Benckie, what happened to Australia this "summer"? My friend in Sydney said temperatures dipped to 10 deg C with hailstones over the weekend. Perth is a low of 16 deg C at night!
Still good for DRY turbo usage... heh.
It's also a bit cooler this year. It got to about 25-26 deg C just few days ago at night, pretty cooling in our standards.....and i was shivering already after i got out of the shower.
There weather has gone to the dogs, it was 30 plus the other day but it's been cold and raining for 2 days now, I'm on the other side of Australia to you friend but this time of year it is normaly hot day and night, a couple of weeks back we had a nice run of hot days and nights.
The reason for the cold weather is Perth has been hit by a cold front they had pritty bad storms there and they coped it last night places around Perth coped 120 to 150 mm of rain last night and strong winds, thats alot of rain for perth.
I dont live near Perth but we had has some of the same weather just not as bad i heard on the radio today emergency services around Perth were over loaded last night and there was alot of flooding and tree damage
Tested now with full charged 4.20V batteries, got following readings:
2 batteries HI/MED/LOW: 2.60V/1.05V/0.28V
3 batteries HI/MED/LOW: 1.55V/0.66V/0.18V
Why was my previous amperes so high with ~3.85V batteries?
Just got my 3T6 from yallstore on ebay. It doesn't look anything like the fake 3T6 that monanoke posted, and in fact looks like it is the same light that zardon posted. It is even a 3 cell light although it was advertised as a 2. 8 gaps in the heatsink fins, sticker inside on the dropin.
Problem is, I went to fire it up in two cell mode with my protected trustfire flames, freshly purchased from an American e cig dealer and freshly charged, and no light came out of the 3T6. So I quickly unscrew the endcap, and the 18650s are very warm and there's a funky burning smell. I had put the negative batt end against the spring towards the front and the positive end on the bronze nipple of the endcap. I assume they didn't change this right? Every electronic device I've ever seen has had the spring correspond to the negative side of the batteries. Although every flashlight I've seen has had the positive end facing the front/LED so it's strange to me.
Even now the light tube, and batts have a distinct burnt smell to them.
So is my light/batts toast you think?
Sorry to say, it sounds like you toasted the driver.
The batteries were placed in reverse order. I would check them with a multimeter before using or charging again.
I take it these cells are (were) not protected?
Well that's cute... thanks. I just tested the voltage on the TF flame 18650s and one is fine at 4.15V while the other is apparently crippled at 2.1 volts. I fully charged both batts before using and it took about 6 hours. Didn't notice anything out of the ordinary.
Some of the plastic at the end of the crippled batt is kind of melted a little bit. Wonder if that's all the smell was.
And no they are/(were?) protected.
The torch gods have not blessed me thus far. The spring ALWAYS goes on the neg end I thought. Man. I've had prouder moments, lol.
So it looks like I've still got one working cell. I really really want to see what this thing can do, so anybody think it'd be ok to try to run it with one 18650 and some coins? I also have about 8 3.6V CR123s. I'm guessing its not ok to combine an 18650 with a CR123, but the length fit would be perfect. Maybe could I try just 3 CR123s? Or would the current demand be too much? Thanks a ton!
EDIT: Just read that it's kosher to try 3xCR123As. Tried it and... success! Just measured current too and I got 1.45A, 650mA, and 140mA (High, med, low.) With 3 cells at 3.6V a piece @ 1.45A, I'm getting almost 16W of output to the emitters without factoring in efficiency. COOL. I might just have a genuine torch, even though I got it from yallstore and there were multiple people reporting a couple months ago that they were selling fake lights (have to go to post 19 to see it.) Looks like my driver survived the reversal :)
Wow ! The TF flames almost lived up to their name.
I'm glad both the user and the torch are both OK.
To answer your question, it's not safe to mix different type, size, or chemistry of cell. Different states of charge can also be unsafe.
Thank you for the help, good to know.
Just took the dog for a stroll with the new toy. I already own a little 3xAAA 220 lumen XP-G light, but I am new to the XM-L world so I have no real high power basis of comparison here. But damn. This thing was easily lighting up entire buildings from about 75-80 yards away on high. Some might not say it's a "wall of light", but outside it sure did the job.
Only problem is it kept dimming the lights to a barely visible glow every 3 or 4 minutes when on high. I could click the button again right away and bring the high beam right back, but I don't think it likes the 900mAh 16340s I used.
