Upgraded my old Convoy S2+ with:
Luminus SST40 6500K(20mm MCPCB)
7135×8 + FET driver(from Intl-Outdoor)
Drop-in fit, used Arctic MX-4 thermal paste. Total cost: ~$22.
Results: Turbo: ~3000 lumens (flood-heavy, slight spill ring)
Med: ~900 lumens (regulated)
Gets hot fast—throttles after ~90s on turbo
Great budget flood light for night walks or bike use. Beam smooths out better with OP reflector .
Thoughts? Anyone tried SST40 in an S2+ with OP?
Of all the possible emitter choices, why the SST-40?
You’re brave. Getting 3000 lumen requires ~11A. It must start burning skin within seconds 
Haha…Amazing. I looove to try it. But cant seem to find that driver on hanks site. Got a link?
Oh and its customary to provide pics
How did you get the 3000lm figure? According to this test, the bare emitter never surpasses 2669lm; accounting for optical losses, no more than 2300lm can be expected.
The SST40 is now an obsolete emitter. For a floody beam, the LHP531 is cheaper, and has way higher output + efficiency, plus better tint. With the same driver, you can expect 3000+, possibly even 4000+, out-the-front lumens with the LHP531.
What about LHP531 + 10A buck driver from Convoy? It will have a lot better tint, higher efficiency.
LHP531 $2.01
Driver $4.69
Something doesn’t add up, 90 seconds of 3000lm in an S2+ host seems to defy laws of physics, either you’re somehow running this light at sub-zero ambient temperatures (like, -20C), or the 3000lm is incorrect…
Lol… of course its rage bait.
But now we will never know if someone did in fact burgle hanks museum or if its a bot doing some training. I actually suspect the latter.
Kudos for resurrecrung ancient led technology, but the 3000 lumen spec is impossible. Even the highest binned sst40 can’t crack 2500 Lumens and that’s on very agressive cooling and on the cusp of burning out.
The S2+ with direct driver may get you 1500-1800 lumens, briefly.
Nice build, especially at that price point.
SST40 + FET in an S2+ is kind of the classic “how far can you push this host” experiment, and your results line up with what the physics would predict. ~3000 lm turbo with fast thermal saturation is pretty much the ceiling for that thermal mass, even with decent paste like MX-4. The 90s throttle window is actually not bad for an S2+ body.
A few thoughts:
OP reflector definitely helps. With SST40’s relatively large die and high surface brightness, OP smooths out the spill ring and makes it much more usable for walking/biking. You lose a bit of throw, but the beam quality improvement is worth it IMO.
7135×8 + FET is a good compromise. The regulated ~900 lm mode is where this light really shines (literally): efficient, stable, and thermally sane.
6500K SST40 is efficient but harsh. If you ever redo it, SST40 5000K or even switching to something like XHP50.3 HI (with proper driver) can trade a bit of output for nicer tint and sustained brightness.
What a lot of people underestimate is how much operating temperature dominates LED behavior at these drive levels. In small hosts like the S2+, junction temperature ramps insanely fast, which affects output, tint shift, and long-term reliability more than emitter choice alone.
There’s a good real-world writeup on how ambient and thermal conditions affect LED performance here, which maps well to flashlight builds like this
Overall: solid, honest build. Great flooder on medium, fun turbo for short bursts, and totally reasonable for ~$22. If you’re optimizing further, OP reflector + sane mode spacing will get you more real-world usability than chasing another few hundred lumens.
Curious—are you running stock thermal regulation or custom firmware (e.g., Andúril-style ramp limits)?