Group buy thread: Convoy M2 2014 host - CLOSED

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221

I was also relieved with that. I was able to still use the retaining ring even though I had stacked chips to both sides of the Qlite driver.

On another note, if anyone is planning to run the MT-G2, you will need some short cells. My Efest IMR18350 V2s got a slight dent in the negative faces so I have ordered some AW IMRs as HKJs reviews show them to be shorter.

222

Thanks for the heads up. Was planning on running an MT-G2 in one of mine.

223

Mine arrived and didn’t look at it till today, not happy, the reflector or the head is wrong size, so the reflector doesn’t get down enough to reach the led spacer, even with a noctigon in it… it get struck just after the threaded part of the head… i’m thinking to convert it into a triple nichia 219

224

Will this work? 28mm x 2mm
http://intl-outdoor.com/28mm-ar-coated-glass-lens-p-840.html

225

It is starting to get a bit small in diameter. I can’t say for sure, but I know on mine even with the 28.6mm lens I had to use a thicker o ring because the stock one was slipping down the side of the lens.

226

28.6mm x 1.85mm or 28.6mm x 2.84mm?
http://www.flashlightlens.com/index.php?app=ecom&ns=prodshow&ref=ucl_lens

227

28.6mm x 1.85mm. You won’t get the bezel to screw down with the thicker one.

228

The oring gets caught down the side of the glass lens with the 28mm AR lens. I had a thicker oring but it extrudes out past the bezel so I'd suggest that 29mm if you can get them would be the way to go.

Edit. On a quick test the AR lens was about 6% better. The light was only tested at about 800 mA with the sensor about 300mm from the light.

229

Actually you don’t need the centering ring, the reflector aligns with the edge when you screw down the bezel. You just need to center the led.

In my unit there is a ~1.5mm gap between the base of the reflector and the mcpcb which is I believe where it should sit. But the problem here is not the reflector, is the led shelf, if your reflector go any lower it would create a gap with the glass and wobble. I ordered 1mm copper shims to raise the mcpcb and get a proper focus.

Anyone else has encountered this??

230

Mine doesn’t align with the edge, it gets stuck just under the threaded part. About 4 mm gap between reflector and mcpcb, it’s not the same as your unit :slight_smile:

231

Did the Convoy M2 get redesigned again? Looks like they notched the battery tube and installed a clip. I like it without the clip. Also it would be nice if they made a extension tube so you can use two cells.
http://www.aliexpress.com/item/Convoy-m2-cree-xml-u2-t6-light-beads-flashlight-led-flashlight-strong-light/826040295.html



232

If that is the case, I am very happy I got two of them now before they made that change.

233

I hope they got some of the new versions like you bought out there after the new year. I missed this group buy because it wasn’t in my budget at this time and want a couple without that ugly groove and clip.

234

That clip could look better if it was anodized in flat black…

235

Seems like the X6-SE is already making waves...

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237

I finally put together my M2 with MT-G2 inside. It’s okay, but I’m a little disappointed.

The good:

  • The host has good anodizing, threads, and overall build (except for some items listed below).
  • The host has good thermal contact with the emitter star, so it warms up really quickly.
  • Two 18350 button top cells fit. I used Efest purple V2 cells, rated for 10.5A.
  • Although I can’t measure any of the high modes directly (light meter bugs out), based on the lower modes and power level ratios and comparison to other lights, it seems to get about 3000 lumens on turbo. (at 3.14% it gets 93.1 lumens, meaning at 100% it should get about 2967 lumens)
  • The driver easily took custom firmware.

The bad:

  • The lens O-ring is the wrong size and thickness, and is only helpful for keeping the lens from rattling. The light is not waterproof.
  • The driver pocket and retaining ring give plenty of room, but they also fail to make contact with a BLF17DD-Z board. I had to solder a couple of pretty thick wires onto the edge of the driver in order for it to make electrical contact with the host. It’s really sloppy, and hard to get the retaining ring screwed in.
  • I scratched the reflector while widening its opening, because I slipped. Now my beam (hotspot) looks weird. Also, I don’t think the MT-G2 goes up into the reflector quite high enough (even with the reflector resting directly on the flat part of the emitter base), so there’s sort of a ring in the beam in the middle of the spill area.
  • The reflector gets stuck in the head really easily, and can be difficult to remove (with or without an emitter installed).
  • The emitter star leads are a little awkward to connect in this pill-less design.
  • With 2 x 18350 cells (700mAh), battery life is going to be short.
  • The high voltage also means I had to disable voltage monitoring and battery check mode in my firmware. I’ll just have to do it the old-fashioned way, by pulling the cells out and using a multimeter.
  • The MT-G2 5000K emitter seems to be a cooler tint than I expected. Visibly cooler than a 3D or 3B tint emitter, warmer than a 2B. Maybe 5400K or so, roughly like a 2D tint? It’s possible that the reflector might be the cause of this though.

It was an awkward build overall. If this were my first light with ~3k lumens in a 1x18650 small-ish host, I’d probably be a lot more impressed… but a triple XP-L can fit into a smaller host, gets the same amount of output, uses a nicer battery config, makes voltage monitoring easier, and gets a smoother/floodier beam. I had heard the MT-G2 tint was pretty spectacular, but this particular MT-G2 is curiously cooler than spec and has only mediocre color rendering.

238

ToyKeeper:

  • I noticed the same problem with the reflector getting stuck in the head. It did not make me happy.
  • Sanding the BLF17DD-Z did not allow contact? I noticed that the shelf was partially anodized and was not thrilled, but I assumed that contact was just a matter of sanding and then holding the driver centered as the ring was tightened. It looked like there was enough of a lip to make sure it didn’t go anywhere after that.
239

Just thought I’d share this here, since for my personal M2 I’m building a laser…

https://oshpark.com/shared_projects/8xo4gZc3

So let me explain, first off its a common thing for cell’s to be insrted backwards in lasers (not sure why or when that originally started) but I decided to work that into an additional safety feature.

If one of my kid’s or friends or wife or sister(who lives with us) pick’s up this M2 laser (not that my kid’s will have access to it) and arnt paying attention to the fact it isnt a flashlight and stick a cell in it like it’s a light nothing will happen, the diode will prevent current from flowing the wrong way.

240

Interesting. Are these laser diodes normally case positive?

EDIT: and I suppose that you will piggyback a driver on top of this?