Anyway, I am actually hoping this thing is fake so I can be knocked out by the real deal when my manafont 3T6 gets here in a week or so. But something is telling me this thing is for real. From what I was reading, it seemed like with 3 3.6V cells I should have gotten around 900-1050mA if it were a cheap copy. 1.5A though tells me it's not.
With 3 14500 cells at the exact same voltage as the 16340s, 4.2 on the dot, it pulls a touch more current, about 1.51A rather than 1.45A with 16340s. I'm tempted to drop a single 3.6V 18490 IMR I have in there to see what kind of readings I'd pull. Anyone think that's a bad idea? I have two, but I wouldn't dare try that until after trying one.
I also have 4 3.6V 10440 IMRs, but those things are too emaciated to fit in there I think. Still kinda want to see what kind of tricks this dog can do.
The current draw is a bit much for the size of the cells you're discussing.
The load you're putting on them is similar to a 5-amp load on an 18650 cell.
I'm not talking about the 10440 IMRs, those little guys are only 350mah. I'm talking about the 18490 IMRs as the ones I'd try. They are AW 3.7V 1100 mah IMR (more like 1500 mah in trustfire standards.) They are big, same width as the 18650s (1.8 cm) just not as long. 4.9cm vs 6.5 cm hence the name "1.8 6.50" vs "1.8 4.90". I just realized the cell name is derived from metric dimensions a few months ago myself, although you probably already know that.
I have two, and I'm thinking about throwing them in. The XM-Ls can handle 3A each @ 3.35V, although the question is, can the driver. Highly doubtful. That's why I am hoping that much less than 9A would be drawn from the two high drain 18490 cells.
I'm just itchin for more lumens since I won't have a working pair of 18650s for about a week. The driver might just soak up all the extra current and perhaps I would not see another single lumen, but I'm dying to find out. I know these XM-Ls can handle more current, I just want to give it to the hungry little guys.
The IMRs shouldn't be a problem.
With typical capacities, the 16340s and 14500s are being pushed to 2C or 2.5C....that's a fairly heavy load for a standard Li-Co cell, and may be too much for a lower-quality example.
The same current draw on a 2600Mah 18650 cell is only 0.6C.
I'm planning to just buy the T6 lamp housing - http://www.dealextreme.com/p/t6-3-led-lamp-cap-9-22v-100483
and put it inside of a Maglite S2D015 D-cell
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B0002JT3FW/ref=ox_sc_act_title_1?ie=UTF8&m=ATVPDKIKX0DER
so I can use the spot-flood focus of the Maglite. Then will cut down the body tube to a short length and rethread, won't use batteries as power will come from the 12v outlet of my ebike.
Can anyone measure the diameter of the lamp?
Thanks so much Chicago for all your help. You've made my last 24 hours much less stressful 
So I threw in the two 18490 3.7V AW IMRs and not only did it not break the light, but they actually draw LESS current then either the 16340s or 14500s in dual cell setup. 1.93A in fact as compared to 2.1A for the 16340s and 2.2A for the 14500s. I couldn't believe it. I was expecting to see like 3-4A. All batts were at exactly 4.2V to start testing so the inverse relationship of the voltage-for-current power regulation swap had no impact. If anything it's actually a touch less bright with the 18490s, but they work just fine.
High mode drains all of these configurations very quickly. New pair of 18650s will get here with the manafont 3T6 by the end of next week I hope. With the right batts I'll finally get to treat her the way she should be treated and get some extended use out of her.
Thanks again Chicago; glad someone in the know was lurking this weekend... 
Plz have a look to this thread,can anyone give any suggestion.
Just ordered a few more 18650s, a stainless head C8 XM-L, and a Z6 XM-L, all trustfire and all from manafont. I also have the other 3T6 coming in a couple days from manafont.
I'll compare them to my ebay 3T6 when I get them all in a couple weeks. Then I'm giving my old man the 18650 and charger from the Z6 kit, and his pick between the torches.
Never heard a peep about the Z6, can't find any info on it. Hope it's at least as good as the Z5!
Got the manafont 3T6 yesterday. The light is warmer, and the writing on the other side of the trustfire logo is a little smaller than the yallstore 3T6, but other than that it's still the exact same light with the 8 cooling fin gaps instead of 7. Just like the one Zardon got from mana.
