ROP 3D Mod not at all what I expected.

gothed · Feb 6, 2012

So I finished my ROP Mod, yes yes I know, that mod is way to old to be interesting, but hear me out. The setup is as follows:

12 2500 mAh NiMh made in Japan (Duracell).

that is two 6x packs in parallel.

With this setup I have less current draw per cell, half the demand, and should thus be pushing a stable 7.2 Volts without too much sag due to asking too much of the cells.

Anyways, there are two problems, the beam is too floody

. But worse of all, the damn thing does not look like 1000 lumens.

I am comparing this to a 4sevens quark 123^2 XM-L that should produce about 360 Lumens (I got the neutral version), and it doesn't seem all that much brighter. It does produce a lot of heat though, if I hold my hand in front of the lens it gets warm quite quickly.

Could there be anything causing the light to be dimm? Do I perceive it to be dimmer because it is so floody? or did I simply expect too much from the ROP?

thanks

CKOD · Feb 6, 2012

flood will do that. The eye is a good judge of apparent brightness. but not really at estimating total flux. to go from 360 lumens to 1000 lumens, an approximate 3x increase, all it would take is a hot spot that is 73% bigger in diameter. Not even accounting for spill which would include a lot of lumens.

I have a 3x P7 mag, and a SST-90 (@6A, not 9) mag, the SST mag appears brighter, despite the fact its ~1400 source lumens, (at 25 C yadda yadda datasheet speak) vs the 3x P7 which should come in at ~2300 source lumens, but is a lot more floody. The SST mag is based on a TIR optic, which has pretty much no spill, vs the standard reflectored LED spill in the P7 mag.

vestureofblood · Feb 6, 2012

hi gothed,

Sorry to hear about your disappointment. I dont recall what the exact output of an POP is suppose to be, but by todays raging flashaholic standard its not all that much for a light its size. These were something people raved about when LEDs could produce only 50-250 or so lumens max.

Anyway with any hotwire resistance is key. Did you do a switch mod? There used to be a great thread on this but all the pics are gone now even from the proxy site. Here is a crude pic I drew.

All you need to to is remove the switch from your light and then take out the spring and the 2 silver caps ( do this by unscrewing the wheel on the side), then solder a piece of de-soldering braid or stranded copper wire inside the spring between the 2 caps and then put it back in. This will give a HUGE drop in resistance. Also solder a piece of copper wire from the top of your tail spring so it touches the battery pack to the bottom where it touches the body. This will also shave off several some resistance. The result will be a visually brighter light.

gothed · Feb 6, 2012

vestureofblood said:
hi gothed,

Sorry to hear about your disappointment. I dont recall what the exact output of an POP is suppose to be, but by todays raging flashaholic standard its not all that much for a light its size. These were something people raved about when LEDs could produce only 50-250 or so lumens max.

Anyway with any hotwire resistance is key. Did you do a switch mod? There used to be a great thread on this but all the pics are gone now even from the proxy site. Here is a crude pic I drew.

All you need to to is remove the switch from your light and then take out the spring and the 2 silver caps ( do this by unscrewing the wheel on the side), then solder a piece of de-soldering braid or stranded copper wire inside the spring between the 2 caps and then put it back in. This will give a HUGE drop in resistance. Also solder a piece of copper wire from the top of your tail spring so it touches the battery pack to the bottom where it touches the body. This will also shave off several some resistance. The result will be a visually brighter light.

Done and Done, with a heavy high purity oxygen free copper braid.

CKOD said:
flood will do that. The eye is a good judge of apparent brightness. but not really at estimating total flux. to go from 360 lumens to 1000 lumens, an approximate 3x increase, all it would take is a hot spot that is 73% bigger in diameter. Not even accounting for spill which would include a lot of lumens.

I have a 3x P7 mag, and a SST-90 (@6A, not 9) mag, the SST mag appears brighter, despite the fact its ~1400 source lumens, (at 25 C yadda yadda datasheet speak) vs the 3x P7 which should come in at ~2300 source lumens, but is a lot more floody. The SST mag is based on a TIR optic, which has pretty much no spill, vs the standard reflectored LED spill in the P7 mag.

That probability is it, the hot spot is huge and spill is a lot. A third person pointed out to me that it lights up the entire room instead of just one section.

I guess I just expected more from a 1000 lumens, and a wall of light.

- thanks

vestureofblood · Feb 6, 2012

I just looked up the ROP thing in a very useful old thread. I'm not sure where you got the 1000 lumens thing but according to this thread at 7.2 volts the ROP high will produce only 600 lumens at the bulb.

To get 1000 you would need closer to 9V and for that I thing a soft start would be needed.

I hope this helps man :shrug:

gothed · Feb 6, 2012

vestureofblood said:
I just looked up the ROP thing in a very useful old thread. I'm not sure where you got the 1000 lumens thing but according to this thread at 7.2 volts the ROP high will produce only 600 lumens at the bulb.

To get 1000 you would need closer to 9V and for that I thing a soft start would be needed.

I hope this helps man :shrug:

I suppose that explains. For some reason I had the 1000 lumen number stuck in my head.

Oh well, its quite a nice color though, I fixed the floody beam issue too, so now it is a rather nice light.

alpg88 · Feb 6, 2012

you never mention what rop bulb yuou got, there are 4 types,
low and high output for 6v sla light, 3854l 3854hthose will give you 550-1000lm+ at 7,2v
there are bulbs that are made for 7,2v light, 3853low and 3853high, they are around 300-600lm , so if you have those you are running them at rated voltage.

gothed · Feb 6, 2012

alpg88 said:
you never mention what rop bulb yuou got, there are 4 types,
low and high output for 6v sla light, 3854l 3854hthose will give you 550-1000lm+ at 7,2v
there are bulbs that are made for 7,2v light, 3853low and 3853high, they are around 300-600lm , so if you have those you are running them at rated voltage.

thats what I thought.

I have the 3854h installed. I guess it is back to a 1000 lumens just not being as impressive as I thought it would be.

alpg88 · Feb 6, 2012

to be honest i didn't like my rop as well, i even bought bored out tube for 26650, but it looked lame next to my 1185mag, so i turned the host into 1 26650xm-l, i like it a lot better now.

gothed · Feb 7, 2012

alpg88 said:
to be honest i didn't like my rop as well, i even bought bored out tube for 26650, but it looked lame next to my 1185mag, so i turned the host into 1 26650xm-l, i like it a lot better now.

well, I just checked the throw off it outside, it is pretty impressive. I just guess either the awws were overrated or the 4sevens has spoiled me, such a tiny package and yet such amounts of light.

ROP 3D Mod not at all what I expected.

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