New XM-L Light,, 26650/18650/4xAAA Good Price and 57mm head ......... NOTE: The star is solid aluminium !!! :bigsmile:

My replacement head arrived today. They actually sent me a head and the middle piece which includes the pill, driver and star. I didn’t need that, but I’m certainly not complaining about having the extra parts. Anyway, the new head screws onto my original body perfectly, so I finally have a torch that doesn’t want to fall apart when it’s put together.

Now for the pill work that I’ve been inspired to do based on what I’ve seen in this thread…

And… here we go:

That is (or rather was) a New Zealand $1 coin.

I didn’t use any fancy equipment. Just ground the face down, reduced the diameter slightly and put the notches in using a combination of various suitable surfaces and an assortment of files. Once it was only ever so slightly too big to press in by hand, I positioned it in the pill, put a thin round piece of cardboard on top of it followed by a larger metal washer, and gently hammered it in (with a small hammer) until it was perfectly flush. I had also applied a somewhat generous amount of thermal paste to the inside of the pill beforehand as well (it was appropriate to be liberal with the application in this case since any excess was certain to be expelled).

I found something at my local Home Depot which may work. It's a 3/4" copper plumbing "plug" (as opposed to a 3/4" cap, which is all I could find elsewhere). It measures 22.25mm and i measured the inside of my pill at 22.6mm. Haven't had a chance to try to fit it. Was a little pricey at $4.50.

-Garry

Got mine a couple days ago. Last night I put a TF Flame 26650 in it, took it outside and WOW! I paid less than $20 shipped for this light!! IMO, it has got more flood then the Keygos M10. This morning I slapped it on one of my bikes and off to the morning commute. A little longer than the M10 too. I had to stop twice to adjust my two fish type mounts. But, after adjusting the mount closer to the head, it stayed put.

I am not a modder, and for me and what I paid for it, I am happy. :wink:

Couldn’t resist and ordered one on the 26/08, can’t wait to arrive :slight_smile:

Have a pleasant time here at this friendly forum, margamanos!

you just hit buls eye! i am an audioholic and the speakers in the pictures are my favorite, infinity rs 1! i generaly love old infinitys sound, i have a pair of another RS model back home. thank you very much for your welcome message, i am glad i can be part of this really great community

Nice mod cainn!

Does the head get warm faster now? When I did mine it seemed like it warmed up a little faster but never got real warm. 15 minutes of running and and it was just getting warm. The head has alot of mass and fins I think that it spreads the heat out good now! :bigsmile: Going to order some 26650’s and see how that works out!

Hey, it was yourself and a few others that inspired me :slight_smile:

It certainly gets warm more quickly now, but like yours it doesn’t go beyond warm. In fact the thermal path is so good that the star itself doesn’t even really get very hot, and that’s after I redid the wiring between driver and the star to get more current to it. Tail cap readings show 3.3A now, but even though I’ve done some work on the switch, it’s still adding quite a bit of resistance. I’m currently trying to figure out a way to get an entirely new sort of switch in there.

Any owners try running this light on 2 cr123 lithium’s? Same voltage as the 4 AAA holder.

The difference is the Alkalines will sad to around 4.5 volts but the CR123As will not, someone more knowledgeable than I could probably identify the driver and tell you whether it would work.

Was wondering if anyone had done any driver swaps or anything to this light?

I dont have a caliper to find the correct size so if someone could help out i would be thankful.

apt323, you looking to driver swap yours? I could check mine with a caliper, but I thought it had been done already.

-Garry

Went back and read through most of the posts and couldnt find any driver size info. When you got time can you measure it. Thanks Garry

I'll try to remember.

-Garry

I get 20.0mm with my calipers. Maybe a 17mm driver could work with the P60 pill/retainer method used on the HD2010. Might also get a 19mm driver to work.

-Garry

Thanks Garry! I only get around 2 amps on any of my batteries and wanna pump it up. Have 26650’s on the way to see if that help I guess need to take the tail cap apart and do resistance checking to see if that helps. I did read that when i re-read the thread. Never done anything like that before.

Thanks again for your help.

There’s a ton of resistance in the switch, but the other thing you should do is replace the wiring between the driver and the star with some lower gauge stuff. My readings at the tail shot up over 3A (from around 2.2) after that mod alone. It seems common also for there to be some resistance at the contact point between the driver and the pill (especially if the driver is loose, and also if the screw in aluminium ring it sits in isn’t screwed in tight).

I’d be careful about removing too much resistance without also filling in the hollow pill though. It almost seems as if it’s constructed this way on purpose to prevent over heating (in other words, bad design as a feature).

Thanks for the info. I replaced the wires when I filled the open hole. When you say lower guage do you mean thicker wire? Just rechecked my tailcap readings and my solar force blue and white protected pulls 2.7a on my hd2010 the pulled it out and put in this light and it pulls 1.8a granted that the the battery voltage was only 3.8v but it was the same for both lights. I also tightened the ring down earlier this week.

What kind of things can be done to the tailswitch? Also the light seems to flicker sometimes when turning it on. Think that it might have something to with the driver spring maybe.

Thanks for the info.

Yes. Of course you did. I’d forgotten that it was you who detailed your efforts earlier in this thread. Please forgive my absent mindedness.

Yup.

I ran some copper tape from the part of the switch that springs out to contact the body up to the top of the switch, so the aluminium ring that screws down onto it makes contact with it as well. It seemed to improve things, but I think what I ultimately need to do is get an entirely new switch in there somehow. I’ve been meaning to take another look at it, but just haven’t gotten around to it yet.