Looking to mod a multi-emitter light

I’m looking to set my sights on a new project; a mutli-emitter light. I converted my BLF EE X6 to a triple, but I’m wanting something with a bigger head and deeper reflectors so it has a little better “throw” compared to the X6. We all know that multi-emitter lights aren’t designed for throw, so I mean this as a purely relative word in the multi-emitter arena. I’d like to find one that I can mod with independent Noctigon mcpcb’s, or one huge mcpcb with multiple emitters, and a FET driver.

I was looking at this one, since it is on sale TrustFire CREE XM-L but I’ve heard that TrustFire isn’t exactly a quality brand.

Overall, I’d like to keep the cost of the light pretty low ($20-30) since I’m just going to replace the driver and emitters anyways.
What do you guys recommend?

I’m not sure that light has a big enough reflector setup to be massively superior to your X6 triple. I’d look for something with a 75mm head diameter, or larger.

Do you recommend one in particular?

While I can’t promise there isn’t a better or cheaper choice, the Solarstorm SP03 would be one to consider. The downside is the cost, it’s about 2-3 what you were hoping to spend.

I’m not a multi-emitter light guy very often, someone like 18sixfifty has a lot more experience with them. It’d be worth soliciting his opinion, he probably has some good recommendations.

Got your PM and answered it. Feel free to hit me up with as many questions as you would like. I’m always glad to help.

The price range is a big time limitation for multi-emitters. TMART had a deal on the BeamTech-BT-4000 a while back, I paid $22. It's a HD2010 with a triple and weird P60 style pill setup. I modded it up anyway and it came out pretty nice! Decent throw for a single cell triple. With U3 2C's on 16mm Noctigon's, does about 4,000 lumens and 58 kcd.

Just for ref, my modded SupFire M6 does about 5,000 lumens and 69 kcd. It has a FET driver, using SAM 25R BT's, U3 2A's on 20mm Noctigon's, UCLp lens, bypass's, etc. My quad X6 @9.8A tail does about 4,000 lumens and 6 kcd.

FWIW, I bought that very Tmart triple for grins. I don’t expect much out of it, but it’s something to try to make a little better if I can. Price wasn’t a piggybank-breaker.

But if you want something to mod to get massive improvements with, that light ain’t it. A SRK clone can be had for close to $30-ish and mods are pretty well documented here. If you could possibly stretch your budget a bit, the Supfire M6 is a darn good flashlight. mtnelectronics.com has ’em for $40, and all the mod supplies to boot.

The other lights are also excellent suggestions.

+1 Keith. A soup can light may be the best way to go - you can use any # of popular FET drivers with the cells and LED's in parallel, and you can cheap to moderate. The TrustFire in the OP is a triple with 2 cells, so it's an odd combo for potential zener mod or straight FET drivers and Richard's buck drivers won't work well either because even if you do the LED's in parallel, amps will be limited. Unless you have a specific driver in mind.