So far I’ve built a Convoy C8 and a p60 for my L2m. Both running a Noctigon mounted XP-G2 NW.
The driver is meant to pump out 3.04A according to the specs, although my DMM is only showing 2.11 and 2.37 for my above builds (not sure if this is because the are XP-G2’s or my DMM).
Anyhow, that aside. I want to build an XM-L2 C8 now too. And I saw this driver on FastTech:
Real direct drive would be brighter, but that driver from FastTech isn’t true direct drive. It may or may not give you more current than the qlite driver does and it certainly will not have as good of mode selection. All of my qlites normally do right around 3 amps with XM-L and XM-L2. If you have good cells I would suspect that your multi-meter isn’t giving you a good reading. If you don’t have thick enough test leads you will likely measure lower than actual current.
If you want to up the current on your qlite it is easy to do. Purchase some AMC 7135 chips
and solder them on top of some of your existing chips, each chip added will give you ~.35A more current. There are lots of good guides on how to do this; I would recommend looking at old-lumen’s YouTube channel, he has some good guides there.
First off, real Direct Drive (wires only) will be brighter than a current-limited driver, but only at first. Without current regulation you’re at the mercy of the battery. You’ll also generate a lot more heat!!
OTOH, you can stack 7135s to some level where your Brightness is “enough”, then a lower-capacity battery could do its best, where a super-current one would be limited (and regulated) to whatever your design would pass. This would give you a lot more light, but you get to set the heat level by regulating the current.
But none of the FastTech drivers you linked are actually “Direct Drive”. They don’t even make 1A!!
If you don’t need the QLite’s modes, a “plain” new-model 105c is pretty awesome all by itself. I only have the old models where the stars work, but the new ones are actually better. And the chip-stacking trick works just perfectly as well.
What ever happened to that old buck/boost driver thread that someone was trying to get done? It was about a year ago, lost track of it and apparently I forgot to subscribe to it.