today I’ve been trying to get both unprotected and long protected cells work with my flashlight.
I tried cutting a little bit of the spring off, when i was about to braid the spring anyway, but my protected sanyo 2600mah still wouldn’t work
next I soldered to the retaining ring, and after some blobs of solder i managed to get it working with my protected sanyo, but when I tried with my unprotected 30Q I was able to change mode by shaking the flashlight quite heavily (don’t think it could happen by accident though).
so I filed away some solder, until Ii couldn’t change mode by shaking, but then the protected sanyo wouldn’t work.
I thought i’d add some length to the spring and added one layer of solder wick to the spring. and another one. and added some solder to the retaining ring.
I’ve been trying some more, and I think i would need to have a spring on the driver side as well to get it working with both protected and unprotected batteries. but since there’s on-time memory, you need to cut the power twice in a couple of seconds to change mode, and I don’t think anyone would accidentally do two heavy shakes in that short timeframe.
I never meant to insult. I learned the hard way myself. Wasted more money on expensive name brand protected cells, when unprotected OEM cells run better and are cheaper.
Trust me, you will not miss protected cells. We’re doing you a favor
You seem to miss the point of high drain high amp cells being needed to get the most out of this light. Protected cells won’t cut it!
Sure does seem like a pattern, maybe not all, but a good chunk maybe. For my one piece, I can't explain why the LED performs as low as it does. I'd expect over 5A with the test setup I had, but got only 4.5A. My total speculative opinion () is the sourcing of the LED's (the vendor doesn't know or will not tell us the bin info, so where/how the LED's were bought is an unknown), or something in the reflow process is damaging them (not all) in some way.
Again in my opinion, jury is still out. The 5-10 pieces being reported here could be the only ones performing a bit on the low side. Also there's a few reported definitely performing above 4A. Maybe the 500+ pieces we aren't hearing about are also performing well.
Amps measurements are a tricky thing. My DMM setup I had high confidence in, but if I didn't maintain it, it will slip 0.2A to 0.4A. It will pretty much always read lower if something is not right/goes wrong/oxidation builds up/poor contact to the light or cell, never higher. I've had to change the lead wires, re-solder the wires, treat contact points with a good electrical conductive grease, etc., and readings bump higher, and I still believe it reads low, just not sure how low, but I think not by much right now.
I got a clamp meter on order, and also will be setting up a high watt low ohm resistor test fixture to measure voltage across, then calculate amps - supposed to be a reliable method, maybe better than any DMM or low cost clamp meter.
Currently i lost interest to get another ordered.(to short tubes). It should get 4 amps straight out of box. not 2,7 Amps max.
Now i wish it could reach at least 3,5 Amps. (As i said before. I had proper readings using my leads vs other lights measurements)
At least i have long tubes (75mm) so i am assuming having no trouble using protected cells.
Only 3 reported 4+. (1) krono with 4.0/4.1 (2) Tom E with 4.5 (3) Dale with 4.65. There were no other. (BTW, when did you order D80 and when did you receive it?)
Good lord its a wonder anybody on this forum bothers to get involved with organizing these group buys. That’s a helluva lot of effort put forth to get something like this done, only to be met with a chorus of complaints. I wouldn’t do it. Every one of these group buy threads should start with a big disclaimer: “We’re having these lights built for cheap in China. Anything can happen; buy at your own risk!” I mean hell, we bought this light for less than the stock light; any improvement over stock, or even no improvent at all, is a win. Thank you Krono and everyone else involved.
You gotta have a thick hide or good sense of humor to run this gauntlet.
Personally, I chalk up some of my own anxieties to cabin fever or Seasonal Affective Disorder (SAD). And I live in Hawaii!!! Can’t imagine how others from colder climates feel.
banker, my light only draws 3.5A but it is still much brighter then my Blf A6 at over 4A I am happy with the performance at this level. it out throws several C8 xm-l2 lights that I have. it kills the BLF A6 and I have several of them.
If it has 1 amp and shines as or brighter than a 5 amp light that’s fine by me. If it has 100 lumens instead of 10,000 and shines just as bright that’s fine by me also. I mean honestly I have a 170 lumen Brinkman in there that is struggling to make 1.5 amps at the tail, that will out throw a couple of my lights that are 500 and 750 lumens and both of those doing 2.3 and 2.8 at the tailcap. Although the Brinkman is a deep reflector little thrower styled for that purpose, I still get about as much light as the other 2 down range and almost as bright with less than half the amps and 1/3 the lumens.
It has been said a number of times a spring bypass will bring the amps up some, they are easy to do and only take a few minutes. Krono is working on getting longer tubes even though not free, they are under $3 so still not over $25 yet for a light that is of good quality and better than the hundreds of lights that have been ordered through the years (MOST OF US in the forum have had 1 of these at least), trying to get a bargain and end up with a junk light because we wanted to save a buck.
I think if anyone believes they can do a better job on a GB with one of these overseas companies, especially the way we have to do this (via the internet) then they should be getting the next GB together and get a perfect light shipped to each and every individual in the GB.
It is kind of like having a dream of living a life with no worries, all the money you could ever want or need, having the perfect house in the perfect place with every little detail you ever dreamed of exactly right, with the perfect wife or woman at your side in the perfect relationship and being totally healthy without so much as a cold and living until you are 120 years old. IT JUST AINT GONNA HAPPEN!!!
) is the sourcing of the LED's (the vendor doesn't know or will not tell us the bin info, so where/how the LED's were bought is an unknown), or something in the reflow process is damaging them (not all) in some way.
