Hey Richard, I always go to your site to see what’s new. Something I need to add to my collection. I notice in the battery section that there can be dramatic purchases from day to day. One day you have 150 in stock and the next day you have 10 !? Are these 1 to 4 unit buys or are people swooping in and buying 30-40 at a pop? Your prices are very fair. Have you become a wholesaler for other businesses? Just curious.
Regards
I know that Richard started as a help measure for us here on the forum, so we could have easier access to the parts we use for modding. As such, when I go to order an item, say a Qlite driver, I pay attention to how many are in stock. I might have several projects in mind and be wanting to purchase 5 or even 10 drivers, but if the available stock on hand is low I only order the one or 2 I need now, so as not to be keeping someone else from also modding their new light.
Seems to me that others are not considerate to the overall enterprise and snatch up large volumes in total disregard to the community at large, yes, as though mtnelectronics were a wholesaler. I also know of other modders taking up a lot of Richards time building drivers for them so they don’t have to do it themselves. Again, to me that seems pretty selfish but it’s all in a day’s work I suppose. That is totally up to Richard to accept or deny as is the wholesaler large order question. No easy answers I’m sure.
To each his/her own I suppose, still doesn’t seem quite right to me and I will continue to be conscientious to the greater needs of the family here.
I would also like to address something that this brings to mind. I have been called condescending, as though I think I am better than anyone/someone else. That simply isn’t so. I suck at so many things and have my own troubles in making lights or cheesecake for that matter. I just know there are right ways and wrong ways to go about things and wish that were more common knowledge. Meaning, pointedly, that I am old fashioned and believe in being proper…a civil manner where greed doesn’t over-ride one’s sense of civil duty.
I haven’t been buying enormous stocks of parts, but personally I don’t see buying out limited stock as a serious issue. If Richard really wanted to limit it he could always add “limit XX per customer” to various items. He hasn’t done so.
Also, not everyone has the capability to make their own drivers. Richard provides a valuable service for those of us who don’t. I can solder or remove components from drivers, but I don’t currently have the capability to flash or program my own firmware.
That’s nice of you Dale. Just don’t be so nice as to hurt RMM’s business. (From the turn over of stock business I assume is good)
As for condescending… What?! The spoken word is a blunt tool who’s effect can be improved through body language, facial expression, pitch and inflection but still be completely misunderstood. Should someone perceive insult at what someone else writes. I think it best to ask directly if they understood correctly what was written. i.e. “In your last post were you saying that I am retarded, solder like a 3 year old and that I am morally reprehensible? Because my soldering skills are really improving.” LOL. No worries Dale. People find offense where they look for it.
Richard, my hours at work are improving. So of course you are out of solder paste. Any idea when more will be in stock?
Also for you and the other gurus, what will produce 3k to 4k lumens and produce the least amount of heat in the smallest package an MTG2 or a triple XML2? Even if briefly- say for less than a minute.
Your 3-4 thousand lumens will probably be best met with the MT-G2. 3 XM-L2’s need quite a lot of amps to produce that level of output, and will make considerable heat in the process. The simplest and most economical way to do 3000 lumens would be with the Mt-G2 at around 4A. Or so I have found. Also, difficult to find a triple XM-L2 board.
Down and dirty, get an Solarforce K3 and mod the driver.
Thanks Scotty. I knew when I wrote that up above that I would probably be better off deleting it, but the wife said go ahead and I did. Getting old and grumpy. Too close to Justin I think. 
lol And from the little mountain of packaging gathering here from mtnelectronics it’s pretty safe to say I do my part
Firelight, there are a lot of folks that have trouble making a driver or modding one, either soldering issues or shaky hands or impaired vision or whatever. Which is why Richard does it. That’s not what I was talking about. I’m talking about people that build lots of the same light, dozens, and sell them for profit. People that can indeed do it themselves, taking advantage of the super prices that Richard charges.
As far as cells go, I wouldn’t be a bit surprised if vape stores are using mtnelectronics as a wholesale supplier to get the cells that are otherwise elusive and re-sell them for a profit to vapers.
I relate it to my brother buying stuff at Goodwill. He makes $30 an hour, has little expenses of his own, and can easily afford name brand product at the big stores. But he’s cheap. In the same way that, with ample insurance through the local hospital, he took his daughter to a childrens hospital in Dallas (2 hours or more away) for a free operation so he wouldn’t have to pay anthing on co-pays here. (Shriner’s is a miracle place) She got her back fixed, and I’m very happy about that for her sake, but he could have had it done here on the local program just as well and it would have left those children’s hospital funds to go towards the kids that don’t have other resources. I guess because of this kind of thing, I’m sensitive to the abuse of a system. Rant over.
Is an MTG2 at 4 amps really 3000-4000 lumens? According to Match’s testing, it looks like it should be around 2500 lumens at the emitter, which probably means 1700-2000 out-the-front. Match’s test results
Ah yeah. That would be a bit unfair if people buy out all of Richard’s modding time for the next month just so they could get a few dozen identical drivers for resale.
On the other hand, I wouldn’t feel comfortable giving any advice that could reduce Richard’s business. If Richard really didn’t want to accept mass orders like that (if people are even making them), he can always implement restrictions himself. (such as “limit XX per customer” on selected items)
Those test results from Match are on an Aluminum star from Cutter.
On copper, the results are better. But yes, point duly noted. In a Convoy C8 with Ryan’s copper pill and a Noctigon star, I saw 2500 OTF at 4.75A. Getting over 3000 lumens with a single emitter takes significantly more.
