Nice pictures again, the heat path looks sufficient for a bit more than 3A at the emitter
Hey djozz,
Are you thinking that there isn't enough contact between the tube and the head? I don't have a clear picture in my mind of how it is built, but it seems that what the contact area lacks in number of threads, it makes up for in circumference. Maybe that is just wishful thinking. The head seems large enough to dissipate a decent amount of heat if the heat can get to it.
Another question for Mr. mholdenattorney if I may bother you again,
I take it the head doesn't slide, but screws up and down. Is that correct? The threads look kind of fine and that it would take a lot of time to go from full flood to zoom.
What I meant to say is that it looks like it can handle more current than it does now. Actually the build around the pill looks like the Uniquefire UF-T20, I run mine at 3A and the output shows no heatsag whatsoever, this tube is wider (26650 tube) so the heatpath will be a bit better than that, I'd say 5+ amps should be no problem (it will get hot, but I like a bit of heat to confirm that something significant is happening in there :evil: )
Cool. Hope you're right and that the light even proves even better. I never got a T20, but I probably won't resist this one if a good GB is arranged by someone. I just hope it's not soon because I'm in a purchase hangover at the moment.
About the zoom - from the pictures above, it is apparently just as ImA4Wheelr suggests, the head screws up and down on fine threads. I think this would be ideal if you have a favorite zoom position and want to keep it there. If you need to zoom in and out a lot, it will be frustrating. Am I remembering correctly that this is how the old incan Mag-Lites used to work?
Yes. That is correct. However you don’t have to screw all the way out for a big flood. One-third to one-half is plenty. Could probably wrap the tube threads below this for some contact to bottom of head below head threads. It will make it harder to turn depending on how tight.
Thanks Mark. Really appreciate all the good info. Doesn't sound too bad if the threads are kept well lubed.
If I ever get this light, I will probably use it like DavidEF suggests. It's nice to have the option available to unzoom and also to be able fine tune the focus to the situation as needed.
I am no driver expert, but I guess it is the R120 sense resistor that we can play around with?
I didn’t go through ohaya’s thread (it’s long!) so I don’t know about this driver. Perhaps ohaya and the other driver experts can chime in here.
Thanks again for all your efforts Mr. mholdenattorney, pretty good information there. I am almost 90% sure that I will order this light. It’s just a matter of time and buying from who - did somebody mention about groupbuy?
after reading all the info here i think we can safely answer to the the question of the thread starter: yes its a worthy zoom flashlight and IMHO one of the best around.
its relatively cheap ,
it have good thermal management
it have an big and nice glass lens
and what it is more important in a zoomie i think this will out throw everything in its price range reflector or even aspheric type of lights.
I read the Ohaya driver thread for this driver and a few of the links therein.
It does not appear this is a very efficient driver and will not push 4 –5 amps.
Can any one recommend a better driver or links to information.
I am new at this.
^ Great question. I'm all ears on that as well. I know of no good buck candidates in that small of a driver. I think BLF Member wight is developing something, but I haven't had a chance to catch up on that project. I think it's still fairly early in development.
Separately, I just heard that a GB may be in the works. I told him that he is evil, but I also said I can't wait to hear the details in the next sentence. What's the matter with me?
Just had to drop $400 on new leaf springs for my truck, and need to drop about another $1000 on it.... So I hope it's a great group buy because I ain't got play money right now
I have just finished reading ohaya’s thread. Yes it is quite disappointing that this driver might not be able to be resistor-modded and deliver high output current. The other components like the diode and the FET may not like it.
3 possible scenarios we could have here:
Maybe we should hope that the manufacturer of this Uniquefire 1405 would use better components on the driver. ohaya’s driver has R200 resistor, whereas your driver has R120. Hopefully the other components are different (in a good way) too.
2. Finding another 16.5mm buck driver, but this is not easy at the moment. Most of the better buck drivers are usually large in size.
3. Forget all these buck drivers and go with the BLF17DD driver or 7135 based linear drivers - i.e. Nanjg 105C type of drivers. This way we cannot use 2 x 18650 anymore. A dummy cell can be used together with a real 18650 in this format. The downside of this is we do not have constant-current regulation anymore, which is the beauty of buck drivers. But the bright side is we are quite familiar with Nanjg drivers thus we can easily boost the output current, having more flexible mode selections and also flashing your own firmware.
What is the output of my driver with the R120 resistor with two 26650’s?
What resister would I piggy back to add .5 amp more?
Are there any 7135 based linear drivers that accept 8 volt input?
