. Removing the emitter and putting it on a SinkPad didn’t solve the issue. Replacing the emitter with a new one on a SinkPad made the light work as expected and I haven’t seen the glitch since. I don’t understand it, but it definitely seems related to that initial mcpcb/emitter combination. JDub’s own light was one of these 3, and it didn’t exhibit this problem. Kawi’s L6 was the other of these 3 and I don’t believe he had the issue either. So I’m assuming the emitter was shorting on the mcpcb on this particular sample. I tested the momentary switch and it was perfect. I tested the driver outside the light, running an MT-G2, and ran the modes by touching the two solder bumps on the driver where the switch wires go with tweezers, worked flawlessly (I, uh, might have played with it a bit long doing this, the MT-G2 started to smoke a bit, free floating and with dust on it from sitting on my workbench for a while. Oops!). All the testing I could do pointed at the emitter/mcpcb itself, and changing that pair out solved the issue.

A note on the big emitter. The XHP-70 has divided positive and negative contacts on the bottom. This is what allows it to be used in 12V configuration. I find it easier to use too much solder paste and cause a bridge under the emitter with this set-up. AND, everybody needs to be aware that in 12V configuration the negative contacts are NOT separated or isolated from the ground… they share the thermal pad to make it work and the thermal pad is grounded on the emitter shelf on any light that has ano cleared from this shelf. Something to be aware of, as a 12V set-up this way could be shorted at ground and only run in direct drive, bypassing the driver. (I say this for those that like to play with a light and do mods, this emitter requires paying a bit more attention to detail) So I highly recommend getting copper DTP mcpcb’s in the 6V format only for these, the dual format 6V/12V SinkPad’s have smaller traces, the split contacts, and are much more finicky.

Convoy L6 XHP-70, a big WIN in my book! :+1: