Mini C8 AAA XM-L U2 Mod. XP-G2 Shots Added. 1.17.13

I got all excited seeing these lights and thought as a few others did that it would make a good host so a couple were ordered. Here is a link to another post on these mini imposters. The flashlight is nothing special except for its good looks. Anodizing is patchy at best and the threads and o'rings are ok. light output is a bluish very dim beam with a small hot spot. I am going to mod the other light with the standard reflector. It has a plastic 21mm lens standard which I did not want to use so have ordered an AR 21 mm lens. I think the standard reflector will work with either a XP-G or XM-L. The round hollow part (see other thread for pictures) can be filed down so that it sits over the led and the hollow part left will fit over the square base of the XM-L. If you used an XP-G I would file the hollow part of completely and it should sit on the star ok.

Enough waffle. Here's some pictures.

A standard C8 against the imposter. The mini actually looks a lot smaller than it does in the pictures.

The parts used were a custom pill, 10 degree TIR lens, IOS single mode AA driver and XM-L U2 LED I had kicking around.

The flashlight had to be bored a couple off mm deeper to fit the TIR in deep enough so that it did not stick out the end.

Another shot to give you an idea how small this thing is. Unfortunately I do not have another AAA torch to compare it to.

And finally the beam shot. guess which one is the modded light. At the tailcap the std light draws .35 amp and the modded light is 2.2 amps with a Turnigy LSD AAA.

I decided to use Old Lumens trick of using an XM-L TIR with an XP-G2 LED. The results to say the least was surprising.

The Fence shot. The XM-L on the left has a lot larger hot spot and a far bigger spill than the XP-G2 on the right which is a lot brighter in the hot spot. Both LED's were driven by identical single mode AA drivers.

The plants in the middle were about 9 to 10 meters away. To me the difference was astonishing and the TIR worked perfectly with the incorrect LED being used in it.

Firstly is the XM-L U2 which I would describe as a cool white.

The XP-G2 is supposed to be a 1D tint. The light itself is a lot warmer in color.

With the XM-L in this light I was a little disappointed. The XP-G really brings this flashlight alive.

Nice work! Very impressive AAA light.

Very nice mod! I’ll take it :stuck_out_tongue:

How do you like that boost driver btw?

Great mod!

Which driver is that? I have been looking for something in single AA/AAA that will put out more than about 500-600mA. This driver puts out over 2A stock?

Thanks guys. It is the first time I've used this driver. I did not take any measurements at the LED. One thing I can tell you though is it has the best mode memory of any light I have owned. I will check it out tonight to see what the output is like. Its another six hours before its dark.

I hope so!
(…dat light humor)

Sorry OL. I missed your post. I started 3 pages back and W8 does not refresh the pages. Its a single mode from IOS.

Link. http://www.intl-outdoor.com/nanjg-110-boost-12aa-circuit-board-p-482.html?zenid=ftcaf5cnhmoum8fkbunu4jk5t6

Nice job on a small (frustrating) torch.

I had a couple of these; tried modding one, binned it.

The second one was quickly passed on before it met the same fate.

Love it!

I've just finished a quick run time test. With the Turnigy LSD AAA 800mAh battery at 1.4 volts and ambient temp at 20 degrees the flashlight ran for 25 minutes with a maximum temp of 37 degrees before the temp started dropping and light output dropping very quickly. With the battery removed voltage was 1 volt.

nice little build! I’ve used those TIRs and like them a lot, very useful beam. What diameter is the driver? V. interested in current at the emitter too.

OL - with these AA/AAA 1.5V boost drivers, tail cap current is going to be ~4x emitter current for a decent driver. So this should be putting out around (hands waving) 500mA at the emitter, give or take. I’m pretty sure >1A at the emitter from a single AA is pretty much impossible, due to physics and other stuff I don’t understand.

The driver used was 17mm in diameter. The pill is stepped to suit the insides of the flashlight body. The diameter where the driver sits was 18mm from memory which made the side walls on the pill .5mm thick. The light output from this driver doesn't set the world on fire but at the end of the day it is run from a AAA battery with a run time of 25minutes si I suppose you cant expect much more. I have another to build and will use an XP-G2 with the same driver so it will be an interesting comparrison. This may take awhile though as I'm heading to ezarc country for the land speed record attempts mid way through next month.

Hey O-L, I just received a 1-2AA/AA boosty from FastTech and so far it looks decent. At 1AA/AAA it drops off a bit, maybe around 600mA. On two cells it easily puts out 725mA. The efficiency didn’t look too bad either. Might be worth a try. I haven’t given it a full run through yet, but iitial tests look promising. It’s the best 1-2AA booster I’ve run into so far… I haven’t tried the one at I-O.

cool and fun light! Sort of O.L. style mod without the maglite+219+copper pipe to start with . Oh, and without direct drive, and with a lathe. Ok, quite different from O.L. style then. But it does have the TIR

relic38. What does the driver linked put out on one battery?

Great job on that light!

If I'm figuring right, 1.2v x 2A = 2.4w and if the emitter has a forward voltage of 3.2v then the driver is providing 750mA (2.4w÷3.2v=.75A).

Not too bad for a AAA driver, IMO. 8)

FT SKU # 1127402 , tested with a power supply, driving an XM-L:

Vin (V) Iin (A) Iout (A)
0.9 1.70 0.26
1.0 1.80 0.32
1.2 1.87 0.43
1.4 1.90 0.55
1.5 1.90 0.60
2.0 1.48 0.73
2.5 1.04 0.71
3.0 0.87 0.74

I didn’t measure emitter Voltage, but XM-L’s are below 3V when under 1A, so this is between 1W and 2W of drive. This driver appears to be between 50% and 75% efficient. IMO, not too bad.
Note: This driver does not support 10440/14500 Li-Ion. Even a LiFePO4 would be borderline (emitter current was over 2.5A DD at 3.7V!)
These are the best performing ones I’ve tried so far. When I get around to ordering from Manafont, I might throw in that other one just to check it out.

Thanks guys. We just need a 3 mode now, high, med and low with memory and it would be ideal.

XP-G2 pictures added and night shot pictures added to the first post.

Fantastic! Great work, mate. 8)