Good leads are important. UF980L is generally higher than 3.5A, like 4A+, but the battery and the it's voltage are the most important when measuring direct drive lights.
It is. Yup, both HiMax2600. I do have thicker wires, I'll check that later.
Theres not much to see of the driver, and I dont really know what it should look like. Its definately different from the one in olds review from early 2011. The rear side of the driver pretty much looks like the UF980L driver.
I used the german equivalent of 13 AWG wire and I got 2.6A. Still about an amp less than the UF980L. Might ofc be my meter, but as both lights are DD, they should perform more similar imo.
Yeah, still sounds like an issue if they are supposed to measure similarly. Boy, and this drop-in was on my wishlist for a future purchase too! Does the tint still seem similar to the reviews?
-Garry
It's not DD, it's regulated by 8 AMC7135's.
Uhh.. https://budgetlightforum.com/t/-/1108?page=2#comment-136911 post #132
Review: Ultra Fire UF-980L post #86
Cant really see how they could fit 8 AMCs in there.
Tint is pretty much like the UF980L. Kinda neutral with a hint of blue, I like it, its not as cold as some XREs I've seen.
Do you have different 18650 cells you can try out. in my direct drive HD2010 tailcap current draw can vary greatly depending on the cell used. Anywhere from 3-5.4A
TF2400, TF3000, HiMax 2600. All the same. Maybe the emitter is limitting here..
My drop-in had problem with the outer spring (the negative, bigger spring) contact, either with the pill or host body. Normally mine will pull 3.6A easy. It did go to 4A once, somehow I never could reproduce that. Sometimes though, the light output will visibly drop, when checked tailcap draw dropped to around 2A.
Reopening the drop-in and simply pull/push/reassemble will fix the problem. Something just isn't hugging/contacting enough to get good connection. I plan to just put a blob of solder on the spring/pill. Someday. 
My suggestion is to open up the drop-in and see if there's any connection that might limit high current.
Correct me if I'm wrong, but I believe that the MF drop-ins all pull about 2.5-2.8A I think I have one that gets 3.1A, but none of them that I am aware of even come close to the 980L. But then they don't have the huge failure rate of the 980l, either.
Mine pulls all it can take from a cell. The Sanyo laptop-salvage cells I have (https://budgetlightforum.com/t/-/7475) are able to push nearly 4A when fully charged. Even my older cells are all over 3A with this dropin. The only cell I have that provided less current was the DD-Freebie Trusfire Blue that I tossed shortly after receiving it.
Mine pulls 4.5 to 5 amp. I can only use trustfire flames (or better batteries). The ones that have 4A protection circuits only let me run the light in low or med mode (high trips the protection).
I just did that spring tightening yesterday, and just measured the output to reply to this thread... wow... a whopping 4.3A from Panasonic NCR18650! Even the crappy Ultrafire3000 gave 4.1A initially, though the current drops fast. TF Flame 3000 can only push 3.8A, I suppose the protection circuit adds extra resistance and limit the current. Salvaged Sanyo gave around 3.6A.
My hand is almost burnt right now from holding the host, I just had to repeat the reading too many times in disbelief, the host gets too hot to touch, even the 1.25mm2 wire (around 12AWG I think) became quite hot.
This drop-in is awesome. I hope Nightcrawl's one is good too and only have connection issue like mine.
Im glad the readings went up! I ordered the same drop-in last week.
I was sad at the begining of the thread and now i am happy!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Havent opened mine up yet, because I'll have to remove the solder points.. but whatevery I try, I cant get over 2.5A. UF980L reads 1A more. DMM doesnt seem to be limiting, brightness doesnt change when I bypass it. I connected the dropin to the cell without a host "in the way"..
Can you get voltage reading at the emitter (Vf) @2.5A? I'll try to compare with mine.
Now where's that welding goggle...
Why is this AMP thing such a contest ?
Higher AMP's = more heat , faster output sag and more stress on the LED and components ...
Having said that , mine has pulled over 5A something like 5.6A on a fresh cell ... 
Your 980l or your MF drop-in?
MF P60 drop in ...
I fully understand that lumen gains over about 3.5 amps are incremental. Still, though; I can't help it. I'm through apologizing for getting jazzed when my 980L pulls 5 amps.
I have an sku 5720 XM-L drop-in that regularly pulls 4 amps and I think it's flocking awesome!
allflockedupintheheadFoy