FT is still showing the STL-V6 as having "Mode Count 3/5".
That is really weird. When I checked yesterday or the day before, which I was trying to figure what was going on with the one I got from Wallbuys, I could have sworn that it had the mode groups removed :(. Maybe I was imagining it :(…
Has Wallbuys offered any sort of resolution?
I’m still working on it. They said that they’re going back (“reflecting” I think) to their suppliers again (2nd time).
If they don't give you full satisfaction, be sure to open a PP claim before the 45 day limit. You might even want to start one at 30 days. It tells them you're serious about your complaint and encrouages them to do something about it.
Hi,
May be going a little off-track, but I just found this:
Also, if you look at post #49 in the same thread:
“willie” says:
Sounds like my situation?
I guess I’m getting to the point of wonder: Exactly WHAT light did I get? If it’s not a FandyFire ST-V6, then what is it?
measure the head, there was a slightly smaller headed clone, the original stl - v6 was marked by having an over sized reflector for its day, if it under 60mm od on the head you at least have the final nail, looking at the construction I’m not sure I’d even want to mod it tbh.
I’ll make that measurement in a bit, but you hit on the question I was heading towards, which is that I’ve seen posts about how wonderful “the” STL-V6 was, with 49klux, and given that I have what I have, whatever it is, could I mod it to be, maybe, even better than what it “should” have been?
As someone else said, this should be fairly easy to mod, as it has a pill that is really easy to get to, so if I replaced both the driver and emitter with ‘x’ driver and ‘y’ emitter, is the design of what I have, if treated purely as a host, such that I could get it better, than, say, my HD2010 which has an EAST-092 driver?
I’ll post the head OD… as that may be needed to answer this question…
Jim
my main thought is that since the input is the same on the two lights, but output is so different, its suffering some heat sag, adding more current isn’t going to help, get the heat out of it first.
If you do want it to throw, id try an xp-g2 on a noctigon star and a 3a 3 mode ld-v driver from lck led, that should give it some impressive lux numbers.
Hi,
I may’ve lucked out then, at least partially :)! I have a “Cree XP-G2, 20mm Star MCPCB, R5, 1D Tint (6500K)” from IS that I’ve been trying to figure out what to do with, so after I measure and post the head OD, and if it still makes sense, I can try just a emitter swap, and then, depending on how that goes, a driver swap (I have to look at my inventory of drivers, as I’ve been “accumulating” them, and their all in one big Ziploc bag :laughing:…
OD is 60.5mm, ID is 51.54 km for the “Fandyfire STL-V6” from WB.
Jim
BTW, emitter PCB is 24.69 km? Isn’t that a weird size?
24.69 km is one huge emitter star! 
25mm stars are usually quite thick, which is a good thing. The problem they introduce is when you want to replace them, the replacement is almost always thinner. If your pill is screw-in adjustable,this may not be an issue.
Sigh… I was about to try to replace it :(…
Anyway do those dimensions tell what this light might be?
Edit: I got the driver out, and here’s what it looks like:
Does anyone know where I can buy emitters on 25mm PCBs in the US, preferably?
Hi,
I’ve (finally) posted a pic of the driver in the post above (post #67).
I guess, at this point:
1) I still would like to know what I got. Is it a FandyFire STL-V6? Or something else?
2) From brief searching, it seems like there aren’t many (any) emitters on 25mm PCBs. I have an XP-G2 on a 20mm PCB, but if I try to swap that, I think that it’d be difficult to center the new emitter?
3) Any other (constructive) ideas what to do with this ((( light, other than trash it?
Jim
Edit: 4th possibility (that I think I can handle): Make this a direct drive.
This is suppose to have an XM-L T6. Can anyone confirm that from the pictures of the pill/emiiter end that I posted earlier? If so, and if I direct-drive the XM-L T6 in this light (STL-V6 body/head), anyone hazard a guess about how it would perform? Would I get better throw/lux #s?
You have got the latest clone of the STL-V6, which itself may have been a clone of something. Who really knows anymore.
That driver may handle some increases.
