tested my driver on a non-fresh Purple efest 18350 and it was pulling just over 4 Amps. so I definitely did something accidently to my driver than just make it single mode.... how is that even possile with the qlite 3.04A driver? isn't it maxed out because of the 7135 chips?
Hey Mcbrat, it definitely sounds like something is shorting out and making it direct drive, it could be a problem with the driver or as what dellsuperman said, the current is sneaking somewhere, it happens sometimes when I am press fitting the reflectors really tight or a exposed wire touches the ground
To test this, I normally use my led tester (basically a cheap 18650 flashlight with its LED removed and replaced with red and black wires coming out and a 5mm LED soldered to one wire, to test continuity) and test the driver and circult for problems
- Solder the your driver leads to the LED outside the host, so that is is dangling about
- Apply 4.2v (in my case my tester) to the spring and sides of the driver and see if it lights up correctly, if its still single mode or full brightness, either the driver is busted or something is shorting on the driver itself (sometimes I get this when stacking 7135 chips or excessive soldering)
- If it lights up correctly, that means your driver is probably fine, something in the host is shorting the driver or LED, could be a 7135 leg that got shorted directly to ground, try assembling back your host and testing it again
Cheers!