Because it's warmer it seems dimmer than the yallstore light by a little. With freshly charged 18650s, they both pull exactly 1.98A with 2 cells, 1.37A with 3 cells measured with an Ideal 61-342. I'd bet the original with the 7 gaps (which I don't have) must have more output. Pretty disappointed I guess.
Just incase the fans of the TR-3T6 have not seen it yet this yet it is the next big thing, i just brought one to test.
As soon as it get's here ill do a review and some long run time test, range test, current draw and i might even have to pull out the new lux meter.
To Benkie,
Perhaps these is the one U waited for long time,but I have some confusion which are as follows:-
1) Current: TR-J12 rated at 7.5A (Max),but with 3*18650 don't u think thats a little higher ?
2)With same power source as Tf-3t6 ie;(3*18650) does the runtime gets decreased.
3)Is Trust Fire Flames suitable for this ?
Yes I've waited for this for a good while.
Good questions Dimitrioptimus
(#1) I don't think we will see 7.5 amps at the tail cap, but it will all depend on the boost circuit of the driver, how many batteries are used and what brand of batteries used and if they are fully charged or not. Once again it will depend on the boost circuit of the driver but 7.5 amps works out at 1.5 Amps per T6 emitter aprox 2750 otf lumens, it does not sound like much but that's still 4.5 to 5 amps more then the good old TR-3T6 3 x 18650 and 2 x 18650 that are very bright.
I expect this to be like the other regulated trustfire multi cell lights, the maxium current draw is not always reached with fully charged cells, like the oringinal TR-3T6 3 x 18650 it's a 3 amp max driver but you get 2.4 to 2.9 amps with 2 fully charged cells (depending what brand you use) but as the voltage of the batteries drop the amps increase, but the driver will not let it climb over 3 amps.
In this case the new trustfire 5 x T6 will not get above 7.5 amps. This is where the old sky rays whent wrong as the battery voltage wore down from use the current draw climbed to around 5 amps to much heat and current for what the light was made for (3 x T6) so a lot failed, this is why I loved the TR-3T6 even though lux readings where a little bit under the sky rays.
(#2) I would expect run time to be less then the TR-3T6 on 3 x 18650's as there is more current draw, but like the TR-3T6 the more batteries you put in the higher the voltage is, this means lower current draw, so run time is increased as it would not be drawing 7.5 amps on 3 fully charged cells imo. You can also run 26650 lion batteries in the new trustfire 5 x T6, they can handle higher current draws and normally have a mAh rating from 3000 to 4000 + mAh so this would increase run time on the torch say over 2400 mAh 18650's.
(#3) Even at the maxium of 7.5 amps current draw that works out at 2.5 amps per battery when running 3 cells, but as in answer number (#2) the current draw would be even less per battery when running 3 cells going from the other trustfire multi cell lights. The trustfire flame batteries I've tested will do 3 amps no problem, but the torch may draw up a max of 3.75 amps per battery when running two batteries only but the batteries would have to be near empty and needing a full recharge to get that high of a current draw in my opinion and the torch should dim and not let you change modes around then to let you know it's time to change batteries.
The current draws ive given is just aprox math basicly guessing as I need to test the torch and I only ordered it yesterday, but it should be close but I have had a very hard couple of nights..... If your worried about current draw or run time issues you can use 26650 Batteries as they can take from 5 to 30 amps each come in mAh from 3000 to 4500 they cost from $5 to $25 usd. Good ones can be had for under $10 usd each with free shipping if you order 3 or more.
There is one draw back from using 26650 batteries that most are not protected, but the torch is ment to (claimed) have a low voltage dimming circuit to lock out high and medium mode as a low battery voltage warning, the TR-3T6 and TR-1200 do the same thing, do not keep running the light past this.
I have ordered 3 x 4000 mAh 26650 king kong batteries for $26.70 usd as I'm not worried about battery protection for myself. I'm also looking at some 4000 mAh protected trustfire 26650's for $22.80 a pair. I'm thinking the 26650's are not needed really 18650,s will be fine and if you have 6 even better, but just remeber this light has 2 more led's and a more powerful driver so don't expected the same run time as the TR-3T6 on the same batteries.
Now some of this post (long winded dribble) is speculation as I have not tested the light yet and I'm very very hung over, but I hope the post helps and I'm sure ill be corrected if I'm wrong.