What's wrong with this (P60 => C8)?

LED Flashlights – General Info
1

Hi,

I’ve recently been interested in P60 drop-ins, and have a few, plus several SolarForce hosts. I also happened to have bought a C8 light a couple of weeks ago, from Amazon:

http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00547SCXG/ref=oh_details_o01_s00_i00?ie=UTF8&psc=1

Amazon also has a C8 with an XML emitter, so I started wondering if there were drop-ins for C8, similar to how there are drop-ins for P60, so I could “upgrade” the C8 to an XML via a new drop-in. From searching, I gather that there aren’t, so, from more googling, I found that there was a TrustFire TF-R2 that had some of the better thermal design of C8, but that could take P60 drop-ins.

It wasn’t easy finding a TF-R2, but thanks to folks on BLF, I got pointed to a website, sobuying.com, that was supposed to have them, and I ordered one, but it looks like it’ll take several weeks to get here.

In the meantime, I got a couple of P60 dropins from SolarForce, the “Solarforce 880 Lumens U2 XM-L 3 mode”.

So I was thinking that if that drop-in worked with the C8, I could upgrade it to XM-L U2.

I removed the original C8 drop-in from the C8, removed the screw-on reflector from my SolarForce drop-in, and tried to put the SolarForce drop-in in there, but the opening in the C8 head/bezel was much too big.

Then, I got some aluminum foil, and folded it a couple of times so that I had about a 1/2” strip, and wrapped the SolarForce drop-in in that (with the big spring still on the drop-in), and then shoved (literally) the aluminum-wrapped SolarForce drop-in into the C8, from the front.

I then screwed the tube onto the head, and the bezel ring and lens, and put an 18650 in the light.

And, it worked!

The drop-in is pretty snug in the neck, and doesn’t move, and I left the light on high for over 30 minutes. The body got a little warm, but not too bad.

To me, this seemed to have worked out ok, so I was wondering, am I missing something? Also, in general, would I be able to do this with any C8?

I guess that from a lot of searching, I’ve seen various threads where someone would opine that P60 drop-in with C8 would be good, but if what I did is ok, then is there something wrong?

Thanks,
Jim

Edit: Here’s what it looks like in the C8 (using the original C8 reflector):

Jim

2

good to hear that works. any problems with centering or focusing?

i suspect nothing is wrong with the idea, but experienced flashlight modders probably don’t see value in a mod which won’t increase thermal transfer vs stock

just going to paste an idea i posted in another thread: adhesive copper tape around a cut-off p60 reflector base to allow the p60 pill to be re-swappable. my thought is the copper wrap being quite soft might almost be threadable with careful rotation into the c8 body. and copper tape is relatively disposable in any case. i actually don’t own a c8 host yet, but will look into it when one arrives…
would not serve much contact area, but still might not be worse than a stock p60 setup

3

The C8 has much better heat-sink design than the P60 as the pill is threaded into the body. Putting a P60 pill wrapped in foil to fit in a c8 doesn't seem like a good idea. Why can't you used the original pill on the C8?

i believe they do sell empty c8 pills. IntO sells ready made c8 pills also with XML and 2.8a 105c driver set. Pricey though.

4

centering/focusing? No, I didn’t have to do anything for that…. basically just shoved the SolarForce drop-in into the C8 head, and dropped the original C8 reflector in.

I hadn’t thought about that, but maybe I was just lucky?

As for the value, for me, it was being able to end up with a more powerful version of my original C8, without buying a new light. Then again, that SolarForce drop-in cost as much as a new XM-L-based C8 :(…

Re. thermal transfer, that was one of the other reasons for interest in the C8. I had the impression that it was suppose to be better than the normal P60 hosts? Also, that was why I posted about running the light quite a long time on high, with no problems, and it only got warm.

5

Understood, but with what I did, isn’t a large part of the body of the P60 pill contacting the C8 body, via the aluminum wrapping?

And, as you yourself just said, the C8 body is better at heatsinking than the P60 hosts?

It seems like combining those two things together, from heat standpoint, this would be better than a P60 drop-in in a P60 host?

6

maybe someone could make a hollow c8 “pill” with the hollow spot threaded for p60 pills… a p60 to c8 adapter

7

http://www.fasttech.com/products/1616/10002799/1208600


you'll have to ensure the thread spacing and the inside diameter off your C8 matches as not all C8's are the same

8

Hi,

Thanks. I’ll throw one of those in my cart when I do my next order.

9

So, getting back on topic…

As I said, I’ve run (and am running) multiple extended testing of this at high, and it seems to be holding up and the body never gets to anything more than warm.

Nothing is rattling around/moving, i.e., it’s stable. I’ve tried it with different batteries, and it’s fine.

I showed the beamshot with the hotspot above. Does that look ok?

Overall, is there any reason not to keep this like this?

Thanks,
Jim

10

I’m all for that :heart_eyes:
It probably wouldn’t be quite as good thermally as a regular 1-piece C8 pill but it would still enable easy pill swapping. Not to be confused with a skittles party…

11

lol. p60 drop ins are basically a dime a dozen. though, assembling your own c8 pill would not be hard and you get what you want. but one could build several p60 pills of different emitters and drivers and such, have both a smo and op reflector for each c8 and p60… and two lights with more options than you could know what to do with

12

Definitely. Plus, it’d just be nice to try out different tints/emitters you may already have in P60 form in a C8 without comitting to building a brand new pill.

13

Hi,

BIGWOOD had linked this pill on FastTech:

http://www.fasttech.com/products/1616/10002799/1208600

If you look at the pictures, it shows that there’s a black wire that’s soldered to the inside of the pill with the other end of the wire free. What is that for?

Also, one of the other pictures shows 2 screws, and it looks like there are 2 threaded holes. What is that for? Is it so you can use those to hold the emitter PCB down on the pill.?

Thanks,
Jim

14

only thing i can figure for the wire is maybe there to cater to drivers with thermal monitoring??
yeah, the screws and taped holes are to hold the star in place with out adhesives

15

I was just thinking that the wire could be used to provide a short to the pill and the light body, so maybe you could connect that to the - on the emitter board, instead of connecting a wire for the -ve from the driver to the emitter?

Or, you could connect that black wire from the inside of the pill to the driver -ve pin, and if you did that, you wouldn’t have to solder the negative side of the driver to the pill edge?

Edit: Do emitter stars always come with holes in those 2 positions?

16

that could be correct… im not really sure to be honest

17

I really want one of these now… Don’t even have a functional p60 pill at the moment… but I still want a p60 to c8 adapter…

18

I would too.

I just included that pill in an order I placed tonight. I don’t have the tools needed, but I’m wondering if it could be modded so that it could be used as a P60-to-C8 adapter?

19

lol @ slim

20

this may not apply to your SF pill, but in general, a host which stays cool is not transferring heat from the pill effectively

a machined p60 to c8 adapter must surely have been thought of many times-? it seems craftsmen who could attempt the serious work required are more serious about maxing lumens efficiency instead though

as i alluded to in my idea, contact area for a standard p60 pill is limited to its threading, which only surrounds around half of its total height. still, manufacturers don’t care about this for p60 lights, and have produced good hosts in the form of the tf-r2, solarforce m3, nightmaster/x-searcher with converter, so why this should stop them producing more pill adapters i’m still not sure