@cannga does the SFH55 in your PD90S looks the same as the one that can be seen in the 1lumen review, so with only phosphor on the chips and a white ‘border’ around it?
The reason I’m asking is that I have an Astrolux FT03S with SFH55 and since that was also made by Mateminco, it should in theory be (almost) identical to the PD90S, but the SFH55 in my FT03S has a phosphor layer on the whole ‘package’, so without the ‘white border’. (I’ve seen this on several LEDs in Mateminco lights, for example with the SFN55(.2) in the FT02 and the SFQ43 in the X6(S).)
I have no clue if those ‘versions’ of the LED perform different in any way though.
Coincidentally I did a quick measurement at the tailcap (end) of my FT03S yesterday, with an almost full EVE 40PL, 14AWG wire and clamp meter and measured a peak of 23(,06)A and then it hovered around 21,5A for about 5 to 10 seconds, at which point I stopped the measurement.
I still want to do a few mods to it, to eliminate as much resistance as possible. For example: the driver wires to the LED look on the thin side. (I haven’t opened it on the driver side though, to see if I can spot which wire gauge is used.)
Mystery solved - I was wrong in quoting the 9100 lm number for SFH55, that’s continuous lumen spec. To the right of that is the max lumen spec of 14200 lm, which is much more reflective of koef3’s measurement.
And as per @elemental, the very low 6600 lm output the Mateminco PD90S with SFH55 is likely related to the driver function, or current path to LED.
The driver is limiting output. The FT03S driver only outputs about 30 amps at the maximum. Its the same driver used for the XHP50, SST40, and Sbt90.2 versions of the FT03 (single FET). You could swap the FET for a lower resistance Infineon, use 18 GA led wire, bypass the tail spring, but you wouldn’t gain much output from that.
I already considered that the driver could be the (most) restricting part, but as I hadn’t thought about the fact that the driver is the same as with the other versions, (which I could/should have figured out myself), I was just thinking of just doing the most ‘standard mods’ first and just find out if any would make a difference and if not, then the driver would be the last remaining big restriction.
Saves me some work now, which is good since I’ve got way too many planned mods/builds anyway!
So basicly no white border. I’ve seen the same with 2 other Mateminco branded lights, where the used SFN55 and SFQ43, which normally also only have phospor on the chips and therefore a ‘white border’ around the LES, both also are completely covered by phospor, looking the same as in the photo above.
That’s the more current version of the Chang’da LED woth San’an chips. The earlier versions like the NBTs in some Amutorch lights were much better. They were putting out 9000 lumens by my testing.
A while back I modded my FT03S and bypassed the springs in the tail cap. That is worth doing.
Measuring mine I was getting 25 Amps using a thick wire and current clamp. Then I cooked the driver somehow- so I swapped in a Convoy 25A driver. It required some filing to do it and I lost the on board USB charging. IIRC the current was the same with the Convoy driver. FT03S driver burnt smell - button lit red. Replacement (improved) driver options 30mm.
If you pull the stock driver out it looks really poorly made.
Going by Sirstinky’s post above yours, your FT03S has an earlier version of the SFH55, while Mateminco probably had to source a new batch of SFH55 later on, resulting in a more recent version ending up in my FT03S.
Interesting swap by the way with the 32mm Convoy driver!
For now I will leave my FT03S alone right now and focus on some other flashlight projects I still have planned.
Your idea of swapping in a Convoy driver did make me think though: I still do have an “OG” FT03 from years ago (currently with a SFN40 in it) and might be interesting to swap in a Convoy 28mm 20A buck driver and make it a more efficient driver/flashlight. I will keep it in the back of my mind.
If you end up doing this, please keep me posted! I’ve got a FT03 Pro and very unhappy with its driver UI. Aside from the emitter, it feels like a downgrade compared to the original FT03.
For the record you can swap in any, EA, FT series or some MF series 28 mm Anduril drivers into the FT03 Pro and Pro v2. They’re dimensionally identical and the USB C ports line up. I swapped the EA01 driver into the Mateminco MT911 (because I like the form factor) and it works perfectly.
FWIW I hardly use my Mateminco PD90S, first because it’s very large relative to performance (smaller light like Nightwatch LW55 and the top-notch Convoy M21K with LHP73B 4000k have surpassed it, for my use case/IMHO), and second, there is something strange about its UI/step-down behavior.
I am used to seeing drastic step-downs from Turbo level, but PD90S steps down at ALL levels, and significantly. For example on this 1000 lm curve, it went to ~200 lm (!). On such a large light. Have never seen any drop like this.
While it does recover eventually, it’s an annoying problem for my use. Something I want to see in my evening walks, light turned on, and as I’m staring, it darkens significantly no matter what level. Probably will give it away.
It’s the severe drop I’m talking about, and occuring at 1000 lm. Look at the 1000 lm curve - no Anduril light I’ve tested have dropped to 200 lm at this low level.
Also look at blue Turbo curve: 6500 lm down to ~600 lm, up to 3000 lm then down to 250 lm. I’ve run my own runtime with TASI and could confirm the severe fluctuation behavior both with runtime and in actual use.
The Astrolux FT02S did this same thing. The Haikelite HK90 did this. Fireflies E07 (the 2021 version) did that. Lumintop FWAA did it. The EA01 I tested did this also. They all drop the output for the thermal ceiling, then ramp up slowly, then back down as thr battery dumps. This is common to the unregulated FET drivers. Not all do this though to the same way, but at default thermal ceiling, this is a thing.
My comments are made specifically to the large MATEMINCO PD90S light that has 6000 lm. Why are we comparing with 12000 lm and 16000 lm lights, and tiny, tiny FWAA light ?
If I may repeat two main points, and may I request that we move on, OT and enough time is wasted.
PD90S has bizzare behavior at 1000 lm. Dropping to 200 lm.
PD90S has a wildly fluctuating Turbo curve, and again drop to 250 lm. You could quote a hundred other lights that do the same, but it wouldn’t change the fact that this behavior bothers me and there are similar output Anduril lights that don’t do the same. For example this light that you reviewed and I also have, but mine is Anduril 1 AFAIK.
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