XP-L Mod: simple upgrade to the classic ThruNite T10 AA (XP-G verison)

Flashlight Modding and DIY Parts Featured Mods
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I thought I'd share this, being the classic (black aluminum) ThruNite T10 AA light has been quite popular, and owners know this light can really output on a good 14500 cell. It's an XPG with an OP reflector, a driver that supports a few AA cell types, and is known for a really low moonlight.

I just got in the new XP-L CREE emitters from Calvin at IS (http://www.illumn.com/), and thought it would be perfect for the T10 - direct replacement because the XP-L fits on the same star as a XPG or XP-G2. The dye size is bigger, so I'd expect more flood, but more total output (lumens) and the ones I got in are a 2C tint, which should be a definite improvement, because the stock is a typical cool white, about a 1A level I'd guess. This is the XP-L V6 2C I ordered. After opening the light up, the star was quite small, and sized it up to a 10 mm SinkPAD, and seemed to be a perfect match, so decided to proceed with using the SinkPAD, since it should be worth it having a copper star in there with a direct thermal path.

Here's the light:

Looking with some other AA's:

As you can see, it's quite small for an AA compared to others - not the smallest out there.

Here's the XP-L reflowed onto the SinkPAD. The only mod to the SinkPAD was to sand down the back side to get the thickness reduced from 1.55 mm to 1.25 mm. The stock star is about 1 mm thick, but of course the thicker I could keep the SinkPAD the better, but had to reduce ot to get the LED alignment piece to fit right. Here it is:

Another mod that had to be done was to file down the posts of the alignment piece to get them to match up to the SinkPAD:

As you can see above, the black posts on the left and right were originally circular to fit the 2 large holes in the stock star, but I filed them to fit the notch's on the SinkPAD. Here's all the parts:

The wires on the driver are very thin - thinnest I think I've seen. I decided to leave them as-is for now. I wasn't sure what the effect may be to the driver It already runs LI-on cells at pretty high amps, so didn't want to push it any further. Here's some close-ups of the driver:

Here's the emitter after fully assembled:

It's not perfectly centered, but I can't really notice it in the beam pattern.

On a freshly charge Sanyo 14500 cell, this is what I got on the stock light:

High: Lumens: 367 @start, 343 @30 secs
Med: Lumens: steady at 129
Low: Lumens: maybe 0.1? It's low...

This is what I got after the mod:

High: Lumens: 527 @start, 513 @30 secs
Med: Lumens: steady at 184
Low:

Lumens: maybe 0.13? It's still low...

I measured throw after the mod (not before unfortunately), but it does 2.8 kcd, 105 meters. I'm sure the throw has dropped - thinking it was about 5 kcd, not sure - may have measured that before. I knew it threw well for a small OP light, now it's a pretty big hotspot as expected.

This is a real nice bump for just swapping out the LED and star, and it pretty much came out as best as I could hope for. Over 500 lumens in a light this small without using any more amps than it did stock is great. The 30 sec drop is lower after the mod, so I think the SinkPAD is doing it's thing keeping the LED cooler. The pill is very thin and with the large driver there's no spare room to add any additional mass.

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Now thats a sweet mod. Much improvement for a small change.
Any additional comment on the tint?

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Nice mod. I like my Saber 1A but for 2 things, the cool tint and the lack of adequate separation between high and medium. That shows in your numbers. ~3/1 - H/M and ~1000/1 - M/L. It might be a good candidate for a Tiny12 or Tiny15 driver but I like keeping alkalines in the mix. Were there any difficulties removing the internals?

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I was thinking this is one place the XP-L had to have the advantage. An XM-L for XP-G based lights. Nice mod, thanks Tom.

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Nice mod Tom E. I'm not sure how you filed the alignment piece down as its so tiny. The results show what a nice upgrade it was.

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Great modding, Tom! I'd imagine defining it would increase the throw and improve the tint even more. I modded mine with a nichia 219b back when I got it. The T10 is a great little light!

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As far as the tint, the 2C match's pretty well to the XM-L2 U2 2C from what I can tell. Just compared an F13 clone (O-L group buy) that has one and the flood area looks pretty good. Of course not as nice as a 4C. The F13 with the SMO reflector has a white center and more yellow looking aura around it, while the T10 is just one nice smooth big spot. I think the OP's make the tint in the beam look so much better.

To take out the internals, it's pretty easy - unscrews from the driver side with the 2 holes. Small needlenose, then tweezers. The driver is press fit pretty tight in the pill, but I have a real flat screw driver type tool that worked well to pry it up - no damage.

For the filing, it filed surprisingly easy - just used a small hand file, took a little time to get it shaped right to fit.

Thanks JM, and all! I got this T10 from a BLF member as a gift way back, and still use it regularly - been meaning to mod it for a long time, but it was so good stock. Probably should have gone with a more neutral tint though. I really like the 3C and 4C's, and even the warm's. I got the BLF A8 with a great warm tint - love it.

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Awesome mod!

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Useful improvement. Thanks.

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On the topic of throw, does it still have a very tight hotspot compared to the XP-G? Would like to know for those that convert some of the XM-L’s to XP-G’s for throwers if this would perk em back up but retain the hotspot for longer throw?

Nice build and very cool man! Can’t wait to get my hands on some XP-L’s

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Well, the T10 is a small OP light. Here: https://budgetlightforum.com/t/-/10972, post #3, Match measured throw at 1136 (1.1 kcd), so maybe the XP-L improved on that. Match measured throw with an Eneloop. My Enelopp Pro's won't fit this light - too wide. I thought the hot spot was definitely tighter before - sorry, really didn't pay much attention to the T10's throw. In theory, the XP-L is the dye size of an XML, so it shouldn't throw well.

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Nice mod. So the xpl indeed does a good job in small lights :-) . You can even dedome it and still have better output than the stock xpg, with more throw and warmer tint.

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Very nice mod Tom E. Thank you for sharing.

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well - the xp-l seems to now be a standard for the new thrunite t10. and available for 23.95 with up to 252 lumens using 1AA. these seem to be very good numbers, and good value!

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Dang, they stole my idea! . Well, really it's the best choice out there, they just finally caught up.

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How did you get the driver out? I’m having no luck with mine.

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Hhmm, this was 2 years ago. Well, I'm sure I can't recall, and didn't have the foresight to make a note of it in the OP. Mine might have been loose enough not to do much to help it out, but if I have clearance, I would try prying at the edge of the driver with a very thin screwdriver like tool I have, or maybe better, use a dull pointed solder pick tool through a hole from the top, applying pressure where I think I'm not sitting on a chip. The pill has those 2 big holes on the top, so that would help. Often I work thru a wire hole - I can usually fit the pick past the existing wire. With the pick, best to go slowly, carefully - try steady pressure, maybe alternating sides. Build pressure slowly if not getting movement.

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Sorry about the late reply!

I meant to say I was having trouble removing the pill, not the driver. Sorry for not being too clear in the first place.

My T10 has two little holes in the pill for snap ring pliers but the pill won’t budge turning it either way. I suspect the threads are glued and the internal design is different. For anyone reading this, the T10 I’m working with is a later XP-G2 variant with a silver reverse clicky tail switch.