What do you mean not same with rdrfronty?
I don’t recall the % difference as I wasn’t exactly testing it for that reason but I do recall the 5.5 meter mark being higher than my 6-10m readings.
I’d do the test to find out, but I don’t really see the point - it’s different for every light (with a reflector). Is my diagram wrong?
rdrfronty see that some of his flashlights have higher throw number when measured at longer distance for example 15m. Not that in the middle there is highest throw number. And I remember rdrfronty see “big” differences let’s say between 5m and 15m. I don’t know the percentage though.
Nothing wrong with your diagram as your reflector and position of LED might actually behave that way.
I’m not quite sure I follow what you’re misunderstanding.
His numbers are probably higher at longer distances because the shorter distances he was measuring at whatever they were was probably not the convergence point.
In my diagram you can see there are three parts.
The convergence point is different for every light. For some lights it may be 2 meters. For others it may 8 meters.
rdrfronty was finding lower readings most likely because the beam was still in the ‘converging’ state at that particular distance (which was between 5 and 15m). I just happened to find that before the convergence point the numbers are understated, at the convergence point they are overstated and after the convergence point they are accurate.
There is no set percentage difference between the readings of the convergence point and after that point. It will be different for all lights since there’s different reflector and emitter sizes.
You may want to rethink your diagram. If you shine a TN31 for example at a wall starting at the wall, you’ll find that the hotspot steadily grows in size as distance from the wall increases.
What matters is where READINGS converge. In other words, going out far enough so peak beam intensity in cd doesn’t change when you increase distance (+/- meter accuracy).
If the readings don’t change when you move further back, that means the beam is diverging, and not converging.
You make it sound like the beam is always converging. If so, why would the hot spot increase with distance?
I’ll measure the hotspot of my tn31 at certain distances tonight when I get home.
Not at all what I wrote. Please go back and reread.
Okay, why would it matter when the beam is converged?
You want to measure the lux when the beam is diverging.
According to the inverse square law you want the beam to be diverging when you take the readings.
You also have a pretty shitty attitude and condescending tone which is annoying.
Instead of telling me I’m wrong, tell me why I’m wrong.
Please. Don’t tell me about “shitty attitude and condescending tone which is annoying” when you’re the one using profanity. I wrote “you may want to rethink your diagram.” And ” please go back and reread” when you totally discombobulated what I’d written. If that’s not tactful enough for you too bad. Here it is more plainly. Your diagram’s wrong. And I already explained why… the beam diverges the whole time, not like in your diagram which shows it converging for 5 meters then diverging. But you don’t have to know anything about the beam because as I said, what matters is where READINGS converge. And that’s not simply where the beam diverges because it starts diverging right away. It’s where it’s diverging and has settled to its final beam pattern.
If the beam is always diverging, why would the beam pattern change? It would be possible to measure any light at 2 meters if that were the case.
If the beam is always diverging, the ‘doughnut hole’ present in the first few meters would also be present along the beam.
After a little thinking I think I am a little confused.
If the beam is either converging or diverging, the doughnut hole should still be present either way. The only explanation I can think of is that the there are different parts of the beam, some are diverging and some are converging.
I’m also now curious which part makes up the ‘hot spot’ of the beam, the diverging parts or the converging parts.
OK I was referring to the hotspot because that’s where you take readings. Did you measure your TN31’s hotspot? If so, you saw it didn’t converge out to some distance and then diverge. But yes, there are other parts of the beam… the coma and spill and to be fair there is some convergence which IIRC is a function of the emitter dimensions and reflector depth. So you have several things going on at once, a 3 ring circus. But why get wrapped around the axle about the anatomy of each beam when it’s much easier to simply go out far enough so your READINGS converge. By that I mean so peak beam intensity in cd doesn’t change when you increase distance (+/- meter accuracy).
For folks doing the resistor mod, are you also doing the solder bridge to the diode (or whatever that is, haven’t looked at it closely yet) that appears in the below picture from Post 19?
I’m slightly confused by your question. The red arrow points to the R082 resistor, and on the left of that, there is a R100 resistor in parallel. For a resistor mod, some replace them to small ohm resistors or stack them up, both to reduce the resistance and increase the current. Others are removing the two resistors and putting a soldier bridge or a piece of copper wire to decrease the resistance even further.
Not sure if I answered your question properly.
Oh, sorry for the confusion. The red line and “this?” was not put there by me. I am borrowing this picture as referenced above.
If you look to the right of the resistors, there is a long solder blob going out at a perpendicular angle to an other component. The underlying trace also connects to the resistors to that component. I’m wondering if it was determined that the underlying trace was not adequate to handle the additional sensor current.
Good question. I’m assuming that the trace is adequate if the resistors are able to handle the current. 
I updated my original post in step 11 by adding a small copper braid (Like the old Mag Modding days! :bigsmile: ) on the inside part of the head and switch springs to lower the resistance of the springs, apparently there might be a very slight increase in brightness by doing it, I borrowed a couple of pics to show where I soldered the copper braid (Credit for pics go to OverClocker and TurboBB) since I’m not home to take proper pics.
Used Radio Shack desoldering braid
On the head positive spring
On both switch springs
That’s a nice touch.
Any way you can measure the brightness increase?
I don’t have a light meter but against my modded control light (FiveMega XML2 1C in ThrowMaster reflector) seems slightly brighter than before the mod.
Some good info in this thread!
I did the same mod, this result:
With fresh KP 3400's:
Before tail cap spring braiding, lumens: 1,713 - 1,625, 442 kcd measured at 4.34 meters
After lumens: 1,717 at start, 1,645 at 30 secs, throw: 448 kcd measured at 4.34 meters
It's not much but it is a bump. I had already copper braided the + spring but didn't notice any increase at the time.
Thanks for the numbers Tom.
For me, I guess it’s not worth it. 