The Courui big head flashlight I received from KD comes with XM-L2, so as the other members I believe.
Nice looking light. the first thing i would do is remove that tail-end wire, and mod in a tailcap switch for a Lockout when off.
That’s why I posted what I did. That way no disappointed members.
I did read the entire thread, but my memory is not what it used to be.
Fortunately other parts work better.
'UCL'/'UCLp' is a trademark of flashlightlens.com, so pay no attention to what anyone from the overseas knock-off resellers say it is.
I plan to purchase two of these lenses myself as well for the two Big Head lights I have modded. From what Linus said about them, they do the trick despite the fact not being glass.
Down_South - there’s some more threads about this light, including Ouchyfoot’s series mod.
Some more info to chew on while you wait for them……
Thanks all.
If you’re curious here’s some of the emails I exchanged with Bella.
Please excuse the flowery language.
That is the culture of China but my Mandarin is not very good any more so I used English.
Price went to 36.99 + 1.25 shipping. I think she forgot to remove the shipping.
My original order did not include the shipping costs.
She also can’t add or more likely was very flustered as shown by her email below.
My final cost would be $27.30 per light, unknown driver, XML T6, acrylic AR lens.
For a host I would take them. For a light I want to do non aggressive mods there may be better choices.
Now I have to decide to take these OR get the one from Deal Extreme which only has a 1800ma driver (I’ve read it’s actually much higher, but don’t remember where) with a XL-M2 T6 (preferred) and glass lens. $36.68
http://www.dx.com/p/couru-l2-cree-xm-l2-t6-600lm-3-mode-white-flashlight-black-1-3-x-18650-279608#.U8bN6SgUM4U
OR the one from KD with no drive specs, but gotta be at least 1800ma, a XM-L2 U2 and coated glass lens. $38.33
http://www.kaidomain.com/product/details.S022823
If I can keep these stock except for springs, wiring, tail cap mod, centering ring, cleanup, AS thermal, driver, if needed (I want 4-5A), basically everything except changing the LED, heatsink and the series mod I’d be happier.
My soldering station got stolen in my last robbery and I don’t feel like buying another even IF I could find one here. A cheap soldering pencil will do the other work.
All opinions appreciated, especially from the experts . . . . . hmm, that’s all who have responded so far.
Thanks all. Never knew this could be so complex.
Rich S.
emails below cut and pasted and appear with newest at top.
2014-07-16 00:39:27
Hello Bella,
Jīntiān nǐ yǒu fàn? 今天你有饭?
Hurry and change your price.
I told some people about the light and they may be buying it.
It sounds like an honest mistake to me.
I lived in Shenzhen in 2007, near the north HK gate, and know how hard you have to work to earn money.
Much competition. Thank you for your kind offer to correct the mistake and I will probably accept it.
But your figures are wrong. You must have been in a hurry.
145+50=195(not 190)*1.1=214.5 RMB or 34.60 USD.
19.99 OR 21.24 if postage was charged to my credit card.
If postage was NOT charged to my credit card you need to fix your system.
I will have to check if the postage was charged or not and email you tomorrow.
I believe I will have to send you more than $13.
Postage charged 34.60-21.24=13.36 postage not charged 34.60-19.99=14.61.
For now I am going to sleep sweet dreams.
Do not worry . . . . . . all will be well.
Rich
Life Easy
2014-07-15 23:11:37
Dear Richard ,
Nice day!
Many thanks for your kindly reply.
As a small seller, we really need to pay more attention to avoid this situation.
Sincerely sorry to let bear of the news.
I edit the wrong price, As the cost of flashlight is RMB 145 instead of RMB 45.
The net weight of the flashlight is 500g. To Mexico the postage of item is RMB 10 per 100g.
SO the postage of each flashlight is 50RMB.
The commission charging of aliexpress is 10%… the exchange rate between RMB and us dollar is 1:6.2
So the total cost of the flashlight is: (145+50)+(145+50)*0.1= 190+19= 209/6.2=USD 33
Sincerely sorry for my stupid mistake. Please accepte my sincerely apology.
In order to show my sorry, I’d like to bear the half for you.
As you have pay for them price at USD 20 each one.
