Mod: UltraFire T90 (TF X6 Clone): Dedomed XM-L2 Emitter Swap = Throw Monster!

This is a WIP mod. I still have some changes to make. So far, it looks very promising!

The UltraFire T90 is a modified clone of the TrustFire X6. The T90 has a larger body tube and accepts 26650 cells, but I think the head and reflector are the same (I do not have an X6 to compare).

My first mod of this light was to swap in an MT-G2. This was a mixed bag. The throw dropped and lumens went up. It turned into a bit of a flooder with some throw. Not overly impressive (a nice tint though). I haven't used it much. Then I read a comment from 18sixfifty about a dedomed XM-L2 in this light, and I had to try it.

Since the emitter is going on copper, the driver can be left at the stock 7A drive. This could be reduced to 6A with only a minor reduction in output in favor of increased run time.

This should be a relatively simple mod, basically an emitter swap. The challenge is presented here:

The head has an integrated pill that is inside the reflector cavity. Also, there is Fujik under the emitter and screws holding it down. The screws have the heads ground down for reflector clearance. Mine still had enough head left to turn out. I used needle-nose pliers to twist the star off the heatsink. Sometimes it helps to preheat the head (I ran the light for five minutes or so). Do not press down to hard when twisting so that you do not scratch the heatsink surface.

Once the emitter is out, clean up the heatsink surface and lap it flat. There are some machining circle marks which I didn't want to leave there. I suppose lapping the pill is optional.

Swap in the new emitter. There are lots of posts on here about doing that.

The real trouble comes with centering the emitter. The emitter is much smaller than the reflector hole. here it is with the dedomed emitter in place. I have not perfectly centered it yet. I need to make a centering ring for this reflector/emitter combo.

First attempt: XM-L2 T6 1C (dome intact)

I first tried an XM-L2 T6 1C with the dome intact. The results were impressive.

Total output: 1580 lumens after 30 seconds

Intensity/Throw: ~183kcd/~850m

Not bad for a quick emitter swap. I could just top here and have a very nice thrower with some useable spill. But...

Second Attempt: XM-L2 U2 1C dedomed

I have to find out what this reflector can do. Throw basically doubles!

Total output: ~1550 lumens at 30 seconds

Intensity/Throw: ~367kcd/~1200m

Now we're talkin !!!! The hotspot is a bit messy due to the bad focus and off-center emitter.

Conclusions:

I still need to fix the reflector focus and get the emitter centered. I will try and grind the reflector a bit. I think the ultimate fix will be a small pillar to mount the emitter on (a la comfychair's method). This should allow perfect focus.

My goal: 400-450kcd

More to come! searchID8935

Reserved for something.

Awesome mod, thanks for sharing.

367kcd is just insane! 8)

I have this reflector in an FM3 Mag head and the wide flat bottom is annoying when trying to tweak things. It does throw quite nicely though as your mod shows!

Very good mod, looking forward to the final throw number.

I am a little surprised about the very limited lumen loss after dedoming. It makes me wonder if you do several dedomes on the same type of emitter, will the lumen loss be same everytime or is there much variation, and if so: can you dedome in a special way to minimise loss.

That might be caused by the bin difference T6 vs U2 between the two emitters?

Ah, did not see that the dedoming was on different emitter, thanks for pointing it out.

just off to check prices on t90’s……

What kind of numbers does it put out stock?

Wallbuys is sold out. I don’t know who else has them. I paid $77 and got two panasonic 3400mah protected 18650’s free for the father’s day sale.

If anyone else has them please let me know. I am interested in buying a second one.

http://www.aliexpress.com/store/product/TrustFire-X6-SST-90-5-Mode-2300-Lumen-Memory-LED-Flashlight-with-Batteries-Set-torch/609710_641831178.html

The 3x18650 tail current would be around 2.5A so the X6 should be OK, just shorter battery life. Those should give very similar results.

Some nice numbers there… Me likey! :slight_smile:

I took it out for some night spotting. Man, that is some serious throw! It lights up things 300 yards away with a lot of detail. The spot is getting on the small side for me, but that’s the tradeoff I guess. At 300 yards it still lights up the side of a house (sorry neighbours :wink: ) and at 500 yards, a silo is well lit. After that, it’s dim light but shapes are still there.
I still need to fix the focus and secure the centering too. I think that can only help throw and might improve the spot size too.

I like this mod ! :slight_smile: * wonders what you did with the extracted SST90 * :bigsmile:

Mounted on a heat sink for testing drivers. Thought about dedoming, but XM-L2 came a long and, well… :slight_smile:

I put the star on mine on top of another star and lapped the two together and it lifted the emitter up into the reflector. It’s actually too high but that is easy to fix. So I then simply unscrewed the head until it was perfectly focused marked it and messed around with it for a couple hours until I got everything just right. It’s funny but even with the focus perfect you still get a donut hole up close. I can now get rid of the donut hole easily but it’s not a better hotspot at a distance. So although I now have the focus perfect it’s not very far at all from where it was when I started and I still have a donut hole at around a foot.

So did you measure any lux reading?

My cheap meters are not worth posting any results from.

Excellent information…very good review. PM on the way.