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LED Flashlights – General Info 18650 Flashlights
1

This is not a review of any kind, but just me reporting back with my newly acquired trustfire ak47. Ok fellas, if you guys have read richies thread on his ak47, and had doubts, well don’t, this is one bada light. (in a good way)! Oh my, this light is no joke. It is so extremely bright, it puts most of my lights to shame.

I had to double check my skyray king was set to high and not low, because with the ak47 turned on, it just made the king look so weak. So then i brought out the big boys, my tk 70, and lamda vpt2 (155k lux @ 13.37 amps). Kinda hard to compare and judge these two, the tk70 and vpt2 both had extremely bright center spots, but as far as flood/spill and brightness, ak47 wins hands down.

Doing a ceiling bounce test, obviously ak47 did its thing again. Its amazing seeing the ak47 do the ceiling bounce, its like sunlight lighting up the room. Tonight i will do the outdoor test…

Oh, one more thing, this whole time, I’m only using 2x king kong 26650’s also! I’m waiting for my 3x MNKE’s to arrive this week.
I find it hard to believe that this can get any brighter. This light was actually alot smaller than I imagined also. Especially in 2 mode config. Pretty heavy though I must say.

Welp, If you are looking for a flood monster while having it bright still, heres your girl. Bought at amazon for $85, driver was $20.
Not bad at all for a close to 6000 lumen beast! Best bang for buck in my eyes now.

If you guys missed Richies’s thread with pictures and mods, enjoy…but I sorta dont think those pics do justice, it seems brighter in real life. sorry guys, I have never taken pictures, and my camera just sucks at it.

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How easy is it to swap the drivers?

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Just cut the wires or desolder them from the stock driver and splice or solder to the existing driver wires to install the KD driver, That’s it. But the KD driver does not come with a +B spring. You’ll need to purchase some springs from IOS or Fasttech. Don’t reuse the Trustfire spring. They are very prone to annealing or melting under high amp load.

On my AK-47, after removing the stock driver, up inside the driver cavity, there are two screws that hold the reflector in place. I removed these screws and from the outside, just removed the reflector and desoldered the + & - wires that lead down to the driver and replaced these 2 wires with 22g silver teflon coated wire. This added a small increase in efficiency adding slightly to the tail cap amp reading.

The difference between the AK-47 and the Skyray 9x T6 is the AK is wired fully in series. The Skyray is wired in 3s3p. So the AK has much easier wiring under the reflector to deal with.

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Interesting that the 9xT6 is wired in series. I was just about to buy it instead because I like the design better.

What does IOS stand for? (intl-outdoor store?)

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Yes, intl-outdoor store.

http://intl-outdoor.com/goldsilver-plated-springs-for-drivers-and-switches-5-pcs-p-325.html

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just took the ak47 for some testing outside . oh man, this thing floods like theres no tomorrow. i thought my tk 70 did a good job lighting up the yard, but the ak47 just about does 50% more with more lumens also. and richie told me i havent seen nuthin yet. right now, with 2x26650, im doing 57 watts, with the third battery, it’ll be 90 watts! cant wait…

I must say, the beam from this light is very nice and different. the hotspot blends well into the flood and spill. almost like one huge flood light. another interesting thing is that the beam has no corona. the flood and spill just disperses so evenly that it doesnt create a circle of light.

the only time i see the corona/ circle beam , is when i shine it at a white wall 5 feet away or closer. as for throw, it seems to throw similiar to my hd2010. which is satisfactory for being a flooder. but dude, your like seeing a wall of light at a very far distance now which is impressive yanno.

I have not been this satisfied in any of my light purchases more than this one i have to admit. but do understand i have a thing for flooders, and lumens. so if your more of a throw guy, …hmm…actually you i know what, im still sure you wont be dissapointed because the lumens will just blow your mind.

props to richie for giving all the insight on the light, and for the helping hand with my mod

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What are some good 26650 to use in this light? My Trustfire 26650s don't have buttontops.

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king kong inr’s, or mnke’s. i think the best ones out as of right now, are enercells

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What about for protected cells?

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How is the heatsink of this model? The 9 T6s will need a lot of metal to keep cool, I think.

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Joe, the Trustfire 26650 5000mAh cells are button top and work in most any light, even in the AK-47 stock driver. However, once the KD driver is installed, the Trustfire cells will not power the light, no chance.

