Oh, I was just pointing out that Direct Diving the SFH55 your 25 Amp tail reading may translate to 16 Amps at the LED with a Vdrop of 0.8+ Volts (guesstimated). Granted you don’t have much space in the S2+, but it’s to consider when building high-power lights.
I think Lick is referring to the god-awful Sofirn drivers. They’re not in the business of high-power drivers. They design the drivers for the commercially available emitters (SST40, XHP50.2). Not on the same scale as these S series Chinese counterparts of the XHP70.x or SBT90.x
I know they have FET drivers. I don’t know if any can do 25A, The UI is not always the best but I do t think they’re awful, just imperfect like all drivers.
the A6 driver is also a FET but I don’t trust BG.
My Wurkkos TS30A with Molicel P42 and SFH55 does ~30A at startup and starts to drop fast. Like 0.1A/s
Tail amps don’t equate to LED amps. When you do a lumen test, the emitter is clearly underperforming. It’s just to say, having a high-power LED should be coupled with a high-power driver and the appropriate host/electrical path.
Those DD drivers from MTN would be ideal candidates. Don’t know much about those Wurkkos but if they’re anything as Sofirns, well…
I heard that MTN might use sub-par FETs, as in old ones with a high internal resistance but I’m yet to confirm that myself
From their product description, the LuciDrv driver can be configured to bypass the FET. Don’t know if this is also available with the other types – not specified (or I didn’t dig deep enough).
Expensive drivers, but I’ll have to order some to get a ‘feel’. Nevertheless, thanks for the heads-up.
EDIT (~7 PM):
Seems only the LuciDRV has an override configuration (my understanding from the mode selection). Anyways, a couple of drivers would set me back $60 CAD with shipping. That’s not happening. And what’s up with Richards’s site? Takes so much time to load and then buggers when I click about, like just stalls and even once froze.
Been ages since I visited MTN, price wise not in my paygrade.
The FET on those MTN drivers is from the paleolithic era and has high resistance. (IRLR8726TRLPBF) ~5.8mOhm resistance at 4.5V = 3.6W loss in the FET at 25A. You can swap it for a BSC009NE2LS5ATMA1 or Sir404 but you might as well build your own driver with a shared BLF Osh Park board instead. For super high amps, the Omten 1288 would probably benefit from a mod where some copper sheet or wire is added on top of the terminal contacts and on the bottom of the center contact. Or otherwise it could be converted to a FET switch. And of course the springs in the light need bypassed. The 18650 is going to have its limits. VTC6 is the best for high amps afaik.
Here’s my baked, sliced, bled, and bypassed 2700K triple SST-20 S2+.
BAKED the black KD host in the oven at 400F and turned it into a nice coppery brown.
SLICED the KD LEDs down to just under 1mm using a custom made washer. The JA3 binned LEDs were supposed to be under the BBL, but they looked plain yellow compared to my rosy 219B and E17A 2700Ks. Now they’re equally as rosy! I know I took a lumens hit, but the tint was worth it (to me).
BLED the MTN17DDm driver to keep the Bistro firmware intact due to the lighted switch. I found a spot on the back of the driver for the bleeder resistor. In the past I placed it on the spring side.
BYPASSED the lighted Convoy switch spring with 22 AWG wire. I swapped out the stock orange LEDs with 0805 purple and pink ones. It draws 0.15mA (2.6 years). I also glued a spacer to the top of the switch button to fill the gap with the silicone boot. Not sure why the tail had this gap, but it made the switch feel sloppy.
Currently it’s my favorite flashlight, but I say that every time I finish one.
You just made me buy a SC21 pro in green :sunglasses:
Looks like a nice light, that deserves a 519A
It is a very nice little light. I hope you enjoy it as much as I do. Here is an album of SC21 Pro photos, including comparisons to other 519a LED options
latest mods,
Replaced an RRT-01 driver for a friend. During his install of a 519a, the positive wire had shorted to the body.
Love the beam profile, pretty much perfect hotspot and transition to spill.
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dedomed some 3500K 219b in a FWAA, much happier w the Tint now, the dedome also improved the beam so it has slightly more of a hotspot:
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How did you get the rrt01 driver out ? the control ring does not function on mine.
Removing the RRT01 driver is easy:
- desolder the wires from the star
- unscrew the tiny driver-retaining screw on the bottom of the head at the top of the battery compartment.
- With the screw removed, the driver’s cover plate can drop off the bottom.
- lift the driver out from the back by gripping the center post with long-nosed pliers.
Found a box with some old, but never used LiitoKala Lii-100 today. Took one and did some mods to it:
- Adjusted the voltage divider to reduce the charging voltage to 4.20 V. One hour after charging the battery voltage is around 4.16 V, so only beneficial for the battery life.
- Added a voltmeter to get more precise voltage reading instead of the four coarse LEDs. It can be switched on and off to maintain compatibility with NiMH.
The LiitoKala Lii-100 is a very nice charger, supports Li-ion and NiMH, has a powerbank function and now even shows the voltage with two decimal places (checked the accuracy, it’s ±0.005 V). Could be slightly longer to support 21700.
Looks sharp and that’s a neat mod! Nice work!
I wanted to put this led into Astrolux st01…but no idea about the driver.Anyone knows which driver is used here?
Turned my Convoy T3 into a triple using the FWAA optic and mcpcb and a homemade spacer made out of copper washers.
Pictured next to my Manker E05Ti that i also turned into a triple.
That’s probably the thickest MCPCB I’ve ever seen!
I actually used this one
cheaper and simpler, I personally dislike complicated UIs and like the set brightness modes.
Although I might try out guppydrv on my next driver, looks like a “bigger” Biscotti