So I’d like to bear 33-20=13/2= USD 6.5
So each flashlight price at USD 26.5.
dear Richard, as a small seller, we will pay more attention to avoid this kind of mistake…
If you think the you still need them, hope we can get your forgive and send us more USD 13 for two piece of flashlights.
If you don’t need it at this price, I can understand you, after all , it’s my fault.
I can help you to cancel this order.
Please advice me…
Any other inquiry, please don’t be hesitate to contact me.
Sincerely sorry for any inconvenience cause by it.
Best regards
Bella
Rich S.
2014-07-15 11:07:02
Hello Bella,
Good day to you,
Thank you for correcting the shipping address.
UCL® is a trademark owned by a lens company and below is their site showing their acrylic lenses.
UCL® glass lenses transmit 99% of light.
UCL® Acrylic (resin) lenses transmit 97% and can melt with very hi power bulbs.
With the LED used in this flashlight a resin lens should work well.
I’m old fashioned sometimes. I prefer glass. But that is just my preference. I know resin works well.
No screen protectors wanted, but I thank you for the offer.
You are doing enough checking the flashlights.
I think I will be happy with these flashlights and am looking forward to receiving them.
Rich S.
Life Easy
2014-07-15 01:54:01
Dear Richard ,
Nice day!
Many thanks for your kindly purchasing and message.
I have advise your shipping address. please don’t worry it anymore.
I understand your worry about the returning.
As a realiable seller, we usually check every items before send them out. please give us more trust…
About the UCL Lenses, I think you have a misunderstand with it.
UCL means Ultra clear lens, it usually made by resin instead of glass.
It is a new material for lenses.
Actually, Lenses made by UCL is more lighter than glass, and it is not easy be crashed.
As the impact resistance of UCL lenses is better.
The transmission of light of UCL is equally to glass lenses.
We can send two pcs of 7 inches screen protectors to you. if you need.
Any other inquiry, please don’t be hesitate to contact me.
I’m of your good service all the time.
Have a great year!
best regards
Bella
New comer to the courui party here… just ordered from gearbest for $32 with tracking…
how about a copper pill from VOB?
I have not bought a flashlight in over a year but this one tempting me. I have 2 questions
Can you do something to the driver to get medium mode?
What it like holding the thing compared to the Skyray King?
Whitewall hunting, if the led is as far into the reflector, you will get a really small tight hotspot and nice whitewall flood around the light. It won’t have any artifacts BUT this was the kicker in the pants. It has less throw than pulling the led back into the reflector a little. Getting it just right takes a lot of time found (as you all probably know :laughing:.
The best throw imo is around the size of your HD2010 hotspot. You lose some of the light if you shrink the hotspot too far, centering is not as critical with the led deep into the reflector too- makes it easy if you just want to bust out a light.
I have not bought a flashlight in over a year
What a record!
Yes it comes with Hi-Med-Strobe… Wait a minute, how do you define medium mode here? To me it is considered as medium mode because the brightness is like 30% or 50% of the maximum, which is still pretty bright to me.
Ok another small update, just replaced the original tall centering ring with a nice flat one and as expected this has made the world of difference to the hotspot and beam profile.
The centering ring I used is one of those white plastic ones with the wings on both sides and not much more than a slightly raised section around the emitter square. It won’t work if the emitter is not already pretty much in the center and can take a bit of coaxing to lock the reflector down right in the center, but this is the type I’ve had the best luck with centering HD2010 reflectors and it’s worked superbly again here.
The emitter is now sitting almost completely flush with the flat shelf of the reflector and it’s now pretty much perfectly focused. The spot is really nice, even and tight with fairly sharp defined edges. I’m sure that’s the perfectly smooth finish of this reflector that’s providing the definition.
It’s much more defined in fact than a nicely focused HD2010 and the spot is about 20% smaller.
So yes this light will out throw a HD2010 if given the right treatmentHere is a direct side by side comparison between my best HD2010 running at over 5A on copper and the Big Head running at the measured tailcap current of 2.6A. I think I need to measure emitter current because this thing is keeping up with and maybe already surpassing the HD2010 in perceived lux!
Distance to wall is 2.5m, Bighead on left and HD2010 on right.Such a shame it didn’t come like this, would be so much easier to recommend if the beam profile was nice right out of the box…
LH, did you have to screw the pill up after replacing the centring ring?
