Help Building a Convoy S6 Triple

Flashlight Modding and DIY Parts
1

Hi everyone! So I was planning on buildling a 219C triple in a Convoy S6 host using a FET+1 driver and I had some questions about the wire gauges.

I just noticed that on mtnelectronics new FET+1 drivers:

http://www.mtnelectronics.com/index.php?route=product/product&path=67_117&product_id=663

The spring bypass connects the spring directly to the positive lead on the LED, bypassing the PCB all together. I had been planning on using 18 AWG silicone wire (also from mtn) but I’m not sure if it will fit through the hole in the PCB. Here are my questions:

  • Will the stock 22 AWG instead of 18 AWG be fine for this build
  • If I wanted to go with 18 AWG would it be ok to use a drill and slightly enlarge the hole in the driver?
  • Would it be better to bypass the spring to the PCB and then run a wire from the board instead?

Is there anything else I should be aware of before starting?

2

You can go for teflon wires they are stiffer but the insulation is a lot thinner but still more robust

I used 0.5mm2 which is about awg20
The spring bypass with 25mm of it results in 17.5mV drop at 5A
So if you use total of 150mm AWG20 wire you loose 0.1V at 5A

And I am sure that I had a lot measuremen error as I had 3 tips instead of 4 to measure as I can only handle 3, so I measured about 5cm of 4mm banana plug in series with my spring bypass

AWG20 has 34.4mOhms per meter so 3.44mV loss for 10cm and 1A

3

Thanks for the datapoint! Do you think 22 AWG would be ok instead? I had thought about buying the 20 AWG teflon, but it’s currently out of stock at mtnelectronics. It also seems to have significantly fewer strands…

4

It depends how hard you want to drive the light

The thinner wires you use the less current you get on DD

And the host cant handle the heat from DD more than very short periods of time

5

I’m not too concerned about heat since I doubt I’ll be running it on MAX for more than ~30 seconds at a time. I’m mostly just concerned that the wires will get damaged by having too much current going through them or that there will be a significant decrease in output. Given the lower Vf of the 219Cs, I’m guessing the output won’t be greatly affected by a 0.1V drop though….

6

I’ve built several S2+ triples using the stock fet 22 awg wires—- on average they pull around 10.25 amps for XPLs—Some as high as 11.75 amps
Ifind a bigger improvement was running a wire through the switch board from the tip of the spring directly to the switch,then add a small brass washer to the spring tip—I also started taking the spring of the driver and installing a brass button—this way you don’t compress your switch spring as much causing kinking of your wire

7

The most drop would have non bypassed springs
In my Klarus XT11GT a 12mm double spring from fome bronze alloy had 180mV at 5A, bypassed with AWG20 17.5mV

8

Hi all, sorry for the hijack. I don’t want to create a new thread just for my question.

In order to keep water tightness, should I still use the stock S6 glass lens on top of the carclo?

Spacer - MCPCB - Carclo - lens - gasket ?

Spacer - MCPCB - Carclo - gasket - lens ?

Spacer - MCPCB - Carclo - gasket ?

9

Best—-Spacer – MCPCB – Carclo – lens – gasket

Acceptable—-Spacer – MCPCB – Carclo – gasket

10

Many thanks.