Ray-O-Vac 1AA sports xtreme MOD

Hi all. I’m no wizard with optics. and I want to improve this edc headlight since its out of production now and tech has improved so much it just seems like it could be better.

Ive been playing lately and hoping to achieve decent (50 feet) throw with a max 20mm diameter TIR or reflector and and minimum length.

I started with a UT01 utorch (1AA) light. Somewhat disgusted with the (all flood) output. I took a used 20mm TIR and 3D printed a screw on holder for it. It worked, i am ok with improvement. It definately has a hot spot now and with the many lumens available with a ut01, i can get 100 feet. Yet it doesnt have the punch the original light had. The original light i got the TIR from was a ray-o-vac 1AA 1W headlight. The LED used was a lambertian luxeon star and it appears to have a curved mirror collar around the base of it which i think is the secret to the tight beam of the rov.

Does anyone know of a current production Cree with this collar? XPL or similar?

I would love to post some beamshots and other photos, do i need a bitbucket or something to do that here?

imgur.com is a great site for image hosting.

UT01 mod Heres an attempt to post pics. On the right are the original bezel parts. On the left are the new bezel parts. Drill bit in back was to chamfer the tube for the tir optic to go deep enough to bottom against XPL heatsink.

New Bezel

Assembled

Before beamshot at 6 feet moonmode 16 lux hotspot

After TIR install 21lux hotspot

Original LED the TIR was paired with.

If you look at the menubar above the field you type a new post in, you will see a row of icons. The 7th from the left is “insert image”. Hover your mouse over the icon.

Click on it and a new window opens. Paste the image location into the first line. In the (optional) image relative width enter 100% or a smaller figure. Click OK and that should make the image appear.

How to post pics:

https://budgetlightforum.com/t/-/47268

Big thanks for helpful info on posting pictures. For some reason i still wasnt succesful, exclamation points were added at begin nd end of link, the link disappeared but pic did not, so i left the bare links, at least ppl can see photo if they want.

Moving on, I did some reading and found what i need is to swap emitter to XP-L hi, then i will probably get the throw from the TIR i am looking for. I ordered one from Led supply and i also ordered a carclo 10003 and a 10193 TIR. Some combination therof the Rebel or XPL hi and narrow TIR will hopefully get a hotspot with over 10,000 lx at arms length with AA 4hr runtimes. I use headlights during the day at my work all the time to see detail. My light needs a bright hotspot to be effective. I am kinda wondering which tint of XP-L hi i shouldve ordered. I choose 6500k for now but i like white light. I hope theres no blue or green in it. I will update when i get the parts and see results.

I believe when you “Insert Image” the URL you give it has to end in a picture format (.jpg, .gif, etc). Some hosts (imgur, ibb, photobucket) give you a link to their page with the image, not the image.
I use imgur, and if I give it a gallery url it does nothing, but a .jpg url works.

Gallery:

Image:

Always open image in new tab then grad the link from the URL bar.

Yup, this is what I do sometimes.

It does work


Is this the original LED with the collar?

One thing do check is the focus of the TIR lens. You may get better results by lifting the TIR up slightly above the MCPCB surface. Or (requires destroying TIR) by lowering it.

Agro, yes, thats the original luxeon emitter. It was very popular 13 years ago in 2007. Its funny, i’m either really bad at this game or the engineers who designed this light did a really good job.

With the tech improvements that are available, i have had quite a time matching what they did.

After ordering and trying several parts… XPG-2 dedomed, XPG-2 w/dome XPEq4, XPL regular, xpl hi, luxeon R, and several 20mm TIR, and reflectors. I finally decided on the 6500K XPL-hi with 10193 20mm Carclo TIR. It doesnt give the small spot of the XPE but it gives more light and it doesnt get hot like the xpe. I am using a fenix HL-23 oem driver. The original spec was over 5 hr at 50 lumens. Calculates to 150-175ma emitter current.

I picked it out of the group by reason of total light output for the runtime. Its about 60 lux with 3 foot spot diameter at 10 feet on the medium driver setting. Original light had 260 lux 1 foot dia spot at 10 feet.

Its a runtime win and up close the overall lumen output is improved, tint is great (all white). I do wish i could have kept throw of original light but its a fair trade. I do have some 5 deg TIR on order but im not hopeful they will do better than the 10193 Carclo. The LED phosphor size and lens/optic diameter seems to be the secret to throw.

Before, and after, pics would be Illuminati?

Ok i will get some photos and tail current readings. It will take a day or two tho. The light is sealed up again now. In review, i am a bit surprised by my decision however i must admit it was done by relative comparing. At first i thought xpe would have been the winner but in truth the xpeq4 i was comparing came from a recent $3 light from gearbest, If i had bought a new one from an electronics vendor, it may hav turned out different.

1.)I liked the original light output as it was (brightness and throw 60lumen 100’+).

2.) What i didnt like was 1.8 hour runtime 1AA eneloop. I knew that up to date LED and driver should get me 5 hours with maybe more light output.

3.) When comparing beam of XPL hi, XPE, XPG, luxeonR (whatever that is?) The only emitter that seemed to be an improvement was the XPL hi.

Total light output at close range was more than original light. The rest were just not. I hated giving up the throw but was willing to do so for more lumens. Guess its greed :slight_smile: but then you dont wanna go backwards with a mod or youll never use it. I have been using 1 to two eneloops daily in this light for more than ten years. Since its out of production i had no other choice than to mod it. I will try to get accurate data but i think i ended up with about 70lumens with less throw and 5 hours runtime vs 60 lumens 1.8hr and lots of throw. The modified light now has 3 modes instead of one which helps too.

New parts

New emitter and driver inside light.
(looks rough, this lighthad to be cut apart with a zona saw.

TIR and spacer

Before bezel goes on

Original Beam on left, modified on right. Slightly more lumens on right
with much less power used but throw it doesnt. will measure and insert battery current tomorrow.

Mid power (5 feet)

hi power

lights side by side

Finally!!!Throw beyond expectation with a TIR. About a 10” hotspot @8 feet. You can see across backyard on moonmode!!!

Beamshot at 8ft, the Utorch UT01 pictured above with the XPL swapped out for an XPE Q5 on the right, on the left is the original rayovac headlight pencilbeam

Funny, i always thought the light on the left was white until putting it beside this xpeQ5