Review: Digital Projector LED Spotlight Cree T6

Thanks flashpilot. I’m noting all these suggestions to see which will be the most viable. Since I have 2 extra XM-L2 LED’s, I’m going to see about installing one of them after I figure out a proper heatsink.

you just made me realize - it is an xm-l in there…

I bet they’ve got the position of it dialed in pretty well.

if you could figure out how to improve heatsinking w/o removing the mcpcb that’s already in there, you could reflow the xml2 to that board. I’d certainly take it out to do that…since electroplating might not like those temps.

Any time Richie. Im sure others will continue to chime in as well. Do you have any pics of the inside of the body taken apart? I assume it opens up in two pieces? Id like to see what the inside looks like and what you have to work with.

Your beam shot from that great reflector makes it all seem worth while.

Here are some interior photos of what I’m dealing with.


XM-L and 5500k-6000k


Rear of star and 4 contact points.


Underside of heatsink for Led and driver. Shown is side LED contact points press or solder into.


Rear side of aluminum reflector to attach driver/heatsink to. Reflector is not thick in this area.


This RED version I received didn’t have quite the precise focus of the Gold one. After removing
the LED, the contact point seemed slightly off center.


Just a photo showing one-piece handle unit.


Aluminum housing shows screw threads for handle attachment. With my new 18650 battery pack,
there is now an extra 1/3 more interior room not having the lead acid battery anymore.

So the body is hollow. The problem with aluminum when it gets that thin is that it wont conduct heat very far. A few suggestions: Id go with the thickest square chunk of copper or aluminum that will reasonably fit inside the body (leaving room for batteries & driver, etc) then notch it for the screw channels. The larger the heat sink surface contact area to the body, the better. You want a tight fit in the contact areas. After you’ve sized and fitted it properly, use a thermal adhesive to help conduct the heat. For better heat transfer, you might want to sand the inside of the housing where the heat sink will make contact. Affix the emitter + reflector directly to the new heat sink and then press the heatsink into the body. You’ll have time to wiggle things around a bit for final adjustments before the adhesive cures. Remember that the less thermal adhesive you use, the better it will do its job. You want as thin of a coating as possible. Do you own a belt sander? They are perfect for shaping metal if you dont own machine tools. Ive clamped a 4” hand held belt sander upside down in a vice to produce professional results when shaping aluminum. Just go slow and you’ll find that the learning curve isnt that steep.

you did a whole lot better separating the emitter/driver/reflector than I did :Sp

now that I see the bare reflector, using the same pcb isn’t such a great idea, because it adds a thermal interface (the back of the reflector) and it is nearly impossible to flatten/lap.

My next though was like flashpilots, though just because I have it on hand, I was thinking rod instead of square.

Cut it to the inner diameter of body, file a flat section in the middle for the emitter (or put an end mill in your drill press).

I’d probably put a screw in each side, from the outside of the body.

This thing should zoom right past that 100kcd mark.

Thanks a lot!

Probably the HD2010 is doing low 800L OTF @ 3.5A. So this digital projector searchlight is ~ 500L OTF.

From the pure spill (unaided by reflector), we can see that it really is not driven that high. Even if its a T5 CW it should not be that dim.

But the beam is focussed nicely. Lets see how your lux readings turn out. :slight_smile:

Its nice to see the reflector channel a true tight spot beam without casting (wasting) a lot of spill from the sides. Looking forward to some long range beam shots after your mods are complete.


Mouse out = Digital Projector Spotlight

Mouse in = Fandyfire HD-2010

If the lux measurement turn out to be attractive (over 100kcd) then I might get one.

For sure there is not much of a corona (good), and no donut. :smiley:

I am thinking of getting the 19.5 cm reflector to try. I have a feeling it’s not that worth it, but i guess worst case scenario is that it throws only about 100kcd with that 6” reflector.

Richie, any luck with the lux readings?

Hi 2100,

Yes, using my LX1010B Luxmeter, at 10 meters or 32.8 feet, I get a rock solid 1,100 lux on High mode. Meter setting was on 2000 also.

I don’t think this is particularly great, but the beam is very tight and consentrated on this light. It should also be noted this measurement was from my gold version as the red one is disassembled for modding. But the internal lead acid battery on it was fully charged. Let me know what you think. Thanks.

@Richie, so that means it does 110kcd because 1.1*10^2=110. Nice.

Thank you Scaru. I guess I need to brush up on this more. I’ve gotten so used to these high power multi-emitter lights I have that throw huge walls of light, this is the first one I really have that would be considered a thrower. So it isn’t designed to emit a great deal of spill so I figured that reading was poor. Thanks for clarifying this for me.

110kcd for $50 bucks sounds nice, but the battery need to be modded into li-ion though.

110KLux with this Setup……wow!

Which 19.5cm reflector do you mean?

Hi Bibihang,

Although this gold one still uses the lead acid battery, the other one I already upgraded to Redilast 18650 3100mAh cells and works great. You may have missed my post on it here: