Hi Im new to flashlight modding but I have a Stanley 5w li-ion rechargeable spotlight that is already pretty decent for my purposes, which are getting around in a small boat through canals at night and occasionally scanning dark fields. The marking on the LED only say "Cree XP" but which model I'm not sure. I am interested in possibly replacing the LED with something like an mt-G2, XHP-50, or an XP-L hi for the purpose of really making flashlight as bright as possible without having an insanely low run-time (hopefully at least two hours). It comes stock with one 18650 inside, so regardless I'm probably going to remove that an insert a 2 or 3 cell 18650 homemade pack just to increase capacity and runtime. The driver appears (to my unknowledgeable mind) to be decent already, and honestly I'd like to swap the LED without swapping the drive if it makes sense to do so. Does anyone have any thoughts on if swapping for something like and xp-l hi or mt-g2 on a copper pcb would really change this light into a super-bright spotlight instead of a pretty good one? I know those are fairly different LEDs, but if it's possible to make either one work this this driver and battery setup I'd like to try. Even if changing drivers is the way to go, I'd give it a shot as long as the benefit is there in output. I measured 1.4a and 3.4v at the led itself on a multimeter while it was in high mode, so I'm guesssing that upgrading or modding the driver might be necessary to get more than 1.4a of current, but I've never modded a driver before. Does this one look like a candidate for adding 7135's to or would a total swap be in order?
My intention in modding the spotlight it to take advantage of the large reflector and heavier weight as much as possible. My general thought is, there are some handheld small C8 type flashlights that can achieve some serious power relative to this thing, so if I'm going to have a larger, heavier unit with me I want it to really have the ability to light up a huge area and huge distance clearly. Any thoughts on possible ways to make this thing have more output are appreciated. Thanks for your input.
It seems like there's a decent amount of room behind the driver for more batteries, would running 18650's in series up to 7.4v make sense with a different led and/or driver set up?
I have a few ideas if it were mine but no idea how to explain or where to start.
If possible can you get some good close up pics of the LED and the star its mounted to?
Some guys on here could tell what it might be just from looking, I can’t.
Measurements. I think the star (MCPCB) is 20mm? Also if possible measure the square base of the Emitter itself. 3.5mmX3.5mm or 5mmX5mm. Will help.
How good are with a DMM?
Whats the output voltage of the driver?
From the looks of the transformer on the board can I assume that light can run direct off 120V AC?
I do not own the light and I have too many thoughts and questions.
And what is the exact Stanley model number?
I know, right? No theres a single 18650 beneath the diver board that's held down my 4 screws. The star is definitely 20mm and I tried researching which model XP led was used for this but couldn't find anything. The emitter is 3.5x3.5 and has a small dome. I measured 3.4v on the star contacts when the LED was in high mode, and 1.4a or so. I am only OK with a multimeter but can follow directions. I solder a little bit and like these kinds of things, just not knowledgeable enough yet to tackle this kind of project entirely on my own. These are the best pics I could muster with my iphone camera, I know they're not exactly the best for close up ID of an LED. The model number of the spotlight is SL5HS. Let me know if I can get anymore info that might help. I have some 8x7135 Nanjg 105c drivers at 3ish amps but dont know if thats a good fit for this. Thanks
OK that helps. A single 18650 is 3.7V. You need to keep it 3.7V. You can put as many cells in Parallel as you can fit. I suggest you get matching cells and not use the old one in the set. The electronics already in place will charge more cell in Parallel with no trouble but it will take longer. But you will get much more run time with higher capacity cells and more of them.
I have the Horrible Freight $12 pistol grip spotlight and added more cells. It only had one also, can’t remember if I put 4 or 6 into it now. Original charger works fine.
Picture of the MCPCB is perfect, I can see the traces on it. LED emitter is certainly 3V. Actually the LED look like a genuine (older) XP Cree.
Newer MCPCB may need the wires on opposite sides of the board. Just drill another hole. 20mm is common and you could put anything there. I think the Neg wire looks white, unusual, so you need to remember that.
Not an expert on emitters for Throw, but a Dedomed XP-G2 is prolly what you want and need to seek others advise or search. XP-L HI is already dedomed from factory. You can buy emitters mounted to a Better 20mm MCPCB and there is a sell that offers dedoming for the customer. Check out Mountain Electronics LLC
Other wise I would leave all the other crap in there for convenience. If you gp to a normal flashlight driver, I could not tell you how to integrate it other than tossing all the other internal electronics and AC power/charge options.
Edit: forgot…
To measure the Current you need to desolder one wire from the emitter and place the meter between the wire and emitter to get actual current. Beware iy is possible to draw up to 5A on a single emitter so make sure your DMM is set correct and rated for that current. If you feel you need more current and want to use a different driver… this is where I need to get off.
You will be under $10 shipped for a different emitter on a board. Good Batts for about $5ea. Otherwise you can get kick butt handhelds these days pretty cheap.
