Strange Request:-) (Looking for Chinese torch where LED sits at the top of the torch when front is removed...)

[comfychair]

@DH

Speaking of dimmers, I might just have found a 7135x8 driver which has a setting for 100%, 50%, 30%, 5%, 1% output, so I ordered some of those. I might be in luck! Am I correct in understanding that I can just unsolder as many of the 7135s as I want to to get to my desired output? And would you think that the modes would still be the same percentage wise?

For the 1% setting for example, that's 1% spread across 8 chips, so 3.5mA from each for a total output of 28mA. Reduce the number of chips and that falls by 3.5mA each one you take off, at some point it will be too low to light the LED on the lowest modes. But those very low lows are really dim, probably too dim to be useful for photography. A standard 'low' mode, with the light in candle mode, is still much less light than a candle flame.

For that Qlite driver I linked earlier, that one is the second revision with a low-low of 20mA, the first version had a 5mA low-low and they had a lot of cases where it wasn't enough to light the LED. 20mA is still awfully low, I'd consider that the minimum below which you are probably going to have issues.

2.8A won't fry anything, it'll just shorten battery life if you run it on high all the time. I'd recommend not removing chips and using lower modes when you don't need max brightness. And the full output will still be there at the touch of a button if you need it. If you've crippled the driver by removing chips and find yourself in a situation where you need more light, you're pretty screwed. :)

[DH1 (DH)]

@comfychair

2.8A won’t fry anything, it’ll just shorten battery life if you run it on high all the time. I’d recommend not removing chips and using lower modes when you don’t need max brightness. And the full output will still be there at the touch of a button if you need it. If you’ve crippled the driver by removing chips and find yourself in a situation where you need more light, you’re pretty screwed. Smile

Got it, it all makes sense. Thanks. Parts pretty much all ordered now. Leaving on a work trip but will be back in a few days and start tinkering then.

[gords1001]

for the t2, your driver must be one sided, , you cannot have anything on the contact side of the board. hence why I suggested an ak47 nanjg driver, reprogrammed and add chips as desired.

[DH1 (DH)]

@gords1001

for the t2, your driver must be one sided, you cannot have anything on the contact side of the board. hence why I suggested an ak47 nanjg driver, reprogrammed and add chips as desired.

Oops, well… I’ll have to look for an AK47 out here then. I am a bit pressed for time on the first use for these lights. The Doc has to wait.

D.

[gords1001]

mine gives a nice low standard so yoy should be good. intloutdoor sells the drivers if that helps

[DH1 (DH)]

@gords1001

for the t2, your driver must be one sided, , you cannot have anything on the contact side of the board. hence why I suggested an ak47 nanjg driver, reprogrammed and add chips as desired.

Hmm, the more I look at it, the more it looks like an AK47 is kinda like the 105c with 3 x 7135… Am I right? The board is the same size. But the 105s with four and less 7135s are one-sided only or am I mistaken?
I have a few of those one-sided 105s coming in as well (3x7135 and 4x7135), so wouldn’t that be OK?
I can’t really picture where the space limitations are before I have the T2 in my hands, but it seems like there is space enough on the top side of the board to piggyback 7135s - just not on the underside, right?

[gords1001]

thats correct, I used a 4 x 7135 and added one more chip for 1.7a

[DH1 (DH)]

@gords1001

thats correct, I used a 4 x 7135 and added one more chip for 1.7a

Perhaps a stupid question but does it matter on which of the original 7135s you piggyback onto?
Just wondering if the CPU sees the 7135s as one entity of if it addresses them individually as if it’s the latter, then perhaps the modes will be messed up.

[driveX]

Sipik SK68 may fit your needs, too.

[citruspers]

@DH

I like this thread:-)
And I like the fact that the T2 has a 1/4 thread as I do sometimes stand or hang my small video light from a gorillapod just like gords. I didn’t think I could get this in a flashlight tho.

Did you check my review?

[DH1 (DH)]

Yup, I did. Sorry, messed up the names. Gorillapod dues are certainly to you and thanks for your thorough review.

There is one T2 in the mail to me from a local vendor now.

[comfychair]

@DH

@gords1001

thats correct, I used a 4 x 7135 and added one more chip for 1.7a

Perhaps a stupid question but does it matter on which of the original 7135s you piggyback onto? Just wondering if the CPU sees the 7135s as one entity of if it addresses them individually as if it’s the latter, then perhaps the modes will be messed up.

