You have done a neat job on the build. Maybe the thermal grease on the pill threads is not allowing a good earth path to the driver?
Over 10 Amperes??
Link to your topic: S2+ host build question
Mine is limited to 5.6 Amperes by 16x 7135
Way too much already for that tiny S2+ i.m.o.
Do not leave it unattended on high!
Thanks.
Thought about that, but that should be good because of the driver retainer ring i added.
There the threads are clean(ed).
Unfortunately i still havenât got a decent setup to measure the currentâŚ
My XP-G2 and XP-G3 triples in S2âs have a lot of spill, so my S2+ XML looks brighter, but the triples put out more light. I didnât bypass any springs and used FET+1 drivers. Including my meters cables, I measured 3.7A, so probably 4A without the meter. They get warm very quick on high. I went for the S2âs because the copper spacer was bigger.
I find flow-able silicone sealant is great for sealing tight gaps. I didnât widen the bezels, but thinking about it now.
No, fortunately thatâs not the case here. 
I did improve the electrical path, because i use a constant current driver, and i wanted to be able to have full output power until the battery runs too low.
But comparing it by âceiling bouncingâ with a C8 with XM-L2 with half the current, i was disappointed in the output.
I think something is not rightâŚ
So i wonder about the KD triple nowâŚ
I think iâm gonna have to build another one and see if it will do better, because i bought 2 triples from KD.
If itâs the same, i can reflow 219C from Clemence and see if it also does the same.
My 4x XP-G3 S41S on VTC5 is MUCH brighter than thisâŚ
But that one possibly does more than 10 Amperes⌠
Well, apart from the copious amounts of thermal grease, i want to be able to take it apart again too.
So i didnât try glueing or sealing the lens in the bezel.
I would say its a combination of the amps across the 3 LEDs and tint. I was just looking at (2) X6 and SS triple, Fet builds side by side. Both XP-L HI but one is 3A other 5A2. The 5A2 looks nowhere near as bright as the 3A.
Is that first sheet of copper around driver soldered to the driver? Hard to tell in the pics and making me think weak ground. Not questioning your work but it hard to tell some things in the pics. Was the SW mounted to the board when you doubled the springs? I learned the hard way to take off the switch whenever soldering springs or bypassing.
At a given current the spot from a single will be smaller and brighter than a triple even if the triple totals more lumens just because itâs spread out(like the same amount of jam on a bigger piece of toast). Also, if you canât check current how do you know all the chips are firing? I still get misses on occasion. Iâve become cynical about my own work so I do current checks before assembly(especially with potting).
HmmâŚI guess itâs possible i just expected a lot more lumensâŚ
But compared with my recently built C8 with MT-G2 on 4.9 Amperes (14x 7135 zener mod), this triple is much less bright while still more than half the power of the MT-G2 light
Yeah, i donât always have the camera up and ready, so some things are not shown too well.
Yes,the copper sheet is soldered to the driver.
More solder between the 7135s and the sheet for thermal (and electrical) conduction.
The (later added) ring around it is clamped between pill and that alu retainer ring, all is screwed down quite tight.
I canât imagine there is notenough good contact between body / pill and driver.
Haha, yeah, i learned the same the hard way tooâŚ
Those switches are made of butterâŚ
Youâre absolutely right.
I should get a setup to measure the current.
I have the stuff to do so in stock (power supply and regulator unit with display) but havenât gotten round to actually setting it up yet⌠:person_facepalming:
I love your fabricating!
Did you have luck finding a 700mA 3.6V boost driver for the Nichia LED?
I have several AA / 14500 boost drivers from SK68 clones and what not, and with 2x AA i think it will be just about right.
Now to decide what will be the hostâŚ
Maybe a black Romisen RG-A6 (2x AAA)
Today i bought the Uni-T clamp meter so soon (well, soon⌠maybe 2 months shipping timeâŚ) i can measure tailcap current of this S2+ triple. :+1:
Thanks for documentation, it helps to see it.
I bought two sets of the 219C KD triple 4000K and built one S2+ triple with it (so far). Had the same observation, thought 4000K looked a bit too yellow but, compared to my other tints, it is actually quite accurate. Guess I am just not used to warm tints.
However, on the light output I have to agree that I expected a lot more.
According to my free harbor freight multimeter my DD driver (wights design) puts out about 6.5 with new wires I put in yesterday (20AWG), both springs are bypassed and I guess due to the selected FET this is the max this driver will do for now or it is the maximum this multimeter can measure.
It looks dimmer than expected, but I have no way of measuring light output. I left the optic clear and the glass lens is in front of it.
Little update:
I got the UNI-T UT210E in yesterday, and i measure 5.7 Amperes through a wire loop (instead of tailcap) on a half full VTC5 (batt. Voltage without load = 3.5 Volts)
5.7 Amperes divided by 16x AMC7135 = 0,36 A per AMC7135, so the driver seems to be in good working order.
Hey. I was just reading back through this thread for the fun of it. I see that you had some concern about the output. So, I looked up some stuff, to see if I could satisfy my own curiosity.
I donât know what the exact bin of the LEDs is, but looking at djozzâs test thread here, it seems that around 650lm per emitter is reasonable if yours are the same as his. That would give you roughly 1950lm at the LED (s). That is a pretty decent output. But you said it didnât look like it was much brighter than a XM-L2 at 2.8A current. Part of that will be because the light is spreading out from three LEDs instead of one. Also, those three LEDs donât have as high lumens/watt efficiency as XM-L2. Part of it also is because it takes almost double light output just to see a significant brightness change at all. And about double is what youâve (likely) got here, if your emitters match the one used in djozzâs tests. If you then take out a bit for losses through the optic, you were probably seeing just what it should be after all. Anyway, itâs bright enough for me. :innocent:
In case anyoneâs interested, Kaidomain still has these Nichia 219C triples for cheap (as of today anyway).
The KD triples are high CRI, so theyâre definitely not as efficient as that cool white XM-L2 i compared it with, and also not as efficient as the one in the Djozz test you linked.
Itâs also a flood light, so the light bouncing from the ceiling straight back down is also less than with a C8.
I have one more KD triple in stock here, so i will build a second one.
Maybe in a 14500 light.