Ok, so decided to pull the driver and I’m thinking the mt-g2 is going to go in this light, although I have an xp-l hi waiting for a host so open to options on LED. Considering a rather large 18650 battery pack would fit in the unnecessarily large cavity left by the previous single 18650 which could drive an led at 6v if necessary or even 12v in this light, what’s a reasonable driver for this application? I’d probably rather 6v for simplicity and run time. I’ve seen some drivers intended for the sst-90 but those are still around 3a and I wouldn’t mind having a driver with 4-6A on high if possible with some lower modes available. Can anybody recommend a driver that could power a setup like this? A 6 cell pack with series pairs run in parrallel should fit. The only glaring weak points I see so far are the switch which I’ll either swap or somehow mod to handle the current, and the fact that it’s a plastic frame with questionable heatsinking, but I am undoubtedly missing a lot. That large pot-mettle looking heatsink should do the job though, I don’t plan to keep the light on in highest mode for more than 20-30 seconds so I’m not worried about it too much. Thanks for the help if anything comes to mind.
oh, I also pulled the wall-wart from the back and the driver board, which cleared a lot of space internally. Pics to come of the emptied out hull, but there is a ton of room for batteries and frankly the driver is going to be difficult to place correctly. I’m not sure, can a driver be glued/epoxied to the plastic frame of the light or should it be attached to the back of the large heat sink? The charging port in the back is basically two open holes without the wall-wart so it shouldn’t be hard to leave two leads coming out of the back to charge the battery pack. I realize I could simply go buy a large thrower for ~$60 but at this point I like the pistol-grip style light for driving a boat at night and want to see what’s possible in making my own light vs. getting one off the shelf.
The switch is visible in the first picture of the second post I made, and it probably is not rated for the type of current I’d like to feed this light. I could put a higher rated clicky switch in its place and dremel out the outside surface to fit it, but will figure that out once I get a driver and an emitter selected.
Although pricey, seems like the best readily available option for what I’m looking for. Happy to give mtn electronics more of my money, but could I do any better without too much trouble?
- Use this charger. (Insert it inside, or insert only a connector is your decision)
- This should pull 750mA up to 1500mA from the batteries. It will provide 1000-1800lm of light, and be okay with lots of usage and abuse. Power will be ~13W.
Runtime of 3h with 3000mah cells.
2. The enthusiast option 4x18650
- Using a XHP35HI 5000k led, direct thermal path copper board (or XHP50)
If you really want output that ‘matches’ the size of this thing, I’d recommend going with an XHP-70 and a high current 6V driver. Your reflector is going to make lots of artifacts because of the little bump outs for the other LEDs going around the rim of it. You might consider upgrading those LEDs to 1/2w (100mA), which is the highest you can go with that 5mm epoxy package. Anyway, I’d recommend getting some clear coat and doing the O-L method of stippling that reflector. That will help wash out beam artifacts from the odd reflector shape and also blend away some of the dark cross from the emitter.
Great suggestions, thanks a ton. Sorry for the silly question, but what makes the XHP series you all’s choice over the mt-g2 or other similar leds? I was thinking by having a single large LED but not dedoming it would leave me with ample throw simply from driving the led at a reasonably high current and some spill because it is not dedomed. Do the 4 emmiters on the xhp series perform better in this situation due to the higher output or their beam pattern?
I plan to not reconnect the leds that line the outside of the reflector and just do what I can to minimize their effect on the beam. I’ve seen oldlumen’s stippling method, but would this sacrifice any perceived output or throw? I’m ok with an somewhat imperfect beam in this case since power is my goal, but not enough experience to know if the potential beam artifact is a performance issue or more of a cosmetic issue. In any case, I can always stipple the reflector or alter it to enhance the beam once the internals are sorted out.
Another question, any sources for a high current switch that might be up to this task?
For the purposes of this project, I definitely want to take the enthusiast approach. Do you know of any drivers with that level of amperage that also have a few simple modes? One or two lower current settings would be nice if possible to increase the runtime when necessary. I’ll keep searching, thanks for all the help
Xhp are very new and more efficient.
You can do the same thing with xhp70 if you need less throw or with mtg2. It makes no difference. Choose whichever you like. I daid xhp35hi for maximum trhow. But any led will do. Just tweak the specs of the driver.
Well, the XHP-70 puts out more lumens, from a smaller area than the MT-G2, so should technically be capable of a bit better throw. But, it is really a quad-die emitter, so there is usually a dark cross or at least a dark spot in the middle of the beam, where the hot spot should be. So, if absolute throw is your goal, maybe you would be better off using the MT-G2 after all.
I know, right? No theres a single 18650 beneath the diver board that's held down my 4 screws. The star is definitely 20mm and I tried researching which model XP led was used for this but couldn't find anything. The emitter is 3.5x3.5 and has a small dome. I measured 3.4v on the star contacts when the LED was in high mode, and 1.4a or so. I am only OK with a multimeter but can follow directions. I solder a little bit and like these kinds of things, just not knowledgeable enough yet to tackle this kind of project entirely on my own. These are the best pics I could muster with my iphone camera, I know they're not exactly the best for close up ID of an LED. The model number of the spotlight is SL5HS. Let me know if I can get anymore info that might help. I have some 8x7135 Nanjg 105c drivers at 3ish amps but dont know if thats a good fit for this. Thanks