HowTo: Modify Carclo Optics for XP-L Use--For $0.25

If I put a single XP-L in an Eagle Eye X6 and bump the resistors to 3.5-3.6A it makes around 1400 lumens out the front with a reflector.

Looking at the light while on, it will run stable for a while then drop, a semi blink, and be right back to stable again. All the emitters at the same time are affected. It's a sudden blink in the total output.

Heading off to rebuild it, putting a ramping firmware in it this time but I'll use the XP-L's so when my ball nose end mill comes in I can check with it and see how that works out. ;)

Took the light apart, pretty much started over.

New Quad board, 4 new emitters, new driver, ramping UI. Soldered a short wire to the extra ground via on the BLF17DD Ver 3.1 board and cut a notch in the copper pill so this wire could come through to the outside. Once the driver was pushing into it's bay this short wire was soldered to the outer body of the copper sink/pill, then filed smooth so the sink fits into the machined ring at the base of the head on this light. So the ground wire is soldered in and sandwiched between the pill and head.

Still has a flicker. :P Go figure!

The bored optic works ok as far as looks go, it has a bigger "hot spot" with bunches of artifacts around the periphery, like many petaled flower. Only really noticeable if you're close, like a wall in a room 8-10' away. With the domes on the XP-L V6 2C the color is white. Much better. Losses or no losses, I'm liking it just like this. The ramping firmware works well, can be turned off from any place you stop along the way and comes back on where you left off. Or a press and hold from off gives low. A double click from off goes to High.

Lotta light from this small no name cheap side clicky. Not even sure where it comes from. Manxbuggy1 gave me 2 of em and they're pretty dang nice little lights, with a very strong magnet in the tail that will still hold the light horizontal even with this chunk of copper in it.

Bottom line is, this method of fitting the optics works. There may be some caveat's, but it works. The better tint makes it well worth any trouble it is to make the bit from a torx 25.

Edit: Forgot, it's now making 2988 out the front with a low of 10.5. Same Samsung 20R I've been using.

Does the flicker happen when you bridge gate to bat+?

No doubt anything we do to these optics, polished or not, will hurt output. What we really need are some purpose built XP-L optics, but for now this and dedoming will have to do.

BTW, did you compile that firmware with the red/green indicators enabled? It’s possible that they’re getting toggled and diverting some of the power to somewhere else.

Just a thought; might be worth rebuilding with that part disabled (if you haven’t already), in case that might explain the flicker. I don’t think it makes any difference if nothing is connected to those pins, but it’s hard to say for sure.

Sorry if this is covered elsewhere. But where can you get the bits to build a triple S3?

Post #3249 through 3253 or greater. AFAIK RMM carries everything you need in his store - http://www.mtnelectronics.com/

If the alteration of the optics in this manner costs us output, then I wonder…

I got the ground issues solved in this PH-08 side clicky FastTech light. And now it’s seeing a little over 15A from an Efest 35A. The lightbox shows me 4147 lumens, from altered Quad optics! And it’s hotter than a $2 pistol on Bourbon St.!!

The 3/4” x 1” copper pill in the head gets the light too hot to hold in about 45 seconds on high. :slight_smile:

So how many lumens would the 4 XP-L V6 2C emitters be putting down range under pristine optics? Interesting…

If I understand correctly, dedomed XP-L has roughly the same beam pattern as domed XP-G2?

With the loss of modifying the carclo optics in mind, what would give more light at about 6A total for triples? Dedomed XP-Ls in unmodified optics, or XP-G2s?

Cool!

Some tweaks to making the drilled out holes on the emitters even more polished.

Tools you need:

  • T25 bit
  • Hardened steel file
  • Clamp
  • Ultra fine sandpaper. P2000 or finer
  • Fine/Very fine sandpaper. Around P150
  • A piece of round stick at approximately same diameter as the T25. You could use the tapered half of a ballpoint pen in stead of the stick.
  • Glue

To file down the T25 Torx:

  • Attach the steel file to the table using a clamp.
  • Plug the T25 into your screwdriver, and run it at an angle on the steel file, to get the right tapering.
    To polish the T25 even further you could run it at an angle on a piece of ultra fine sandpaper.

