just saw that BangGood has some XHP70 in stock for $15 ex code.
Can’t see anything for the next few days. Dr says to keep the patches on. Funny how you can still tell if a light is on while wearing black patches over your eyes…
(not true, kidding, geesh peeple)
Have to get some of those welding goggles to work with that light. If that light comes on in your coat pocket your gonna look like a cross between a meteor and Richard Pryor. (You younger members will have to google that reference to understand my tasteless joke)
I wish the GB listing for that XHP70 told us what Kelvin it is. I’m holding out for the 4000 Kelvin and reasonable shipping.
Dont know if this has happend before. Used LD-4B 3 mode driver from I-O (it has a visible pwm in medium mode), pushed to 4 tailcap amps with an extra R100. I avoided nanjg zener solution because of the space of battery side. With 2 18350s I am really happy.
I’m willing to bet that gets VERY hot within 2 minutes. I have essentially the same thing in an F13 head; it’s finally deserving of the “Caution: Hot” badge.
Wait until some of you hear what I talked DBCStm into doing tonight. I'm sure he'll share if he's still alive and has all of his fingers in place and hasn't been blinded by his own light.
Suspense!!!
Uh oh 
Someday there's gonna be a big hole where Texas used to be. 
Just saw this on TV.. someone highlighted these buildings from the back!
No light at all we see here.
I finished this mod and think it is neat enough to post about some details. The led is changed into a 3000K 80 CRI XHP50 (that is what I had) because the former led appeared to be damaged (only two dies lit up, I don't know how I did that 
)
Host=Convoy S8 (bought as an unbranded host at Banggood for 10 dollars)
driver=wights 17DD FET-driver version 024. I did a zener mod and I robbed the MCU from a NANJG AK47-A1, two legs soldered together for 5%-25%-100% with on-time memory. I made a low brass pillar instead of a spring because the battery space was tight:
The base of the reflector was sanded down to get the led deeper into the reflector to get rid of (most of) the dark center in the beam. I found best was to exactly sand the rim away so that the reflector base is completely flat. The rim on the plastic led centering piece (that came with the host) was almost sanded away so that the light is not obstructed. The ledboard was soldered into the pill. The solder-joints were made pretty flat, at least flatter than the thickness of the led centering piece:
This is how the assembled head looks like:
I swapped the tail spring for a (Fasttech) 'carobronze' spring, that I measured to have three times less resistance than a standard steel spring. I did no copper braiding. The switch in this S8 host is quite beefy btw.
Because the reflector is made shorter, the pill is deeper into the head, and that is for the better because 2x18350 batteries are longer than any 18650 battery. Now they fit nicely. They are not allowed to stick out because the edge of the battery tube must make electrical contact with the brass ring in the tail section.
Finished:
I should have made a white wall beamshot, forgot about that, will add it later. But to describe it: very bright spill, wide hotspot with some minor artifacts, generally the beam looks very ok and floody. I do have an outside beamshot, tree is at 25 meters, left=control:
Output on high is 2330 (djozz-) lumen at start-up, 1960 after 30 seconds. I will do some more precise testing to see how much of that considerable output-drop in 30 seconds is heating-up and how much of it is ultrafast battery drain. If the led would have been cool white instead of warm, the output-numbers would be more like 2600/2300 lumen. Did I mention it gets hot fast? 
I think it is pretty cool to have a 18650-size-tube-style flooder that puts out 2000+ lumen (in warm white even :-) ), but I also think that this mod is outperformed by a 18650-battery direct driven XP-L triple in the same host, in output, beamprofile and runtime (the 2x18350 batteries have a combined capacity of just 1600mAh). One thing is that this build is faster, easier and cheaper than building a triple, and looks better!, provided that you can make, or get hold of, a zener modded FET-driver.
Nice, I also intent to do something similar but with a S2 and a zener modded Qlite. Hope that the 2x18350 batterys will fit.
Can you measure amps?
Nice build djozz. Its good to see naother build posted. Would you post some beam shots in this thread along with your light so it can be easily found?
Cheers.
I will post some beamshots over there :-) , but beamshots from flooders are not so impressive of course..
BTW, I saw that Mouser lists all sorts of XHP50/70 now, but the most interesting ones (like 5700K 90CRI) they still have 'on order'.
To elaborate on Richards tease…
I looked all over for an appropriate host for the XHP70 as a triple. Narrowed it down to a BTU Shocker or Fenix TK75. I like the looks of the BTU and it’s massive head area, and asked Richard if he knew where I could still get one. Turns out, he had one missing some parts that he made me a heck of a deal on! And I got it yesterday! :bigsmile:
Not being one to dawdle when it comes to a light I’ve been looking forward to, I went out in the shop and commenced making an aluminum pill to hold a 17mm driver. I used Wights A17DD-S08 with the Zener mod and 7 modes. But I put the premium ATTiny13A SS7 on it along with a top of the line Toshiba MOSFET with top side cooling plate.
Then I got busy stuffing emitters in the head. Let me tell you something, that big BTU sucks the heat out of an iron but quick! It was really tough to get the stars connected. Not having a real plan on an insulation disc, I merely covered the star with Kapton tape and then used the screw from underneath to suck the big reflector down snug on top of everything. Crude, a bit too high still, but it works. And boy does it work!
One of the contact springs on top of the battery carrier was damaged, so I replaced both with djozz’s phosphor bronze springs. Got the light put together and used a dummy cell in the carrier with 2 LG HE-2 cells.
I got 10 lumens on moon and 6741 on Turbo.
Not what I was looking for.
So I replaced ALL the springs with djozz’s phosphor bronze springs. And it jumped to 8039 lumens. Better! So then I wire bypassed all the springs. (5 of em!)
Jumped to 10,902 lumens! :bigsmile: So I charged up the LG HE-2 cells and tried again. 10,971 lumens on fresh LG HE-2 cells. Just 2 of em.
And here’s where Richard started talking me into a walk on the wild side. 
“Put 3 cells in it and see what it’ll do” say’s he. BUT, but, but….says I. Of course I tried it. 
I used lap pull Sanyo UR18650FJ’s first, rested at 4.17V. This was good for 11,523 lumens. Wowza!
So I took a bigger step. I used 3 Panasonic PD cells, rested, at 4.16V. OMG!
Can you say 16,112 lumens? :bigsmile:
I did NOT leave 3 cells in it! Pretty sure 12.6V is gonna fry something somewhere, as the 3 6V emitters are in parallel. The Zener is still dropping current for the MCU. Yada yada yada.
There’s some donut hole in the middle, I have the reflector too high, but I’ll work on that… maybe.
Outside, it’s freaking crazy! And this is at 10,971 lumens. I took it with me to walk the trash can down to the road on my Thursday night 600 yd walk (300 each way) Works great, love it!
Thank you Richard! The BTU Shocker is just what the Dr. ordered!
(and now I’m off to see the Dr., matter of fact.)
Good luck at the Dr.'s !
That is a cool light. I hope that you get the reflector right and have a pretty beam as well as the output :-)
Hehe, 16000 lumens thats crazy man
Now drop in 3 Efest 35A for 18000 :bigsmile:
You say at 12.6V something could fry, but shouldn’t it have fried as soon as you used it then?
I hope some of our resident EE’s here can explain a little more exactly why it will fry, and hopefully work out a solution so you can run it like that.
EDIT
Why the ATTiny13A SS7 instead of the regular SSU? what makes it “Premium”?