The optic/PCB were too large to fit the host. I used a dremel with a sanding drum to shave the board and optic down into a close fit. It’s not perfect, but it works very well. This host is so compact, a spacer isn’t needed. The pill for this light has a lip to help center a 16mm PCB. I sanded the contacts and substrate off a spare aluminum PCB, then fastened that to the pill to fill that gap, then pressed the PCB with Fujik against the board. That does add a barrier to proper heat transfer; if I did this seriously, and was using a better cell than my 3-year-old TrustFire, I’d likely sand the lip off the pill for a better thermal path. Try again with an Efest and some XP-L HIs… 8)
I’m impressed with this light; I was expecting a messy beam due to the dremel-abused optic, but it does surprisingly well. I don’t know if it’s any better than the XM-L U2 I had in this light originally, but it was a fun mod.
That is a pretty cool project, looks nice! Any chance we get to see a (probably very interesting) beamshot? I only had single emitter mods in my life so this is new territory for me.
Cool mod! Any measures of any kind?
Does anyone have any guess if you gain anything by using triple xp-e instead of an xm-l when using a 16340 battery?
You win some, you loose some: xpe2 has a higher voltage and lower efficiency than an xml2, but there's 3 of them. As the OP suggested, I'm also not sure which one has the higher output.
The huge merit of this mod is that is has not been done before :bigsmile:
I don’t have any measurements, and a beamshot wouldn’t be very interesting. It’s actually a fairly clean beam, moderately defined hotspot, with a fair amount of spill. Interestingly, I have one of the “Super Light” single AA twistie lights, modded to use the factory SMO reflector with a XP-L and the same 2-mode DD high driver. I would estimate that the lumen output is about the same, but the XP-E2 triple has a slightly more defined hotspot, making it a bit throwier than the Super Light with its larger smooth reflector.
And now for some sad news: I attempted to mod my old RC-G2 with my last spare XP-L. After assembling the light, the combo worked well, but only briefly. After using the light for a short time, I noticed a sudden shift to a warmer tint. I took the light back apart and found that the PCB had separated from the pill. The dome fell off the emitter cleanly. Now I have a perfectly dedomed and fully functional XP-L. There was never a shift to blue before the dedome occurred. I’m guessing these emitters are pretty rugged.
