SST-50, what should I do with it?

I have a Lumapower SST-50 led pill coming off an Ultra MiniVX, swapped out in favor of an XM-L pill.

The original driver is rated about 2A (not personally tested yet, it's a word I got from Ricky at Lumapower) and that's the main reason I swapped it out, at mere 2A from a single 18650 there's not enough juice going to the SST-50 to make it really shine, and also the large die isn't the best coupled with the small reflector.

So I'd like to use it now to mod another flashlight. I could use a Mag (have an old 4D somewhere) or even buy a cheap host on purpose.

I'm pretty newby at flashlight modding (but I'm an old time RC modeler so have some manual and electric skill) so I would be really happy if you experienced flashaholics would suggest me some basic infos, about what driver should I use (think I need at least 4A to make the SST-50 stand out), how and how much heatsinking would I need, better host to use, reflector, etc etc

Thanks in advance

Alessandro

Make a standalone worklight. Drive the bugger at 5A. :)

@ Oldbobk,

Thanks for the input, I'm reading here and there about mag conversions, and your asph sounds promising, but for myself I was thinking a Rebel reflector. Have yet to find explanations on which one is suited best...

Please sorry my poor knowledge, but what is: " stacked drivers to get 5.6-6.3 Amps " ?

Do you mean two or more smaller drivers, run in parallel setup?

@ Budgeteer,

Thanks for the pretty original and unusual idea, wonder if pocketability could be an issue there...

You could use this board

and this reflector in your Maglite.

or keep the stock rebel reflector.

I have successfully run an SST-50 with a driver off a Manafont 3 mode drop in it delivers close to 5 amps with a decent battery. If you have one of those drop ins handy consider swapping the driver to a regulated one and use the old unregulated one for the SST50.

@ Old Lumen

Thanks for the inputs, please could you tell me if that reflector is direct fit in the Mag head? I seem to remember having read on another thread that the outer lip is too thick and bezel could not be threaded all the way in?

@ E1320

I don't think I want to run the SST50 DD unregulated. I was thinking to use battery in the 3x18650 or 3x26650 in series, so the voltage is very high and need a regulated driver.

Well you can always put a belt clip on it. :P

I see your point. I had this SST50 in a LP DminiVX, single 18650 with a driver factory rated at 2A. No way that poor 50 could shine. Now have swapped an XM-L instead and the DminiVX now has some use.

The 50 deserves a bigger reflector, agree. What do you think about the one linked above from Old Lumen?

He also linked a driver which is rated at 4A, which is a good start but nothing impressive for a 50.

I understand now what stacked driver means, thanks, but are you sure it all works together well?

My poor electronic knowledge makes me think there could be something wrong in mixing in parallel sources with different outputs... Not sure you can simply "add" output values. I have a feeling they would somehow "fight" eachother in supplying current. Ok for parallel setup of 2 or more identical drivers, but I definitely would not mix different ones together...

Reading around I found a thread on Cpf where a guy named Britelumen (also has a site) which sells custom alu heatsinks for dropping a 50 or 90 into a Mag body, not sure if he still produce those but that would make the conversion much more easy!

Left a post for him, let's see if still got them.

adding more amcs parallel works fine :) but you must strip everything else from the slave board, so there is only one mcu controlling those amcs

and yes, it will simply add more current (each amc will add ~350mA)

oh, and don't forget 6V max for the amc drivers, 4.8V from four ni-mh would be ideal (they WILL sag)