My Ultrafire C8 with Q5 led arrived yesterday and by the arrival of 8xAMC7135 driver I was ready to try my first XM-L transplantation.
Well it was my first stripping a led and a driver from a pill so I was a bit nervous, trying not to damage anything. I don't know if I heated the driver to much but an XM-L light was in focus, so I didn't worry checking the spares after the operation.
I used a T6 1C XM-L emitter on a 16mm circular board. Didn't try to bridge different stars on the driver, even the wires were those came with the driver. So ıt become a 5Mode (high-mid-low-strobe-sos) light afterall. High mode gave something like 2A at 3.8V but I expect higher after my Trustfire flame battery is charged fully. (Update: 2.6A with full Trustfire's. My meter is a bit old and the leads are thin, though.)
I don't know if the GITD o-rings around the reflector caused this but there were some green rings in the white wall test.
High:
Medium:
Low:
And outside, check first, high mode second. The building is somewhere like 50m.
One note, XR-E emitter was already at the edge of the reflector and was putting out a pinpoint spot. Unfortunately XM_L emitter was a bit shorter and barely could reach the reflector with the famous black C8 insulator. I files the insulator a bit, but still the solder points were preventig the reflector go deeper. So some light could be lost behind the reflector. I would prefer a thinner insulator and may try to change it someday.
I hope to compare this light with the p60 I ordered.
Yes, I were expecting somewhat better hotspot. There is some spill, a big spot and a hotter inner spot in the beam. It is tighter than my MC-E or P7, and more useable than the Q5 it had. But many would like a further throw I guess. Maybe using a thinner insulator will match the emitter better with the reflector.
@Oldienea
I had those insulators on the way already. I'll replace the plastic part with those, maybe filing down the solder points also. C8 has an easily removable pill. It is already loose due to reflector / battery tube balancing. The battery tube is a bit short for a driver with spring. I had to leave the pill a bit closer to the reflector.
I have a Sacredfire NF-009 on the way that I were thinking of converting to XM-L with a 4A driver this time, but I might think twice as these deep reflectors don't seem to give the desired throw with a wider emitter.
Congratulations on your first mod. Feels good to get one under your belt, doesn’t it? Now you wont be afraid to try a few more mods in the future. You can get some thin copper or aluminum material to put between the star and heat sink to bring the reflector closer to the LED. Or possibly a thicker o-ring behind the lens might do the trick. Also, you can remove the black plastic insulator on the C8 and use cellophane tape as a thin insulator.
Thanks, I really couldn't wait for the already built XM-L's on the mail to arrive. But it was a bit difficult to take out the existing driver and installing the new one. I couldn't dare modding another light with the spare Q5 I had last night. I'll learn the tricks in time I guess.
I have heat resistant tape on the way too. I plan to cover the reflector's contact surface with this to see if I can get closer. The solder points are very close to the emitter and prevent further movement so I guess things could be better with a full star (C8 doesn't seem to accept pigger than 18mm, if not 16mm) or less solder on the pad.
Update: I cut a ring out of an acetate slide sheet and fit the emitter instead of the black plastic from C8. The insulator is much thinner now and the solder pads are lower thanks to plastic insulator pushing them down for a while. I don't know if the emitter could advance any couple of mils into the reflector, but I can say the hotspot is a bit more defined now. Still no match to a XR-E spot but I guess I could gain a few meters in the throw. I'll try to put another night test, shooting at the same building.
Update2: C8 warms up full body in no more than 3 minutes on high. A bit faster than I thought it would but the body seems to spread the heat very well indeed. Unfortunately, with a heat this high I wouldn't choose a 1-mode driver at all. I were thinking of getting the 3-18V drop-in but it looks useless now.
Good job on the mod. You went from having a kind of old-ish technology light to cutting edge. Maybe you're the only person in Turkey with a XM-L light!
I think the green ring is from the XM-L. Mine has a yellowish ring around the hotspot like that. Sometimes you can re-heat the solder joints on the star to get them to be a little lower. I just made a P60 and on my first try the blobs were a lot taller than they needed to be which prevented the reflector from screwing down as much as it should have. I'm still not 100% happy with it (maybe just how the reflector is made), but it is better than it was at first.
Thanks a lot for your comments. I think the yellow ring is an artifact of the smooth reflector and emitter combination. My reflector now presses hard on the star and crushed the solder points. I think I once cought a slightly tighter setting but lost this point while playing back and forth. The reflector got dirty, I tried cleaning it, and it scratched easily. There is still a big hot spot and a slightly brighter middle point. I don't want to play with the head anymore and accept this flashlight as is, else I think I'll chop the head of the emitter playing with the reflector too much.
Well it isn't a thrower but somewhere at the middle of a flooder and a thrower. Better versatility than an MC-E I can say. But just slightly better than a well focused D bin P7 light (MTE SF-15). My P7 has a more uniform spill due to OP reflector. I have a Eastward YJ J01 and a P60 drop-in+host ordered too. I'm expecting better results from them.
I may be the first with an XM-L but we are really a technology consuming nation so I believe it will be spread in no time. Can't find much serious power lights other than Fenix's, and the cheaper but still $16 flood-zooms sold in the markets have noname leds in them. So even a Q5 is a WOW light here :)
