Homemade P-60 Drop-in XML 1A vs 1D

1D tint looks really good! Do you think i could use teflon disk as isolation disk?

1D is nice, I like the 1A tint when they come with a little red in the beam, both of my manafont drop-ins came like that. By far my favourite though is the 3C neutral tint which you can get in T5 flux bin from illuminationsupply, they're only $9 each as well. So not more expensive than these cool tinted ones.

EDIT: Sorry, I just checked and it appears they're sold out. It may be worth contacting them to ask when they'll be getting more in stock though.

You can use anything that is not conductive and fits between the reflector and the pill, I usually squirt a little Fujik on the solder points before I stick the isolation disc on for added piece of mind.

RF UK I have a T5 3C but it's on a 21mm star, so it won't fit on a P-60 pill. I was hoping to use it on the Tmart C8 deal that went bad, maybe I will take my C2 apart and try it on that.

If you wanna get rid of the 1A's I'll take 'em!! I don't like the 1D.

Serious!

Rich

I love the 1D, esp when doing inspection work. Better color rendering

Hey nice post. I didn't know making your own drop-in was so simple.

I can see it now: "the BLF build-a-P60 dropin" at your local mall.

We can sell thousand of it and with money we can create the BLF flashlight Factory, where your dream come true!

Building a drop-in is not so difficult. The real problem is to find the right reflector for the emitter you want to use. For Q5, Q3, etc is quite simple but for some other emitter (R5) is really difficult.

You are so right about the reflectors, but really why would you build an R5 when for $2 dollars more you can have an XML that does everything better. I have even converted R5 lights to XML and they are noticeably brighter.

[quote=Davx]

Have you tried this one? Very goood reflector for XP-G/E emitters.

http://www.kaidomain.com/ProductDetails.aspx?ProductId=9208

Great advice!

How can i miss it? Already ordered a couple! Thanks Hrvoje!

Hmm. .. Are you sure that's 1D? I just looked at the cree chart and 1D is right adjacent to 1A with 6000k-6500k. From the photo it looks closer to 5000k. Not quite neutral, but not WC either. Man, if you could get Neutral stars... sell out within minutes.

How can I be 100% sure, I don't have a spectrophotometer so there is no way for me to tell the exact tint. I trust Shiningbeam sent me what I ordered and they definitely look very different from the 1As I have, but how do I know those are really 1A. I am positive I like the tint the best out of all the different tint emitters I have and that is what is important to me. Eventually I will find some neutrals on 16mm stars the ones I have now are on 21mm stars so I can't do much with them.

ooooooh. must... not... buy... more... lights....

(this month)

Nice work though!

I was able to find ONE "3s" bin on a 16mm star... last they had. I should have it in a couple weeks. Ebay seller JTS Galaxy has them on 20mm stars, but no 16mm boards. Everyone seems sold out of them...

--Bushytails

Actually by carefully shopping around it can be made for 16usd tops! Not trying to imply your work isn't of value. :) It is usually underappreciated and people think you're having way too much fun with that making one for free seems just right. :/ Charging 7-10usd to make one seems pretty reasonable to me.

2,20-3usd reflector/pill assembly (buying bulk)

4usd driver (buying bulk)

7usd XM-L 1A led (LCK-LED)

some thermal glue and isolation disc (less than 1usd for both, providing you already have them)

Solder.

Takes me 10min after the iron is well warmed up to make one providing you like the wires KD ships along the drivers. However it takes 10h for the fujik glue to cure properly.

Additionally 1 20mm oring cut to suit the pill size (above the emitter star) if you like to have a spacer between the reflector and the soldered conacts on star and also fine tune the reflector to star distance not to mention having it sit prefectly aligned which without isn't often the case. Slight tilting may occur.

Oh and btw, i found putting the isolation disc on the reflector instead of the star works best for me.

Budget-bender dropins vs. Budgeteer-bender dropins! who will win?

Specs: same

Parts: same

Quality: ... need a sample from both of you to test ...

Price: Budgeteer-benders are potentially $1 cheaper!

Seriously though, I'd love to see the budget-benders work out as a paying hobby. Then when I'm less poor, I'll be able to buy one. ;)

If 1d is accurate I suspect the 1A is even higher than 7kK. I wonder what drive current the cree tints are taken at.

Oh c'mon making one is pretty cheapish. Making a dozen is quite some money already. I often get material for around 5. Limited by the KD 5 pack driver deal.

Buying bulk can save you often more than 10% which means at least every 10th you make is vitually "free" usually every 8th.

My only grief... there is very little competition for selling decent DIY stuff. Manafont tried but failed deliviring good circuit baord and emitters at reasonable prices...

I just thought I could get rid of a couple of the 1As so I could make 5 more 1Ds. Considering Nailbenders are $40+ for the same exact thing. I figured the budget guys that can't solder could try them out. I can't see this turning into a business.

The Manafont drop in is still the best deal that's why I have bought 6 of them over time, but the fact that these have modes that are better thought out low, medium, high instead of low, high, medium, virtually no PWN and better regulation make them worth a couple bucks more.

When the lady in your life watches the purse-strings, self-sufficient hobbies are a good thing.

You're right about the costs and availability of DIY parts. I was looking at an emitter on a small board, and after shipping (from germany, in this case) it's 2/3rds as much as a complete chinese light of similar specs