That I’m from the EU is no secret 
And intl-outdoor put me 3 different lights in my cart, although I just put one in there.
Well it's a great light and deserves the best! 
Too bad it doesn’t come with XM-L2 U2, else I will place my order immediately.
Actually, for PWM based circuits it’s not that innacurate at all. Even at lower levels the LED is being pulsed at max current rather than running at a more efficient input. As far as I know, the only real difference in efficiency between high and low modes with PWM circuits are in relation to heat.
Oh boy, now that is news.
I call a XinTD v3 my own and it’s the one and only light I did not touch, yet. Any other light I was eager to alter, modifiy, change, improve, repair, drill, solder, file or gut. This one: No.
I have no other light I fancy so much for it’s quality, priceworthiness, extreme versability, not to mention the outstanding cooling concept with screwed pill and screwed reflector.
Although… I’m barely using it, having many other lights in the process of being altered, modified, changed…
But my XinTD is the one I always keep at hand and in good shape, always a cell inside, the one and only I can always rely on. The perfect symbiosis of C2 and C8, small enough for a coat-pocket, ruggedized enough for a backpack, 18650 battery, tailstand, nice spill and admirable throw at the same time. So I told myself: She - won’t - be - touched.
It was tempting, though.
I’d love to see how this gem of a reflector and this heat dissipating concept would handle a backpacked Nanjg - perhaps 4.2 A combined with a CW U2 - and all in the heart of this fine host. I badly want to compare her with a HD2010, greyhound against bulldog, rapier against saber.
Well, it seems her time has come. The once young and beautiful company is about to get replaced by a newer and - in this case - even more versatile successor. The 4-mode of the Qlite driver is appealing and the XM-L2 already did arouse my interest as well. Soon a different flashlight will be standing on the shelf, adored for it’s variety of abilities - while hardly used - and it’s predecessor will get the attendance she long since deserves…
There’s heat… and there’s also the minimum power needed to keep the driver running. And power lost in voltage conversions and even just resistance between the negative battery pole and the driver. It’s probably pretty close to linear at relatively high outputs where the LED power dwarfs the driver overhead, but at low outputs the driver can use much more power than the emitter. This is why a ZL SC52 can run for 2 months on an Eneloop while the L3 L10 only runs for 4-5 days at roughly the same output level on the same battery.
Good points. But the NANJG driver is just a linear circuit burning off anything over the LED vf, as they don’t generally go below 50ma input I haven’t noticed any variance from linear output/current predictions with any of my homemade drop-ins… Do you know of any quantifiable driver overhead for them?
I use my V3 as my duty light (Paramedic night shift). Great great light. I’d like to get a V4 but my wife would probably castrate me.
Castrate you for a 30 dollar light you use as a paramedic during night shift? Damn…. I thought my wife was tough on me! Order a TM26 and then cancel the order because “it was just too much money”, show her the cancelled order and have her gain a new perspective on expensive handheld lighting. Then you will be able to order any sub 50 dollar light you want as long as its not more than once a month or so.
Castration Really? I mean even figuratively is crazy talk especially for what you do. Thanks by the way for doing what others don’t want to or can’t. You have a very important job and you deserve any light you want.
Nope. I haven’t measured. I don’t even have the necessary tools to measure it properly. I’d probably need a calibrated integrating sphere in addition to my multimeter, so I could estimate how much of the power goes out the front vs how much turns into heat.
I suppose I could also just flash a driver to run at a crazy-low level and then measure how long it lasts. Or even flash it to run at zero output and measure its current draw while the chip is on but idling. I don’t have driver flashing hardware yet though.
There are also more physical factors… I forget where the posts went, but one guy around here always mods his tailcaps with copper braid to reduce resistance. He claims it gives a significant boost in efficiency and runtime.
tom e and relic both use braid so the springs purely provide clamping force and not current handling, its certainly a good idea in high draw lights, but as you point out, lowering and contact resistance should help in low draw situations too. I still wish the ld-25 driver could be programed for a much much lower low mode as I like that its fully current controlled, ie you can shine it at any fan you like, at any speed and there is no pulsing at all, I use one in my edc tube light, and have used it to build up some cheap ultrafire tube hosts from fasttech (the driver is almost as much as the host lol, with an xm-l 4c, the light engine doubles the host price) to sell to other engineers, pwm can play havoc with your senses when working around moving machinery, but maybe the current control offers better efficiency too?
I have a large collection of flashlights. She gets ill when I order more.
Nice lines !
Welcome HarleyQuin !
The XinTD certainly has a fan base around here.
I shined the Qlite at a 1000RPM fan at low mode and it's zero pulsing unlike the normal 105C. I do not know about fans rotating slower, but one some my 1300RPM fans seem less prone to see the 105C pulsing at low mode, which of course is not something to worry about anyway. Do you know the RPM of your fan?
I’ve tested against fans running from 300 rpm (air con condenser fan) up to engines revving at 5000rpm (fridge compressor has three lugs, these can pulse) I could test up to 45000 rpm (rc plane prop) or re wire to go to 96000 rpm……
Nanjgs are pretty good at being hardly detectable pwm, but the ld-25 simply does not use pwm for low modes.
Nice that you know all the RPMs of various fans, which is more prone to the Nanjg 105C low mode pulse detection?
The XinTD C8 V3 has, IIRC, about 4.5kHz PWM. I can see the strobe effect on mine, though it’s much smoother than most of my other lights. I mostly just see it in reflections when I move my eyes, though it’s easy to see on purpose if I look for it. The easiest way is to move a white business card quickly through the beam.
I’m curious about the ~18kHz PWM on the new driver. That’s the fastest PWM I’ve heard of, and it might be fast enough for me to not see it when I’m not looking for it.
In either case, much better than the PWM on my SK-68s on medium, or my Skyray King on low, or HD2011 on med/low. All are about 100-200Hz, IIRC. With those, it’s hard for me not to see the strobe effect. It looks like I’m watching a video game or something, and everything is made of distinct frames instead of smooth motion. (disclaimer: I used to spend most of my time optimizing computer graphics algorithms, and could usually tell the frame rate of something at a glance as long as it was under 100Hz or so)
try to remember, I’m British, we use 50hz tv’s and I’m not so susceptible to pwm, I can just about, if I really really try, pick out nanjg pwm on a higher revving engine, but I have to be looking for it. so say 3000 rpm plus. It’s not an issue in most situations.
One of the worst things to see under low frequency pwm are cable ties. If you’ve put a run in, , then catch the tails so they flick, thats when low frequency pwm can make me nauseous, as ToyKeeper says, its when their in your peripheral vision that its irritating, nangj drivers do well at hiding this too.
Hi Gords, I was checking around and I couldnt find much info on this driver. 2.6A doesnt sound to bad, but
has anyone been able to mod it for 3A or more? Also, have you found one without the disco modes?
Thanks.