Hi Richard, Just sent you a pm.
Thanks!
Fun for the whole family! 
You could fit a few of each, make it a party! Am I invited???
But seriously, the Meteor seems like a good opportunity for mixing. I wonder how something like this would look? (one bullet per optic, outer-most emitter first)
- Nichia, WW XP-L, CW XP-L
- Nichia, de-domed XP-L 1A, de-domed XP-G2 1D
- Nichia, WW XP-G2, CW XP-G2
- Nichia, de-domed XP-L 2A , de-domed XP-G2 1D
I think it might give a nice neutral tint with vivid color rendition and a balance of flood and … um, slightly throwy flood. Might want to mix up which optics are used too, since the 10507 produces lots of artifacts. Maybe 10511 on the de-domed optics and 10508 on the regular ones? Not sure, it’d probably take a fair amount of experimenting to figure out what works.
How much current can the spring on the Qlite driver handle, without any modification?
Or to put it another way… if I were to add 3 or 4 chips to the standard Qlite 3.04A, would I need to modify or replace the spring?
Well, I know it can handle 8A+ without collapsing, but it does drop some voltage and generate some heat. 3 or 4 chips is no problem. Djozz measured a 82mV drop across the spring at 6A (much less than most longer springs). That's not a ton of juice, but a spring bypass always helps.
The spring shouldn’t melt at that current, but it’s not exactly going to help either… A spring bypass reduces resistance/heat (and increases current) even if the spring isn’t in danger.
Hi RMM, I placed an order for the new Cree U4 1C’s along with other stuff. Check your PM
Thanks!
Cool beans. Thanks guys.
i usually use 62/36/2% tin/lead/silver solder for all my soldering vs my 60/40 and 70/30 and do that. usually have to get solder on the star and then on the ring, let cool and then quickly bridge it. i have 4 different kinds of solder and never really experimented.
and on the note of springs, i usually replace steel springs with the fasttech copper springs. on qlite drivers i solder the small end to board. if the spring is braided i dont worry about it.
That picture is a blast from the past!
The qlite driver spring has less resistance than those copper springs do by themselves. I used some of the FT springs in the beginning, but they don't seem to hold their shape very well, so I stopped using them. I think that a quality steel spring with copper braid is really the way to go.
i have not had any problems with them to be honest…… and i never measured resistance of them…
So, FWIW… I put together a red Convoy S2+ configured with a triple and a FET+1 driver. This was an experiment to find out if it would work, and to find out how the FET and +1 would interact with the emitters. This post is sort of an unassorted collection of notes.
I swapped the pill with an old S2, which made things fit easier. RMM’s aluminum spacer was just right, ish. It’s too long by precisely the thickness of the glass lens, so I wonder if it’s intended for builds with no lens.
The FET+1 is driving a triple XP-G2 S3 3C shining through a Carclo 10508 (medium-spot, frosted). The beam pattern is very nice (smooth, floody). However, the tint is green on the 7135-only modes (looks whiter on the FET modes). I reduced this effect on one mode (~100 lm) by letting the FET contribute about a quarter of the total lumens, which improved the tint compared to letting the 7135 chip do it all. It’s less efficient but looks better.
I haven’t checked maximum output yet… having a difficult time doing spring bypasses correctly. However, pre-bypass I got 1950 lumens on a 3.9V cell so I expect full output will easily be over 2000 lumens. (edit: with a 4.18V cell, it got 2250 lm at start)
On the other end of the scale, it has a nice moon mode which goes from 0.38 lm (at 4.2V) to 0.07 lm (at 3.5V), which is a lot more stable than a FET-based moon. I might try adding PFM to soft-regulate it though.
The levels I gave it (first pass, not fully calibrated yet) work out to: 0.26 lm, 8.8 lm, 98 lm, 382 lm, 913 lm, 1950 lm on a 3.9V cell.
The host is very nice, especially the switch and the color. Half-presses are really easy with this type of button. The bezel is a bit narrower than the optic, so it cuts off a bit of each of the three TIRs. I assume this causes a loss of lumens, but I don’t know how much. The beam pattern seems mostly unaffected.
So, I still have a few things to fix or improve, but it’s pretty nice so far. I figure I’ll adjust the spacer at some point and maybe give it Nichia 219s instead of XP-G2s. Also still have some springs to improve and firmware to tweak. I didn’t even put thermal paste in yet because I expect to be taking it apart soon… but so far so good.
Edit: With a fresh-charged 4.18V cell, it got 2250 lm at start. Modes were: 0.38 lm, 10.3 lm, 121 lm, 425 lm, 1055 lm, 2250 lm. The 7135 channel alone produces 152 lm.
Yes, I don't use the lens on any of my small triple builds. I've never broken one of those lenses, and neither has anyone else that has reported to me. People always talk bout scratching them...so what? If it scratches badly, then you replace a $1.50 part.
