I have several C8s, Convoy and Thorfire that have NW XML-2s in them. Would it be worth it to change the out for newer LEDs? like SST40s? They would have to be about the same size due to the reflectors and centering rings (I tried some XPLs and there wasn’t much improvement). Not really interested in changing out the drivers.
Thanks
Without replacing the driver, changing the XM-L2 to the SST-40 makes no sense.
Swapping centering rings tends to be easier than swapping LEDs. 
There could be nice improvements from using different LED size and that’s the path I’d recommend the most.
I agree with MAX-MX, if you have regulated drivers, a SST-40 swap won’t improve your performance. I think the best you could use a sliced and diced XHP50.2, it should put a little more light while throwing similarly. Enough to be measured but not enough to be noticed.
You may try dedoming your current LEDs, this should make the throw much better at the expense of somewhat reduced output.
If you want a real upgrade to the Convoy C8 take the Convoy M21A, its the 21700 version with SST-40. Awesome light!
Yea, I might try and de dome one or two.
It basically does not differ from the usual C8, such a case is not able to withstand a current of 6A for a long time. Therefore, such an update is very doubtful.
Dunno whether this would apply to any of those torches of yours, bikenber, but I successfully swapped out the old XM-L emitter from a legacy Magicshine MJ808 bike light clone with a new XHP70.2 4000K on 20mm star from Kaidomain along with a matching white plastic insulating gasket from AE. Kaidomain offers a similar package for the XHP70.2 though the dimensions listed differ slightly, not sure why. Great news is they now also stock a XHP70.2 M4 50G NW 5000K CRI90 on a star, just saw it and am ordering a couple for myself.
I’m pretty sure you’d need to ream out the C8 reflector hole to fit an XHP70.2
XM and XP refer to the package size, (XM=5050, XP=3535) and the -L refers to the die size which is the bit that lights up.
So, XM-L2 and XP-L use the same die and a very similar dome which makes theme pretty much the same LED visually, hence not seeing much improvement.
XP-L and XP-G are an example of 2 LEDs that have the same package size and so can use the same MCPCB and centering rings, but the -G die is smaller than the -L die so visually they are different.
The XP-L hi is a factory de-domed XP-L, and as removing the dome effectively makes the die seem smaller (in truth adding a dome makes the die appear larger :D) there will be a visual difference.
That said, the XM-L2 is hard to beat unless you have a specific improvement you want to see. Other 5050 (which means 5mm by 5mm) LEDs that i know of are the SST40 and XHP50.2 (3V version) which as Agro mentioned could be a good choice when dedomed, but then as Agro also mentioned changing the gasket is an easy thing to do which opens up options to many more LEDs.
‘Improvement’ is a subjective thing though, what improvement would you like to see?
Not sure how you’ve managed that as you’ve gone from a 3v LED to either a 6v or 12v LED, it’s not something that would work for the OP without changing the driver too.
I’m curious as to how it worked for you, did you change the driver as well?
I was looking more at efficiency for improvement . I am happy with the lights and was wondering if a easy switch, just the LED, to a more modern one would give me significant more lumins with a better runtime.
No I didn’t change the driver, bike lights utilize 6V emitters, run from two 4.2V cells in series.
Guess I incorrectly assumed that because the OP’s flashlights were XM-L2 they were also 6V and run from a boost driver. Didn’t know there were any 3V XM-L2 emitters.
Well the 3V XHP50.2 would certainly be more efficient, just that the only ones available retail right now are 6500K.
Sofirn just released their SP33V3.0 in 5000K, says XHP50.2 so those emitters do exist in 3V… somewhere.
Problem is, even a 2:1 improvement in efficiency would hardly be that noticeable visually.
And a higher Vf might pull it out of regulation faster (and v/v), and/or be more limiting if DDed.
Me, I wouldn’t bother for such negligible gains.
As others have said, only if you swap the driver. The difference between the XML-2 and sst40 really only come into play over about 4.5 to 5A drive currents. Up to that the outputs are virtually identical. That goes for runtime as well. The XML-2 max drive current is around 6A, while the sst40 can be driven harder, safely up to 7.5 or 8A with good heatsinking. Even at 5A, that sst40 pushes 1700lm. The vf will be lower, and that’s how you can drive it hard. But, you need a good battery (sony vtc6, samsung 30q, or LG H2), and bypassed springs to get the most out of it. Not to mention good heatsinking as that sst40 cooks at high current. I had a pretty beefy zoomie host I ran one in on a fet and boy after a minute it got uncomfortable.
You can run a xhp50.2 3v off the sst40 driver as well. Less throw, but you can get 20% more output from the xhp50.2 at the same drive current as sst40.
The runtime is much better with 21700 and don’t need to mod the driver for a turbo mode.
Yea, I was thinking the same thing.
Thanks
For the most part, I think the days of “Hmm, everything else in this light sucks, but this’d make a great host” are gone.
I know I wasn’t in any itchin’ hurry to mod a light in a long time.
Are there high CRI XML2 emitters available anywhere?
Yes, I have a 3000K 90+ CRI XM-L2 in a couple of lights and the tint is very nice.
I have used that bin in a JetBeam infinitely variable rotary. I really like it. It will happily tide me over until the XML3 becomes available.