Hi guys,
I composed a long, cure for insomnia relating to the Makai 2x123 but it was lost in the ether. To keep it short this time, after finally getting production buck 3S converters and testing them in the Makai with their stock drive level set at 1250 mA I have had to reevaluate the light and reduce the driver to 1000 mA. Simply put, the thermal management provided by the Makai host is not adequate should the light be left on high and unattended for any undefined length of time. I won't build or offer a light that could accidentally or intentionally be subjected to a duration of run time that can be destructive to the LED as well as generate heat in unsafe levels.
With further testing and the use of my FLIR camera for thermal evaluation, it seems that driving the XP-G at 1000 mA on high is reasonable for this design and even at this level some caution must be observed. The light gets hot at the junction of the head and pak if left standing and unattended.
There have been other posts regarding the driving of the XP-G at maximum current and observations of the loss or sag in flux as the LED heats up. This is not an issue for short blasts of a light or if the light has inherent safety features designed to throttle back from a "turbo" mode. The Makai is intended for use on high without undue qualification or restrictions and not with the high level intended for mere short blasts of light.
I am disappointed that the light can't reasonably maintain a good and safe output at the higher potentials available to the XP-G but reality is reality.
I am going to build up some inventory of the Makai heads with the boost converter and I believe I will chose to identify these as Makai 6V. I will be launching a wave of the Makai 6V in the next week or so and it will be offered as a head alone or coupled with the 2x123 pak.
At 1000 mA, the Makai 6V demands less of a single CR123 than does the Makai 1x123 so when used with 2x123, your run time will be greater than double that of the Makai 1x123 and you will be generating more light on high than does the Makai 1x123.