Direct driving a triple Nichia 219B? Am I an idiot?

A quick rundown... I initially got nitro's beautiful copper heatsink for the X6, intending to drive some Nichia 219B's with a BLF DD driver for my first triple. I am planning to use 18awg silicone wire from the driver to mcpcb and 22awg for spring bypasses. I almost have all the parts for the build, but I just checked the emitter numbers and realized the vF is very low compared to the older 219A's. Unless I'm mistaken, this would make using a high-discharge cell like the 25R or HE2 a very bad idea. I don't expect to ever need turbo, but I'd feel better knowing that it won't fry the led's if I click past it. 3A per emitter seems to be the ideal current.

Am I missing something? Would something limit the current to 3A or less per emitter if I use the aforementioned cells? I'm considering sticking with NCR18650BD's and normal discharge cells to limit the current.

If this is all just a horrible, horrible idea, please set me straight. Otherwise, I'm open to any advice.

I looked at the LG HE4 on HKJ's site (could not find the 25R and HE2) and I think you are just fine. At 10A (3.3A/led) the voltage is between 3.8 and 3.6 Volts (3.8V for less than a minute). The Nichia219 is 3.5V at that current so the current would become higher than that, were it not that usually you loose some voltage at various places in the flashlight. So if you are not too fanatic bypassing springs and thicken ledwires my guess is that you will end up with a beautiful current :-)

If it is not too much trouble, when you have done the build, could you measure the led-current and let us know? :-)

The HE2 in disguise.
http://lygte-info.dk/review/batteries2012/Keeppower%20IMR18650%202500mAh%20(Black)%202014%20UK.html

ah, thanks. It does not change the story I see.

I just looked up my spring resistance tests, and see that at 6A current, the average steel spring has a whopping voltage drop of 0.3 Volt, that is 0.45 Volt at 9A. So I even think that you can at least copper braid one of the springs, and probably both to get the max out of the Nichia's :-)

Thanks for the helpful info! I just don't want to destroy the led's with too much current, as I haven't seen any direct driven 219B's after looking around.

I believe the 25R is pretty similar to the 20R with a higher internal resistance, and I've heard quite a bit of speculation that the purple Efest is just a re-wrapped HE2.

I actually got some beefy springs from Mtn, so I'm not sure how much lower the resistance is on them vs standard steel ones. I've been bypassing with 22awg on other builds though. It sounds like it'd be safe to continue with the build as planned...

I have a triple 219B inside my Sinner Cypreus tri-EDC mini. The wiring and spring bypass were all done with 22 gauge wire and it has a BLF 17DD direct drive FET driver. I run it on a single Efest IMR 18350 cell. It works great. Beautiful tint!

Built a triple 219b p60 drop in with BLF17DD and all the usual resistance reducing mods. Turbo with Efest 35A 18650 draws 9-10 amps and the emitters are perfectly happy. You'll be fine.

Good to know. I’m in process on a quad Nichia fed by an LD-1 modded to 10A with a KK cell. Copper pill and extra heat sinking on the driver.

Awesome, thanks for the confirmation, guys! Seems like I was worried about nothing.

So it looks like my qlite 3.04a driver i attached to a triple nichia 219b i built has to go, and be replaced with a DD Fet driver :slight_smile: I wonder what kind of output and how warm these emitter are going to get? Right now the output and tint kinda suck

Tint sucks on your 219b? Where did you get it from?

it doesn’t suck I just am used to the rosy tint from 219a. OK installed a nitro17Fet. it got much brighter and tint is maybe one shade warmer. much much nicer now. let’s check amp draw.

….

25r 5.9a
panny ncr18650pf 4a and the light kicks down too like the battery isn’t working to well anymore.

Where did you get your nichia from?

The one IOS currently sells is not the original “219B”. It’s actually a similar but different nichia led.
IOS: NVSW219B-V1 5000K (sw50).
Original 219B: NVSL219B-V1 4500K (sw45). Available from RMM and others

The difference appears to be more than just 5000K vs 4500K. The current NVSL219B (4500K) seems to be Ra 90min, R9 80min. Whereas the ISO nichia is Ra 90min, R9 50min. Both are CRI 90 because CRI is really rather limited, it only measures pastel colors, not R9 (saturated red) or any saturated colors at all. R9 is an important value because it is where LEDs can be the weakest.

Why R9 is important

pre-mounted from RMM.
it is in the 4500k range, it felt like it was higher in K but it is hard to compare it to other emitters like some of my warm xpg2,xml2s