I sanded the ring down, but the head locks down before the emitter goes up into the reflector.
If I wind the pill up, it feels a bit loose as well.
Anyway, I think I may have blown that R200 thingy - there’s no writing on it now. I’d dedomed the emitter and it was awesome.
Then sanded the ring, was OK but then the intensity of the emitter went way down - nowhere near as bright.
I’m guessing I’ve shorted it when playing around with the centring ring.
Any other thoughts would be appreciated.
Edit: Have been reading back through posts - looks like flipping the pill is the way to go and I need a R100 resister thingy (no idea about this stuff but will have a crack based on posts).
It’s so easy to short the reflector on these things if you start reducing the spacer/centering ring thickness. If you’ve only burnt the resistor, that’s good - hopefully you have not fried one of the two small FETs.
LinusHofmann, Could you let me know where you bought the centring rings you described as used for your HD2010 please.
Generally:
As I think I have fried the R200 resister, I’m going to try a piece of copper wire to bridge as mentioned in this thread.
Was also thinking (I’m talking out my A* here,), instead of inverting the Al pill, would a piece of copper (maybe 2mm or so) press fit onto the shelf under the Al pill achieve any better heat sinking, thereby lifting the emitter up into the reflector AND giving better heat flow? I have no idea, so would enjoy feedback from those more knowledgeable.
Yes, the Noctigon is thinner than those aluminium board, so when you change it into Noctigon in your Courui the LED doesn’t have sufficient height to make it sitting inside the reflector. You need to reflow a copper piece on your Noctigon to make it thicker, or unscrew the LED shelf by a few turns. Flipping the LED shelf to the other side still doesn’t help much.
I blew my R200 the same way - I didn’t remove it though, just soldered a very small wire to each end of it and it worked fine.
Luckily a nice forum member gave me a whole new board.
I also pm’d Gearbest from here, asking about a new driver board (and how it may be a good idea to stock some) apparently they contacted the factory and they are sending some through as spares to be sold on the site. I was told as soon as they arrived I would be notified, but I haven’t heard anything yet
I blew my R200 the same way - I didn’t remove it though, just soldered a very small wire to each end of it and it worked fine.
Luckily a nice forum member gave me a whole new board.
I also pm’d Gearbest from here, asking about a new driver board (and how it may be a good idea to stock some) apparently they contacted the factory and they are sending some through as spares to be sold on the site. I was told as soon as they arrived I would be notified, but I haven’t heard anything yet
When you say small wire, G0OSE, do you mean thin. I’m trying to wrap my head around what is probably electronics 101 to many of you.
The Resistor that is there - R200 - is holding voltage/current (?) back. Is that correct?
So the width of the wire join (thinner or thicker) would vary the voltage/current going across. Is that correct?
And yet some peeps in this thread have removed it and soldered across, which would be a large path. All this confuses me. I maybe over thinking. :weary:
Cheers
Stated to mod my Courui.
Got the springs and tail cap done no problem. Brighter.
Decided to file/sand the centering ring. Worked fine.
The reason I sanded the centering ring was to improve the beam pattern right?
That means I need to move the pill up since the centering ring was shorter in height.
Oops, forgot the kapton tape. Where’s those smart pills when you need them?
Now have 2.6V hi, 2.1V low at the LED.
Check LED wires. Good continuity. - not connected to pill obviously
Short the LED negative to the pill with light off or on and behold! Full brightness.
Batteries @ 4.05 volts. Blown driver? Any ideas on repair or is it time for a new driver and if so what?.
Stated to mod my Courui.
Got the springs and tail cap done no problem. Brighter.Decided to file/sand the centering ring. Worked fine.
The reason I sanded the centering ring was to improve the beam pattern right?
That means I need to move the pill up since the centering ring was shorter in height.Oops, forgot the kapton tape. Where’s those smart pills when you need them?
Now have 2.6V hi, 2.1V low at the LED.
Check LED wires. Good continuity. - not connected to pill obviously
Short the LED negative to the pill with light off or on and behold! Full brightness.Batteries @ 4.05 volts. Blown driver? Any ideas on repair or is it time for a new driver and if so what?.
My guess is that one of the little FET’s has been damaged.
