DX Sku 6090, P60 Drop-In Review **UPDATE**

[Drewfus2101]

I was trying to update my other thread, and got an error and now I can't even find that thread. So I'll just have to make this post here and maybe that thread will come back....

So I ran a few more tests tonight. Setup was pretty much the same. Bench top power supply with adjustable voltage and current. I used a fan again to keep the drop-in cool for more accurate readings.

Before I put in all of the work of soldering on extra leads to measure voltage and current at the LED I decided to just power the drop-in off my power supply and measure the voltage and current going in. My gut instinct was that the power going in was going to pretty much stay the same. I wanted to find out first if that was true. Here is the graph:

Once I saw that the amount of power going in never changed, I knew that there was no way the voltage or current at the emitter was going up. For either of them to go up and the power going in to stay the same that would mean that the driver efficiency would actually have to go up! And efficiency didn't change since it is just power out divided by power in. That usually doesn't happen in this type of driver at higher voltages.

Test two was to hold the drop-in in a clamp, with the reflector screwed on, and power it measuring the lux. This is another easy way to check and see if it really is brighter at 18V or 4V. You can see my results above.

Looks like I was correct from the beginning, although it really was just an assumption based on a trend. So for you guys who are busting your butts to feed it 18V, you might want to rethink it. Its not going to get you anywhere.

 

[Drewfus2101]

I found my original post encase the original thread is gone:

Though not technically a (edit) flashlight, I bought one of these the other day, and got some good info on the driver and thought I would share it here.

This is a great little drop-in. Quality is great. No problems with it at all. No shorts or anything. I got it and threw it in and it fired right up. There is even a piece of plastic to keep the soldered on contacts on the emitter from contacting the reflector when it is screwed on, which is a common problem with P60 drop-ins.

The color tint on this is great. There is no hint of blue, which is fantastic, considering that it seems most cheap LEDs are on the very blue side lately.

Should be very upgradeable. Emitter board is 14mm. DX sells a Q5 on a 14mm board, so swapping should be easy. I didn't measure the driver board, but it appears to be just about the same size and should come out pretty easy.

On to the good stuff:

"In" is into driver board, and "Out" is at the emitter.

Not very efficient. I'm seriously thinking about ordering the Q5 and also swapping the board for one of the DX 3256 boards, which is a current regulated buck board.

But for now I'm not complaining. This thing is very bright and I love it. For $10 its a great buy. It might not be the best bin Cree or the most efficient driver, but the quality is top notch (shocking for DX I know) and you won't regret it.

EDIT: I forgot to add that I took a before and after lux reading. The before was the stock setup, with the Surefire primaries. Measured 8100 lux. After was the drop-in on CR123As reading 8.05V combined with a lux of 15400.

Of course a lot of that is the reflector which is designed to throw more than the Surefire one, and WOW it does. 200 yards is nothing with this thing now, and I know because I have some trees that are right at 200 yards away that I couldn't barely light up stock, and now I can really light them up. But there is still enough spill to see by and make it usefull.

 

[openbolt1]

I had wondered about this. I too bought this Q5 drop in and set it up is a SF 6P and was very pleased. Then I thought (like Drewfus 2101) that I could get more out of the emitter. So I placed the same drop in in a 4 cell (cr123) 12vt ultrafire and figured it would be REALLY bright. What a disappointment, same. I then put two AW 17670's and it seems a little brighter but the runtime was 2 hours and 20 minutes!

openbolt1