I consulted searching for lux measurements for this eagletec, and I found this throw calculation based on lux measurements - so this eagletec throws something like Beamshot of 13 lights, September 2011
SkyRay STL-V2, 440 meters.
This flashlight definitely needs driver change.
Any ideas wich driver to pout in it.
Today Ill try to diassemble it to see wich size of drivers it will accept.
Such a shame it scomes with weak driver - so, the price turned out to be realistic. Not some awesome deal. With good driver it would be good deal
To be fair, even though the driver’s clearly not ideal, it’s not that terrible, either. These emitters deliver most of their light by 2A-2.5A anyway. Since this is ostensibly a thrower, you’ll only get maybe 25% more distance from 100% more power draw in any case.
I really wish Small sun would do the side switch on a general purpose 1x18650 light a la zebralight sc600.
Yes I tested it outside (I’ll refrain from talking about meters) and of course its not a bad thrower, and its suitable for most purposes.
It gives nice, focused beam. But, you know, Ill try to make most of it, Ill tr that mod with resistors.
It was talked about on another topic, to ut 0,3-0,5 resistor in paralel, somewhere on stock driver, to yield current around 3,0A.
I dont know can I harvest some such resistor from some cheaper drive (Ive never done that nor do I know how resistors exactly look like.)
I change my mind, Ill mention meters after all: google Earth shows me that it throws at least 360 meters….
Of course, object lit on 360 meters is not very bright
I have church tower made from brick 360meters from my house, so I test flashlights sometimes on that. SO, its not white, but from brick (red).
(I wonder how many lumens is needed that road signs start reflecting the light )
I was asking about changing the sense resistors myself, did you find a value to use in parallel to the original ones? Not sure what you meant by “0,3-0,5” what is that in ohms?
Yes, I think, you can find that info in topic called, “New lights from manafont” or something like that.
Viffer wrote about it.
This driver would be greeat with more current, I like it because it always starts at high.
I got mine today and I am very pleased with it’s performance. I think it’s a great light for $24.24!!! I just had it outside and compared it to my TrustFire X8 and the ZY-T13 smoked it. Then I got the Shadow TC 500 and they were very close and it took several looks to tell that the T13 was the winner over it but it won’t beat the T40CS……Overall I wish I would have bought this over the Shadow TC 500 which I paid $59.99
Mine came in today and I am disappointed in manafont,I asked that it was checked before shipping and I was intending to review it on BLF.They responded that extra Q.C. would be applied,but when it came it looked like it had been dropped a few times.Ironic because I never had a damaged item from them before.Enough blubbering from me,I do like the light and it's a medium power light with decent throw and for 24 bones,not a bad deal.This may get an overhaul soon.
Uh-oh, that doesn’t sound good mate. I’ve got one of these and some other stuff from Manafont being shipped at the moment with “extra Q.C.” requested as well … maybe they think Q.C. means “Quit Caring” or something??
I’d demand a partial refund if I were you, I don’t think anyone else has reported theirs being all banged up??
It would have looked bad on them for a review and I think mine was damaged pre-packing because the thing was triple bubble wrapped and double enveloped.I don't expect they will do much,might not be worth it.
Good news guys! I found out how to increase the current to the led! Its a piece of cake to do! Read on!
I wanted to see how to increase the current to the led and decided to access the driver and play with the sense resistors a bit, took a picture of the sense resistors and noticed that they are R220
Another pic!
Not sure if both resistors are wired in parallel, It sure looks that way to me when lighting the circuit board from behind with a light to see the electrical paths. What do you think?
Anyway, I decided to mess with the outermost resistor and since I don’t want to be applying heat several times to solder and de-solder different resistors I just soldered a 24ga. silicon wire to each end.
Now I put a 500 ohm 30 turn trimpot at the other end and set it at 500 ohm and start turning while measuring the current with a voltmeter
When the trimpot reads between 0.80 ohm(less than 1 ohm) and 0.40 ohm the current to the led is 2.80 to 3.10 amp, it is much brighter now compared to the eagletac M3C4 XM-L,
Just for the heck of it I soldered both silicon wires together for no resistance and the driver read 4.8amp (or 9.6amp to the led) I only did this for a fraction of a second and the driver and led survived phew! Wont try that again!
So tomorrow I’ll go find me some resistors from 1 ohm to 0.3 ohms to solder in place.
Will report back tomorrow after finishing the mod.
Thats easy! Extend your right hand (or left if you are southpaw), align hand with forehead, strike palm against forehead while making your best Homer Simpson voice… Doh! :bigsmile:
You sure did! Thanks for the suggestion and also for the warning not to go over 1.5 amp, will keep that in mind, How long do you think the driver can hold that current without overheating? What happens if it overheats, does it just shut off or does it get damaged permanently? Do you know what component in the board overheats?
I’m finished modding this light, I bought a small 10 ohm 18 turn trimpot and calibrated it to 0.7 ohms and the best thing is that it fits perfectly inside the light!, so now its user adjustable.
Here is a pic of the trimpot mounted on the circuit board, no adjustments required, fits fine!
I took readings at the tailcap and these are the results
On High 1.62 amps
On Medium 0.79 amps
On Low 0.16 amps
The best thing is that I only added a $0.75 part to a $24.25 light, for a whooping total of $25 and I have a very good XM-L thrower driven at about 3 - 3.2 Amps! :party:
I think the output mosfet transistor(s ) is the most fragile component on this board. Sometimes, when the adjusted current is too much, the transistor desoldered itself simple.
Sometimes the mode selection circuit overheats, you will notice this, when the mode selection become strange.
So I think you should do some longer test at a little lower current than this.
:bigsmile:
