congratulations on making the meanest tr-1200 likely of all time (
i donāt think anyone would have attempted a brighter incan build!
many surprises all roundā¦
short reflector should work well to minimise the corona
interesting that the board puts out 5A with two of these cells
love this host 
With both extension tubes (one short, one long) removed it runs passably well on three CR123s. And with the short extension, with four CR123s. In 3xCR123 super-shorty mode it's only about an inch longer than a C8.
Tailcap currents with 18650s:
2x 18650
low .55A
mid 1.95A
high 4.85A
3x 18650
low 1.06A
mid 3.05A
high 6.57A
I really like this build, thanks for sharing, can you get the extension tubes easily enough? Iāve got a trustfire t1 that I think is the exact same host and I may have to try this.
Extension here: http://www.fasttech.com/product/1243102
Same thread on both the male & female ends so you can stack as many of them together as you like. Only the thread on the front of the main tube that goes in the head is different.
Very nice comfychair. The driver you have should nearly be on my doorstep. Your beamshots are eagerly awaited. Iām going to hide though as if this thing is pointed in the wrong direction we may be invaded by aliens. :_(
at 1/80sec f2.8 iso200: (TR-1200 @ 9A, S1100 @ 3.3A, 5xSRK @ 1.2A per LED. S4, C8, & L2P all using the same 3A Qlite drivers)
Doesn't look like much difference between the 3.3A S1100 and the 9A TR-1200... let's close up that shutter speed and see what happens:
Well, that's... strange. Either it's underperforming, or the S1100 is a better combo than I'd thought. But hunting for ceilings is one thing, let's reserve judgement until it's dark outside. Only 4 hours or so to go...
You gotta admit though, that's not a bad pattern considering this reflector is 48.8mm across and only 20.3mm deep (inside dimensions).
Well, something weird going on with this. Or maybe not.
Outdoors, the S1100/MTG2 blows it away. Now it could be just that this one spreads the light out a lot more than the tight beam in the S1100, but that doesn't really feel like the right answer. If it were clearly brighter as short range, but less so at the trees on the far side of the next block over I use as targets, it might make sense. But even at medium distance, like 40-50 feet it doesn't seem brighter. It's a lot more spread out, but it just doesn't seem like there's more total light coming out.
I realize less overall light concentrated into a smaller area can appear brighter, but this thing doing triple the current should be plainly making more light, in at least one of the situations where I compared them. And it's an actual, steady, real 9 amps, at the emitter, measured before the last lead was soldered to the board. And even though the tailcap amps between 2 cells and 3 cells is reading a big big increase with 3, it doesn't look any dimmer on only 2 cells. I'm very confused. :~
perhaps 9a is on the far side of the diminishing returns curve, even on copper?
If so, wouldn't it appear brighter at 5 amps? There's no change in tint between 5A and 9A either, nor any noticeable dimming after switch on from a cold start that would indicate the LED isn't completely happy... I've even looked at it closely through a welding lens and it's got uniform brightness across the die, nothing appears to be out of line.
It does appear to be rather a lot cooler tint than the one in the S1100 even though they both came from the same batch, through the group buy here a while back. I have another left from that batch, and three more I got from IOS. Think it's worth trying a different one?
it would certainly tell us something so worth a try, Iām travelling at the moment but I agree its not seeming like heat or over current is the issue as its not really bright then dimming, perhaps its the flood effect and the hotspot really is so intense because of the high current?
or, perhaps they really do just work best at 3a or so and really dont respond well to over driving although I am just spit balling here
I did a quick-n-dirty check with a different reflector, 58mm wide x 48mm deep smooth from the UF-1226 (the big single LED SRK-like thing). Much tighter spot, a lot more like the S1100's pattern, but still not noticeably brighter.
Do you think that maybe the driver is supplying the 9amps, but not at the full Vf of the emitter?
Not enough voltage would limit the current, same as we're seeing with the high-Vf XML2s in single cell lights. The 9A was measured with the meter between the driver's LED- wire and the - pad on the star, so that's a direct measurement and not something derived from the tailcap numbers.
I was wondering if the driver itself was limiting the voltage supplied.
It can't be, or else it would do less than 9A! The forward voltage acts like a valve - as voltage goes up, it allows more current thru the LED. If it takes 7.6 volts to allow 9 amps to pass, but your source is only capable of 7.4 volts, you will never be able to push 9A through the LED no matter how many amps your source is capable of delivering.