I finished my quad X6 build yesterday and pretty happy with the results:
4284 @start, 3900 @30secs
Got the best tail reading with a SAM 25R @4.21v of 11.0A - 11.2A, so used it for the light measurements. With an EFEST 35A and LG HE2's, got just under 10.8A or so at 4.20 - 4.21v. Might have to do with the age and usage of the cells - dunno.
This is with Nitro's alum quad heat sink, the standard quad board, and quad optics from Richard that have been widened to fit domed XP-L's. I built up the quad MCPCB so long ago, forgot what exact XP-L's I used, but pretty sure I had the V6's, maybe 2A's - definitely warmer than 1A's because of nice white beam not a strong neutral, no sign of blues at all. The quad heat sink needed some TLC sanding/filing to fit, but not much. Some details:
quad aluminum heat sink from nitro
quad 20mm copper DTP MCPCB (from Dsche)
quad optic from Richard, with the extra $1 for widening the opening to fit domed XP-L's
4 XP-L's, think they are V6's and 2A or warmer
BLF17DD v1.0 driver with original good vishay FET, OTC and my slightly modified STAROffTime 1.3 driver, 4 modes, turbo timeout of 2 minutes
20 AWG silicone LED wires w/22 AWG teflon short cross over on the MCPCB - had to widen holes in the heat sink and MCPCB to fit the 2 silicone wires
20 AWG driver spring bypass, using an IOS 'B' spring
22 AWG tail spring bypass and switch PCB '+' bypass jumper (courtesy of Dale )
drilled/tapped 2 brass screws to secure the heat sink to the pill top, screwed down from inside the pill, but the heat sink had to be tapped in (press fit) into the head anyway
GC Extreme under the MCPCB, and NO-OX-ID on all electrical contacts/threads
UCL/p 35x2.5 mm lens in place of the stock AR lens
the bezel o-ring fits snugly around the heat sink on the ledge (think the ledge is machined for it there)
The only thing that bugs me on this setup is not securing the MCPCB tightly to the heat sink - it depends on pressure of the lens to the optic to hold down the MCPCB. Would much prefer the MCPCB screwed down but there doesn't seem to be any room on the crammed MCPCB. Maybe with some machining of the heat sink, I could create spaces to mount screws on the edges of the MCPCB, but haven't looked into that.
Not happy with the big drop in the first 30 secs, but like Dale says, to be expected. Also was hoping to squeeze out a little more lumens - might do more resistance tweaking, maybe use 20 AWG in the tailcap spring instead of 22. For the LED wires, 18 AWG silicone teflon would have been nice, but I didn't have any. Figure it would fit where 20 AWG silicone would fit.
Nice Tom! Is this the aluminum or copper quad sink? I’m thinking it must be the aluminum one, otherwise you could re-flow the quad star into the heat sink and make it like a one-piece unit.
I used a copper one and it’s a chunk! The light is surprisingly heavy and has a reassuring solid feel to it. (also got a couple of aluminum ones.)
I had the copper heat sinks for C8's and found it just too much weight. The alum one is one big healthy chunk, figuring the difference would be small, if at all. The reflow to the copper one is a plus, but makes it almost permanent.
Check out here where i asked him
“Yeah i remember you did that and it looks really nice.
If i would want to do something like that, how do you do it? i have a bunch of different wet sand papers from 100 to 8000, would that be enough or do i need some kind of polishing compound to get that shine on clear plastic?”
And he answered.
“cajampa, the high wet-dry papers are the way to get it right up to ready, then flip the sandpaper over and use the paper back with Mothers Billet Aluminum polish. That or a newspaper. Lay it flat on a hard surface such as a glass table and polish away. Use a clean section of newspaper to buff it. Don’t use cloth at all. You’ll be amazed.
I used the Ledil CN12299 IRIS-IR optic that came with a holder. I ixnayed the holder and did some modification to fit the optic into the head of the X6. It looks freaking awesome in there!
Yeah, I’m a monster. I took a brand new $10 optic and carved on it like a Thanksgiving Turkey! I want what I want, and ever since that Old Lumens challenge things have never been quite the same…
Since then, I’ve built a 9th X6. This one has a diamond pattern (sorta) reflector that I got from Cutter, made by Fraen. It works very well to smooth a beam, not really necessary here but because of it’s size and ease of use I used it with the big Luminus SBT-70. I had to cut it down, easy enough as it’s plastic with a metalized layer embedded for the patterned chromed reflector.
This bad boy pulls 17.51A from a single cell! But, as usual, performance is low at a mere 1500 lumens. The beam profile is nice, tint is beautiful (5700K) and I just love seeing it sitting in there. All in all a favorite, and it’s got the full sized Copper heat sink I designed for a carclo quad that Nitro had made. Hefty, and it needs to be, with all that heat the big die creates.
It looks great but 17.5A that is just crazy in as small light as the X6. It is really sad that Cree don’t make round non bond wire limited emitters, i can’t even imagine what a 17.5A emitter with a Cree spec emitter would do in lumens
itsonlyme, I’m not sure, will have to double check. Might have to take one tonight to be sure about it.
My memory sucks, seriously, sucks bad. So I just don’t know and if I have pics saved in Flickr and not marked then I won’t know what they are. So I’ll have to check and see if I tagged beamshots. lol
It’s actually pretty nice though, for “only” 1500 lumens. The reflector was cut short due to the very thick copper heat sink which was designed to have short quad optics in it. But it still makes a nice profile and the color is right down my alley. I love the heft of it, that’s a huge chunk of copper up in that head. What if the Luminus emitter were more efficient? It’d (should) easily double that lumens count and be a stupendous light. So sad, and now they’re discontinued anyway. $43 emitter in a $15 host with a $15 chunk of copper under it. Something happened to my budget list, somehow it got tweaked! lol A top dollar budget is still a budget is it not?
Which is why my 10th X6 that is going away will be replaced by the new Titanium version from Rey. :bigsmile: I just have to figure out what I’m going to put in it…. Will have to see how he set up the pill shelf and what I can fit in. I’d love to put an Ledil Angie Quad in it with XP-L’s.
Dale I remember you saying that you made a light for Kronological with a diamond pattern reflector, I don’t recall ever seeing beamshots of that so it is something that has always interested me in how it would look. Krono sang its praises too iirc.
The reflector that was sent as a sample, on the same site where we can buy the Lum90
The Ti X6 isn’t going to have exposed copper fins, but I believe it will have a copper pill. Not exactly sure at this point. It’s one of those things that I won’t give a whole lot of thought to until I have the light in hand, then I’ll have a better feel for what it’s suited for.
I’d LIKE to put a quad in it, but don’t know if that will work. Well, of course it would work, dependent on power level. I want to use the LD-2 at 6A in it, so, theoretically, a quad would pull 1.5A per emitter which is within spec and shouldn’t create massive heat. On the other hand, an MT-G2 at 3A is also within spec and would produce a nice tint with quite decent output. But a SBT-70 would look awesome in there, and I DO have one left… guess it will remain a mystery until that day comes…
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and it looks really nice.
