Whole slew of questions

LED Flashlights – General Info
1

Hi, I’m a regular lurker, and a sometime poster… I have been dedoming a lot of my lights lately as I have a little more time to do it with school back in session. Now, I have not posted for some time and have built up quite a few questions (and some observations) so rather than post a half dozen different individual questions in a half dozen different forums, I will just post them all here in “General” and see what comes back.
—A few observations from my latest round of tinkering:
-Dedomed: SS zy-T08 -Whoa! This thing really benefitted from the dedome! Very Pleased

Maxtoch 2X Shooter-Was prev. out thrown by the Olight MX2 Javelot. Not anymore. Reigning king of the collection now.

Yezel Y3- Increased throw, After a lot of tinkering the focus is OK- a little bit ringy

SS zy-T13- Same results as the Yezel*

Greatlite E66 Explorer- Unique 2D XML light- already had a surprisingly narrow beam for an xml (slightly bigger than the Jacob A60 beam) Now has fantastic throw,perfect focus and small hotspot but seems very underdriven…*

Defiant Super Thower - Dedomed the xml, nice increase in throw*

Defiant Super Thrower #2- Swapped in a dedomed xp-e (I think) Wow- total pencil beam, but fun to play with!

Defiant 3D 650 Lumen XML - Dedomed the XML-U2 for better throw, nothing spectacular…*

Lastly, I dedomed a light that is being sold on one of the vendors sites as a “New Jacob A60” 2015 or something like that. There is a link to it toward the end of the A60 thread if you care to know more about it. It is nearly the same shape and dimensions as the A60 but with a slightly smaller diameter reflector. I bought one just for the heck of it since it was in the $15 range. This light is CRAP. Awful bluish tint, horrible ringy beam, under driven etc… I dedomed the emitter it had in it and it still sucked, just had a narrower hotspot- it didn’t even help the tint much. Then I swapped in another small emitter, Not sure what it was but it suddenly out threw the A60! However, there was an issue and I will address it in one of the questions below. I ultimately replaced it with the original, sucky emitter.

Questions: #1. I searched and found a thread a regarding Removing the driver from a Trustfire X6 - I wanted to know if any other options or ideas were out there. I tried every tip mentioned but can’t get anything to budge. The dummy board (or driver) just rips when I try to pull it from the holes drilled so if its the driver, its probably junk now… Any ideas?

  1. I swapped a small dedomed emitter (don’t know what it is) into the A60 clone. On HIGH, it starts off with a warmish, very intense and tiny hotspot. After about 4-5 seconds, it starts to change tint into a very cool bluish tint and loses a lot of its brightness. At 10 seconds, its a very cool, very weak beam. Is this from a bad dedome, or is it from overdriving the small emitter? Just curious as to why this happens.
  1. I foolishly blew the emitter AND driver in my Uranusfire 816 (HD2010 clone). I was tired and up late and accidentally left the battery in as I was soldering and spark, poof Blown. I really liked that light and would like to replace both parts. What would be an equivalent/better DRIVER to replace the stock one? I have a hard time with stuff like this so if someone could just provide me a link to where I could buy it, I’d greatly appreciate it!!
  1. I have the SST-90 emitter from the afore mentioned Trustfire X6 which was dedomed already per the instructions on a previous thread. It wasn’t a real clean dedome and still had a flat layer of silicone over the emitter. I went ahead and gave it a gasoline bath to get the rest off but now, it has been in there a good week and no amount of blowing it off will get the remaining silicone off. It is covered in what now looks like very swollen, spongy clear sand but it doesn’t want to deteriorate and come off. Any ideas?
  1. I have a xp-l v5 emitter that I bought and would like to swap into one of my lights. Would any of the above be good candidates? I’d like to use it for throw.
  1. I have an MK-R emitter on the way that I bought for fun. Has anyone ever used one of these and would any of the lights above be a good candidate? I thought maybe one of the big Defiant 3D lights or something…
  1. I’d like to dedome my Thrunite TN31 but I’m worried that I’ll have focusing problems like I had on a couple of the other ones… Has anybody run into this?
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#1. I searched and found a thread a regarding Removing the driver from a Trustfire X6 – I wanted to know if any other options or ideas were out there. I tried every tip mentioned but can’t get anything to budge. The dummy board (or driver) just rips when I try to pull it from the holes drilled so if its the driver, its probably junk now… Any ideas?

