Wow, that driver upgrade did the trick. I'd call it a clear and present flashlight! :-)
Comfychair wrote:
It was also wet during the first set of pics, that changes colors by a lot.
Ah, thank you Comfy. You hit the nail on the head. I couldn't place my finger on it, because the larger tree trunks didn't seem to look different, but the younger ones mostly did. The pictures make more sense to me know. Nice catch.
I was surprised myself about the color change and double checked the camera settings in the JPEG properties and yes they were identical. Everything was wet the first night and dry the second night. I did take longer range pictures but they were no good as the wind gusts here were blowing the trees around making the pictures blurry.
A quick update. After using the light last night for a short period outside I’ve come to the conclusion that the 9 amp driver in this light was not practical. When the high temp protection kicks in it is supposed to change down to low mode with flashing every now and then and then go back to high mode when a certain temp was reached. Instead it locks itself into whatever mode that it is in with an occasional kick down to low and straight back into high. On medium the light just locks itself into medium.
I have reinstalled the 5 amp driver today and after testing it took 33 minutes to overheat, the 9amp was 7.5 minutes in the same temp room, and the over temp on high did indeed work as advertised. Kicking down to low with flashing and going back into high when it had cooled to whatever temp it was programmed to. during this time the mode changes still worked.
With the 5 amp driver it took approximately, in still air, 35 minutes before the light was too hot to hang onto for any amount of time.
Fabulous creation! Love it with the 9A driver, that’s just an awesome amount of gorgeous light!
Folks, please be real! Taking pics using the same settings to show comparison the tint itself is going to be wonky, it’s not properly exposed! Dial up the shutter to get the same exposure for tint and you’ll see things differently. And I’m betting it’d take several stops of exposure to get tit properly exposed! 
Excellent work on the machining, simply stunning!
The MT-G2 at anywhere near 9 amps is an awesome little sun, I know this because my K3 in direct drive on 2 Samsung INR 18650 20R cells almost hit 9A!! Waaay too much for my little light, for sure!
Nicely done, 7.5 minutes at that screaming power level is just insane! Wish for cold weather, it’d certainly fry your hands on a 90 degree night here in Texas!
Also loving that HD2010 rework, with double batteries. You’re doing some really great work man, keep it up!
MRsDNF,
With the 9A driver, do you have an idea how long time it took before it overheated when used on medium when using 3 batteries? (just curious)
Also, did you ever test it with 2 batteries? Maybe it does not overheat that easily then? (considering that its meant for 2 batteries) But then again, 2 batteries are probably not that interesting due to your host, or in terms of run-time and regulated output...
I did not do any testing on two batteries as I would’ve never used this light with two batteries, sorry. The run on med was carried out after the light had cooled down slightly after the run on high so the light never cooled down totally when I started the run on medium. When the light got hot I tried mode changing but it would not. It would only turn off or stay in medium mode. There was nor sign that hi temp protection was working. I’m not sure if it was a faulty driver or there all like this. It would be interesting to hear from others.
I miss a lot lately. You know, you should have the title of Monster light maker. I would have to hire an Aussie to carry the light for me, being as puny as I am. You will have to "stop over" some day and I want to see if you can get through customs with them all.
Amazing stuff, I just love knurling
Love the 9A version!
OL. I seem to recall someone sending this light through customs to me. It now folds down into a neat highly concealable package.
I liked the 9 amp as well but it just did not work as a practical light. The heat was enormous in a very short time causing all sorts of issues as others have had with this driver. I will have to bite the bullet and try the Lck Led version. Would anyone like to comment whether they thought a single MTG-2 at 9 amps would run hotter or cooler than 3 MTG-2’s at 3 amps?
The amount of heat produced will be about the same (a little bit less because the emitter puts more energy into light at 3A, and the voltage is somewhat lower). What changes much more is the light output: quick guess is 50% more.
But that damn 9A driver is close to needing its own forced air cooling, even independent of any heat from the LED. I never imagined a driver could make that kind of heat without there being a dead short somewhere.
Have you done any efficiency numbers?
No stress though, its on the test list of driver circuits that HKJ will test. :)
No efficiency tests were carried out as I would not trust my figures anyway. I will re-test it when I get more MTG-2’s in which will be a couple off weeks as I’m disappointed in my results that were not correct. I will have to also order the Lck Led driver instead of talking about it and see if it behaves the same as the IOS driver.
Question. Do you think that the 9 amp driver will drive three MTG-2’s or will there be voltage problems?
If you can keep the driver cool it should be fine with 3 LEDs in parallel - it'll split it for 3 amps each. Mine run without issues from 4 cells despite the warning of 'max 15v' (4 cells is 16.8v open circuit but only about 11-11.5v under the crazy load this thing can draw).
I know you are way past finding a heavy spring for this light, but I found a potential solution for the challenge you had on this light. Given that you build custom lights, maybe it could help you in the future.
Needing a very short but fairly strong spring and being impatient, necessity became the mother of invention. Well, I'm sure someone somewhere before me has invented this. A copper disk can be shaped into a dome that snuggly fits in the tail cap. The tail cap walls prevent the disk from flattening out. The shape of the dome is inherently strong. The outward pressure of the disk's edge against the tail cap creates a strong electronic connection.
EDIT: I just realized this is not the thread you were looking for a spring solution. I deleted the pictures I posted here because they don't belong alongside the beautiful pictures in this thread.
Ima4Wheelr, please feel welcome to add your mods here if you like. I’m probably the worlds worst with doing the wrong thing in other members threads.
I see where your heading with your mod and I like it. Thanks for the update.
Wow just wow wonderful licht!