Well I gave it a shot, and all I managed to do was kill the driver somehow (and of course I was working on my only guppydrv Qlite). I don’t see any shorts…guessing I toasted a chip from too much heat or something. I’ll be watching for that service to pop back up on the store. 
Feel free to add 3 or 4 chips to those Qlites I ordered a few hours ago if you’re bored. 
+1 - me too 
These are copied over from the main M43 thread, but I thought that many of you would want to see it (and maybe hadn't seen it over on the other thread).
My initial thoughts:
Well, I've had a few minutes to play with the light now, and here are a few of my initial impressions:
- This thing is tiny and light. I was actually surprised by how light and short it is.
- I am not exaggerating when I say that the machining, surface finish, and overall fit and finish are as good or better than any Fenix or Nitecore light I've seen. Seriously impressive in this regard.
- You can tell that a lot of time was put into this light. There are a lot of parts in this one that were designed specifically for this light---from the solid copper tailcap, to the driver, to the Noctigon button boot.
- This is just my opinion, but the dedomed XP-G2 1D emitters in this one put out a pretty awesome and useful beam. The tint is also very good, especially for dedomed emitters. I took it outside and this thing is a beast!
- The driver has a ton of different features. I'm just starting to get used to it now, but it seems pretty good.
- The button has a lit RGB LED array. It can be used as a constant light, as a beacon, or it can be turned off (unlike the MM15!!!). This is more useful than most, because it shows the current battery state.
- While this light has thermal management, it isn't set very conservative. The light can get pretty hot on turbo before it starts to ramp down. If you're holding the battery tube you'll be OK, but the head gets pretty uncomfortable. I think that most flashaholics prefer the management to not be too conservative, but a few of "the uninitiated" may think that it is getting pretty hot!
- Because it's a boost driver, there isn't infinite dimming, but there is a good range of modes. Here are the OTF lumens I measured (dedomed XP-G2)
- Moon: 1.9
- Low: 107
- Mid: 756
- High: 2901
- Turbo: 6458
- Of note, the Turbo output only dropped about 50 lumens after 1 minute. This is unusual and is obviously due to the boost driver. The output in all of the modes is remarkably consistent.
- Throw is visually very impressive for such a small multi-emitter light. Again, I think that the dedomed XP-G2 may be the one to get here, but I'll have to see one with the XP-Ls to compare against. I measured about 73kcd. That's pretty good for a light like this!
A few size comparisons:
M6 vs. M43
MM15 vs. M43
All Three Side-by-Side. The M43 is very short!
I weighed them all on the same scale, without batteries (batteries will add the same amount of weight in all three, since they all take 4x18650):
- M6: 15.4 oz; 437 grams
- MM15: 12.1 oz; 343 grams
- M43: 12.9 oz; 366 grams
Of note, the MM15 is a bit lighter, but it doesn't have nearly as much copper inside.
The illuminated button. It indicates the battery charge depending on the color. It can be set to be constant on, beacon (flashes intermittently), or can be turned off. This one is much less annoying than the MM15 beacon, which I feel is far too bright.
A few more colors:
The moonlight level is pretty low, considering you are powering 12 emitters. The switch light is always on when the light is turned on, and shows the charge level, as well as indicating mode changes and thermal regulation.
The machining and anodization are first-class, and very consistent throughout the light.
Did I mention that the square cut threads and anodization are first-class? 
The tailcap has a nice laser-etched logo. I like that the rest of the light is clean.
Yes, even the spring holder is a copper MCPCB. The screw holes are countersunk.
The other side of that tailcap MCPCB. Here you can see the Beryllium-copper low-resistance springs.
Here is the battery contact side of the driver. The contact surface is thick and shouldn't wear quickly. I didn't take this one apart, since it's my only sample and it is going to be sent to several others for review. There are some pictures of the driver available earlier in this thread.
Here you can see the AR coating's reflection. I can't see any color cast in the LED output, and under most viewing conditions the glass is virtually transparent.
The light thermally regulates and keeps the maximum temperature around 50C on turbo.
This is definitely not a budget light; instead, it is a premium light that is going to duke it out with the best and most expensive the industry has to offer.
Wow!! That is one awesome light? Do you have a ball-park guess on what the price might look like?
Edit: intl-outdoor now says “Starting at: $158.68”.
I ran some numbers for this setup and got a ballpark estimate of 6000 lumens with 35 kcd of lux, if it used the same optics as stock. However, the output would change tint in different parts of the beam. I’m not sure if it would actually be an upgrade compared to some of the stock options.
Throw would, of course, be reduced quite a bit with different optics. Tint consistency would be improved though.
Richard, do you have any experience with this green LED in the Convoy C8 host?
I have a friend that wants me to build him an “economy” max throw green light for short/medium range hunting.