Yeah you basically talked me into PD’s even more there haha.
I cant go around recommending to my hunting buddies a certain configuration, and then High not working after 60% run time.
Thats exactly why I said for the layman - 3400 protected is perfect. At 4 amps you will be in the almost 2 hour runtime area. For high performance and runtime tradeoff, you cant beat a PD at the moment. 20R’s having 33% less runtime is a tough sell, and I can get almost 6 amps per cell off a PD anyway.
I want to run my big lights at the max end - 8 amps for an xml2, (maybe 300k+ lux) otherwise I’ll just build a c8 with 6 amps and carry 2 batteries (about 140k+ Lux).
Im all about the efficiency really, lux vs weight. If I’m gonna carry a torch 2-3000 vertical meters in a week, and i’ve spent $800 on getting a sleeping bag 300 grams lighter, I’m not going to carry a 400 gram heavier torch for the same use, if you know what I mean.
Except for one thing Chris, the PF DOES beat the PD, and to prove it, Panasonic replaced the PD in the lineup with the PF. I’m told the PD won’t be available anymore.
Series. Yes green protected NCR18650B cells from either FT, or mostly WB.
I would not trust a circuit that could have seen insane temperature, or could possibly haven been dropped on the floor or something. When it comes to electronics there will always be stuff that fails with normal use too.
As for the example with Scott, its obvious the cells have been abused due to excessive heat and seen temperatures above whats healthy.
Considering that protected green Panasonic probably outsell KP and various other brands by 1000/1 (guesstimate), its about 1000 times more likely you will hear about an issue involving those cells.
Until anything is proven with good consistency, we are both just speculating about the durability/quality. No doubt the KP use a better protection in terms of resistance though..
With my light (different light with different driver) pushing around 6,4A, im seeing around 4A at the tail. That means about 45 minutes runtime on high. Probably more like 40minutes since amps will raise when voltage gets lower. I prefer to not drain my batteries to 100% or below 3v. Having some sort of warning is nice IMO. If I were a hunter, I would much rather get a warning 5-10 minutes before the batteries are pretty much empty, and then be able to switch to medium and continue what I was doing with good light output. Id prefer that over suddenly have the light shut off due to the protection circuit. I hate having to worry about a light suddenly shutting off. But thats me..
How high mode works on the Maxtoch driver when modified depends on how much "headroom" the driver needs in input voltage vs emitter voltage. It may not be similar to the driver Im using...
If you modify it for extreme amps, PD/PF cells may have better capacity due to less voltage sag, which will be "converted to amps". So in a light modified to the extreme, yes there is a chance you could get slighly better runtime with PD cells. At least if you run it on high all the time. But like I said, I even prefer regular NCR18650B in my light running 6,4A due to the "battery warning" on high. Most of the people who modify XM-L throwers seems to stop at 5A if not a bit higher. NCR18650B do just fine in a series cell light like that. So I wouldnt say Protected NCR18650B are just for the layman.
If the stock driver can do 8 amps or you find the limits too it, please report here
When you kill the emitter at 8 amps. Please report here 0:)
What driver/emitter/battery combo are you using in the 6amp C8 btw?
Its direct drive, about 25mm of 20 gauge silicon wires in the whole light, connecting emitter to battery to switch
Ive got a whole thread on here about my c8 endeavours
Ive got a few lights here running over 9 amps. Im over 10 amps on one set up too. Yeah I fry a few emitters, but mostly xpg2. Cant recall ever frying an XML or XML2 at any current, its normally a de dome failure that gets me.
Get your point entirely. I agree going right to the bottom of the capacity isn’t the best idea. LV warning at 3.5 volts just seems a little high to me, 3.0v would be great then staying on low from there. Oh, and most lights don’t go low enough either.
All of my builds I sell have a LV cut off then switch to low. Cant remember what the voltage is but might check that actually. I really like the nangj drivers from fasttech, I tend to keep them below 4.5 amps incase someone gets hold of it eventually that doesnt know what it is and uses a bad cell.
Got the 20Q’s set up in the sn6x-x2 ready for testing tonite, but now my multimeter is flat!
I stacked an R056 on top of the same on the board. Tail cap reading was 4.30A, emitter went blue in like 2 seconds. Got it turned off before any real damage was done, still works outside the light so I might use it elsewhere.
Pulled the R056 off the top, put an R100 on it then pulled the aluminum star with my shaved XM-L2 and put a Noctigon in it’s place, with a brass shim to make up the thickness difference. Now pulling 3.2A and making 1249 OTF, up from 904.
Looks to be some 132kcd. Domed still.
–3x r200 SMD’s added for 3.75a at the tail, 6.2a to the LED (only ones I could find, thanks KD 9 amp driver )
–20 awg wire all round (switch, springs, driver etc)
-XML2-U2 1c courtesy of intl-outdoor de domed
–20mm sinkpad soldered to 1-1/8 18 awg copper disc, all lapped
-spacer sanded as far as I could comfortably go, its about .75mm from the reflector to the star
-reflector sanded and filed down at 12 and 6 oclock for more clearance, this is as low as it can go!
Measured 72,000 stock, so if it was supposed to be 96,000 (cheap luxmeter) that means multiply by 1.33
5080 lux @7.2m = 263,347 x 1.33 = 350,251 cd
Still much more to do, but reasonably confident I can get it over 400k and hoping for close to 500k ultimately.
That’s massive dude! What kind of amperage is it pulling at the tail? Got a lumens reading? Impressive stuff there Chris!
Oh, by the way, the stock aluminum pill does NOT have direct metal to thermal pad. The DMM reads nothing. I know when I stacked that R056 on top, the stock emitter on the stock pill did not like me!
Where most of these guys are going for more amps, the RED emitters need less. So I do resistor mods to lower the amperage down to 1.5A. Everything else that is being done is pretty much the same, Sinkpad, noctigon, sanding centering ring, etc. Oh, and you don’t need to modify the springs at 1.5A.
