Hi there, long time lurker and I figured I should make my first post here after threeish years.
I recently purchased a new b158s from Aliexpress and I was going to be using this guy as my first real big boy mod.
I ordered one CSLPM one CULPM and three CULNM emitters and I’ve been playing around with direct drive on the w2 and boost hx and I’ve got some funky output and I don’t have a meter to measure the draw through the light.
Using the white2 with three different batteries 7,8 and 10 amps respectively I keep overdriving the dang emitter so it’s turning ngry blue within seconds.
I don’t want to waste ten bux so I was wondering is 7/8 amps too much for this emitter? I read the specs and saw the tests on here and it looks like it should be viable up to 11 amps no problem.
Also when using the same setup with the boost hx 2m² I am able to run at full tilt for 5-6mimutes before I get into heat issues.
So did I screw up my thermal paste application? I thought heat would take a little longer to cause the angry blues. Did I screw up the wiring somehow? Is white2 not conducively isolated or whatever? Or am I as useful as a bag of hammers and I don’t understand the magic pixies that make the electrosities happen and I need to go buy a decent clamp meter and stop being so stubborn.
Also, just to toss this in my Osram Boost CULPM has a gnarly purple hue to it and I thought I had read somewhere that this may be caused by underdriving it? Ant help there also would be appreciated.
I appreciate any help a d thanks again for getting me into a hobby that now costs way way too much.
Also, how are you measuring the amp draw on the w2 (cslpm)? What cell are you using? What voltage is the cell at resting? If you can without blinding yourself and shorting things out, measure the voltage at the solder pads on the mcpcb while installed in the light and using the tailcap. If you’re much above 3.3 or 3.4v you’re killing it! These are very low Vf emitters, and it only drops with more heat. The boost series had a slightly higher Vf it seems, which may contribute to it handling direct drive better.
Edit. The w2 is only reliably good up to ~8A as far as I know.
A cell rated for “X amps” can and WILL output more power when driven directly with a fairly low resistance path. That rating is the safe continuous drain for the cell without it overheating, NOT a hard and fast limit to the current it can output.
You need a different driver or to add resistance between the cell and driver.
Hey there thanks for that. I’m only on my mobile right now and I was in a crap service area. I received 7 CULPM1.TG emitters binned at top bin /2nd tier bin all with lovely factory errors. I’m sure you can see the phosphorus layer had a wonderful shiny silver streak through it however compared to my XPL-HI and dedomed xpg 2 it is at least double the brightness, so that’s what 3x or 4x the brightness so 1700-1900 lumens ass rough guess.
I have no testing equipment other than my charger which can tell me the voltages, the battery rating which I have a 7a 8a and 10a cell. The sanyo GA 3400 10a at 4.32 volts pushes this led to it’s absolute maximum and I can see a slight blue shift after 5 minutes on high. This is all in the b158 host.
If anyone is around the Oregon coast and wants to play with these emitters please let me know. I’m not allowed to send them out but I don’t think I have to keep them hidden or anything like that. They are going to be returned by March 1st.
Any questions please feel free to contact me…
The only other comparison I have is my xp-g dedomed that my friend measured at 400kcd or so with a 50mm aspheric. This light probably does about 25-30%more just by a rough visual estimate. And the 16/9 ratio is wonderful for hunting. Still kinda blows my mind that this output is ran on a low drain single cell.
I’m waiting for convoy store to send me two of the sst40 drivers rated at 5a but their 2 weeks behind so I connected the neg to the led pill and the positive to the contact plate spring.
I’m pretty sure that I SHOULD have killed this one a while back, but she keeps on kicking.
As the Moose asked, what ledboard are you using, I see on your pics it is copper, but has it a direct thermal pad?
You do need some current limiting resistance with direct drivers or with their low voltage, these leds draw too much current. For the 2mm2 die versions, 8A is already very high for a flashlight build (the thermal path is always a bit worse than in led test set-ups).
WOAH! I somehow missed it the first time through. Did you mean that you charged your Sanyo GA to 4.32V?! This is only a 4.20V max cell. Going much above 4.25V starts getting unhealthy for the cell, and overtime dangerous. If your charger has a 4.35V setting, this is not compatible with these cells. If your charger doesn’t have these voltage settings, throw it away before something bad happens.
Another thing not doing any favors for the HX is that it seems you are using Cree XP (3535) MCPCBs. As djozz mentioned, they may or may not be DTP. From the images, they don’t seem of the highest quality, and I see what appears to be heat spreader traces, which is usually a bad sign. Though I also think I see a slight convex hump near the thermal pads… CVinion, do you know where these boards came from or could you post pictures of one without an LED mounted?
And like others have said, the amp ratings on cells do not indicate the current they’ll deliver to an emitter. Though relatively, the current delivered by a 30A cell will be greater than a 15A cell and 15A>5A, for example.
Try discharging the cells down to resting ~3.6 volts, and see how they do with the W2. If your GA is relatively new, that should limit current to a maximum of about 8A, but resistance from the springs, contacts, etc will bring that down more. You can try charging the cell a little bit at a time and see at what voltage the LED seems to max out at.
