I bought recently a Seraph SP-9 host, that can take 2x 18500 batteries or 3 CR123's,(16340?) as stated in their site.
I have only one P60 light at home, UltraFire WF-502B Cree XPE-WCR5, that gives an excelent flood light, and the drop-in does fit the Seraph, but I would like to try something different. I have read that the P60 hosts aren't that much of throwers, but I was wondering if a XPG R5, would be an upgrade in throw to this light. Or the multi recomended R2. I want a 3 or 3+ mode drop-in.
Regarding the XPG R5, I only found at DX this one: http://www.dealextreme.com/details.dx/sku.32954
The R2(XPE?): http://www.dealextreme.com/details.dx/sku.14442, http://www.dealextreme.com/details.dx/sku.13658
Can't seem to make my mind on wich one to buy...or where to....
Resuming: P60 host, 2x18500 li-ion, 5 mode driver, OP prefers throw to flood.
The DX R5 has a reputation for premature failure. Mine haven't though. It looks dark enough to do some comparisons outside.
Neither of the R2 dropins meet your criteria as they are 4.2V max but are indicative of the breed. Firstly we have the Solarforce single mode low voltage dropin which normally lives in an L2r - running on a pair of LSD NiMH.
The tree is 17 metres, 51 feet away, the top of the tree is around 70 feet away - the phone cable you can see in it is more than 5m above ground.
Tree top
DX R2 - the one that came with the Ultrafire WF-504B in silver. I think it is the only P60 light I have that still has its original dropin in it.
Tree top
Solarforce R5 - this is running on 2 18650s for runtime and usually lives in my work bag. Again it doesn't really meet your criteria as it is a single mode device. I can't live with forward clickies and multimode dropins so this suits me well enough. This is in an L2m with an extension tube and a Solarforce forward clicky switch.
Tree top
And finally, the only dropin I have that actually meets your criteria. 4-18V five mode, this is the DX one you linked to.
Tree top
I hope that's of some use. At least it should be indicative of the differences between R2 and R5 dropins. You can see that the R5s have larger hotspots.
Which probably means the Solarforce has a better driver in it.
Even with a side-by-side comparison a 10% difference is quite likely not to be noticeable. You would notice a >20% difference though so it probably shows that Solarforce use a better driver which given the relative prices should be no surprise.
Looks normal, the regulator in the Solarforce XP-G drop in (some later single mode R2's) is an AX2002 set to either 1A or 1.2A (don't remember which) output and it should be able to achieve that from 0.5A @ 8.4V since it is a fairly efficient regulator. This one is actually the same regulator used in the single mode version of the drop in.
