Zener modded Qlite driver with 12x380mA 7135 in C12 host.
Tailcap Measurements
Moonlight: 0.01 A (or less)
Low: 0.10 A
Medium: 1.25 A
High: 4.49 A
Thanks RMM. Added to the OP.
I had a few spare drivers that were pulled from the J-19’s I modded. It’s the same driver as in the old 3XT6 trustfire I am told. It says 4.8amp on the outside of it. It does a very nice job running a single MT-G2. I can’t say how many amps or lumens exactly but it’s pretty nice. Not as many lumens as the dry driver with two batteries but not too far behind. Plus I de-domed this one so a side by side comparison doesn’t really quite count. However if I had to guess I would say that it’s actually putting out the 4.8amps. Both the DRY driver and the 4.8amp driver were rewired with 20 gauge wire.
It’s in a ZY-T08 with the flat bottom of the reflector taken out, the batteries in series, emitter de-domed, it turned out pretty nice. Obviously it could be pushed harder but I’m not going to mess with it. It outthrows a stock T08 with tons of flood and isn’t heating up bad at all.
Trustfire 4.8amp driver = success.
Thanks 18sixfifty. Added to the OP.
Has anyone done a straight DST with MT-G2 conversion and stock driver? ohaya’s above is listed as “stock” in first post but actually directly connected to cells.
Maybe you could add my X7 MT-G2 mod to your list.
IMO, its the easiest way to get inexpensive high performance from a host that caters to the MT-G2.
- Only mod necessary is the emitter swap and a 20mm copper disk to space it properly into the reflector
- Seems to come stock with a TR-3T6 driver
- Runs on 2 or 3 x 18650’s
- Reflector focuses the light very well
- Around 6.5A to the emitter… nice!
- Host provides great heatsinking for its size
- Cheap!
Thanks for the update FlashPilot. Added to the OP.
Just wanted to post that I used the same Lustefire driver as Relic38 did, the LusteFire 3XU2-X3 and it rocked. I used it to drive a single MT-G2 in a ZY-T08 and all I can say is WOW!!! I had to file it down to get it to fit but it worked perfectly. I don’t know how many amps but it’s enough to pop the protection on two Panasonic 3400’s. It doesn’t do it right away though. It takes about 30 seconds for the protection to turn it off. With samsungs it’s no problem and damn is it bright.
I’m going to ask Wallbuys if they will carry it.
Thanks 18sixfifty. You can link to your mod if you like. Cheers.
Just finished my MT-G2 Small Sun ZY-T08 last night. It is basically the same as Relic’s. Cut traces on switch, jumpered switch to spring with 18AWG wire then added solder blob to contact plate for negative battery connection.
- MT-G2 on Noctigon
- DRY driver
- 18 AWG connecting driver to contact plate
- 26 AWG from driver to LED (may change this to 22 AWG)
- Copper braided springs
Turbo NCR18650PD: 5.66A
Turbo INR18650-20R: 6.65A
This thing is BRIGHT on the 20Rs! I don’t have a light meter but the hotspot is about the same brightness as my XinTD V4 XM-L2 at 3.8A but is around twice as big! In my extremely subjective ceiling bounce test it puts my 3T6 DRY driver and SRK to shame. Assuming around a 15% driver loss the emitter should be seeing around 5.6A, which should give around 3,000 emitter lumens. It does suck the cells dry at an alarming rate on turbo. About 12 minutes on turbo and they went from 4.22 volts down to 3.5 volts!
The DRY driver has decent mode spacing but the whine may just be too much for me. I think that I am going to switch this for a zener modded NANJG sometime in the future.
I wonder why it’s whining? I built a MT-G2 with a DRY and it didn’t have any whine at all. I have heard of people getting whine from different drivers and fixing it with an extra ground wire. Maybe that would help you out.
My 3T6 build with the DRY also whines/hums, even a bit louder than the MT-G2 build. I can hear it in every mode. Where are you adding an extra ground wire at? I don’t see how it would even be possible in the ZY-T08… everything is connected straight to the cells through the contact plate, nothing runs through the body of the flashlight.
Where you can really hear it loudest on both my lights is coming from the switch area!
You may be able to remove the whine by swapping the switch for a new/better one or attempt cleaning the contact surfaces with a glass brush.
My severely overworked Apex switch (Omten 1.5A running at over 16Amps) also whines at times, especially when I semi press the switch just before it looses contact or when running for a while and the light gets warm. That’s with the KD 7135 v2 drivers that I’ve never heard whine otherwise.
I think if the driver is not actually the source of the whine then any less than perfect points of contact may be the cause. I would guess that’s why people see an improvement and recommend a second grounding path for the driver board.
It’s a tough one I guess you would have to tap a screw into the side of the pill. I had a J-19 that the DRY whined in and I just re-soldered and it fixed itself.
It isn’t terribly loud, but in a quiet room I can hear it and it bothers me! I guess that whine may be an inappropriate term… hum may be more like it. On the 3T6 I can understand the connection issue but on the ZY-T08 the only place possible could be the switch, everywhere else is directly and solidly connected with good solder and heavy gauge wires. I have a good Omten switches that I’ll try and swap in to see if it makes any difference. This driver must be giving a fairly square waved current that hits the switches hard.
Thanks RMM. Added to the OP.
Hi!
Like posted here I would like to mod my TR J18 with a new driver and a MT-G2.
The other driver has Hi/Mid/Lo - so I need a driver for 3 LiIons with the exact same setup.
I would love to give those LED the full 3Amps.
The only driver I found with the same setup is this one: http://intl-outdoor.com/ld33-triple-xml-26a-917v-circuit-board-p-489.html “only 2.5 Amp, but that will be good because of the lower heat production.
But which one would you use?
6 XMLs & 1 MTG2?
LD-33 isn't a boost driver, so it wouldn't run the LEDs in series and if you switched them all to parallel they'd get only a tiny amount of current each (not to mention mixing 6v & 3v LEDs). That one's a buck-only driver, so input voltage has to always be higher than the output voltage.
I don't know if it'll fit in the light you're working on, but have you seen these? http://www.taskled.com/hbflex.shtml Expensive, but if you fry one of the KD 9x drivers and have to replace it, you just spent the same as one HBflex.
edit: Or do you mean a separate driver for the MTG2 on its own?
Small Sun ZY-T20 with the texaspyro driver at 9 amps. Resistor mod and pyro's driver, just wired up the three zones parallel, to get 9 amps.
Whoops - I forgot to tell you one important part:
The 6 XM-L will be driven with this KD Driver
So I just need a driver for 3Amp and ~7V with the setup High/Mid/Low that can handle a input voltage of over 12V (3 LiIons)
Thanks!