Today i have upgraded my oldest 18650 flashlight, it was the first 18650 flashlight i bought at DX.
It is the 8 mode MTE M3-2 with a MC-E led. When i bought it, this was a very bright flashlight, but compared to the newer XM-L flashlights it was not very bright anymore.
So i replaced the MC-E led with a XM-L U2 from DX, and now it is much brighter. The currents are about the same as with the old led, so this XM-L is more efficient than the old MC-E.
Because all of the parts were out, it was easy to change the color (held it over the flame of the cooking fire for a few minutes).
8 modes is a bit too much, but it always starts in mid-mode, so i know what to expect when i push the switch. With this modification it is now really much better, it is brighter and the hotspot is tighter (without the hole in the middle from the MC-E led).
These are the 8 modes:
Mid 0,35A (tailcap Amps with a fresh 18650 at about 4,2V)
i'm not sure if yours is the same, but i have an old mte that originally had an ssc p7, then a mc-e, also got run over by a car after it fell off my bike, and now has a xm-l. the pill from the kd c8 SCREWS right it, better than a drop-in.
This one also has a screw-in pill, and it was very easy to replace the led. I will keep it with this driver because it is something different than the 3 or 5 mode flashlights i already have. With the screw in pill the heat transfer is very good, much better than the drop-in flashlights.
I keep this in my car, if something should go wrong, then i could use the police strobe to warn other cars. A few months ago i tested the blue Trustfire 2500mAh 18650, and it still works very good (that one is bought in september 2009).
Hey what a coincidence. I have the exact same light and was going to do the same mod tonight (but with a T6 NW), but ran out of time. I'll do it in the next day or two, and I hope to get before & after beamshots.
I too thought this light was awesome when I first got it, but I'm looking forward to the new output and tint.
About the "crazy" mode sequence: yeah it's crazy to have 8 modes, but I almost never go beyond the 4th one, because a half-press and hold for about 1.5 s returns you to mode 1.
Edit:
Adding beamshot.
On the left is the stock MC-E cool white, and on the right is the replacement XM-L neutral white (3C). I used identical camera settings for the two photos, and put them together in Photoshop. Daylight white balance, no dynamic-range compensation.
I'm fairly sure that the XM-L is brighter, but because I don't have another light of similar brightness, I couldn't directly compare side-by-side. In the photos, it's not so obvious that the XM-L is brighter, but I think the hotspot is brighter. The hotspot also looks smaller, but that might just be that it appears smaller because the very centre of the spot is brighter, or it might be actually a smaller spot. If the latter, I would guess that it's because the XM-L and MC-E disperse light at different angles, so using the same reflector produces different beams. Or, it might be that I don't have the height of my XM-L adjusted optimally yet. I unscrewed the pill a bit to raise the XM-L higher, since my XM-L MCPCB and the XM-L LED's base are both thinner than the MC-E LED.
Regardless, I much prefer the NW tint vs. the CW tint. That alone is worth the upgrade.
