Mec-Army PT-16, Triple XP-G2 in a "Nutshell" (NOW a 3402 Lumen Quad!)

Just did some modification to the PT-16 by swapping emitters and fitting the optic, I pulled the 1.5A XP-G2’s in favor of the new 3A XP-L W2 1D. The opening for the emitter in the optic is narrower than I’d hoped so I used a ball nosed end mill bit to fit the optic to these new emitters. While it doesn’t make a lot more lumens, it should be producing a lot less heat as the 3 XP-L W2 1D are running at such a low power consumption.

11.834 Lumens
81.42
337.76
1138.5

Slightly more lumens, nice tint, perhaps more heat efficient? At the very least I know I’m ready to turn it into a quad with one more emitter and then I can pull the driver and piggyback in a ramping firmware FET for what should prove to be some serious bumpage. :wink:

I have the pt18 and pt14 and I must say that these are my most luxurious feeling lights. Very nice lights! I’m not sure what I’m going to do yet. The tint is too cool for me. It washes colors out and reflects a lot of unusable white back at me when I’m trying to look for something I’ve dropped onto the carpet under my work area. (By the way, that carpet has to go! I spend half my day searching for all the things I drop and bump as I’m stumbling around working on stuff)

I wanted to try to reflow some of the nichia 219c 4000k high cri but I’m afraid the lower vf will result in less power. Seems to be the case with most high cri options. Any high cri options with a higher vf. In the 4000-5500 temp range though.

Ok, just because I could, I put a 15mm FET driver with ramping firmware in this PT-16, Quad XP-L W2 1D emitters under a Carclo quad optic. Doubled copper under the emitters.

It’s making 1801 lumens on a rested and partially used Red Efest Button Top 16340. :slight_smile:

Edit: The charger is still in the top of the battery tube, perhaps on a warmer day I will remove the charger and bore the tube for an 18350 and see if I can’t break the 2000 barrier. On the other hand, it’s nice to have the charger still intact…. :wink:

A close copy, the SR71, will take an 18350 and should be a great quad mod host as well.

For the price, the blackwater lights do not look as nice to me. I think it’s the pinaple knurling or something. But I’ve never held one so can’t say for sure. I do like the tail cap with lanyard hook option though.

I put a 20ga spring bypass through the charger pcb, it had small coil springs on each side of the board, I put a slightly larger one on the battery side to allow the internal 20ga wire to coil slightly under compression.

Fresh charge on the little Efest V2 16340 gives me 2294.25 lumens. Works for me!

(for now) I have some 1000mAh 15A continuous Efest 18500’s en-route, I’ll make a couple of copper or brass spacers ( one on each end so the o-rings stay covered…even aluminum would work) and bore out the battery tube so the 18500 will work and the lumens output should go up considerably. :smiley:

Will post when I get that done, probably early next week. We’re at 25 and dropping, supposed to have maybe single digit temps overnight, yuck!

Edit: By the way, it looks like the little Efest V2 16340 is delivering 5.5A at the tail. The 15mm driver has one of the little 3 legged MOSFET’s on it. I can’t expect it to perform like an SIR800DP or something, but it’s doing really well so far.

Brass spacers? I’ll be interested to see how this works out:)

Yeah, like, a threaded tube but thin and cut short such that one on each end would space the battery tube out and allow a longer cell to work. The margins are thin, trying to be sure the o-rings stay covered so it looks right and maintains water-proofness, but it looks doable. I’m more worried about the battery tube being pretty thin bored for an 18mm cell, might just make a knurled titanium tube to replace the stock one so the 18500 cell works perfectly and things aren’t “fudged”.

I like the titanium idea. My childhood perception of titanium has varied well on into adult hood:)

22 is my favorite number. :smiley:

I’m not a chemist but I did used to have fun with just #2 at birthday parties. You could read that a couple of ways but count me civil enough to know the difference :smiley:

When I was a kid I was small and quick. I loved watching Bob Hayes, #22 for the Dallas Cowboys, break away and leave everybody in his dust. Then it was Emmett Smith, also number 22 for the Cowboys, breaking records and becoming one of the all time greats in his own right. And some 20+ years ago I discovered Titanium. Lightweight and strong, #22 on the Periodic Table of Elements, and I became obsessed. I wear Titanium glasses, have had a Ti wedding band of my own make, Ti wristwatches, knives, pill fobs, key fobs with Tritium vial inserts, Ti EDC flashlights of my own make, you name it, I love it in Titanium.

Some 16 years ago my son talked me into joining Yahoo Chat. I was TiFreak2201, somehow that gave people the wrong vibe and I got a lot of comments. Go figure. For me it was innocent enough. I’m a Ti Freak, it’s PTE #22, and the year was 2001. In the end it all worked out, I met my wife within a couple of hours of getting online and we’ve been married 14 years now. :slight_smile:

Ever wonder what the next 22 will be in your life? :slight_smile:

You must have titanium fingernails to be removing those retaining rings! I tried now my nails are all torn up:)

They glue the driver onto a shelf, even gaining access through the switch hole it takes a couple 3 or 4 pretty good blows on a small screwdriver to bust it loose.

I glued it back in, potted the piggybacked 15mm FET in the process so it’s really glued in… not sure why I did that so quickly, I meant to stack a second small FET. Oh well, too late now!

Dale the PT16 V3 holds a 18350. If the charger is removed does it have the clearance for an 18490 or 18500? I know yours is the version 1 16340. I’m just curious about the length. So many chargers around the house 18500 over 18350 make more sense for me.

Mine that was made for an 16340 won’t house an 18500, the tube is too short. Hence the talk of making spacers for each end or making a new tube.

Haven’t seen a “V3”, guess I should look at MecArmy’s new offerings…

The rather short and stumpy pineapple knurled original is eye catching though, it’s so ridiculously small it’s just fun! :smiley:

Looks like Illumination Gear sells the V3 18350 size tube with tailcap for $20, 3 in stock at this moment.
PT16 V3 tube and tailcap

2 in stock at this moment. :slight_smile:

Thank you for the head’s up, I hadn’t heard of either the site nor that MecArmy had the upgrade.

Will that tube screw onto any of the heads?

Thank you Dale for all the information regarding your experiences with modifying the PT series, Mecarmy should supply you with free samples.