Its still going to be completed some day, though its been on hold for a long time. Its partly built and in a box, but placed it on hold once i heard about the XP-L HI coming out. I will continue work on it maybe over the winter.
C’mon, it’s been another 3 months already. 
lol* i know. As soon as i can get some time i will work on this. its partially assembled, but got some more work work to do before i can fire it up for testing.
Thats an interesting project DBSAR, but what about heat sinking? Will you be mounting the back plate to aluminum pillars to make it part of the heat sink, or using only the existing heads to exchange all the heat? My 2 x 26650 DST mod overheats the host very quickly @5A, which makes it more of a 1-2 minute “wow light”.
Ive considered a 4-6 XHP35 HI/DST mod with remote cell pack, using long aluminum or copper pillars inside the hollow pills to connect the heads to the mounting plate via a press fit. Then adding a fan cooled CPU heat sink on the other side of the mounting plate to exchange the heat. I hate to make alterations to so many brand new DST’s that would not be reversible, so Im stalled at the head scratching stage. Any ideas?
I have some ideas on increasing the heat dissipation, (one being that back plate may be substituted with a 1/2” thick copper plate, then copper 5/8” rods extending through the DST’s large aluminum pills directly contacting the Noctigons and contacting the plate. Also adding a fan in the middle to help with cooling. Another idea is heat pipes to each DST pill. I even though of extreme cooling as in Computer CPU Liquid cooling, but that will add a lot more bulk & mass to the project light. As this build may end up using dedomed XP-G2s, the heat output will not be so great as using XM-L or XP-L emitters. Dedomed XP-G2’s on copper seem to be the best emitter so far to achieve the highest KCDs at 1-M. (as proven by the Deft-X.)
Those are all some great ideas. Then you wouldnt have to modify or sacrifice any of the stock host parts beyond the pills (which could be changed and reused with the hosts later… if you wanted). I have a large CPU cooler with 4 long heat pipes that might be able to be modified to fit inside copper rods pressed into the pills of 4 DST heads. It easily cools a 100W Bridgelux at max continuous power, so should do well for 4 x XHP35 @ 140W total. Ive also seen copper heat pipes sold separately. Your idea of dedomed XP-G2’s has me rethinking my build. While the XHP’s would wow a light meter, the jump between the two as viewed through human eyes wouldnt be quite as impressive. Then there are the power and cooling requirements of 75W for XP-G2 vs 140W for XHP35. Whichever route taken, I especially like the idea of being able to easily dial-in the optimum focus for each light head by twisting the threads. Optimizing the focus has always been the most frustrating part of concocting a dedomed thrower build for me.
Good stuff… and do-able! :bigsmile:
So far the dedomed XP-G2 beats everything else in sheer intensity in my tests. That photo above of the modded DST out throwing the mighty SR90 & BTU Super Shocker was done with a dedomed XM-L2, the XP-G2 produces a tighter even more intense hotspot when “dialed in” and focused. The reflector in a DST in my mind is the best ever designed to be able to focus a throw beam with an LED in a traditional reflector-based light. I wish the DST did not go out of production. Fortunately i managed to snag 7 of them when they went on clearance.
Surface brightness determines throw. I think it was Kenjii who used a large Trustfire SST90 host to create a +700kcd thrower using a dedomed XP-G2, so Im definitely a believer. I think the reflectors are sold separately at DX, but then you’d have to come up with a means of securing them in a custom head… which would mean much more work, and it wouldnt look as nice as the beautifully anodized DST parts. I agree, the DST was an amazing creation. I always laugh when considering other thrower hosts that come and go. They just cant compete. I was only able to snag one DST at HD but picked up 5 more on ebay.
I have over 50 x Defiant 3D 650’s… also an amazing powerhouse and host.
You have 50 of them? wow nearly a crate full.
Outstanding pics! That Shocker I measured at bout 500 kcd w/unprotected topped off 25R's but only at 5 meters. Output drops pretty crazy along with the cells, so maybe you are getting 350-450 kcd here, depending... Funny because it looks like it has no hot spot whatsoever compared to the DST. I still have 3 DST's, 2 unopened 
.
Maybe i should have did this test with my 25R Samsung cells in the BTU, (i was using regular 18650 cells at the time of that photo shoot) i know the BTU does out throw the SR90 as i used them in other tests, just in this pic it seems to be more equal. Do you remember if you dedomed the three XM-L2s in this one or left the domes on? (when i received it it still has domes on the XM-L2s.
I had more but have been giving them away as gifts. People love em! :bigsmile:
These might be perfect for a 6 headed dedomed XHP70 build.
That was my original plan was to build a 6 or 8 head monster, but could not find enough of them.
That would be a large light, but certainly manageable. 
Its not too late to search ebay. I was going to collect more DST’s but can hold off until you acquire what you need. Either 3… or 6 or more heads would probably provide the best beam pattern. If you look carefully at beam shots/youtube vids from all the 4 headed XM lights, there is always a hole in the center beam, presumably becasue the reflectors arent close enough together and they lack a center reflector. The “hole” seems more apparent at longer ranges, which I think would be even more frustrating. As an afterthought, you might want to tape 4 DST’s together, power them up with C cells and take them outdoors for a quick test. Even better would be to fit them with dedomed XP-G2’s first then do your focus trick with each. Perhaps the tight concentration of photons will eliminate the problem, but my guess is that you’ll still see the dreaded black hole. If anything, the DST’s should perform really well with those dedomed emitters using the stock driver, so no efforts would have been wasted if you decide to can the project… or wait to buy more DST’s.
Comparing the Olight Marauder (one center emitter surrounded by 5 emitters, all in separate, evenly spaced reflectors) versus the Supbeam X60 (one center emitter surrounded by 4 emitters, all sharing a well constructed, deep dished reflector), the Maurader has a superior beam pattern that resembles something produced by a single emitter. The X60 has an odd looking flower shaped beam pattern.
The Maurader is basically 6 emitters mounted to a massive CPU style heat sink, which is what drew my interest to your DTS thread. I modded my Maurader with XP-L V6’s and am very pleased with the results, but cant help but think about a mega thrower of the same design principles.
Olight X6 Maurader:
X60:
I have already searched many times, but no luck. (as i live in Canada i have to use Ebay.ca but nobly has been selling them on the Canadian version lately, and many who are selling the DST lights on ebay.com won’t ship to Canada.
Yikes - definitely de-domed, mod thread here: https://budgetlightforum.com/t/-/27054. This should have been the exact light, hope so?
Ouch. ( i sent you a Private message)
While this is a completely different monster, have you seen this ? At nearly a million cd, this has my attention, but I havent found a reasonable host yet to fit Ledils large Seanna. 3 or 4 of these cobbled together in an aluminum box would be quite formidable.
i did see that and replied to it.