Generic 3W Recoil Led Flashlight CREE Q5 - from ebay - Torn down to see how it works.

I have never owned a Recoil Light. Figured I should get one cheap and close to home, so I got this one off ebay from a seller in NYC.

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It's a No-Name brand, but I just wanted to take one apart and see how it worked. It takes a single 18650. It's 143MM OAL, 40mm Diameter at the head. It has a glass lens and an XR-E led. I got 1 amp on high and 0.15 amp on low.

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The led is an XR-E. It throws a square die pattern, but as you can see in a close up shot, the support for the led does show up in the beam. The farther out you get, the less it can be seen. I will do a couple of beam shots tonight, when it gets dark.

Tear down:

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The OD of this?? Pill/holder/assembly? is 35mm.

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The length is also 35mm.

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The 17mm driver has three modes H/L/Strobe and mode memory

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The assembly consists of an aluminum reflector that is plated and a bottom plate that holds the reflector in and holds the driver. The led fits on a brass round that fits in the arm to hold the led. That arm and outer wall is all one piece cast aluminum.

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You can see the brass round is soldered to the led and it fits in the aluminum holder, but it is spaced out, so that the wires do not touch the aluminum.

That's it for the tear down. Why couldn't it be made so the die is not focused, so that there is no square die? It would give a larger spot, but I hate that square die crap. Maybe I will try replacing the led with a Nichia 219, which would give a more rounded die image. Either that or an MT-G2 Oh, don't even think like that, Noooooooooo.

Thanks for the clear pictures, I had never seen it so close-up. It looks like this light has some potential for tuning up (but others may have done that years ago already without me knowing):

-When using other leds you will lose more light because the emitted angle is wider than with the XR-E, I guess that is not the way to go here.

-It looks like the mounting of the xre can be improved for better heatsinking (copper bit instead of brass)

-By bypassing those 4 parallel resistors on the driver, you may get a bit more current :-)

Quote OL. ‘’Either that or an MT-G2 Oh, don’t even think like that, Noooooooooo.’’

:slight_smile:

Thanks for the pictures. It is interesting to see in detail how these recoil lights are built.
It would also be interesting to know how these compare in throw to some conventional reflector throwers, aspheric lights or Led Lenser lights.

But for the square beam: These lights seem like dedicated throwers and sharper square = better focus = more throw. :slight_smile:

I got this exact same one a few days ago. Some rough machine work, burrs between the fins and inside the lanyard holes, but still fairly comfortable in the hand. The beam doesn't throw a perfect die image, so it's quite usable. On the whole, I like it.

Interested to see what you do with this one.

Not going to do anything with it. If I ever do one it will be with a 50mm or 75mm mirror with an MT-G2 and an all copper holder. Maybe someday, but not in the near future, so it's up to you to mod one soon...Wink

Hmmm. I don’t understand it.

Bah, forgot to mention a thanks to O-L for mentioning 'cheap recoil on ebay' in the CK36 thread, I hardly ever bother to look there as most of the flashlight stuff is either cheap crap or overpriced crap. But I found the same listing as O-L found, mine should be here Monday.

I'm glad to see the ...whatever you call it... comes apart like that. I was afraid it was all one piece and would be a serious pain to work on, but it doesn't look too bad. Wonder what it will do with a 3 amp dedomed XPG2? We'll find out soon enough. :p

just remember, you will only be able to upgrade it from zero heat sinking to maybe just a notch over zero heat sinking...

watch Justin prove me wrong though

Wait, heat can't move sideways, it can only go in a straight line out the bottom of the LED? Crap! That ruins EVERYTHING!

:bigsmile:

it can, but its still not much material to transfer heat from an overdriven emitter

feel free to prove me wrong though. love being proven wrong. but theres a reason you dont see these being modded too often I am assuming

Who says there has to be only one strut and that it has to be made of aluminum? ;)

Remember this one?

haha... nope. how did that turn out?

Not to hijack a thread it still works great. Maxflex 1.3A driver and 4xpg’s in series.

… and it’s a pretty cool hood ornament.

I see it and I believe it but still shake my head in wonder.

Love to see the rev’d up redeux …

Each strut will affect the beam to some degree, but that said, I think three struts out of copper would help a lot better than one strut out of cast aluminum (and they could be thinner and still take away more heat). Cast aluminum does not transfer heat very well. It would be a challenge to make and to solder for sure, but unless I were to do one with a larger mirror and something like an MT-G2, I don’t think I would do it. The reason that the inside is rough, is to smooth out the beam overall, (I believe), so any replacement copper would also need to be rough to some extent. Probably 120 grit paper would be about right, or even 220 grit. In fact, the copper would probably need to be painted with either chrome or aluminum colored paint, for the thing to work right.

I could see some 0.50" 0r 0.75" copper sheet cut like the stock support is (three of them) and a center piece of solid copper. I would also think that the distance from the post to the mirror will have to be tested for any other led, since they will all probably focus at different distances. I would like to see it where it wasn't focused to square die on the mirror, just to see the results. Might not be worth it. The 50mm and 75mm mirrors I have found, that are in the budget range, focus at about 500mm or 1000mm, versus the one in the light that focuses at about 100mm.

I hope you guys go ahead and work all the bugs out on one, so I don't have to.Wink