If you are thinking of trashing it, send it to me. I’ll fix’er up someday and send it back. Seriously, it’s a decent host for something.
Edit: Oh, and you cannot DD froma 2x18650 into an XM-L, for more than 500ms anyway. Emitter will go poof before you get a chance to turn it off.
As this is a regulated driver I guess it can be resistor modded…
I will probably do if it arrives…it’s pending in customs…
Is the pill solid underneath the star?
Too late re. the edit: I had a brain fart, and forgot about that, and had already modded it to DD. I tested outside with an 18650, and it worked, so put it in the light with 2x18650, and as I was walking over to my lux meter setup, clicked the button and POOF, like you said :(…
Spent a few minutes kicking myself, because this is the 2nd time I had something like this happen (exactly) before, where I put a P60 drop-in in a 2x18650 host and forgot it was 2x18650 :(…
I guess that I’m the kind of person that can’t leave something not working, so after that, I still wanted to get an XP-G2+PCB on the light.
As mentioned, the original PCB was 25mm, which I don’t have, plus it looks like it’s glued to the pill, so I removed the emitter from the PCB and then did some filing to make sure it was flat, and glued the XP-G2 PCB onto that, and hooked it up again DD.
I used a single 18650 with a dummy 18650 this time, and I got light (finally).
I still have a problem, that there wasn’t an insulator on the original one, so, just to test, I didn’t screw the pill all the way into the reflector, to avoid shorting the emitter leads, but it lit, but there’s a very ugly dark hole in the middle of the beam.
I took a lux measurement anyway, just to close things off for the night/morning, and was getting a somewhat disappointing 16 klux @ 1 meter.
So, at this point, I still need to figure out how to insulate the emitter leads from the reflector and then I’ll try to get the emitter further into the reflector and do another test.
FYI, I did tailcap current, which at this point is emitter current, and it was ~2.2 amps (I think that XP-G2 is spec’ed for 1.5 amps max). I kind of expected more, but maybe the dummy 18650 is contributing more resistance.
Edit: P.S. I appreciated your offer :)!
Hi Werner,
From what I can tell, the pill on the one I have is kind of like a larger P60 pill. The emitter PCB is glued on the front, and then it’s hollow under that.
The ID of the front/emitter end looks to be about 25mm, and the ID of the driver end is about 21.5mm, so if you do something on the driver (like use a different driver), you’ll need a contact board that is ~21.5mm.
In my case, I just used the original driver PCB as my contact board for the DD configuration.
I wired the negative from the emitter to the outer edge trace of the driver PCB, and the positive I brought it around and soldered it to the base of the spring.
I found a positive soldered hole on the non-spring side of the driver PCB, but it was very small, so I could get the emitter positive lead in there, and I couldn’t get any solder to flow through it.
Bummer on the DD toasting. You’ll get that light singing one of these days. It’s inevitable.
Since you saved a bunch on the light itself, you can spend a bunch fixing it before it becomes a money pit. 
SEMI-SUCCESS!!
My wife, bless her heart, made a makeshift insulator disk out of one of those plastic medicine dosage cups (she’s much better at that sort of thing - I really should try to get her into modding :)!), and the STL-V6 reflector is nice because it has a nice little “shelf” that the insulater can drop onto, so I can now screw the reflector down on the pill.
I tested it with my lux meter, and I am now getting 49999.xx lux @ 1 meter (measured: 4450 @ 3.352 meters)!!
It’s now just a little better than my HD2010 with EAST-092 driver :)!
This was with an Efest IMR battery, fully charged, and a dummy 18650, and the emitter is direct-driven.
Cool :)!!
The beam still has a small dark spot on a white wall if the light is close to the wall, so I think that I could get it maybe a little better, because the XP-G2 emitter is so small, and doesn’t protrude much into the reflector.
If I could move the emitter further into the reflector, I think that I’d get some slightly better lux readings.
Does anyone have any ideas?
Anyway, I’m pretty happy with it now… much better than the original :)!!
Edit: Tailcap current is about 2.2+ - ~2.7 amps, depending on how much I push on the battery when measuring.