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

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 :frowning:

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?.

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 :slight_smile:

- edit -

I think some people also reported damaging the R200 resistor. You could try bridging that to see if you regain full output.

Its been awhile since you recommended this lens. How’s the long-term durability been? Would you still recommend it?

Still going strong and I’d definitely still recommend it.
I don’t subject the light to particularly rough treatment but the coating has held up well over a year’s worth of cleaning and general use.
The coating will shift from the obvious purple sheen to a more general blue tone after coming into contact with grease for the first time, but I wouldn’t worry about that since it doesn’t seem to affect it’s functionality.

Cheers
Linus

That’s good to hear. I have this light on its way so I’m planning out the mods I’m going to do. Thanks to all you and others who have modded this light it’ll make my job a lot easier. Thanks for sharing what you’ve learned.

Has anyone done aspherical lens mod with this light yet?



I have not taken the time to build one yet, but I did look into it some.

I have used these lenses in the past with good results.

http://www.dx.com/p/66mm-24mm-2-90-degree-99-transmittance-glass-optic-13618#.VfbzLZcpWqg

If you made a collar to fit around this lens it will fit in the head.

If you have a way to bore a couple of mm from the inside of the head or the outside of the glass I think this one will also fit. I have made lights that do over 700K with this lens before.

http://www.kaidomain.com/product/details.S022169


You would also need to counter sink the LED into the neck of the light to use the 71mm lens because the focal length is 47mm

I cant remember what the focal length for the 66mm so you might have to CS the LED for that one too.

Hi, maybe i miss something but why using 66mm lens since the head is definitely big enough to accommodate 70mm+ lens?

That 71mm lens looks promising, but yeah it is kinda a pain to focus an aspherical lens in a fixed head position light. I have not owned any light that can produce 700kcd yet!

Doing a quality aspherical mod in this light would be hard. To get 700+kcd you need an XPG2 driven to about 4.5A de-domed with a wavien collar implemented. 18650s in par dont provide enough voltage so either an S conversion or going to 18350s would be needed.

I would think an XML2 U4 de-dome with the 71mm lens would probly get you some big numbers on the front end of the battery charge if the wavien was used. Probly over 500k.


I mentioned those 2 lenses because I have used them :)

Thanks for the teardown.
Now I know what to do to my incoming Courui.

Noob here. I am buying this courui d01 light for modding. Would it be possible to use blf fet driver with this light because it uses electronic switch? Or would it be smarter just to add r100 resistor on original board. With spring bypasses ofc. And if its possible to use blf frt driver how to connect it with the switch? How much amps would the original led survive? Sorry for the question flood…

I’m buy it from Gearbest. It’s have Rs=(r010)
I burned transistors 3400. So I pulled the driver out of the housing.
It has a second channel, without second coil.
I took from there the transistor and resistor (Rs parallel to the first resistor).

Now 3.5A@3.7-4.1V

My D01 is getting modded after I finish up a few other lights. My plan is:

Fet driver e-switch with custom modes

XPL HI, or dedomed XPG2 on a maxtoch mcpcb (with the wide, flat reflector bottom this will be a bit of a task)

Bypass springs and traces.

The original led should be fine with a FET driver as long as it is reflowed onto a copper DTP mcpcb.

There's a ton of mod threads with tons of pictures if you need guidance (I know I sure do) :)

Courui D01 + XHP50 (6V, 3.3A)