Lakeside Beamshots *Pic Heavy* K3, S2200, HD2010, M3

I resized the width to 100% since the original was a bit large for my phone screen to handle, hope you don’t mind.
And is it just me, or is the M3 throwing further than the HD2010? It looks way brighter.

I still have a hard time discerning differences in beamshots, but I agree. I thought, as far as throw, it looked like M3, then HD2010, then the rest?

that k3 is super nice. did you mod yourself?

I want details on the K3! What body? What mods?

Thanks for the shots Dale. That S2200 does it for me. Do the pictures represent what you see by eye?

This has been a fun one. Yes, I modded it myself with some excellent input from Comfychair. It does indeed “poop” on the S2200! lol But in doing so it also makes some serious heat as the light is quite small in comparison to the S2200, so it’s difficult to compare the 2 as the bigger light ends up the more useable due to the heat issue. The job at hand would dictate which one to grab, as usual, so the intention of portability and ease of use was met in this mod…all the power of the bigger light in a quick use small package.

I’m glad I took the wide angle shot as well, really gives a good overall idea of what the light is doing. The M3/HD2010 comparison is an excellent example of that. Downrange they’re fairly similar, putting quite a lot of light really further than the eye can see small detail anyway. But the spill and corona are vastly different in these 2 lights, with the M3 having a more controlled, defined total output. And yes, that’s pretty much the way it looked. I took the pics a bit brighter than they were, pulled the exposure back just a bit on all the shots the same amount. Difficult to tell exactly in the night, looking at the 3” screen on-camera, when I got home and brought em up on my Dell Pro 24” Monitor they were a little brighter than what I saw. Lightroom 4 made the adjustment and applied it across the board.

The M3 and K3 are both on L2P hosts. The K3 host is also using an extension tube for 2 cells and the pill has the added benefit of a copper 1/4 x 3/4” chunk of copper inside the pill under the emitter . I plan on doing this a bit differently in the near future, and have a 7/8” x 2” piece of copper standing by. :slight_smile: Will probably bump the output a bit higher in the process, and of course I’ll bring that back to the mod thread when I get it done.

Thanks Comfy, for the mod thread link :wink:

I have to agree Ohaya, the M3, HD2010, S2200, K3 by order of throw. But the K3 is taking total output winner and I’m really loving it’s intense hotspot and wide overall coverage.

I guess the difference between your specific XML2 T6 and U2 bins were very noticeable.
I think I’m going to have a breakdown - that M3 is monstrous!

The original emitters were worlds apart, with the neutral white XM-L2 T6 being much preferred over the almost disappointingly blue XM-L U2. But the M3 came as a complete head unit and there wasn’t a choice of emitter. I really loved it’s style and compactness.

Taking that emitter off their aluminum star and reflowing it on a SinkPAD, then de-doming it really brought it into perspective! Put one of Erik’s 5 mode drivers in and added a couple of chips, yeah, it’s really a neat little compact light putting some serious light downrange! Still a favorite.

At least until my 18350 IMR’s come in. We’ll see if the K3 in the same compact form can still put the power on the line. :slight_smile:

Nice shots! Should be compared in full screen to get a good impression.

Are you sure the HD2010 sees 4,18A to the emitter??? The M3 kills it when it comes to throw. Where does the emitter come from?

Thanks for the shots. The MT-G2 lights have a longer reach than I thought. I still don’t have a light with that emitter. Need to get me one.

Race, they’re different animals for certain. The HD2010 has an XM-L2 T6 while the M3 came with an XM-L U2. The HD2010 has more tricks, come to find out it’s got about 4 more chips than it can use as it’s carrying 15 chips but producing the power of 11. It would appear that the Vf of the emitter at that power level matches the 26650 at around 4.2A, just won’t get any more power from it with this kind of driver. I’ve got the XM-L2 mounted on a little pilon of copper that is in turn mounted on the SinkPAD. Reflowed the pilon and star and emitter simultaneously. This gets the emitter up off the star about an 1/8” so that it can be fine tuned inside the reflector as a de-domed emitter. I had to relieve the inset into the head for the pill so it could set down that much further and give me room to adjust for optimum focus. Also put that slab of copper (1/4” x 3/4” round times 2) up through the aluminum shelf the SinkPAD sits on as a heat sink. So now the SinkPAD sits directly on a 1/2” thick copper heat-sink. So it’s got about all the bells and whistles I can think of. Notice in the pics below the fried switch. Had to put a McClicky in. Oops! lol

The M3 head I simply removed the star, took the emitter off the aluminum factory star and reflowed it onto a SinkPAD then de-domed it and put it back into the pill. Changed the driver to a 5 mode E1320 and stacked 2 chips. Bingo! 4.28A and mega throw with no other fancy tricks. :slight_smile: Well, they both have 22 ga silicone wires added and the same wires bypassing the springs.

It’s called LiNiMnCo26650 and is rated at 18A continuous discharge rate with less than or equal to 20 milli ohms internal resistance. Do you think there’s a 26650 cell that might give me better results in the HD2010? This one is made for Electric Cars and Electric Bikes.

Maybe the little thing you have the XML sitting on in the HD2010 is preventing some of the heat transfer?

That “little thing” is a cube of copper cut to match the pad size of the XM-L2 emitter. Pure copper 1/8” thick cut from a bus bar used in the telephone company back in the 50’s.

I used a strand of copper wire, approx 28 ga. ( I took it from a piece of 00 gauge wire, the strand is about a 1/32” thick), soldered in between the SinkPAD and emitter for electrical transfer. Which was not easy by the way!

Yeah, but it doesn’t seem to be covering the whole base of the LED which is what led me to think that it might be restricting some heat transfer.

Only the center rectangle is the heat transfer pad. The strips down either side are negative and positive connections for the led.

Nope, never reflowed an LED before. Total noob who knows nothing when it comes to these things.
It’s just so surprising how far behind the HD2010 is compared to the M3.

I tested the K3 modded light with a single 18650 tube set-up using 2 18350 IMR cells from Efest. Even with the cells sitting at 3.83V fresh out of the mail, they run this MT-G2 at 4.05A with no problem.

Now, this mod has lost the over-discharge protection in the driver. Can someone confirm that with a 6.3Vf on the emitter, the light will die from insufficient voltage before these cells get over-discharged? They can be taken down to 2.65V safely, according to Efest.

This K3, on a standard L2P host with 2 IMR 18350’s is seriously a kick butt little package! :slight_smile:

Ok, so perhaps it will only sustain a Hi mode for about 10 minutes. But to have nearly 2400 lumens in a pocketable light, for burst of Hi and useable medium and low numbers, that’s just awesome! Med is 1.09A or almost an hour run time at nearly 700 lumens. With low being at .04A, it’ll run a long time with some 30-40 lumens. Works for me!

Edit: Got a pair of the Efest IMR18350 V2 charged up. They run the light at the same 4.40A as their larger counterparts do! Amazing seeing that much light coming from something so small! No kidding, side by side ceiling bounce comparison against the S2200 (also with fresh charged AW 18650 2600mAh Protected cells x 3) the K3 is visibly brighter! With the tiny cells. Blowing my mind! lol

Link please for where to get non-crap 18350s, my MTG2 C8's 15 minute runtime with the TrustFlames ('rated' capacity 1200mAh, measured capacity 370mAh) is pretty disappointing.

The typical 3.0 volt cutoff/warning is pretty conservative, most cells get their rated capacity being taken down to 2.75v. 2.50v is probably safe, but not best for longevity. At 5.5v the MTG2 will be down to less than an amp, so it will be very noticeably dim by that point.