Texas Poker by Photon Fanatic

[DBCstm]

About time for an update here. The original FluPic driver was running this light at around 134 lumens as I recall. The PICcolo driver was running in the neighborhood of 180 lumens max. The design on this light was intending much more, the issue was a driver this small. Well, a couple of months ago I started assembling and flashing my own drivers. I started out conservatively with the Texas Poker as it was utilizing an Nichia emitter. But then I swapped that out for an XP-G2 de-domed and built a new driver with no holds barred. This new driver was letting the XP-G2 pull 3.11A for 552 lumens at start up, 452 lumens at 30 seconds, off the Efest IMR10440 cell. Excellent!

But wait! There's more! lol

Today I opened her back up and pulled the XP-G2 emitter. Replaced that with the new XP-L emitter in V5 2A trim. De-domed to fit the quite small reflector. Even had to open up the reflector a bit to clear the larger die of the XP-L. But now, still running the second FET direct drive driver, I'm getting 10 lumens on low, 86 lumens on Med, 362 lumens on High, and ...drumroll please... 831 lumens on Turbo!!! Yep, 831 lumens out the front at start up on a cell that's rested at 4.18V. Crazy huh?

 

[PhotonFanatic]

Wow, Dale, it's hard to imagine that the Texas Poker can now output that many lumens. Great work!

 

[climberkid]

I need to make my way back to Texas so I can see this baby in person!
That's just astounding.

 

[DBCstm]

I'm extremely happy with it, as y'all can well guess! My pride and joy with PUNCH! And the fact that I manage to build the driver myself, well, just tickled pink. The highest number I've seen out of it, with a newer cell, was 917 lumens at start up! From a light the size of your index finger!

Yeah, I'm loving it all right! 5 levels, from about 9 lumens to around 900 (with the right cell) Over and beyond what I ever dreamed of for this one. Of course, I use the lowest modes most often, but on occasion when outside and out and about it's just staggering to flip this up out of my shirt and shed good light out at 100 yds. And it blows peoples minds. Which is, of course, half the fun!

I tried to get a couple of new reflectors from Dereelight so I would have some room to play, and was hoping to get the smooth one in this light for better throw. But, after carefully searching out their website and ordering the reflector I thought was right, they came in shaped wrong for this one. So, still running the Orange Peel reflector which is, 98% of the time, the right one for it anyway.

I have one more step in the life of the TP, have to do more work on the driver to engage a moon mode, should have one level more at the bottom end at around 1 lumen that I need to get going and then it'll be perfect and I can pot it.

 

[DBCstm]

I've been remiss on a picture, sorry about that. In the center of the picture is a red 55 gallon oil drum at 97 yds. This is my standard beamshot, Canon G1X at ISO1600, f/5.6 at 1/2 sec exp.

 

[climberkid]

Welcome back, Dale. So awesome to see your success in building your new driver. So exciting!

 

[DBCstm]

Thanks Alex.
Yes, it is exciting and I've been building these direct drive FET drivers almost exclusively for all my lights. Being able to program the modes at whatever level I wish, and however many modes as well is just fantastic!
With lights having an e-switch, I'm using a reversing UI that lets me back into Turbo from off. This also allows using moon with a soft press, then backing into off again with a long press (about 1/2 second). Unbelievable how handy that is!
So having a light with direct drive capabilites for Turbo, but as little as <1 lumen moon, well, it's nuts really. I've got a 3 XM-L2 light that does almost 5000 lumens, and moon is less than 1. With 7 levels and the reversing UI, it's just a great all around light.

But of course, this also means I've been spending every available dime on lights! Now running right at 70 lights.

I know, it's a sickness.

 

[magellan]

I only just found this thread. I'm a relative noob on the CPF and just wanted to say this light is truly gorgeous, and the thread was very informative as I'm still relatively new to collecting customs, although not flashlights in general.

I already have four of Photon Fanatic's lights so am no stranger to his genius. I just wish I had one of these.

Thanks for all the photos. This light really looks great.

Look what I got today!


DBC_April 29, 2013_171619 by genie in a black box, on Flickr


DBC_April 29, 2013_171558 by genie in a black box, on Flickr


DBC_April 29, 2013_171521 by genie in a black box, on Flickr


DBC_April 29, 2013_171431 by genie in a black box, on Flickr


DBC_April 29, 2013_170636 by genie in a black box, on Flickr

I'm working on a shoot from today, but managed to squeezin these shots with the 17-40. Back to work! More later...

 

[stateoftheart]

Nice where did the ti chain come from