Hey guys, sorry I have been virtually absent this past weekend. I had gotten a little behind on flashlights and custom builds, so I pretty much shut everything off for two days and got caught back up. If you sent me an e-mail/PM and didn't get a response, please send it again as it may have gotten lost in the shuffle.
The Maxtoch lights are in! I will get them up on the site sometime today. I have to say that my initial impressions are very positive. I have a $120 Olight SR52 and $150 TN32 sitting here and these lights are every bit as good. The machining, threads, and finish are top notch--almost flawless. The lens and reflector are also excellent, and the lights are lightweight considering their size. Of course we have some work to do if we want to make them really sing, but they are about as good of a starting platform as any I've seen. I think that one of these with a few tweaks will spank the expensive lights without missing out on any of the quality.
Also, batteries and LEDs are set to arrive today. I will post when they are available.
I finally took a good look at the JAX Z1, and I think it’s an ideal host for a laserlike-zoomie mod. Seems like it should do 200kcd without a lot of trouble. If you decide to carry those, count me in.
Night Spy, input is based on the single cell Li-ion 4.2V with a 3V cut off. Output is going to vary by the cell used, with a max in the 6.8A range from a Sony C5 or Efest 35A in new condition. The lowest I’ve seen is around 4.5A from Sanyo UR18650FJ cells out of a laptop battery pack.
Maybe it would be worthwhile to point folks at HKJ’s BLF17DD review? In that review HKJ goes to no great effort to explain the concept of “direct drive” and it’s implications - so reading his review will probably only help so much if a person doesn’t already know about those things. It can be difficult to communicate in an accessible way exactly how DD ends up functioning. Maybe lagman’s thread will help people better understand the concept and it’s implications. I’ve been meaning to review his writeup but haven’t done it so far :-(.
Yep, I understand the basic concepts and the limitations of various components.
What I am not seeing is the allowable maximum input voltage to the driver for series terminated emitters.
Approximately 5.5 volts, which is the limitation of the MCU input voltage. The 70N02 is good for 20V source to drain, so 4S cells would be fine (and works fine with the zener version).
I have used this driver a lot in the 12 LED lights, with 3S cells on the input. I wired the leds 3S4P, matching the voltage requirements on the input and the output. I also use it in the BTU Shocker with 3S input and 3S output. I have even used the driver in a 36V application, but the 200 ohm resistor needs to be replaced with about a 1.5K-2K resistor, and the losses are quite high so a voltage regulator/buck regulator to supply the MCU would actually be much more efficient in those applications. (I wasn't concerned about the loss of efficiency).
I’m thinking you’d have to do a Zener modification to be able to run series cells to series LED’s in order to not fry the MCU. There is a BLF17DD Z board made for this.
I’m sure Wight or Richard or Comfy or someone can give you more info on that aspect. These were originally designed as a single emitter single cell direct driver replacement for the Qlite or Nanjg 105C style driver. There have been a lot of variations for the multiple uses people have come up with.
Thanks guys, that is what I needed to know. That is why I made the post, to say that this confirmation is not readily available upon a 1/2 day effort of searching.
Got in a huge shipment of LEDs and other parts yesterday and they up and going fast...too fast! Good thing I got in some more orders before the Chinese holiday, huh? If you're waiting for out of stock batteries too, they were supposed to arrive yesterday but should be arriving this afternoon, so if you need both just hang tight for a little bit so you can get them in a single order.
The Maxtoch M12 Mission and M24 Sniper are up. The machining and finish on these lights is as nice or nicer than any Fenix, Olight, Thrunite, or Nitecore I've seen. The M24 is super light!
Also, I am going to be moving to a better web hosting service in a week or so, so there may be a few hours of downtime during the switch over. It should bring faster and more reliable access to the site.
P.S. MT-G2 on 16mm Noctigon and a new 25mm MT-G2 Noctigon as well (with 4 individually addressable XQ-E pads on the outside!)
Any updates on offering the customized TrustFire TR-J20? IIRC you posted that everything else you looked at had severe thermal issues that made them unacceptable, at least to you.
I don't know if there is enough demand to make it a "stocked" custom light; however, I will build one for anybody who wants one. They can handle a lot more heat than anything else I've tried. In the mean time I have tried several different 12x lights...actually just about all of them I can get my hands on. Some are better than others, but none of them can handle a lot of amps without TONS of heat sag. I'm talking about sagging to 50% output in a matter of seconds, which just doesn't do it for me. On copper MCPCBs I'm sure that the sag would be less, but on most of the 12x lights with the stock aluminum MCPCBs you actually end up ahead in lumens after 30-60 seconds by running less current instead of more (more actually is less sometimes ). With the J20 I could push the emitters to 3A+ each on the aluminum MCPCBs and not worry about it. In the other lights you will absolutely fry the LEDs if you try this for more than a few seconds--the tell-tale visible blue tint shift and 50% drop in output with amps rising is a sure sign of that. On those lights I have been limiting output to around 1.5A per emitter and the result is better, but they still get too hot after 60-90 seconds. Regardless, they are still a lot of lumens for the money, but the J20 really is the optimum platform for huge 12x emitter power.
I just gave you my first order last night; just realized I could have use a coupon code. But the real reason I am posting is that I love your store. Site is easy to navigate. Good prices. Fair shipping. Thanks.
I don't, but should probably pick some up. Up until recently I didn't have many 26650 lights except for the DQG Tiny Triple for a while, and it came with an adapter. Maybe ILLUMN has some? Otherwise you're going to a be a few weeks out due to the Chinese holiday.
Yeah I love my 15 led… But your right about the heat catching up to the body. I stuff a real copper scrubber in the head- it compacts down close to solid… Maybe fit 2 in if really wanted too the pill is that big. But that helps quite a bit with sag. You need to craft an oven mitt for it literally. But I love the flood it’s just exactly what I want in a flood lamp. The 5 led is nice because there are no heat issues, but it doesn’t come close to just spanking light all over the place
My Amazon check and Google search indicate all are shipped from China with NO USA SOURCE available so you have a potential USA exclusive if you carry them and I would expect demand to increase as 26650 lights become more common.
If you're waiting for out of stock batteries too, they were supposed to arrive yesterday but should be arriving this afternoon, so if you need both just hang tight for a little bit so you can get them in a single order.
). With the J20 I could push the emitters to 3A+ each on the aluminum MCPCBs and not worry about it. In the other lights you will absolutely fry the LEDs if you try this for more than a few seconds--the tell-tale visible blue tint shift and 50% drop in output with amps rising is a sure sign of that. On those lights I have been limiting output to around 1.5A per emitter and the result is better, but they still get too hot after 60-90 seconds. Regardless, they are still a lot of lumens for the money, but the J20 really is the optimum platform for huge 12x emitter power.