Now you could glue some ultra fine sand paper to the tapered T25 (or the ballpoint-pen) and use that for polishing the emitter. Or you could taper the round-stick:

  • Lay out a piece of fine sandpaper on the table. You could wrap it around a book or something of similar size, and fix the book/sandpaper to the table with your clamp.
  • Plug the round-stick into your screwdriver, and run it at an angle on the fine sand paper, to get the right tapering.
  • Glue some ultra fine sand paper to the tapered round-stick and use that for polishing the emitter.
  • Observe
  • Rejoice :-p

Are people still using this T-25 torx bit method to open up XP-G optics for XP-L’s? I’m considering taking a Revtronic (Nitefighter) BT40s and swapping the stock XP-G2 emitters for XP-L2’s (and I don’t think replacement optics are available for this light). Originally I was going to go with XP-G3’s, but I’m not tempted to try the new XP-L2’s.

Thanks,
-Garry

Hi Garry, yes I'm still using it as I am sure many others are. I would be cautious trying to modify any non-replaceable optics. The XP-L2 will just fit into a few of the TIR optics without any modification, so you might be able to give that a try. Of course, the XP-L2 will give you a floodier beam than XP-L HI or XP-G2/G3/Nichia 219.

Not tempted or now tempted? It’s a good idea for starters but I think a means of polishing or at least getting closer to frosted than a coarse grind will be less costly in lumens mislaid. I’ve had reasonable results attaching small pieces of fine grit to dremel bits for lapping recesses in pills so maybe a small drill bit with some tape and 600 or better w/d paper could improve things after the torx opens it up. Final polish with a q-tip mounted in a drill and some headlight lens clarifying compound. I’d give something along those lines a try.

Plastic heats up quickly under friction and you lose everything gained and have to start over if it melts so go slowly and lubricate/clean the paper frequently. You need to be very careful of bottoming out in the recess as that is a*much* harder spot to polish. I did a few optics to fit the old P7’s back in the day and that’s all I remember of the pitfalls.

Thanks RMM. I have a 2nd optic I can test with that came with the light (a “wide” optic that I’ll never use). I’ll try a test fit first though with both optics. I was leaning towards XP-L2 now just for more lumens over the XP-G3. Driving each emitter at 1A, maybe 1.5A.

-Garry

When Richard first talked about using the Torx bit I found and purchased a ball nosed end mill bit with 4 flutes. I’ve found that if I use it by hand, going forward AND backwards, it leaves a nice smooth finish that works pretty well. If I put it in a drill and spin it up then it leaves a set of marks from chatter. The much slower hand work method worked best for me, leaving a round profile that closely matches the dome on the XP-L with a Khatod quad optic. (still a lot of lumens loss though)

I’ve got 4 of the XP-L2’s under a Carclo quad without modification in a MecArmy PT16 and it works well. So far, ~2300 lumens out of an Efest V2 16340 cell. (5.5A at the tail) :smiley:

Try chucking the end mill in your lathe. Some good double sided tape should hold the optic to your tool post well enough. Then run the lathe in low and feed the optic into it slowly with lots of coolant.

Definitely a much nicer solution...but a bit more expensive than $0.25.

Hey, Dale already spent the money, might as well try it.

I guess this mod is for older xp-l’s right ?

The xpl v6 and xpl2 i have fit Carclo without issues .

The XP-L V6 typically does not fit the Carclo series, even if it might appear to do so. The pressure causes delamination of the dome and if the light is taken apart many times the domes will stay stuck inside the TIR and the bond wires will be damaged. As will almost everything, ALWAYS and NEVER are bad words to use. A high percentage of the time the emitter will be damaged when using domed XP-L V6 emitters with Carclo triple or quad optics.