Mini rebuild/driver swap Trustfire 3t6 from tmart

LED Flashlights – General Info 18650 Flashlights
1

After putting off buying one of these many a time I couldn’t say no when it popped up at $14 a while back

1st impressions
It’s nicer in the flesh than I was expecting, finish is decent but there are a few small nicks on the 2 battery tubes

All the threads are lubed, a bit too much lube if anything and all bits have o rings, tail cap having both but the head end of the battery tube only have 1 of the 2 slots populated

Head disassembled

Driver is this and seems to be consistent with what others have received for this SKU
No memory mode but does at least start in high
mode sequence is High-Medium-Low-Strobe-SOS

with the screw you can see in the above shot removed the reflector is detached and we find the 3 LEDs wired in parallel with fairly thin wires.

disappointingly output is quite low with tail cap readings in stock config at 1.6A, which has it being beaten by my darth quite easily and that’s not exactly that bright for a 3 XM-L’er so I had to do something about that.

So I -
Changed the wires to 24awg
Cleaned the domes which had thermal goop on them
Changed the driver for this proper 3t6 one

New driver

tail cap readings after tinkering are 2A :~ so still a bit low, guess it now needs a resistor mod.

And on that subject here’s the relevant resistors, so what do I need to up it to say 3amp

2

Nice info and pictures. That driver should be delivering about 4 to 4.5 amps to the emitters. The cumulative resistance of those three emitters resisters should be .050 ohms. Theoretically, adding a .1 ohm resister (R100) should get you 50% more current.

EDIT: Fixed mistake above.

3

Where did you get that driver from?

Check here for the mods on the 3t6.

4

First thing needed here is a braid on that long center spring, guarantee it will pick up the amperage.
Then worry about resistor mods.
Enjoy,
Keith

5

I just built a 3t6 into a monster thrower for my buddy.

The driver is a 17dd Zener modded and mounted on a 26mm OSHPark contact board.

Also deleted the positive spring and that stupid horrible limiting negative contact spring at the body/head

The bottom of your reflector is a lot different from the one I did and the bezel on mine was silver.

Do you have a link for the $14 one? Is there an option to add another extension for 3 cells? Do you think 3 18500’s would fit in the 2 cell body? That would be awesome!