4.7? 4.2? What in the hell have I got myself into.
emittertortureFoy
you know..I can't seem to recreate the 4.6a reading I initially got either when it was new..I get anywhere from 3.8-4.2a on all cells..
I'm wondering if that could be the effect of overloading the emitter?
Or maybe it is damaging the batteries and they are no longer able to supply maximum amperage.
I tested my UF-980L yesterday when I first got it with Trust Fire flame 2400: high; 4.18, medium; 1.17 and low; .19. Today with an older Solarforce protected 2400 I get a consistent 4.50 on high, 1.25 medium and .20 on low. In fact, when I first touched the lead to the battery (fresh recharge) it measured 4.70 for a few seconds.
It's not just me that is amazed at this draw, right?
IloveitFoy
It's a pretty amazing draw alright. Seems somewhere I read that once you get past 3A it is very hard for the eye to tell the difference in light output, but at 4.5A I'm guessing it's quite visible. And with a tight hotspot like that light throws, should give awesome distance.
You need to do some beamshots at something that is 100 yards, not 100 feet, away from the camera.
It would be good if we can easily change the pill/LED emitter when it blows. Its like overdriving halogen. :)
Read about Ma_sha1's Yardsweeper Turbo Triple XM-L with Nuke Mode? It dumps 4.6A to the 3 XM-Ls.
There are also some beamshots vs some other powerful LEDs. There are 2 brightest lights up there out of like 10, and this is one of them.
Dos Donts
Do not Run Nuke mode for more than 20 at a time.
Do not Turn on the light leave on the table un attended or use as stand alone area light.
even at 2.8Amp, itll eventually get very hot may damage it.
Hold the light in your hands at all times, when the Mag head gets too hot to touch, its time to turn it off let it cool.
Rule of thumb: This light can withstand higher heat than your skin can,
as long as you can hold the head tolerate the heat, its safe.
I recently made a couple drop ins with NANJG 105c drivers at 2.8 amps and I made the mistake of tail standing an Ultrafire 504B and leaving it on high unattended for about twenty minutes when I returned to pick up my light it was well above 120f, it was burning hot to the touch, this was something I did not expect at that amperage level.
I used to work in a lab and we experimented on how hot the average person can stand and 120f is the standard threshold for pain in a normal human so anything above 120f was uncomfortable to hold.
For a 150mm host type, 20 mins even at a current of 1.2A it can get pretty hot! Coz the host just heat saturates and relies on convection, which isn't really efficient on the hosts we see. Check out Catapult V3, that would be really different. If you manage to mod the Trustfire X6 to take XM-L you probably can run it till the batteries deplete. :)
Ma_sha went crazy and used a whole copper tube to transfer the heat to the rest of the alu body and also use the batteries to take some of it as well.
His light can’t hold a candle to Match’s 5*XM-L Maglight! Also noted he claims 3000 lumen @ 2.8A and 4500 lumen @ 4.5A. We know from Match’s scientific testing that you only get an extra 100 lumen from an XM-L driven at 4.5 and that at 2.8A it’s only 882 lumen per emitter and not 1000. I wonder how he managed to get that much more light out of his yard sweeper. Just the way it films? interesting…
Johnny
That's why I said one of TWO. :) I have seen those tests, in fact one said nothing could be had for above 3.2A. BTW the emitter to the heatsink junction is extremely important. The laser folks put Artic Silver on literally everything for the high powered builts, esp the LD is so expensive. And most keep to a 1 min run time stretching to 2 for copper heatsink (it has lower specific heat capacity compared to alu IIRC about 40% lower or something, but it pulls heat much faster)
But I am really intrigued how the UF-980L is quite a bit brighter. But i do agree that the higher current you go past 4A, the more detrimental effect it has on the light output due to heat and it may even go lower than 3A plus, unless active cooling is used. (or you use it in the middle of winter or something LOL!).
Anyway, not sure how much useful info you can pull from this.... I posted the same in Foy's UF-980L review. http://www.thaicpf.com/webboard/index.php?topic=2495.0
Too bad some of the pictures are overexposed.
That's the thing, isn't it...The 980L DOES look brighter. I believe this is largely due to it having a very well designed reflector for an xm-l and creating a bright hotspot, which is what our eyes focus on. I'd like to test the 980L on my integrating sphere against the MF UF P-60 drop-in...and would expect negligible differences in actual lumen output.
Interesting though how the “yard sweeper” has such a drastic improvement in output when the only difference is the amperage at which it’s driven. Same light, same reflectors, etc… it doesn’t make sense to me given the data you came up with. Any theory on why?
One thing's for sure. D26 drop-in is 26.5mm dia, U-80/UF-980 reflector size is 40mm. They are claiming that 2X the diameter is supposed to bring more or less 4X the CP (I can't verify this though).
In the HID arena, we are often obsessed with the arc length, reflector size, and then lumens vs arc length ratio (surface brightness). But longer arc lengths don't magnify the anomalies of the reflector that well, which can be somewhat considered to be a plus point.
What we can do is do a ceiling bounce test and take pictures. Its not very accurate, but we are not going after minute differences also. If its U-80 vs UF-980 the hotspots/corona/spill should be pretty close, ceiling bounce would be provide pretty accurate info for our knowledge. If differences show up then in reality there WILL BE a difference.
There used to be a thread on the Yard sweeper and several other customs with beamshots, pretty informative.....can't find it. argh...
Integrating sphere test is a good idea. But sometimes real world photos tell you a story too. Look at the spill between Foy's D26 and UF-980L, that is not affected by reflector size....the distances did not change anyway.
https://budgetlightforum.com/t/-/2207 And you can see the same thing with the thaicpf photos. Hmmm....interesting huh. Can't wait for my light to come next week.
[quote=JohnnyMac]
Interesting though how the "yard sweeper" has such a drastic improvement in output when the only difference is the amperage at which it's driven. Same light, same reflectors, etc... it doesn't make sense to me given the data you came up with. Any theory on why?
[/quote]
Based off my testing, the difference between 2.8a and 4.6a is 143.8L. Here's the key though: While this difference would just barely be noticable in a single led set-up, it'll be more pronounced in a multi-emitter light. In this case, the triple xm-ls would show a combined gain of 431.4L. This would explain the pictures posted. This is also a reason I'm a fan of multi-emitter set-ups 
As a side-note, I've read a few of ma-sha's posts before and he's a quite talented builder. Having said that, I have no earthly idea how he came up with the 4k lumen number for 3 xm-ls...
I would hazard a guess that he believes output is linear and that 50% more juice means 50% more light. 3 * 1500 is 4500 lumens minus a few hundred just to be conservative. 2900-2975 would be closer to the mark.
Lets not dig on it, he needs to sell the light (and some others as well) to make space for his short-arcs. LOL! 
i searched this ultrafire uf-980 on ebay:
as you can see they say working current 450-600 ma. And you say it is 4.7 A... What is the reason of this difference? are they different specifications?
The difference is, you get to pay $37 extra for a $10 charger, two of the absolute worst Li ion batteries currently available and quite a nice box. As far as the quoted amps: not sure if it's a typo or what but if this is the same 980L that Manafont has then it does indeed pull 4> amps.
IliketheboxFoy
Perhaps this one: http://kaidomain.com/ProductDetails.aspx?ProductId=11236 with a few more data (although still lacking) here: http://www.alibaba.com/product-gs/450777728/Ultrafire_II_Cree_XML_T6_5_Mode_High_Power_LED_Flashlight_1_18650_.html Head diameter and depth seem promising ... experience, anyone?
EDIT: Just got the reply from KD, current draw is 0.7, 1.5 and 3.0 A.