CREE Q5 300LM LED 3 Mode Zoomable Headlight - Mod to XM-L2 NW Mule

Well last night I finished my last touches on this headlamp. I spread some JB Weld in the zoom area and clamped the light with the head zoomed all the way back. Now it's nice and solid. I bet I also widened the flood by a few more feet (guessing about 23' wide at 12' back now).

-Garry

I just noticed that this headlamp kind of looks like it's meant to be a clone of the Spark ST6:

There are some obvious differences, but even the headband looks identical!

-Garry

My recreation of the above shot of the Spark with my light (I told you I scuffed up the bezel):

-Garry

I’ve ordered one of these lights and plan to do Garrybunk’s mod on it. :slight_smile:

Been thinking of getting a headlight for awhile and the price is right on this one.

Currently, when I want extra light for close up work I use my Olight S10 in my mouth. A headlight would produce less drool. :wink:

I got this headlamp yesterday. My first headlamp and I wanted to try the mod in the original post! :slight_smile:

First thing I did was replace the driver with a spare 3-mode Nanjg 105c (no strobe modes) I had laying around. My goal was to make a light to use for modding and detailwork up close…. so I can stop using my Olight S10 in my mouth. Since this is meant for up close work, I didn’t need a high-powered light. I removed 4 of the 7135 chips so the final light is around 1.5 amps. I also didn’t bother with upgrading the wiring or springs, though I did use a direct copper star as I had plenty on hand. For the emitter I used an 80 CRI 4000K XML2.

I tried to get the lens out but it seems completely stuck. Pressing it out from the top got nowhere… that sucker aint moving at all! :Sp This leaves me with a few options:

1. Attempt to “press” the existing lens out with a chisel and hammer. Risky as doing so will destroy the lens… but still might not dislodge it.
2. Drill out the edge of the inside of the lens with a power drill making multiple holes along the edge until the hole thing falls out.
3. Leave the current lens as-is.
4. Keep the stock lens but saw off the back of the bezel that holds the lens. This will allow the lens to sit further back giving a wider flood. It will make spot mode less focused, but it wasn’t really focused to begin with after I did the emitter swap. And since this light is meant for up-close work, the focus feature isn’t needed anyways.

Hmm . . . you must have more glue on your lens (or is a tighter press fit), as mine came right out with just slight pressure. What about placing a cloth over the lens and giving it a tap with a hammer?

-Garry

Update: This is now one of my most used lights. I use it all the time, especially as it's now starting to get darker outside earlier. Great for up close hands free work! Everyone should have a floody neutral white headlamp.

-Garry

thanks for the update Garry.

I am still in the process of finding the ideal headlamp. For me it will be a single AA/14500 size one because I find 18650 headlamps just a bit too bulky. But I think a zoomie is what I want, and there are not many AA zoomies around.

Hi Garry.
(sorry for my english, I’m not native)
Do you think is possible to use a AMC7135*6 (NANGJ 105C) driver? What about temperature with your mod?
I want it to be use as headlight for bicycle.
Thanks

Hi Altex, welcome to BLF! I think the 105c should work, but you may have to mess with the center spring in the body where it will make contact with the 105c's center "+" contact (with 105c's spring removed).

Are you looking to use this as a helmet mounted light? This one is found on Ebay and might be a better option since it has a handlebar mount, but I don't know any details on it (i.e. heatsinking, driver size, etc. . .).

-Garry

Hi again Garry, thanks for the link and for the welcome. Yes, I want it to be used on helmet but that one from ebay I think is too heavy for that (it weights 280 gr without battery)

Great mod Garry! I might have to copy that lens mod of yours and see how I like it.

Thanks RaceR! You saw the details in post #18, right?

-Garry

ehm.. Yes? I did now. :)

wow…nice mod, and quite a nice headlight!

That JB Weld holding the zoom piece allows for better thermal flow, does it get warm at all at 1400mA?

I never notice it getting warm at all really.

-Garry

At 1.5 amps, mine gets warm, but not hot. You can’t feel the warmth when wearing the light as the rubber strap insulates the light from the head.

There is sufficient heat-sinking to run this light at 1.5 amps for the entire charge of the battery.

I really like mine. Put in a Nichia.

You said

Yeah, broke mine right off the little thing it was just stuck to with solder (maybe a cold solder join, not sure)
I did some tweaking on the spring to make it have a bit more actual physical contact and it’s fine after resoldering.

I did put a little sleeve around the spring so if it breaks again it won’t immediately short out to the metal around it, as it just pokes up through a hole and could easily do that if it bent a bit or fell over sideways — which would be bad.

Still use mine frequently (just used it two nights ago in fact working outside after sunset). Probably still my most used light apart from my EDC.

-Garry

Update: Still going strong! I’m considering modding something newer to replace this one, something that accepts TIR optics like [this budget Boruit headlamp](https://www.ebay.com/itm/2018-BORUiT-10000Lm-XM-L2-LED-Headlamp-Cycling-Helmlamp-Handfree-Running-Torch/262908200945?epid=697282253&hash=item3d368cc7f1:g:2vAAAOSw~epZh8~y(for).

-Garry