Rolled my own triple XP-G P60 PIC ADDED

OK, an update. I've been busy with these-got on a roll and built a total of 6 of these for my L2P hosts. Two are cool whites, one is a 4000K neutral, one is a 3000K warm, one 5000K neutral and a cool white Endor (rebel) star.

Two of the lights I upgraded to 3.1A by cannibalizing an extra driver for the 7135's and piggybacking one chip to another on the back (spring) side of the driver. Don't try this at home unless you're really good at microsurgery!!

The stock SB driver with a triple draws ~2500-2800Ma. With the piggybacked chip, both of those draw 3150Ma. I don't remember exact measurements, but this is the average.

For cosmetic purposes I squeezed a cut-to-size-and-reglued glow ring around the optic and I ended up pulling out the original SF rubber that the lens fits into, gluing the glow ring to the inner circumference of the rubber, and putting it back in. This is so the glow ring won't fall down under the optic. I used krazy glue gel and waited 'till it thoroughly dried before reassembly. Krazy glue will destroy emitter domes and plastic! When I ran out of glow rings, I did a couple with a swiped rubber grip ring spacer from a Surefire.

A tip: We are dog lovers and dog hair gets into everything. (along with metal filings, dust, whatever...) I imagine in factories they must have clean rooms to assemble bezels... what a bitch to keep stuff out! So my wife gave me one of those real soft blush makeup brushes to dust off just before I put the original lens and bezel ring on. Works a treat! Picture a documentary with an archeologist working with one of those brushes they use to work around ruins... that's about it. BTW, I use Invisible Glass from the supermarket to clean glass lenses. That stuff is great.

I don't have calipers and I'm lousy at accurate measurements. Suffice to say that these dropins, as made, fit nicely into the L2P. The critical part is how far you file down the brass ring for the driver. I take it down until I start to see a seam around the area that would normally hold the emitter, then I knock that out, sand the ring level, just enough to make sure it is flat for the copper.

So on a couple I didn't file it down far enough before I soldered and I had to use an O-ring between the bezel and host, on one I went too far and had to use part of a P60 outer spring, and on the others they fit just right with nothing else necessary.

The one bad thing is that I'm depending on the glass lens to hold the dropin down... I should have come up with some lind of spacer so the bezel holds it in, but so far, so good.

My apologies for not relying sooner... the email notification for this thread somehow got disabled.

Rich

Thanks for the update Rich.

Any noticeable difference between the 2.8 and 3.1 drivers? I'm just curious if it's worth it. If you get a chance, I'd like to see some beamshots of the various triples you've made! Again, nice work.

seems someone on cpf has a more powerful driver available. but i cant seem to find it NOR the pricing....

sounds pricey by the description tho

they have ALOT of nice mods on there now... i had to join em to start asking questions about a few lol

Not in 10 deg. wx! I've never done beamshots and it would involve a tripod, etc. (the next one mentions global warming around me gets a whack upside the head...) I wouldn't even think about that 'till summer.

Y'know... I don't know about a difference bet. 2.8 and 3.1A... one is the neutral and the other is the warm, so I don't have another to compare it to. I only did it to see if it would work and I was thinking warms and neutrals have less lumens, so I just did it.

My Paypal is maxed but when I do more, I'll check that out. I'm liking the neutrals.

Rich

Excellent work, Rich! Have you tried any of the frosted Carlco optics yet?

Awesome job! I lack the will to go to a hardware store myself. Would love to do a single XM-L heatsinked to the max. Also very lacking is serous tools department. Hell i don't even own a file if not for nail care. :/

I need something like this but it would defeat the whole budget idea. Not counting that andodizing DIY gets messy.

yea im reviving this thread.

i just got my L2P in the mail (very good quality, tho finish in some areas scratches off with a finger, not the nail!)

and i purchased a few sets of copper parts, waiting for the led to come in i found this

http://www.dealextreme.com/p/8-4v-sst-50-5-mode-memory-circuit-board-for-flashlights-50025

i didnt want memory, BUT it seems to be able to do the trick, problem is its big. 26mm, i have 22.3mm space inside the L2P wont work so well

any ideas of a 4 to 4.5 amp driver?

Probably the best driver you could use in that setup is the 2.8a driver from shiningbeam. After playing with various triple set-ups for a bit, the only noticable difference between 3 xpg's at 900ma and 3 xpg's at 1.4a is the heat. Unless they're side by side, I can't notice the extra lumens.

well i actually just found this

will this work with the optic?

if it solves my driver problem, i might do it. i really would like to find a driver to at least get 4 amps

even without side by side, my R5's driven at 1amp are NOTICEBLY dimmer than those driven at 1.4-1.5 amps. so x3 im assuming a big gain. side by side its VERY noticeable. while you are correct about heat, this copper slug fits snug (maybe wrap it with 1 layer of aluminum foil lol or just thermal compound), so heat transference should be BETTER than most my flashlights when done)

you guys gotta remember, go big or go home is my moto. still trying to get a duece and a half (my friend has one). so im going full power if i can.

if i could get it to work, i would use two 2.8amp drivers if i could find a 1 mode driver.

All well and good, but I've checked this site on many occasions and I got quoted $60 for shipping to Pa.! Also no Paypal... he has some bizarre payment system I couldn't make anything out of so I gave up.

well considering im near PA (CT, i consider it near) im gonna skip on that and keep looking into different driving methods.

i really would like to get this as close to 4.5amps (or a 1.5amp voltage boost driver so i can run in series) but i want to still run it with one 18650.

Bump for new folks.

Just wondering... have you used this light enough to know if there are long-term downsides to running the leds in parallel? A lazy troll of the interwebs suggests that mismatched leds can lead to one getting too much juice, but I'm not sure what constitutes a mismatch. (I'm asking because I'm the new proud owner of one of OldLumens' shorty creations, and a triple might work nicely.)

Thanks in advance.

I like it.

I haven't had any problems, but I think LED Supply matches 'em up pretty well.

Rich

Thanks for the info... much appreciated.

This is an outstanding mod... based on it I made plans to do few of my own builds, P60 and E-series head conversion...

The only thing I'm missing is good wire... I bought #24 wire from LEDSupply but it's thick - only three wires can be pulled thru the hole on the star... Their wire is relatively flexible... I also tried wire from IlluminationSupply and it's too stiff, for some reason...

That wire that you bought, is it flexible ??? In Surefire E-series mod, the space is rather limited and flexibility allows more space between driver and heatsink... I would like to do three parallel lines from driver to LED, like you did...

Welcome to BLF, TNT!

Very Nice Work!

Nice work