<—- At 12.18A with a 1/2 pound copper pill, the M8 makes 4200 lumens at start-up, 3600+ at 30 seconds. Lot’s of heat.
At over 10A, the Elektrolumens triple XM-L2 makes 2600+ lumens at start-up, again lots of heat, lot’s of amps, still difficult to hit 3000 OTF and it’s direct drive from a single cell.
Tweaking the snot out of Kings and Kungs and M6’s is the best way I know of to get over 3000 lumens, lot’s of heat, 4 cells.
The question was, however, “what will produce 3k to 4k lumens and produce the least amount of heat in the smallest package an MTG2 or a triple XML2” so the closest to that and easiest to that is the K3 with MT-G2 and some modification. Heat, lumens, small package. There are going to be trade-offs. To keep the package small, run a K3 head on an L2P with two 18350’s. Modify the driver to get closer to 3000 OTF, short amount of time with a whole lot of light in a P-60 sized package (sorta).
Having a number of those lights, allow me to offer my humble observations 
the modded K3 head does quite well - I had one that was tweaked to 4.5 amps and could run for about 3-4 minutes before having to throttle down. The beam is great also. I regret selling mine! lol.
The mtn electronic securitying is brighter but gets insanely hot and fast - 30 seconds to a minute and you have to throttle back to 50% to cool off
the electrolumens big bruiser is built well, but running off of one cell is its Achilles heel - especially with the high forward voltage of 3 xml2s and pulling 9 amps… even with sony 26650 and moli 26700 - i measured a 30-40% drop in output within the first 2-3 minutes from voltage drop. IIRC wayne says he adds resistance to the circuit even though its direct drive, so this could also be causing the voltage drop.
And what Wayne built in, I worked hard to remove! lol
And of course you’re perfectly correct, the single cell is the weak point, and the Vf of 3 XM-L2’s is acutely aware of that.
It isn’t easy to get 3000 lumens or more in what we could call a small package.
its crazy how much more heat 3000 is compared to say 1800 … and 3000 vs 1800 visually looks around 1.2-1.3 times as bright to me depending on the beam profile
maybe we get caught up too much in numbers?
but i like numbers
and i like heat.
So you like Mod level 2 of Richards M6 then, don’t you? Plenty to like about that one, including some crazy numbers.
Which brings to mind, how feasible is it to think about replacing the XM-L2’s with MT-G2’s, and using 4 pairs of Efest IMR18350’s in place of the 4 18650’s? That should give you some numbers to contemplate, and plenty of BTU’s to figure on as well. 
As a general disclaimer, I haven't thoroughly read all of the preceding posts so I may have missed a few details.
1. Are some companies/people using me as a wholesaler?
Yes. However, this is not a bad thing, since higher volume allows me to get slightly better prices on items. There is a potential issue with one or two buyers hogging all of the components, but this is generally not the case, and it isn't as big of a problem anymore since there are many alternatives available. With batteries, there are plenty of alternatives if one particular cell is out of stock; same thing goes for LEDs, with a lot of different tints available. On crucial items, such as 105C drivers, I have been stocking plenty of extras that aren't listed on the website. Not having those drivers is a show stopper, so I usually have more than is listed on the site. What does that mean? Don't worry about ordering too many of those items, I usually have more or will get more shortly. With qlite drivers, don't worry about it.
2. Regarding other modders buying drivers, etc: I don't have an issue with this at all, and I have no idea why anyone would think that I was being taken advantage of. I control the prices and the quantity of items offered and if I feel like either of those need to change, I can do that.
I do find myself in a bit of a conundrum as far as pricing for mods, etc. goes. There is enough demand that I could charge a lot more than I currently am and still keep busy, but I'm not planning on doing that. I want to keep the prices as reasonable as possible, even if that entails a bit of sacrifice on my part. At the end of the day, I want to provide a good value for my customers. This means that sometimes the wait time can be longer than I'd like, but that's the only way I can keep prices low and quality up.
That said, I do offer these custom services on a limited basis because my time to build them is limited and varies widely depending on my other workload. I would love to teach everyone how to mod their own stuff, but again my time is limited. I'm planning on making a few videos and compiling a few links of other BLF members' excellent tutorials when I get a few minutes this summer.
At the end of the day, this business exists for three principle reasons:
1. To provide for my family and so that my wife can have a good job while I'm in school.
2. To provide great products, service, and value to all of you.
3. Because I enjoy doing it (most of the time!) 
You guys are great to deal with and I appreciate all of your support. We're not perfect, but we're doing the best we can.
:beer:
Hi Richard, your price $7.65 is for single cell or 2 cells?
Single cell + case.
I would like to thank Richard for a job well done! It’s like this for myself. If Ricard is out of stock on something I just have a little patience and wait till he can get it back in-stock. It beats ordering from overseas and waiting for the shipment even if they have stock which sometimes they don’t.
Just keep up the good work Richard. I pretty sure all the BLF members and others appreciate what you are doing I know I do.
Peace 
:party:
Sorry if I spoke out of bounds, other things have been bugging me in a related set of issues.
You and yours are doing a fantastic job, broadening the scope of in stock items even as you offer more services. A full time job to be sure! Greatly greatly appreciated.
RMM, if you ever close up shop, you will be sorely missed.
You just have to watch out for those guys wearing the Punisher ball caps.
You forgot about HAARP and I thought it was the T-shirt not the caps. J)