No, there are some very fancy drivers which do that but these don't, all the 7135s are controlled by a common output from the MCU. :)

[DH1 (DH)]

So, I got a few different torches. Some are R5s and some are T6s, I think. But all of them are cold in color.
Unfortunately, the only vendor that had the Hi CRI XP-Gs has not delivered on time and I was running out of time. Also, still no luck in sourcing Nichia 219 +92CRIs out here, but I will def keep searching. More on this later.

For now, I modded the MCU-C7. It is a nice tiny light and easy to work on. Not glued at all, except from the star which seems to be Fujik’ed in place.
The LED is a cold, cold XML something. And the driver goes: High, Medium and strobe. Horrible.
I did a very quick and dirty swap for a warmer XM-L2 in 4C, that I had and a five level driver. The five levels are real dimming levels with no strobe. Much better.
No idea on heat transfer and such yet, but it wont run for long anyways.
The driver is supposed to be 2.8A (8 * 7135s) but the tailcap draws app. 1.4A. Maybe that’s all the little batt can put out. It was the same with the original driver which I don’t know what is rated at. It’s still plenty bright for my intended usage.

I did a few test shots on a color chart and compared them to shots of the same chart in daylight.
The new, warmer XM-L2 is as bad CRI wise as the old, cold XM-L. But at least it is warmer.

These shots are all white balanced so that they appear neutral as I wanted to see how they would render colors. Also, remember, the idea is to use this as a very little fill light in indoors low light situations. As I always shoot raw, I think this method of comparing is the best.

The first shot is the color chart in soft afternoon daylight from my window:

The second one is the modded MCU-C7 in mule mode with the new XM-L2 4C:

The third one is the standard MCU-C7 in mule mode with a pretty cold XM-L. I can’t really tell a difference between the color rendering of the modded and standard torch after being white balanced to neutral:

I notice that reds suffer a lot and yellow slides a bit - so, it may be tricky with skin tones. Blues are a bit more saturated. The rest seem to stay the same. These basic tests proves to me that though I can do a lot in the raw conversion and photoshop, I ideally need higher CRI LEDs.

More to come.

[comfychair]

Move cursor in/out for a direct comparison:

Neat feature, eh? :)

[DH1 (DH)]

As said, I shoot exclusive in RAW and also, I don’t mind a warm LED as it will balance better with the incandescent lighting that I mostly find in very dimly lit interiors where I’ll be using this “fill light”.

But in case you would like to see how the color temps/tints look, here we go with a few more test shots.

First one is daylight:

The second one is the standard MCU-C7 with a pretty cold XM-L in mule mode (converted with a daylight WB of 5500 K):

The third one is my modded MCU-C7 in mule mode with a new, warm XM-L2 4C (converted with a daylight WB of 5500 K):

Can’t wait to get HI-CRI XP-G/XM-Ls and Nichias to test out.

[DH1 (DH)]

@comfychair

Move cursor in/out for a direct comparison:

Neat feature, eh?

Cool, I have seen this around on BLF. How do you do it? Is it an animated GIF? (I have heard that phrase, so I could find a tuturial online).
Perfect if I could do all three pics in one animation.
Do you know if I can do it within Photoshop?

[comfychair]

I prefer the mouse in/mouse out, ani-gifs always cycle too fast or too slow. It never fails that just when you spot some little detail you want to study closer, the pic changes. Ugh.

For the forum's mouseover function you have to be using the 'advanced editor' (set in your profile/preferences). The 'insert image' dialog has 3 tabs; on the main tab paste the mouse-out URL in the 'General' field, then switch to the 'Advanced' tab and tick the 'Alternative Image' box and re-paste the first image's URL in the 'For Mouse Out' field, and the second image URL in the 'For Mouse Over' field. Do that again for each pair - a+b, b+c, a+c, etc.

[DH1 (DH)]

@comfychair

I prefer the mouse in/mouse out, ani-gifs always cycle too fast or too slow. It never fails that just when you spot some little detail you want to study closer, the pic changes. Ugh.

For the forum’s mouseover function you have to be using the ‘advanced editor’ (set in your profile/preferences). The ‘insert image’ dialog has 3 tabs; on the main tab paste the mouse-out URL in the ‘General’ field, then switch to the ‘Advanced’ tab and tick the ‘Alternative Image’ box and re-paste the first image’s URL in the ‘For Mouse Out’ field, and the second image URL in the ‘For Mouse Over’ field. Do that again for each pair - a+b, b+c, a+c, etc.

Got it!
Thanks, I did just play around with it in Photoshop, but not enough time and if it doesn’t have the mouse in/out then it’s much better doing within BLF.
Off on a work trip now. Will have to wait until I get back, but thanks for walking me through this.

[leaftye]

How about this?

https://budgetlightforum.com/t/-/21223