Sorry about the driver talk. I meant this cheat knock off LED emitter that came with the flashlight.
I’ve since modded the driver from the out- to out1-. Previously I got 0.95a and now I’m getting around 1.25a… nice increase for the stock driver but that’ll be all it can handle at this point. Just a quick desolder and resolder on the driver and its done.
Getting the correct emitter in there with a decent driver pushing 2+mA should be a hefty increase in light output….
Yes it will:)
Since all the heat is generated in the led die the best thing you can do to begin the process of getting the heat to move from the die to the shell is by using an led mounted on a direct thermal path(DTP) copper star, this immediately spreads the heat as quickly as possible to a much larger surface and allows less thermally conductive materials with greater bulk and surface like JB weld to continue the process without acting as a block to transfer. There are many different techniques you can use to reflow LEDs from irons to reflow guns to butane torches to hot plates and stove tops. typical stars have a dielectric layer between the thermal solder pad and the metal core and DTP Stars eliminate this allowing the led die direct solder contact with the copper core.
I’m surprised that no one has told you to put an 18650 in this light.
I have a few of these lights and the first thing to mod is the power supply-
i.e. Toss that battery holder in the trash and load it up with an 18650.
You can up the driver all you want to but you are most limited in current by the
3 triple a batteries and the cell holder.
You will never get it to 3A or even 2A powered by alkalines in that holder.
The 3 AAA’s are garbage and will never deliver any real power .To see anything you’ll have to at least give it a laptop pull .Even then 18650’s will vary one from another .Back in the day cheap lights on high were commonly direct drive ,So how many amps the light pulled just depended on your batteries ability to deliver amperage .
The aspheric lens kills lots and lots of lumens so while the flood to throw lights are fun and can be helped a lot by adding a better emitter to them ….but the real truth is…. it’s usually easier to start with lights that have more solid basics in the first place. like ano quality or ones that have a larger diameter spot in flood mode ,solid pill .ergonomics etc …
That way you’re not throwing good money after bad .
I keep recommending the Supfire F3-L2 and the Brinyte B158
first is about ten$ and the second around 20+ $
The op does have an 18650. It’s just not a good one. He has some good ones on order I believe? Otherwise, yes, ery good first step.
Yea, those AAA are trash. lol I know. I’ve got some EBL 3000mAh 18650 cells. They get the job done, by no means Panasonic’s but hey…they’re best sellers on amazon!
EBL doesn’t make cells.
It’s just a name printed on a wrapper, placed over a junk cell.
And they are surely not 3000mah.
Judging from comments on Amazon they are somewhere between 900 and 2100mah.
The only reason they have decent reviews is the reviewers have never had a proper cell.
People who have never used an 18650 before find this to be the cheapest,
and have no basis with which to compare it’s efficacy.
Also they are not protected cells, despite what the listing claims.
The issue with cells like this, besides them being dangerous, is the internal resistance is very high, and the current capability is very low. These two things equal low power output.
You will likely get twice the current just by using a decent cell i.e sanyo samsung sony panasonic. Until you are using a better cell, you will be wasting your time changing emitter or drivers.
These cells are the weakest link in the light.
To give you an idea of just how bad these cells are.
These Ultrafire cells are known junk.
EBL has basically copied the label style of known junk.
I think that makes them –1 Tier junk.
And I’m not being a snob when I say this.
Imagine your car battery. Imagine it starts your car, but just barely.
The lights dim and the radio cuts completely out when starting.
but after several slow turnovers, it starts. You think this is acceptable
because you have never had a different battery. One day after the battery catching
on fire while starting the car, you put it out with a fire extinguisher. It has melted enough
for you to see that inside that plastic boxy shaped car battery,
there are actually just two 6v lantern batteries connected with a coathanger.
That would be about how bad batteries like this are. :cry:
Unfortunately this is all true. Unfair and true:(
OP, have you had a chance to look at the link in post #3? You will not find any junk on that site and it is a highly trusted store. The prices have seemed to come up a bit recently but they are still very competitive. You can trust that if you pay more for something it’s because it’s of good quality. Anyway, I was quite surprised the first time I received a genuine cell. It was a Sanyo ncr18650ga. One of the best for single 3v emitter flashlights.
Some chargers have safe discharge circuitry that can measure actual Amp-hours of a cell at specific discharge currents. Member HJK regularly posts in depth reviews of cells and has a comparator to see performance of one cell against another. Beyond that it’s up to you to source and buy genuine cells vs clones or rewraps of unknown quality. While some sellers do rewrap good cells and are recommended there are many that don’t. Sellers that aren’t responsible for drop shipped products are use at your own risk deals.
Since this is my first walk around the park I figured I’d go with the cheaper route and see how much I enjoy it then dive head first… you know, get my feet wet.
So looking at the specs….
If I’m running around 1220mA on an actual Cree XM-L T6 LED, which is doubtful, I should be getting around 450 lumens… With my upcoming mods I think I’m going to back it down to around 2-2.5A and nothing more… With that said, I should be 700+ lumens so that’ll be one hefty jump.
Likely with a vastly improved tint as well…
Keep in mind that the brightness of a zoomie depends entirely on the surface brightness of the emitter, so an emitter with a smaller die, driven at the same current, with a correspondingly higher surface brightness, would give you a brighter hotspot when fully focused. That’s why I prefer the XP-G2 in this style light. Although the hotspot is a bit smaller, the smaller die emitter has a higher surface brightness, and thence, a tighter/brighter/longer-throwing beam at the same wattage.
I’ll be building a proper WF-502B in the new year so I’ll have that… That’ll be my high power light…going for max output. lol. Should work well for potential camping/hiking opportunities
502 is okay for a limited-power output, but isn’t ideal for a crazy high power output. If properly assembled, it will be “okay” up to about 3A, but the heatsinking on any of these P60 hosts will be weak. Lots of better options out there. A really good starter light with decent “wow” factor would be a Convoy C8. Good throw, while still being somewhat compact…
The Convoy M1 is also a good option, better reflector than a P60 but still smaller head than the C8. One thing you will begin to notice is that the human eye doesn’t see light increases on a linear scale. That is, twice the lumens doesn seem twice as bright which is why most UI’s step up output at a steeper gradient, at least 5:1 or better to get noticeable steps. A 10% gain is usually perceptible only in a side by side comparison.
Convoy C8 looks pretty nice…
Something like this:
https://www.fasttech.com/products/0/10002364/3398408-convoy-c8-1-cree-xm-l2-u2-1a-2-group-3-5-mode
That’s a good option, pre-built and ready to use. If you want to have some fun, check out the listing of hosts at Mountain:
Get the host you like, then add a driver and your choice of emitter, making yourself a custom hand-built light…
Either way, a good C8 won’t be disappointing.
A very good host is an Eagle Eye X6
Very well heatsink, compact good throw, AR glass
There is a BLF special Edition made with this host in copper and SS
I second this.
Just be sure to get a good cell or two!