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

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?

No. I just used the original 25mm aluminum star, reflowed the XM-L2 T6 in it then dedomed it using gasoline. For the thermal paste, I used Fujik. :slight_smile:

If you are getting only 4.57A with the solder blob over the resistor, try removing the resistor and jumping it with copper wire. On the ones I played with there were issues with the soldering of that resistor to the board, one light had pulsing issues another would not go above 4A with the resistor in place just badly flowed I think.

Removed it and jumpered the pads direct and I have had to use 26fs and thin wires to keep it around the 4.5A mark while I wait for a Noctigon and some other copper to beef up the heatsinking.

Yup dedomed it will be best VFM thrower out there

Hi xmint, yeah I have already removed the R200 resistor and there is just a drop of solder blob there, nothing else. It is a dedomed XM-L2 T6 now and it throws like mad, but as I said some issues is with the LED so I am going to change into better one.

Yeah you were saying you had a feeling about that before, it’s interesting to me that there’s a real measurable difference.

But then again I’m not surprised there’s a tradeoff in total output as a result of generating the extra red light that contributes towards the nicer tint.

Now the Courui has an alternative brand. What “fire” this time? It’s “”Kinfire”:http://dx.com/p/kinfire-kf-10-cree-xm-l2-900lm-3-mode-white-led-flashlight-torch-3-x-18650-291825#.UxH8v2KSypY “.

Since DX has already carried the original Courui brand big head flashlight I don’t know why do they need to carry another one just with different name, most importantly at a higher price.

It’s a bit more black! and and got a model number :8) surly worth more money for that alone :wink:

Actually is it not a bit smaller? My Courui is 75mm wide while the kf-10 claims 60mm same length though

The head looks thinner just based on the pics. Hmm.

I just bought one of these. Copper pill will be forthcoming (After the light gets here from China).

Am i able to link the led pos and neg output wires from the origional driver to one of these drivers to boost the amps ?

http://www.fasttech.com/products/0/10001535/1114500-17mm-2-mode-led-driver-circuit-board-for-flashligh

This isn't a build yet, but I did a quickie test of the LD-36 driver from LCK In the COURUI.

All all I wanted to do was see if it fit and worked. I just hooked it to the stock emitter and stuck it in. I had to replace the wires with longer ones for reach.

It seems to fit. It's slightly raised on one edge, I'm not sure if it's the little press fit protrusions that need to be sanded, or if it's sitting on a chip. I'll inspect it closer when I start the build.

Anyway, it's tight and flush enough as is. I wouldn't worry about leaving it this way. I wasn't getting ground connectivity with the body so I did fast fix.

I stuck a copper head pin through a connecting hole on the ground ring and curled it around the ledge where the battery tube abuts.

Anyway, it works. I tested it with leads hooked up to two cells in series. Momentary switch works fine. Three modes, I didn't try the ramping as my hands were full and I didn't read the instructions.

Now that it's been tested and proven, I guess I'll have to figure out how to convert the cells to series.

Sorry, I forgot the driver link.
LD-36 Driver

Does anyone know the rating of the switch in this torch? I want to mod it to use 2 drivers in parallel but is it ok to put the power of 3x18650 through this switch before the drivers?

the switch in the head is only electronic momentary switch -not for cutting power to the driver!
it can handle some mA only
ouchy drilled the tailcap and added a power switch there

Thanks for that. Thinking about it now is it simple to replace the r200 with a tiny copper wire?

it’s fairly simple :slight_smile: if you have a soldering iron of course…

Will have to try it tomorow, if it becomes around 4.5A i think thats a good balance, would be nice to keep that switch on it too