-Pass

#2.I swapped a small dedomed emitter (don’t know what it is) into the A60 clone. On HIGH, it starts off with a warmish, very intense and tiny hotspot. After about 4-5 seconds, it starts to change tint into a very cool bluish tint and loses a lot of its brightness. At 10 seconds, its a very cool, very weak beam. Is this from a bad dedome, or is it from overdriving the small emitter? Just curious as to why this happens.

-Sounds like overheating. Make sure there’s a good thermal path. If not, reduce your drive current.

#3.I foolishly blew the emitter AND driver in my Uranusfire 816 (HD2010 clone). I was tired and up late and accidentally left the battery in as I was soldering and spark, poof Blown. I really liked that light and would like to replace both parts. What would be an equivalent/better DRIVER to replace the stock one? I have a hard time with stuff like this so if someone could just provide me a link to where I could buy it, I’d greatly appreciate it!!

-Doesn’t the HD2010 have a 20mm driver? Here’s the 20mm Nanjg 105e, 8x 7135 version of the 105c: http://www.kaidomain.com/product/details.S023811. Use this with your XP-L you mention below…

#4.I have the SST-90 emitter from the afore mentioned Trustfire X6 which was dedomed already per the instructions on a previous thread. It wasn’t a real clean dedome and still had a flat layer of silicone over the emitter. I went ahead and gave it a gasoline bath to get the rest off but now, it has been in there a good week and no amount of blowing it off will get the remaining silicone off. It is covered in what now looks like very swollen, spongy clear sand but it doesn’t want to deteriorate and come off. Any ideas?

-Pass

#5.I have a xp-l v5 emitter that I bought and would like to swap into one of my lights. Would any of the above be good candidates? I’d like to use it for throw.

-See #3 above.

#6.I have an MK-R emitter on the way that I bought for fun. Has anyone ever used one of these and would any of the lights above be a good candidate? I thought maybe one of the big Defiant 3D lights or something…

-Pass

#7.I’d like to dedome my Thrunite TN31 but I’m worried that I’ll have focusing problems like I had on a couple of the other ones… Has anybody run into this?

-Pass

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Thank you Keltex78- I’m going to buy a couple of those drivers! That’s the problem I have, I have no idea what is what when it comes to drivers. I know what to do with them, but I have no idea what anything means if I’m trying to shop for one. I need one for an Ultrafire 980L as well but have never gotten one because I just don’t know what to buy… If I need a driver for say, a defiant super thrower, I would have no idea what to buy other than the correct diameter. I would probably end up with one that is way too powerful for the emitter or one that would be better suited for my daughters Disney Princess flashlight lol. Thx again!

4

Correct diameter is a good place to start… The linked driver is rated for ~3A which is a good driver current for XM-L/L2/XP-L type emitters. It’s enough to get plenty of light, but doesn’t overdrive the emitter. It will still generate a fair amount of heat, so you have to make sure you have a decent thermal path, but you shouldn’t have to worry about blowing anything up.

(I tried using a 5A buck driver on an XP-G2 emitter last week… the emitter died instantly. :_( )

5

OK, good to know! Thanks! What is a Buck Driver? I’ve heard the term on here many times….

6

I just found this:

The 20mm-17mm rings look like they might be a nice option. It would let you use the more common 17mm drivers in your light. Then you could use Qlites (or even a FET for MAXIMUM POWER)

7

Sorry for the delayed response. Wow, cool, that certainly opens a few more options! Still not sure what a Buck driver is or a Fet. What would be the most powerful option to run something like the MK-R or SST-90 at their max? What driver would push an XML u2 to it’s max? Sorry for adding more questions, there are a lot of things I want to do, but have no idea what to buy… Thanks!

8

The FET is a direct-drive driver for an XM-L/L2 or a triple emitter light. Maximum ouput, tons of heat, short runtimes… Direct thermal path boards like the Noctigon and a host with good thermal management are essential. Also needs special high-drain cells to handle the high current draw. You would want to look into stuff like bypassing your springs to keep from burning them up.

I have on in a 3k lumen Convoy S6 XP-L HI triple using a 20A-capable 18650… It’s crazy bright but I had to make sure it’s got a good thermal path; copper board soldered to brass spacer (with extra brass filler for mass/contact) solder to the pill. Gets extremely HOT very quickly…

Buck driver steps votage down to let you run a light from multiple series-connected cells…

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OK, thank you! This will help me decide what to get when it’s time to order again. Much appreciated!!
Edit: I think the UF 980L had a direct drive if I’m not mistaken. I have one that just stopped working one day so now I know where to start with replacements.