The only cells that will work are the unprotected MNKE 26650’s that Jason from EDC has that are $15.00 each, and are excellent. They are of the IMR variety, so they are a safer unprotected cell and will power anything. They are also button tops.

http://edcplus.com/mnke-imr26650-3700mah-p-5.html?zenid=6c22acf47ad8dd827fd3cdfd9b196f16

The EnerPower protected 26650 4500mAh+ button top cells I have are also excellent, but very costly even when discounted. They were $21.00 each including shipping to New York, but this seller doesn’t seem to be interested in doing business with BLF. So I wouldn’t bother with them.

I only have one King Kong cell, so I was never able to test this light with the KD driver if they’d work okay with it. Blueb8llz I think has used at least 2 KK cells with the light. So he’d be able to tell you if they are okay. But I just assumed KK cells would be able to drive a 10a light, but don’t know for sure.

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Alex, the LED’s on all these 9x T6 lights sit on an aluminim heat sink about 1/4” thick or perhaps a little less. Heatsinking is good, but once the KD driver is installed, like any high power light, you don’t want to use it on high mode for more than a minute or so. The LED’s produce a lot of heat and you don’t want the heat sink to become saturated. Even the very expensive lights typically have a timed high or turbo mode that automatically steps down after about 2 minutes or so, but they aren’t driven anywhere near as much amps as this light does with the KD driver, so I’d still go easy with it.

I’ll use my AK-47 on high for a few seconds and then step it down to low or medium to keep the heat under control. On high mode and using 3 good cells, it just produces so much light, it doesn’t take long to see whatever you’re doing and turn it down.

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I change my AK 47 for a HID, but why i keep clicking this thread & the original thread from Richie086 waiting for updates… :smiley:
What can be done to keep heat down on this AK 47 after driver swap? coming 6000 lumen keeps on floating in my head… >)

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Hi Cop,

Honestly, when pushing this much power, I don’t think it’s possible. On high mode, the leds are running at 8watts, close to their maximum of 10watts each, so care should be used. I really don’t know how much abuse the KD driver can handle, so I’m just being careful with it.

Besides, most of the higher end multi-emitter lights have a timed high or turbo, but the KD driver does have an automatic step-down once it reaches 60c celcius. I think it’ll start to flash in some fashion when overheated and also when battery voltage becomes low.

I now own 2 Trustfire AK-47’s and 1 Skyray 9x T6. Installing the KD driver caused me to have to purchase 3 MNKE cells, and also 3 Enerpower cells, plus I’ve now purchased 4 KD drivers, one of which was bad. So I really don’t want to have to spend any more money on these lights if I start burning parts up.

So use them in good smart health :wink:

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hmm, that is a lot of money, but it seems if you spend another $48 for 3 more MNKEs, then you grow a third arm, you’ll be able turn night into day w/ 18,000 lumens in your hands :party:

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Yep, i understand the timed thingy in some light.

Oh, i never knew (read enough) that KD driver have that feature but again; need to purchase other batts just for the AK 47 :_( .
Guess i just do drivers for X100 & J18, hope their heat sink is sufficient :stuck_out_tongue:

Err…since i am also getting drivers for them from KD, on x100 & J18, also 8 watts on each? What is the size of the head for AK 47? As big as the x100?
http://i4.photobucket.com/albums/y101/icopulate/IMG_1776.jpg

Zzz… no photos came up…

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Hey Cop,

If you’re going to modify any light, go for the X100. The thing is it requires 4 x 26650’s, and the reason I didn’t purchase it. I believe it’s a 7 x T6, but with 4 cells, that thing would likely be one hell of a bright light and may actually reach 100 watts. For some reason, it wasn’t popular around here, but I think several members did purchase it. You’d have to do a search for it and see what comes up on this forum.

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Yes, its a 7 x T6 (like the J18), just that bigger reflector cup & bigger heatsink at head on the x100.

Only people from thaicpf done that driver, so far that i read of.
Normal lighting at 70 meters.
https://budgetlightforum.com/t/-/8920?page=2#comment-198152

After the KD driver.
http://www.flashlightmania.com/read.php?tid-664-page-3.html

J18 with drivers have been done. https://budgetlightforum.com/t/-/10808

Maybe i will still get AK 47… >)

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Yes, I’m aware of that link. But it ran as high as 71 watts which is about 6,000 lumens maybe. I was able to get my AK-47 to just over 90 watts. Funny thing is the driver in that X100 looks just like the stock driver for the AK47. But I’m sure the actual components are different and designed to handle 4 cells.

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Would the X100 be a better choice to mod than the AK47?