Teardown and Mod Thread of Courui XML2 Aka "Big Head 3x18650 Side-Switch Thrower"

Courui from KD, 7 days from order to ship then 11 days to the UK. Was in good nick when it arrived.

I had two separate COURUI orders from KD. I recieved both of them in eight days after shipping.

Thanks for the information guys, just place an order for one in KD and I feel so sinful now.

Hello! I am looking for my next flashlight build, and i thought it would be nice to mod a Courui. I’ve done some in the 100-250kCd range, so im looking for a definite step-up in throw. Has anyone did a courui with regard to throw? I mean dedomed xp-g2, high amps, etc? What kind of throw could i expect? Idon’t like the side switch at all, it needs special drivers, blabla, but i couldn’t find this big reflector light at this price point.

Thanks fory your help, buddies

Place the order on 23 Jan in KD, received the light on 7 Feb via registered mail, good!

This light looks quite nice. The head is much bigger than my T08 and it is a fat boy in general. :bigsmile: I love side switch though it is an electronic one, but the lockout solution has been provided by the other member here.

I am going to mod this light. Can anyone helps to confirm if the stock LED is XM-L2 U2 or it’s just a T6? I need to wait for my XM-L2 U2 1A on Noctigon shipped from IOS and it takes forever to reach here, thinking if I can just reflow the stock LED on Noctigon.

No easy way to confirm the bin without comparing output measurements with a known emitter bin.
I’d be very surprised if these were top rated bins however, so probably T6.

XP-G2 dedomed at around 4.2A easily gets to 150 metres. It will be a good 6 months time before I get back home, but I have plans to try another set of beamshots and see if it can do around 300 metres. Me thinks it can considering the beam is so tight and still very bright at 150 metres.

Can you mention any throw numbers?
A t08 can do 250kcd with xp-g2 hard driven, so if the courui can only throw 300kcd i obviously won’t spend much extra money and hassle with it.

I have not seen any >300kcd report of this Courui too, but from the picture of janko.hrasko here it looks quite promising.

I am modding one since yesterday. The LED positioning is a real pain. :frowning:

Wow! Thanx for posting all these Linus. I can’t wait to get my hands on one of these and add another super thrower to my arsenal. J)

All my multi AA lights can do 300M, D40A NW, SD10 WW/NW, EA8W, even cheapo C8 can, albeit barely, reach 300. Jacob A60 reaches 300m, I dont see a reason why this monstrosity shouldnt reach 300 with ease :D!

Linus - fyi, the XM-L2 U2 1D is quite disappointing for me. My tests show it's significantly lower than a U2 1A or U2 1C in output, though I like it's tint. More like a T6 level. I think it's at the low end of U2 or really a T6 bin.

I think the “300” being talked about is KCd. That’s more than 1000 meters throw and for me its ‘monstrosity’.

My modified BTU Shocker (direct drive, dedomed XML2 T6 on copper, AWG 22 wires) only gives me 297 KCd (still more than a kilometer) but I’m very happy with it. :slight_smile:

My avatar says it all. :wink:

Haha, lol, I see :D!

1000m, thats a large stretch, whats the battery life with that throw :D?

I have basically finished the mod of this Courui tonight though I might swap the LED again once my XM-L2 U2 1A on Noctigon arrives here. I have spent four nights on modding this light because of some LED issues happen so most of the time I was messing with the LED dedome and reflow. Now it is working okay with a dedomed XM-L2 T6 reflowed on Noctigon, but weird thing is when the light is off the LED is still glowing like it is a moonlight mode, which mean it never turn off. I tried to diagnose the connectivity and found that the base of the Noctigon is kind of shorted with the negative pad. Anyway I think it is just for temporary use as my order from IOS takes forever to arrive here. :frowning:

End result: I didn’t measure the lux number yet as this light needs longer distance to measure to be accurate while my measuring tape max out at 5m. The current measured across the tail with three fresh INR 20R = 4.57A only!! Crap! I remember another member can get as high as 5.85A by stacking resistor, while I jumper across the resistor with solder blob I expect very high current flow to the LED but who knows it’s not. :expressionless: I have done copper braiding on the three negative springs and changed the LED wires into 22AWG silicon wires. I think this should solve the resistant problem and I can’t think of any other area to improve. This makes me think something is wrong with the LED.

Anyway putting this modded Courui side by side with my modded T08 the hotspot of the Courui is noticeably more intense even judging by naked eyes. My T08’s throw was measured at around 190~200kcd last time. Hell, this thing can definitely throw more than 1km, now if the LED is changed into dedomed U2 1A it will go crazy.

I haven’t measured the run times for my modified throwers actually. I turn it to lower mode when it starts to get hot. I think our local experts here have to answer that. :slight_smile:

I cant wait to see your beam shots bibihang. :open_mouth:

I think 190 to 200 kcd for a T08 is quite good. My modified T08 only gives me 151 kcd. I just did direct drive (lead blob) and dedomed XM-L2 T6. :wink:

About the beamshots… I am not sure when can I do it, because I live cheaply and beside my enthusiastic flashlight hobby I don’t quite spend much on other things, which is why I don’t even have a digital camera but just using my cellphone camera to take pictures lol.

But long time ago I did ask my friends who have DSLR to help me took some beamshots of my older lights like Sipik SK68, Sanmak SM5200… well that was really a long time ago lol.

Anyway I will try to take the current and lux measurement again once my IOS item arrive and swap the LED again. About the T08 I was getting around 150kcd too at first, but I wasn’t satisfied with it so I went to consult Tom E. The ingredients are pretty much same with Tom E’s version except that I didn’t use Nanjg 105C driver, I connect the LED wires to elsewhere on the driver to make it into 1 mode direct drive instead and current measured at around 4.5A. I did file down the base of the reflector to allow the LED sits inside, copper braiding the springs and use Sanyo UR18650FM for measurement. I am inexperience and lot of tuning was done over the time! Same goes to this Courui. :slight_smile:

The ‘tail cap’ reading of my modified T08 is 4.76 Amps. I replaced the resistors with a blob of lead and I’m also using Sanyo UR18650FMs. However, I did not file the base of the reflector. :~

I think I’m going to do this (filing of base) to my T08 and see the results. If the results are good, I’ll be doing this to my modified K40 also. My K40 reads 2.97 A at the tail cap but only gives me 182 kcd. Both the hot spots of my K40 and my T08 are not as good as the hot spot of the Courui above which means its not perfectly focused. :slight_smile:

I file the reflector base and it works well for me. As for the K40 some said that filing the reflector base is not necessary even after dedomed. You can confirm this with ryansoh or Tom E.

EDIT: Did you use Noctigon/Sinkpad and apply with AS5 thermal paste or similar for your T08?