Damn. That's like 1/3 to 1/4 the size. Almost makes me wonder about the reflector on the 980L.
The MCU-C88 is Q5?
These pictures compare a XM-L light and a Q5?
When you put that XM-L instead of the Q5 in the C88 it will be the same with 980L?
E1320 can clarify, but he seemed to have said that's already with the xml. A tad shocking I know.
I will restate what I said. I removed the Q5 from the C88 and replaced it with an XML on a 14mm board with a 105c Nanjg driver and it out throws the 980L by quite a large margin.
It is very impressive, now if i can just find a battery setup that will deliver the 4 amps that the 980L delivers there will be no contest.
If it is out throwing 980L now with Q5 updated to XM-L, what amps are you driving it with and what batteries?
(1) My copy of UF-980L sags in heat quite a bit. Not sure if this is due to pill overheating (driver + emitter) or what. Just a recent measurement 2 days ago, it was 79 lux drop to 65 lux reflected ceiling bounce...believe its 1-2 mins period. If i use ice to cool it somewhat maintains 70+. That's like 20% drop. A P60 wrapped foil in Solarforce host drops 30%, and unwrapped it drops 40%. My other properly heatsinked lights drop like ~1% during this period. Eg, a Fandyfire only starts to really slide from 1 min 45 minutes mark, in 30 deg C ambient heat.
(2) MCU-C88 has a 50mm head diameter and UF-980L is a 42mm head diameter class light. No surprises.
(3) Using a DMM, even a $900 bench one, is not a good indicator of lux/lumens performance.
It runs on a 3 AA Duraloop holder with a modified Nanjg 105c driver with 10 7135s to deliver 3.5 amps, but I also modified the battery holder to deliver more amperage with heavier springs and heavy beads of solder.
How does 3 AA Duraloop compare with a 18650 2600 mAh let's say? Same runtime or slightly better runtime?
I know NiMH's have a flat discharge. So your flashlight outputs the same light almost until the Duraloops go off?
Yep, I should buy a light meter....
But anyway, I was wondering just roughly, if he is driving it like 1A or so...
But with 3,5A, it has some amperage behind it.
The 3AAs have 6000mah the problem is they cant deliver more than 2.5 amps, in the cheezy holder that the light comes with. So you get a flatter better run time
Max current for XML T6 is 3A, why UF puts higher current driver on this model?
50^2/42^2 = 1.42. That's clearly not 1.4x the size above.
The 3AA's will have 2000mAh at 3.6v, but high quality LSD nimh might maintain voltage/capacity somewhat better @ 3.6v / 3.5A than mediocre 18650's. A toss up really.
Well if we dwell further into the subject, this is U80 and 980L, the U80 being the smaller spot and 980L the bigger one. Both taken within 3 seconds of switched on. Both same depth and diameter class. I suppose MCU-C88 has a deeper reflector as well?
In fact my Balder BD-4 has a smaller hotspot than than Fandyfire STL-V6, and the BD-4 has a smaller dia reflector (59 vs 52mm). But it is very much deeper, as deep as a MPP-1.
If the 980L does not sag so much, it is actually a good light. Even using lousier cells doing 2.5 plus amps it still sags, not sure why. I must have spent hours and hours playing with this one.
I have both lights, both with XM-Ls, and I can confirm that the hotspot of the C88 is considerably smaller than the 980L.
Deeper reflector (ostensibly lessor focal distance) only produces larger hotspot (exit angle), all things being equal. That's why I suspected the focus/reflector quality for the 980L (and Stl-v6).
I think it's also geometry as well, not sure how is it designed and the precision. Seriously i don't know what is happening. But my Yezl M7X which has the same diameter as P60 but much deeper reflector (it is not a drop-in) throws a much smaller hotspot than a P60 drop-in. Similarly for the BD-4 (52mm reflector but deeper) it has a much smaller hotspot than the STL-V6 (59mm reflector but shallower).
drjones (who does this for a living) mentioned this a bit back for lenses: [last part of] https://budgetlightforum.com/t/-/3164#comment-57452, I assume it's similar for reflectors. A deeper reflector for same aperture is more efficient at catching light into the hotspot, but also larger exit angle (not actually more throw).
I've found that p60 throw can vary a bit. I have a xp-g smo that project a much larger spot vs a xr-e (even OP) than its somewhat larger die would warrant.
mmm reading this review again, makes me doubt again about the KD C8 that is now somewhere on it's way to me... well as long as nobody in my neighbourhood owns this 980l, i'll never have to know the difference i guess :)
has anyone use unprotected Panasonic NCR 18650 on this 980L? what's the current showed?
I was told that the recent 980L can only draw 3.5A on high mode which is similar to UF-C8?