I got a bunch more of 404's on the way and just got in XPL2 V5 4000K LED's. Might be updating the 4X SRK clone (with the BLF Q8 driver) with those LED's, and the 404 FET. Would be interesting... I measured 7.8A at the tail on a fully modded ThorFire JM07 with the new XPL2 V5 installed, running Narsil of course . It measured over 1,800 lumens @30 secs in a nice 4000K tint. In a 4X SRK, it might do close to 25A - pretty crazy. In our BLF Q8 proto, bet those LED's would do 28A easy, maybe 6,700 lumens.
The XPL2's have a low, efficient Vf, making it much easier to get higher amps, and they seem to be able to handle it well, with peak output at about 10A, shown here. Main complaint is the tint of the beam, with a more yellowish halo around the hot spot. Really want to see how it will look in a multi-LED light.
The Fandyfire Rook was a nice-looking light. It’s too bad it didn’t have a better driver. I wanted one until I read reviews.
If I recall correctly, the last time I got a multi-AA light was ages ago, an EternaLight ErgoXRay. It handled more like a phaser than a flashlight, but it was a fun little thing. It was my first portable strobe light. Not quite eternal though, as the vinyl face halfway detached from its plastic base and the plastic screw threads got stripped… and it’s now out-classed in terms of brightness, tint, and beam shape by lights small enough to count as jewelry. Flashlights have come a long way.
My FandyFire Rook has a hand polished mirror finished reflector, Noctigon under an XM-L2, and custom TK firmware with 3 modes and a police strobe, reversing.
I think I am going to bore the tube and do whatever is required to use a single 18650, 26650 if I can swing it. 3 of the 14500’s are a bit weak on the capacity side of things.
The "On-Resistance vs. Gate-to-Source Voltage" chart doesn't look too good for our voltage range. DEL would know better than I, for sure. I think that was the chart DEL looks at carefully. I'd have to check though.
Difficult to beat the Vishay SiR800 or SiR404 for what we do.
A useful clue when selecting these is when ‘Rds at 2.5 V gate drive’ is listed under the main product features or product summary.
I am still somewhat on the wire between the ‘old’ NXP 3R0 and these Vishay parts, only because of the SOA curves. The NXP seems to be much more tolerant to abuse. We have, however, no reports of the SiR’s failing? And I do prefer the more rugged type of pads/pins of the SiRs.
I have the SIR800DP pushing 4 9V MT-G2’s as well as in a 3 XHP-70 light. 15,000 lumens. Richard used the SIR800DP in his 39,000 lumen monster. Yes, they hold up.
The A00 doesn’t produce as much power, falls shorter as the cell dies. Tried it already.
I’ve used over 100 800’s (closer to 200), probably 30-40 404’s, the 404’s give a bit more output especially in triples or quads. Noticeable to the eye? Not 100% sure, depends on the light and total lumens as a big light can do hundreds more lumens even close to 1000 more but at 12,000 is 13,000 a noticeable difference to most people? Again, depends on what you’re doing and how sensitive to the differences you are.
Not ideal. 20 A DC is pushing it with the SiR800 if you adhere to the datasheet. But TomE and Dale are probably proving the datasheet wrong.
I would look at the SiR404, its SOA peaks at 30 A for DC. The NXP 3R0 will also perform admirably with the available gate drive of a driver running on 2S cells.
Hhhmmmm. 20A is a major limit. Might actually reach close to 30A on 4 XPL'2s. Actually I had my clamp meter set to the 20A range and got readings at about 21A, interesting...
I;m getting confused (again...). Isn't the NXP 2R0 the better one? 2R meaning 2 milli-ohms. I could be wrong...
My Noctigon Meteor is using the 800 at 33.7A. No problem. I don’t know what Richard’s TrustFire TR-J20 was pulling but it was way up there, I’ll double check with him on that one.
I just built my first Narsil driver. It’s on a triple down Texas Avenger, sanded down a bit to fit in the FandyFire Rook. XM-L2 on a Noctigon, the ramping is great, really loving how it works and how smooth it is as well as the lock-out feature. I had to bore the triple AA tube for an 18500, pulled the triple spring pcb and fitted a copper disk in the tail, screwed down and with a bit if a solder bump on it for the negative contact. The bored tube just does clear the 8 7135 chips on the contact side, worked out really well.
Thanks go to Tom for making the Narsil available and to Texas Ace for his sample Texas Avenger LDO board and the ATTiny85 he threw in with it. Not the easiest driver to hand assemble but it works out really well.
People, this Q8 is really gonna rock! If anyone’s on the fence, come on over and join us for an epic light that will set a new standard!
That reminds me, Tom I have some of the Q8 triple channel Texas Avenger PCB’s here that I got from China.
If you want one to play with let me know, A few changes I would make if the firmware were updated to take advantage of the latest ideas (combining LVP and E-switch in same pin for example) but otherwise it works fine if you don’t need an indicator LED.
That also makes me wounder, they must have “led controllers” that would take a pwm/voltage signal and then output different channels. So if you give it say 1v it lights up channel 1, 2V channel2 ect.
I have seen this used before but no idea what was actually happening.
It is possible we could use a single output pin from the MCU to allow multiple LED’s to light up, for example green, yellow, red for cell level.
I have no idea what an IC like this would be called though, just that they must exist.
Gonna jump back a few posts and comment on tint. I’m no tint snob but a decent tint is one of the reasons the Q8 is going to be so much better than the rest. Mod for maximum if you want to- I’ll be happy with a bit less lumens and a beautiful beam/tint color I’ve even heard several ‘muggles’ complain about bluish tint in the cheap lights; some even said all LED lights were awful till I showed them better The Q8 will be great as-is and a modder’s delight, who could want more than that?