Dont worry about current in , what counts is output . You may have a drop in less 300Lumens of sag [ wasted current ]
OK just installed my OP reflector from Manafont in my Solarforce L2 with the Manafont 3 mode and ...
What a disappointment ! The shallow hole in the hotspot is gone , but in it's place now there's a distinct wide purple ring at the edge of the spill !
The original reflector produces a much better beam .
Oh well , at least the OP reflector only costs $3.00
Edit : I posted some beamshots in the budget light subforum over at CPF . ( I haven't figured out how to post pics here yet )
I just received a 3-mode that tops out at 1.4A pretty much on the button. Same reading with both an AW 2200 and a Black TF 2400. The difference in output against the XP-G module it replaced is barely noticeable.
I built a copper shim & foil wrap to manage the heat all for nothing. Bah...
I received the Manafont Ultrafire 3-mode XML dropin late last week and it maxes out around 3.25 A at the tailcap on high (though occasionally as high as 3.4 A (when warm?)), so it seems some have excellent draw, though maybe some do not.
Some of the lower rated dropins are probably due to DMM lead issues, some due to dropin variance, but some might also be due to battery differences. I tested with a 4.19 V 18650 AW 2900 mAh battery, fresh off the charger. After some use and rechecking the next day, the battery voltage drops and the tailcap reading drops to about 2.85 A. There are also some lower quality or defective 18650 batteries that won't supply 3.4 A.
I got 3 of the XML drop-ins last week.
2 of them have only 1,45A on high, one 1,54A.
I test them with some 4,19 Volt ICR18650 - 24E Samsung batteries.
I check it with a cheap multimeter. In 2 days I will recheck it with a Fluke multimeter of a friend.
See post above yours. 14 AWG wire stuck in your multimeter should work.
Thank you srfreddy. I have no 14 AWG wire stuck, but I use the first thicker wire I found and which fit in my multimeter. It was a short 70cm part of my carhifi wire (4mm²) na dnow my multimeter shows 2,53A with a 4,15Volt Samsung ICR18650-24E.
The wires of the cheap multimeter must be cheap crap. I will recheck it with a Fluke in the next days.
I'm bummed since I was about to pull the trigger on some. Seems like they now have a low quality batch from their supplier. Maybe I'll try the U2 that are now available on DX.
With cheaper MM its often the leads that are current limited , not the battery or Light ...
Most of the Cheap MM are accurate to around 1A and after that things start to go wrong ..
Quality leads are needed fo higher Amp readings
oldbobk, which dropin are you referring to - the XM-L 3 mode from Manafont or the U2 version at DX. Wow, so when you say the R5 is better, do you mean brighter, better tint, more throw/flood?
These are pics of the beam with a SMO reflector and an OP reflector
first the OP
Sorry about the size of these pics , I'm still figuring out the fine points of posting here . But this is what I meant when I said I prefered the beam with the original smooth reflector . Also, this is a fairly accurate color representation of what my eye sees .
Ditto. More often than not I like the SMO reflectors better. Btw, on the second tab of the "insert/edit image" button you can change the image size. I usually set mine to 640x480.
My order from Manafont has finally arrived this morning. Neat XM-L T6 dropins!
One tiny little drawback - while they fit great in my L2, they are slightly too big to properly fit in the SF 6P. The outer diameter is larger, compared to the solarforce reflectors, and the dropin will not seat in the Surefire head. Just like engine rebulding - if it's .001 loose, nobody knows, but if it's .001 too tight, everybody knows! :p
Will have to turn it down about half a millimeter on the lathe to make it work. Other than that, I am very happy.
EDIT:
forget the lathe, ten minutes or so of lapping already did the trick! A difference of 0.3mm in the taper was easy to come by.
While I was at it, I corrected the two ugly blotches of solder on the pill, and I'm set.
[quote=sixfink]
forget the lathe, ten minutes or so of lapping already did the trick! A difference of 0.3mm in the taper was easy to come by.
While I was at it, I corrected the two ugly blotches of solder on the pill, and I'm set.
[/quote]
That should give you a great thermal path to the head. I'm a big fan of hand lapping.
Which has the enormous advantage for me of not needing access to a lathe. The only way I'd get access to one is to buy one of my own. Then I'd need somewhere to put it. My assistant takes up the small amount of spare space where I live.
And she is completely useless for turning metal....
;)
I am trying to put together a manafont order. I really love the HML XM-L I just received from them and want to get another dropin. Has anyone tried the three mode with strobe? I would like to try that one but I dont want to give up anything in output on high. Is this one driven as hard?
I also just received the sky ray host and love it. Again I want to try something different so I was thinking about the 504 host. Looks nice but I wonder if it will be as nice as the sky ray. Anyone have both?
Anyone have thoughts on the 3 mode with strobe? Any current readings out there?
got my manafont UF dropin yesterday and was getting 3.02A after 30 sec. Its noticeably brighter and whiter than the solarforce 1 mode dropin
I went to the site to check it out and the site is all messed up. Layout is odd in any browser and NONE of the pictures show for this nor any product they claim to sell. All pic links are broken. I know you all got stuff from there (and recently, too) but I sure as heck would never feel safe buying something from them. Time to hit DX & KD to see if they have a similar offering at this time. 
Cheers,
Johnny
just went to the site and have been there all morning and its working fine for me.
are you getting an antivirus warning, i had an issue before with avast but i have'nt seen it in a while.