I don’t understand why anyone would want to un-screw the battery tube on a high-current light like the DX80 while its turned on & screw it back in right after in the first place.
I never ever do it with any electronic switch type light while it is on, because if some can remember that Sunwayman F40A i had a few years ago that i did just that to when it was on, and the surge or sudden power cut damaged the driver. Now that light constantly flickers when on, and sometimes wont even turn on.
It's risky business for sure. That being said, I did encounter a little problem today with my dx80. One led is only half lit throughout all the modes. If it stays that way, I'm fine as the human eye just can't notice any reduction in brightness, but if it spreads to two leds or more, then I would say there is a problem there. To see if it was half lit in turbo, I stacked three of my Nitecore ea81 color filters on top of it and it was dull enough to know for sure it was still half lit.
I have been noticing many people complaining that the XHP series of LEDs are prone to these failures, not only in the DX80. The XHP 50.2 in the new Haikelite MT01 i bought last fall, crapped out the same way just after a few hours of use. ( two of the four dies went dead, topic is here: Haikelite MT01 UPDATE, replacement arrived) ) and a XHP70 that was modded in a lantern mod i was building lost one of its dies. Haikelite “promised” to send me a replacement XHP50.2 for the MT01, and two months later nothing. So i thought about swapping in a MT-G2.
I have lost faith in Cree’s XHP series LEDs reliability with the number of dies burning out on them from the reports i’m seeing, and if my DX80 starts loosing them, then i will mod the light with eight MT-G2s possibly.
If more of mine crap out, then changing to different leds might be an option too. We'll see how it goes. Too bad as I thought cree was number one in the flashlight world, but I'm still fairly new at all this.
Cree has always had reliable LED designs that could handle some abuse (driven over their rated limits by us modders) but this new XHP series seems to be plagued with die-failures if run to hot for to long or to hard. (hence the reason i would never, never run my DX80 for more than 10 or 15 seconds on the turbo (32000 lumen) mode. This just not enough “beef” amount of metal in its small size to push eight XHP70’s together so hard for very long until they over heat and fall to the “die-death” they seem to be vulnerable to. It will run on the 8000 lumen mode no problems for past a hour but still gets hot after awhile.
I've ran my dx80 in turbo at -5c and the head barely even got warm, but I am never going to let it get hot. They need to find a way to cool these things down better so the higher modes can be used more, but we talked about that before! BTW, do you think the dx80 throws far enough? It's almost as if it has so much flood that something is missing in the middle. From what I see, the MF03 might have that covered.
I think the massive amount of spill close by makes it hard to see down range.
I experimented with non focusing extenders to alleviate some of that spill. It helped, not with throw but by directing some of the spill further out.
Now it has me thinking how will a DX80 perform with eight huge MT-G2s driven hard… as i like the better creamy tint of the MT-T2 over the XHP70’s currently in the DX.
If it starts smoking, that could be a tell tale sign! I noticed the MT-G2 are sold out on BG. I only see 5000K but that would be good if it is clean. Inside when I turn on the dx the tint at the higher modes is really nice, but outside it seems too cold of a tint.
The big MT LED can handle a ton of amps, I have that massive triple MT-G2 monster that was built by the legendary OldLumens, and i modded it with more & more 7135’s until the MT-G2s would almost un-flow themselves off the copper Noctigons from the heat. That light with just three MT-G2s out throws the DX80 on its maximum mode, and seems to match it or even be a hair brighter than the DX80 on its 13000 lumen mode.
If you end up trying it, will you mind posting the results? That could be a really interesting mod that I would be interested in too if more emitters fail on me. I just ran it in my room at night for almost two hours at 5000 lumens and still only the one emitter is faulty. It may have been faulty when I received it, but I never had a look as it was and still is so bright.
A guy in the TLF had the identical problem just these days - after running the DX80 in turbo until it decreased the power byitself, all the LEDs ran in full power.
Maybe this would help you.
By the way: there seems to be a new version of the DX80:
The one I received today has a diffent cover on the battery pack and is 8 g heavier while all other DX80 I have a exactly the same in weight.
I was just reading on the german forum that someone successfully made their half lit dx80 emitter work again by leaving it on turbo until step down. Seems a little risky if you ask me, but he says it worked for him.
