May not be a big accomplishment for some the pros on here, but I’m happy with it. Modded a deep C8. Definitely brighter than my first build and any light I have bought before. More to come!
Oooh....that`s red!
how, what, where, when?
Congrats. Very nice looking hotspot there. Don't tease us man. Give us some build details. Please?
Nice! Hunting light?
Seems to me you are a colorful guy. This and that blue beast you have going in another thread. Looking forward to more info.
[Upgrade] UltraFire C8 Deep Reflector XML “UranusFire” Yep, that’s right, lol
-Cree XP-E2
–16mm SinkPad
-Qlite driver
Yes, it will be for hunting, but no, haven’t looked into a blue light yet though. Must be someone else.
Oups! Sorry about the confusion. My bad entirely.
It is member rollinstone157 that has that one going in THIS thread.
Back to this thread. Had a buddy ask what the range of such a red light is. He want something that can clearly light up targets up to about 110 meters. And by clearly he means well enough to see the difference between a male and female wild pig. Where he hunt it is not allowed to take the sows.
I’m not exactly sure about the range on it. Haven’t field tested it yet. I know I’m driving it pretty hard. I have heard of another member on here running a red light around 2 amps. I know that running the deep reflector concentrates the beam a little better than a standard c8 and supposedly a little more throw.
Very nice mod, that must be a serious hotspot.
Where did you find the xp-e2 in red?
I figured that :-(
It is 25 dollars to have them ship anything to Europe, so I am very reluctant ordering from them.
mike,
looks good, you are definitely on your way now….congratulations on a succesful build.
Too much light will never be enough!
The emitter is centered very well and the hotspot looks focused perfect.
I have built many c8’s, c8x, hs-802, T20’s with the red xpe2. I would estimate that your build is in the 18-20 Kcd range. Should be good to nearly 200 yds maybe more with really good optics and good eyesight.
2 Amps is definitely too much for the red XPE2. depending on how you mounted the sinkpad to the pill and how careful your assembly technique was, about 1.5A is all you really need. And even that is too much for a cheapy aluminum star glued down with AA. Any more than 1.5A and all your making is heat not more light. I have run XPE2 at 2A on aluminum stars attached with AA and they die rather quickly. As soon as you switch to sinkpads screwed to brass or copper pills the light output goes up and stays steady.
@djozz I know mouser shipping is expensive but mouser and digikey both sell “known bin” genuine emitters. Very hard to find anywhere else. buy ’em 100 at a time they are alot cheaper.
Nice mod.
Thanks guys. Kevind43, using a 16mm SinkPad, I had no extra room to screw it down like intended too. Still seems to be transferring heat well though. Not to give away your trade secrets but what would be my options for optics to possibly further advance the output of the light?
I dub thee “monkey butt” because uranus is red 
http://2.bp.blogspot.com/\_AwTrlLPOZvQ/S8GVrxLrAkI/AAAAAAAAANk/UY5u-GdL4qY/s400/MonkeyButt.jpg
Good build man!
I really enjoy the look of the C8
An AR coated lens will bump the output up a measurable amount, usually around 8-10%. The reflectors that come stock in the c8x(c8 deep) are very good. Getting the focus just right to achieve max throw is critical. To do that you will need a light meter. Even the cheap ones will give you decent results.
The meter will also show you how good your assembly methods and techniques are. The first lights I built with RED xpe’s on aluminum stars bedded in AA epoxy at 1.5A would lose 10-25% output after 3-5 minutes of run time. Now with copper MCPCB’s directly screwed to the pill with a thin layer of AS5 have almost no measurable drop, at least in the hosts I am using.
Can you recommend a decent light meter? Also, this may be a stupid rookie question, all the drivers I have seen power in intervals on 350-380 ma, so how do you get to 1.5 A? I am powering mine at 1.4 A, so if i added another 7135 chip, it would be 1.75A. Maybe I’m missing something which I’m sure I am. Lol
Great job!
Where did you get XP-E2 RED emitter, and how much did you get?
Mouser.com. About $6 after shipping. I bought 2 red and 2 green. I ruined my 2 greens re-flowing them
Sorry for the confusion. I was using 1.5A as a reference. 1.4A is correct when you use a 7135 type driver. Many lights that i build use 2x18650 in series and cannot utilize 7135 type drivers. In those cases i will do reisistor mods to get approx 1.5A.
The Dr. METER works well. It seems to be close to what most of the folks here on BLF are getting. The the dx cheapy seams to read about 10 % higher than the dr. Meter. Or you could go with the extech certified model its about $100 bucks.