With the centering ring, it’s usually the top part that obscures the LED that needs to be reduced, which won’t make a difference to the installed height. Maybe you got an overly thick one?
Might be time to get your hands on one of the BLF FET drivers & a Noctigon
- edit -
I think some people also reported damaging the R200 resistor. You could try bridging that to see if you regain full output.
Ok guys, so just when I thought I’d leave this light aside for a while another package arrived and I had to get stuck in again. Only a small mod this time but it’s probably put the biggest smile on my face so far.
I decided to take a little gamble a while back before I had the light and ordered a 73mm lens from flashlightlens.com thinking if I was lucky it might just fit this light.
This is a multicoated Acrylic (yuck plastic! :P) lens but the specs are pretty damn convincing so I thought I’d give it a go.
I couldn’t find any other glass AR lenses of the right size and was pretty keen to try this type of material and give the coating a closer look. I mean I’ve been wearing AR coated acrylic glasses for years and the coating can take a beating, so how bad can it be.So anyway I got this lens today and replaced the stock uncoated glass one tonight, thankfully it’s a perfect fit. Being Acrylic a bit of sanding down wouldn’t have been out of the question but it fitted right in…and…all I can say is WOW! This is a very impressive piece of kit, the coating is incredibly anti reflective totally on par with the coating on some very high quality acrylic lenses in my eyeglasses.
Comparing side by side with my other AR coated glass flashlight lenses, one from cnqualitygoods and another in the BTU shocker (different coatings with BTU lens being superior) this acrylic lens puts both to shame. It’s also quite stunning with it’s reddish sheen.
Here cnqualitygoods AR lens in HD2010 (Top) and Bighead Acrylic below. I may have overexposed just a tad but it should be obvious that the Acrylic lens reflects much less of the filament bulbs intensity, the difference is even more apparent in person.
The HD2010 lens isn’t the best AR coating I’ve see but it still puts an uncoated glass lens in it’s place.
The Acrylic lens is really spectacular in this regard, most dimmer light sources just don’t register in the lens at all so it gives a spectacularly unhindered view into the reflector.With the light on there are clear positives but also one negative point to report.
The biggest benefit I noticed right away with this lens is far less prominent beam artifacts due to internal reflections. The main one that plagued this light is a fairly noticeable ring artefact around the central hotspot just past the fringes of the corona. I figured this might be due to rogue photons bouncing off the uncoated glass lens and that seemed to be the case since the AR coating on this new lens has almost completely removed it. And what little there is left is much softer and really dim so it’s hard to spot now, BIG improvement.There is also less light spilling out of the sides of the beam close to the reflector, this used to be quite obvious in a bright ring projected at around 120degress all around and now it’s very faint and tinted slightly red.
Note the reddish sidespill compared with the very blue sidespill of the cnqualitygoods lens. Both look pretty cool and distinctive and on the bighead that ring is massively dimmer than it was before.On the downside.
Looking at the light when it’s on, the lens is very slightly more “milky” than a perfectly clean glass lens. This is probably just the material itself absorbing and scattering a small amount of the light as it passes through but it’s really no worse than the general standard of “clean” glass lenses we tend to get. Even if there is a tiny bit of oil or impurities on or in the glass it starts looking very similar.It’s just a shame because this is the only thing not truly spectacular about the lens and it would be amazing if it was as clear when on as it is when off…but it seems there’s always a tradeoff.
In any case going by the specs for this lens material and the 97% transmission figure I’d be happy to say that the light being lost through internal reflections on the stock lens is probably far more significant than what is being swallowed up by this one because of it’s material composition. That combined with the much cleaner beam profile and just damn gorgeous appearance I’m giving this lens a full thumbs up!
I’ll just file this under flashlight porn shall I?A bit of an unknown is how durable this coating will be, it’s certainly more prone to “blueing” when touched with anything oily (similar to a photographic lens coating) and is probably less hard wearing than an equivalent glass coating but this remains to be seen. I’ll treat it with a bit more care than I normally would but hopefully it holds up well in general use.
If someone finds a quality glass AR lens for this light then that may still be the better option, but overall I’m really pleased with this upgrade to my light.
Its been awhile since you recommended this lens. How’s the long-term durability been? Would you still recommend it?