I've forgotten...what is good for a P-60 drop-in?

Flashlight Modding and DIY Parts
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I’ve been doing all kinds of lights for a while now, from mini C8’s to SupFire M6’s, but I’ve gotten away from P-60 drop in style lights.

I just put one together in a copper shell, with a Dr. Jones Lucidrv and a de-domed XM-L2 and I’m seeing 893.55 OTF at start-up, with 852.15 OTF @ 30 sec. I don’t remember if this is good or mediocre! I’ve got 4 chips stacked on the 105c style driver and am seeing 4.49A at the tail with a Samsung 20R in a L2P.

Thoughts anyone? It’s got a surprisingly tight hot spot in spite of the sort of low 18kcd my meter shows. Shining it around out in the snow it seems to do a very good job. Been a while since I’ve worked on a P-60.

Really appreciate your help, thanks for chiming in…

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Pics or it didn’t happen.

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At 4.49A and de-domed, that is a mighty fine effort there for both OTF and throw figures.

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Too late for pics, everyone is asleep or going to sleep and the wife is trying to drive home in the snow. We’ve got ice on the ground, sleet on top of the ice, snow on top of the sleet and it’s 23º with a wind chill of 8º. Supposed to be 71º by Sunday, lol.

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–20s up here. About 30-40 degrees colder than normal temps. I tried taking beamshots last night… Really dumb. I could barely operate the camera after 3-4 pics.

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Scott, it happened all right! :stuck_out_tongue:

No, I didn’t go all the way out for the 97 yd shot of the red drum, it’s NASTY out there!

That first shot at the red drum is about 65 yds. The zoomed in shot didn’t turn out, snow messed up focus.

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So, are the numbers so low because I de-domed it? Significant loss it looks like. Should be up around 1300 lumens I was thinking, but I guess it is what it is.

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Hi DBCstm,
I also am having trouble understanding why these LEDs are not reaching what their specs say… I mean, an xml2 driven at 4 amps should be way over 1000 lumens, although I have heard from others dedoming could lose about 200 lumens or so….

I have just built up RACEr86’s zyt11 mod idea, and was quite disappointed that it was not near as bright as my standard convoy c8 from fasttech. (2.8A 700 lumens). My zyt11 has an xml2, receiving just over 3A at the emitter…The Dr Jones driver is awesome, and I really like the light, it’s just that I assumed it would be at least close to 1000 lumens….
Anyway, from the pics, your light looks great!
Cheers
Anton

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I think de-doming takes a toll, even if it does make for a tighter beam profile. Sure messes with the color!

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Yeah. Everyone seems to like it these days, but I am definitely not sold on de-doming.

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Well, it has it’s place, I took my new MAXToch SN6X-2X from a stock 96Kcd to 330Kcd in part by de-doming an XM-L2 U2 1A emitter. :slight_smile: Furthest throwing light I have, stunning in it’s reach and power.

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Do you have any pics of the drop in “copper shell”? I’m really curious of how it’s designed.

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Dr. D, I don’t at the moment but am about to set up the equipment to take pics of my new copper M8 pill from Bucket, so I’ll try and get some pics of this too.

It’s not at all like standard P-60 drop ins. I’ll give you that! Designed by MattAus, it’s professionally silver plated to hold down tarnish and is truly a beautiful piece of work in it’s own right. Somebody needs to invent clear aluminum so we don’t have to waste the precious beauty going inside some of these lights!

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Correct me if I am wrong but I do not believe that a p-60 type drop-in is going to be able to duplicate the same numbers you get out of a light with a bigger head and screw in pill. I would say your numbers are pretty awesome for a de-domed XM-L2 in a p-60.

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Nice… I’ve been working on a budget performance drop in myself. I am taking a regular empty drop in, like the ones you get from china for a couple bucks, with the brass pill, and screw on aluminum reflector & contact spring, and do everything I can think of, to make it perform as well as it can possibly perform. Including, replacing the large contact spring with a copper coller which will be completely soldered around the bottom half of the pill, sized to match the outer diameter of the reflector, so when it’s complete, the entire reflector flat and copper collar can be wrapped in a single wide strip of super heavy gauge industrial aluminum foil, and squeezed tight into the bore of my L2P. The drop-in bore of the L2P has already been refinished perfectly smooth, down to 1200 grit, to get rid of the machining ridges, which would have reduced contact area. The bottom copper collar on the pill, will enable the drop in to be held down tight in contact with the drop in shelf with no spring used, giving even more thermal and electrical contact. A noctigon copper MCPCB will be soldered directly on the top of the brass pill, to have yet better thermal conductivity than any thermal compound can give.

I’m going to try and drive an XM-L2 U2 with a Qlite with 2 extra chips on the back, then I’m going to push it to 3 chips, then 4 chips, and if it can handle that, I will be happy.

Very much looking forward to seeing the pictures of the drop in!

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Yea I also believe those heatsinks use a 20mm reflector which could effect throw when compared to a larger typical reflector. Either way that drop in must be a beast at those currents.

How does the dedomed emitter throw compared to your other lights? 18K does seem a bit low, I’ve been considering doing a dedomed xp-g2 build in a p60 to see if it throws much better than domed LEDs.

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I think it throws like a larger light, haven’t had much of a chance to really look at the beam profile, with snow blowing sideways and all that…

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I haven’t dedomed but I sliced a dome flat down to the phosphor and it lost a lot of lumens. I guess removing it completely won’t help as I hoped.

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I’ve found that slicing it does indeed cost some lumens, but preserves the tint. Taking it all the way off costs you nearly 2000K in tint temperature. (give or take)

Be careful slicing too close! Don’t want to get those tiny bond wires!