Woohoo bumped up the drive current of my S27-PD

[cryhavok]

Tonight I successfully upped the drive current of my wonderful S27-PD. I have zero experience with soldering SMD components, but this mod wasn't too bad.

I always wanted a slightly higher drive current for my S27-PD and I'm the type that isn't happy with something until I have taken it apart completely before putting it back together, hopefully not breaking it in the process...

Looking at the front of the GDx2 board, there is only one familiar (to me) resistor, one .1 ohm resistor (I'm used to seeing 2 on most of Wayne's other boards). I figured that the I=.05/Rsense that Wayne uses on all his boards would be applicable to this board (plus since .05/.1 = 500ma, the drive current of the stock S27). I had some .15 ohm 0603 resistors on hand, so I calculated that if I drop one of those on top of the .1 ohm resistor already in place, I'd get a new resistance of .06 (1/Rtotal = 1/R1 + 1/R2). Plugging this into Wayne's formula, I=.05/.06, I would get a new drive current of 833ma...perfect

So I went ahead and soldered the new resistor on top of the old. Holding my breath, I connected a battery and it worked

The light pulls ~1A at the battery,

so at least I know the regulation still works and I didn't inadvertently put the light into direct drive (connecting the multimeter to LED leads directly yields a reading of +1.8A)

So I have a question for those of you with more experience measuring with a multimeter (this is the first "real" use of my multimeter I just received from DX). This reading is just the current draw of the battery, not what the led actually is receiving, correct?

Oh, and the results? Lux@1meter has risen from ~4,600 lux@1 meter to ~6,800 lux@1 meter. :rock:

 

[:)>]

You have huge cajones man! Monkeying around with your Ti S27... Whew, I am glad for your sake that it worked out!

Congratulations.

-Goatee

 

[nein166]

Just remember your Titanium body won't dissapate heat during extended run times

Big Ups on the Brass Spheroids

 

[cryhavok]

I guess I have a history of messing with perfectly fine Mcgizmo lights...nothing like the pressure of working on a $455 light to keep your hands steady with those SMD components :laughing:

I've already opened up the front end completely a few times to replace the reflector. My original reflector had some evidence of Don's workings that could be used if any forensic evidence was ever needed against him :nana: so I set out to replace the reflector with a new one. I'm all about "throw" and those McR-27S at the shoppe produced a beam with a larger hotspot and accordingly less lux@1meter. The original reflector was a regular McR-27 sanded down by Don, so I did the same procedure and was able to get some more lux back in the hotspot.

I find that I never use my PD on high for more than a minute or two, so heat buildup it shouldn't be a problem. This mod is extremely easily reversed, so if anything goes wrong I can always revert back to the stock drive level with a quick snip.

These LEDs will eventually get outdated...who else is going to answer the call to upgrage the lights when we have all these sissies with their small marbles here on CPF?

 

[Kiessling]

Yeah, second that. You've got balls.

 

[McGizmo]

That poor innocent LED! :nana:

 

[Manzerick]

+1


LOL

You have huge cajones man! Monkeying around with your Ti S27... Whew, I am glad for your sake that it worked out!

Congratulations.

-Goatee

 

[MorpheusT1]

UH OH,


Now who is willing to give my Mclux lights a Boost.
I like going against the flow and want to Make my PD a Monster istead of that Wuzzy Mizer option some wants.

:nana:

Then again maybe not...
Will the Low stay the same after this mod?


Regards,
Benny