I have been working on this light for a while now. It is finally time to put it up for sale. I finished the light for the first time about 4-5months ago but a mishap with the optic caused a delay. With the light sitting here I couldn’t leave well enough alone and decided the knurling needed more attention. So, yes, I really did file, sand, and polish all four surfaces of EVERY point in the knurling on both bodies and the tailcap! This took me hours but I am now fully satisfied with the light. My goal was to remove all traces and marks of manufacturing. I came pretty darn close to reaching my goal. You would be surprised at how many “imperfections” one can find on an already decently finished looking light!
I am offering this light up for sale hoping it will be considered something to be proud of. The owner must be aware of its magnificence and know how to safely handle the power of such a light. Misuse, or even seemingly safe use can not only lead to a dead light but could also seriously injure the user.
The light is preset to low-mid-high plus double click to 100%.
Mode memory enabled
Thermal regulation aggressive
I will adjust the settings per the buyers request. The UI can be found here. I have the only copy of this driver as far as I know. It’s the h17f+ with bigger fet for high power lights.
I am asking $135
Satisfaction guaranteed or just send the light back. I just ask that you do intend to buy and not plan on ordering just to take a look at the light for no cost.
I will include:
The light
A Luminit diffuser, removable.
A capsule of a piece of reusable polishing wad.
A lint free cloth
18650& 18350 battery tubes
Polished clip
Lanyard
Original box with orings
Also an astrolux belt pouch that fits the light perfectly.
Either a Sanyo ga or Samsung 30q cell depending on how conservative you want to be.
An Aspire 18350 1200mah
A small xtar charger if asked for.
That should cover it.
Specs:
S41S Polished
Two Cree XP-G3 5700k 90+ CRI
Two Nichia 4000k 90+ CRI
H17F+ fully programmable driver
Pink led lighted tailcap. Only 32uA power loss
23 Amp current draw from a VTC5
3500-3600 High CRI Lumens
_Edit: Along the way I have bragged about the power of this light, considering it the highest of it’s class at 23amp draw from one cell. So, I am quite embarrassed to reveal my latest findings.
When I first took measurements, I did not have the battery tube in the circuit. Turns out, this stainless steel tube has quite a bit off resistance. From the best that I can measure, I am getting more than a .2volt drop across the battery tube. Measuring the circuit with the light assembled gives an amp draw of “just” 18amps. This is still right up there with the best, but I believe some of the D2 builds have surpassed this number. It also draws over 11amps from an Aspire 18350. _
Yes, I built this light to sell but I knew I wouldn’t get back what I put in to it. Even still i understand it is an expensive light. But add up the accessories and I believe it is worth the price. The question is, does anyone else
Even so, I’ll take offers if someone is not interested in the accessories and wants to save a bit.
Wow, that is some serious work. You weren’t kidding about polishing all 4 side of the knurling. I’m not in the market myself for such a light, but it’s a great piece of work!
Somehow I missed that build thread and it’s ironic that just prior to seeing this I commented about the possibility I might swap a H17F into my baked S41.
I’m curious how much of the SS tube’s voltage drop could be overcome by adding a copper path to the inside of the tube.
Think of it as a spring bypass for the SS tube.
Running some 5mm solder wick the length of the tube is what I have in mind.
Achieving a good electrical contact at each end might be tricky. Dremel a shallow, rounded ‘v’ at each end of the tube (about 4mm wide, maybe 0.5mm deep), attach the wick at these points, overfill the ‘v’ with solder, and then use a lapping stone to get a nice flush surface. Chasing the threads might be tricky. I suspect silver solder would work really well for this, and soldering / flowing / depositing a thin layer on each face of the tube before a second lapping might help immensely.
Every electrical path creates some amount of resistance… but the battery tube is pretty close to the same thing as infinity-over-zero gauge wire, so even though it’s steel it should have virtually no voltage drop. With such thick “wire” the biggest factors are the amount of contact area and amount of pressure between contact areas, not the type of metal.
Think of it as thousands of stainless wires in parallel vs one thick lower resistance wire. The tube, though nominally less conductive, will effectively cause less of a voltage drop.
Without having the actual item or similar I’d say anything that prevents formation of oxides would help. It is the formation of chromium oxides that give stainless steel its anti-rust properties. A simple plating with a metal with higher conductivity in its oxydized state before oxide formation should reduce the voltage drop. I will experiment using stainless tubing on hand and simple silver and possibly gold electroplating and report results in a new thread in the near future.
I’m this case it was not the contact resistance, well the only added resistance would have been between the clips and the tube as I measured the resistance by sending 15amps straight through the tube. I believe the measured resistance was 160 mΩ or close to that. I now no longer have the light to do more testing. I measured a number of times and got amp draw between 20-23a without the tube and 17-18 with the tube. At such low voltage and high amps measuring for exact numbers can be very difficult as a small change can cause large measurement differences. Anothother factor is the charge of the battery used, however, I was aware of these factors while measuring. So, measurements were taken using a battery fresh off the charger.
I did my measurements through a 75 mΩ shunt (actually measured at 74.2) and a homemade 1 mΩ shunt. The voltage drop over the battery tube was more than double the drop across the 75 mΩ shunt. These number are from memory so I’m recording them now before I forget.
Sorry I have not documented this information. I wish I could remember more. Maybe someone could critique these numbers? I can try to add whatever I can remember. It was clear that the light pull significantly less power with the batt tube in place.
