I’ve been doing a lot of research lately (thanks to the awesome members here!) and have ordered all the parts I need to complete a Convoy C8.
Convoy C8 host
CREE XM-L2 T6 3C
QLITE REV.A 7135*8 3.04A LED DRIVER
I also picked up a forward clicky, a smooth reflector, and some artic silver.
One question I have is how many amps should I run? If I can safely run 3 that would be great, if not I can remove a couple chips.
That is a great start. 
If you plan to run it at 3.0A or below it is fine to use aluminium board. If you want to make it a hot-rod (>3.0A) you need to reflow your LED on DTP (Direct Thermal Path) boards like Sinkpad, Noctigon and the newer Maxtoch DTP copper boards. By using these DTP boards with good reflow you can run your LED at 4~5A no problem.
Three amps is a walk in the park. My C8 runs about double that. Leave the driver as is and just select which star you want.
Actually it is on a Noctigon board. This is what I ordered.
Good choices all. Suggest you get a good magnifying lamp and adjustable temp iron with interchangeable tips. Common mistakes are soldering the wires too close to the led or with too high a solder joint causing a short to the reflector and not using enough flux or heat to be able to make a quick connection to the mcpcb. Pretin the pads before you put the led in the pill. Did you also get centering pieces? They often need to be trimmed to miss the solder pads. The C8 pill does not require that you solder the driver ground so that issue is avoided. Good luck!
Thank you for the advice!
I’m going to be picking up a good iron and magnifying lamp. I didn’t get any centering pieces, I was planning on using the reflector to help center it.
Just double check that there isn’t one in the plastic bag that has the springs etc in it. Usually they are inside the battery tube. The Convoy C8 that I built for someone had a centreing ring. It is just a little round piece of plastic with a square centre hole and a round lip. It fits over the led and centres the reflector over it.
Good choices. This is my standard build for friends, down to the 3C tint as well. Is this your first mod/build?
It is.
How does this setup compare to something like a Klarus XT-11 (2012 model) on an 18650? It’s currently my brightest light (don’t laugh) and I’m hoping this current build will blow it away.
LSX: I’ll be sure and check when it gets here. Thanks for the heads up.
That XT11 looks nice. I think it will blow it out of the water just because of the throw of the C8 reflector. But the higher output you go, the harder it is for a new light to make a big difference.
JonnyC:
The XT11 puts out 550 ANSI FL1 lumens on an 18650 and 750 ANSI FL1 lumens on 2xCR123. It’s a great light, I just want more lol.
Sounds like you’re on a pretty similar flashaholic trajectory as I was a few months ago… you’ll be pretty happy with the C8 you’re building (for a while, at least…). Good choices on the components. Dialing in the LED to get it as close to centered and focused as possible will make an appreciable difference. You can turn the light on low and shine the light close to a wall, if there’s a donut ring the LED likely needs to be further up into the reflector. That can be done by using a thinner centering piece (or none at all, if you’re extra lucky, or are good at keeping the reflector from turning while tightening the bezel), or by sanding the reflector base down carefully. If you start messing with all that, it’s important to make sure the reflector doesn’t hit the LED leads. It’s more of a problem with dedomed LEDs in my experience. It’ll still look great even when not fully focused and centered — just giving you the info since you can further improve the light without spending any more money (this is budget light forum, afterall).
DTP noctigon, at 3A… daily driver light throwing powerhouse
Also solder some solder wick on the springs to facilitate better current flow but other than that, that is a GREAT start!
The DTP (direct thermal path) stars really shiny at higher amps but are not wasted at the normal power levels as the LED’s stay cooler and stay brighter longer (less thermal sag resulting in lumens sag)
Make sure you get some good silicon lubricant for the threads and maybe even some artic silver for the pill threads to help wick the heat from the pill to the body and fins
Other than that…get ready for a light that will throw some photons man…enjoy!
I have mine running a Nanjg 8*7135 105C w/ custom STAR firmware, set T (60s)>H>M>L>ML no mem, it’s my bump in the night, sock the badguy in the puss with as much light as possible flashlight…hanging right next to my bed on a hook w/ lanyard right by my quick open pistol safe.
Run some 22ga silicon covered wire from star to driver (keep it short) for good current flow, everything else will just come together (make sure you keep your solder blobs on star short and not spiked up too high (the + side could short out on the metal reflector)
grantman:
Thank you for tips, I hadn’t thought about making sure it was dialed in for proper focus. I’m already thinking about picking up a Solarforce K3 head for my D18 body, I guess I’m already a lost cause lol.
WarHawk:
Thank you for the information. Looks like I’ll be stopping by Radio Shack on the way home to pick up a couple of things.
What’s the best way to calculate runtime for this set up?
Well I got all my parts in today and everything went together great! I’ve been outside for the last hour lighting up the river behind my house and I’m very impressed, it blows my XT-11 away by far. The XM-L2 T6 C3 is awesome, I love the 4750 - 5000 temp. I ran the C8 with both an OP and smooth reflector. I like them both and will be switching them back and forth depending on use.
I have to say that I’m really impressed with the finish of the Convoy C8, honestly I wasn’t expecting it to be that nice. The overall quality really blew me away, especially for a $10 light.
All in all I’m extremely happy with this set up. Thank you all for taking the time to help me. I’m reading, learning, and thinking of the next project :bigsmile:
Glad it went together OK!
It makes it tough for me to drop $80+ on a light like a Nitecore knowing that I can get some really quality stuff for pretty cheap, of course with less features though.
By features do you mean modes?
Yeah, but more substantially things like auxiliary color LEDs, secondary momentary switch on the tailcap, magnetic ring control, etc. Luckily I don't NEED all of that stuff.
I got ya. I don’t really care for all that myself. I went with a simple 5mA, 2, 25, 100% mode group.