Aha thanks, those i know about (don’t have them yet though), it just looked so different when sanded down 
You could drop in a XP-G2 S4 2B, that one is many flux bins higher (I think it goes R5-S2-S3-S4 in flux bins, so 4), it should give a substantial improvement in throw. IOS & MTN has them 
Updated OP with some beam shots.
Please excuse my pos camera….
very creative. What is the best place to buy a courui big head? I want to do this mod. The only difference is using a slightly taller hood that should give me some more clearance. Something like this- 82mm Tele Metal Screw-in Lens Hood for DSLR Cameras | eBay it is 36mm tall, the stock one is 25mm tall. It has more than enough height to accommodate an o-ring + a proper lens or another. If it is too high, I can place some copper washers under the emitter star.
thats really cool…
i like that reflector…i cant wait till i get a little better at scratch building stuff, lol…
everything i make now? has too much duct tape and plastic PVC pipe and fittings, lol…
Love it man, the light looks great!
Nice neat finish FMC. Great work.
we need beamshots from a further distance. Could you take some photos of the KD vs stock reflector from 200m or so? Thanks!
is a way to do similar project ,if you dont have the tools to remove material from the reflector ?
Awesome mod!!! 
How did you protect the reflective surface when you were removing material from the edge? Did the KD reflector came protected with plastic as in the photo? What did you use to hold down the centering MPCB to not fall into the reflector?
Thanks!
I’m sure there’s other sizes of adapters available that would do the trick.
I’ve already ordered a set of these for other projects.
The reflector had a protected film over the opening, which I managed to keep on there through the machining process. I cut it carefully with an exacto knife around the tip of the lip, so it didn’t get jagged on the cutter.
The centering ring is held on by a couple of dabs of super glue.
As for longer beam shots, I’ll see what I can do during the week.
Thanks
Great build. Gotta love those photographic components.
I got around to taking some long-distance shots this evening. Sorry, but no comparison shots with the stock reflector.
There's a concrete pump tower up the road from where I work, which is visible by day. Google Earth tells me it's about 375 meters from the back of my workshop, where I took the pictures;
Day / Night pictures for reference;
It wasn't quite dark when I took the pictures, & also there's a lot of light pollution in the area...
Here's a mouse-over of the night shot to the pump tower with the KD reflector Courui;
~1/4 mile? No problem...
Prior to this, we were lighting up some of the near-by Gum trees, that were full of Crows settling in for the night. They hated it, & left the tree en mass, each time the beam hit them.
We had literally hundreds of Crows flying around, & dodging the beam mid-flight.
'The Boys' at work were suitably impressed :)
:beer: :beer:
Good shot
Long beam shots are always interesting.
impressive!
what emitter would be a better choice in this reflector? An overdriven dedomed xm-l2 or xp-g2?
XML\XPL will give you a larger beam & more lumens, possibly at the expense of a little throw.
I'm yet to try an XML in this setup.
I did some calculations and according to my approximate results the “surface brightness”( I dont know if that is the right terms) of a xm-l2 driven at 6 amps is virtually the same as the surface brightness of a xp-g2 driven at 5 amps and even higher if you push the xm-l2 to 7amps. But these are just my assumptions based on graphs and readings made by other members Crash-testing a XM-L2 and a XP-G2 on copper Sinkpads
Could you please measure the current to the xm-l2 and throw readings of the next setup and take a beamshot for comparison??? Thanks!
Is there any driver capable of delivering 7amps to xm-l2 emitters? Does anyone actually push them so hard???
Sorry for a little off-topic, I dont want to hijack your thread, we can discuss it in my thread and keep yours clear! my thrower project- work in progress
No problem, we’re all about OT here…
I’d like to build up another one with XML/XPL, but that may be a little while off.
The problem you are going to find, as I alluded to in your other thread, is finding an XML/XPL that will cope with those current levels.
There’s plenty of drivers that will do it, but you are going to have to mod the D01 for a serial setup, which is a fair bit more work as well.
You don’t need a XM-L2 that can take hi current like the old ones. the new XM-L2 U4 is much more efficient, so even with the lower current use it will still out throw the lower flux bins that can take more amps.
I built a UF-1504 with the XM-L2 U4 1C dedomed, that i run fully DD without any driver at all. and it is much stronger (almost 1/3 :laughing: than my 1504 with a XP-L V6 1A that takes more amp & get much hotter but is weaker than the new U4
And johny723, check out n10sivern’s test of the newest high flux bin emitters in the 1504 to see there potential
As you can see the XP-G2 S4 2B is even stronger, but with a smaller spot & less lumens.
Yep, it would be good to see some graphs/back to back tests done on these new U4’s / S4’s, compared to the earlier emitters.
I have another big KD reflector in-bound, & am thinking of putting it in different host, with a buck driver setup…