Modded XM-L Balder SE-1

LED Flashlights – General Info 1 x AA / 1 x 14500 Flashlights
1

My XM-L Balder SE-1 died a quiet death, really more of a fizzle.

Never one to pass up an opportunity to take something apart, the wee Balder yielded many surprises.

  • The first is one of construction. The entire light screws onto the pill, so take good care of those threads.
  • The naked pill, sans driver or LED, weighs in at a staggering TWO GRAMS. That's approximately the weight of two US dollar bills.
  • The driver is the weakest link in the light
The first thing to address was the original problem of the smoked driver. After weighing the options, a replacement NANJG 105c 2.8 amp driver was chosen for the memory function lacking in the original. Well, that and the 700 or so lumen possible.

Even I know that a 2-gram heatsink won't help much with the amount of heat projected from the LED and high-current driver. A 6mm thick copper disc was machined down to fit the driver cavity (~16.5mm,) then drilled for wires. The new pill weighs 12 grams, a sixfold increase in weight.

I sprayed the driver with a liberal coat of LED seal to electrically insulate it. The new driver was then affixed to the pill via Arctic Silver epoxy, as was the LED - a T6 from Cutter that I had on-hand. I chose to re-use the stock LED in another project, due to its smaller PCB. The OEM white centering disc was re-used after a fit-filing to accommodate the new LED.

I didn't take pics, but I'm sure everyone knows what a 8 x 7135 driver looks like.

Low is now 0.093A, medium 0.802A, and I measured 2.72 amps on a protected Trustfire 14500 on high. It is now easily brighter than my Xeno E03 on 14500, and ceiling bounce just nudges out my 2.2A generic T6 P60. This can now be called a pocket rocket, or perhaps the David-GS1, as larger torches are afraid of it.

If anyone wants to do the same upgrade, let me know. I have a little bit of copper left, perhaps enough to make 5-6 more heatsink discs.


2

2 grams - wow

this mod makes me want to do my xeno. haven't used AAs in it anyway...

how long would you estimate you can run it (in hand) before it get uncomfortable to hold?

another question....i'm the question guy, in case you hadn't noticed. I'd never heard of LED seal before (but just googled it). How would you say it compares to plastidip?

3

LED seal is a clear silicone spray, and it goes on fairly thin.

It is very useful in protecting de-domed emitters' phosphor layer, as well as providing a layer of electrical insulation.

The light is good for about fifteen minutes on HI before becoming uncomfortable.

This would be a perfect light for one of E1320's custom drivers.

4

hmm, interesting stuff. I like to try every liquid that you can get in a can The thing about plastidip is the shrinkage when it dries - sometimes thats good, others very bad.

15 minutes!!!!!!! ok, now I've gotta do it to my xeno.

5

I'll buy the Xeno driver from you, if it's available.

6

That must be a real pocket rocket!

BTW: I call "Beamshots" :-)

7

it might be, since I'm getting tired of starting in med. It is the only light I own that I haven't taken apart yet. Might be a month or two...I have a self imposed ban on new projects until I complete all those already underway ;)

8

Light sold here:

https://budgetlightforum.com/t/-/6337

There are a few pics in the linked thread, for those interested.

9

I was lucky enough to see C-X's post and snag this neat little flashlight before anyone else had a chance. I have been researching AAA and AA form flashlights for several weeks and this came along at just the right time. Pic below is the flashlight as it looked when I received it:

Well the first thing a flashaholic wants to do on receiving a new light is to pop in a battery and test her out. Wayne did an over the top job of making sure this thing got to me in one piece. I kid you not, it took me 10 minutes to unpack everything just to get to the light and batteries. This thing sure is bright, a real pocket rocket! I'll get to more about performance in a minute, but first, a few additional photos.

Not that big a fan of GITD, so after I disassembled the light to inspect, I changed all the O-Rings back to the black ones provided with the light:

SE-1 in front of (L-R) Fenix L2D, Balder BD-2, N-Light ST50, Yezl Z1

Size comparison with big brother:


And some pictures of all the flashy bits:


Product Details
The light came with the original Balder plastic packing case, user manual, spare o-rings, tail cap boot, metal clip (removed) and spare lens. Wayne was also nice enough to supply two protected Ultrafire 14500 batteries to get me started. As luck would have it, my LightHound order for two AW IMR unprotected 14500s arrive the same day.

First impression is this is one solid little light. Fits well in the hand, easy to grip and hold. Finish is nice, but a little worn on the tailcap knurling. While it's nice, quality is not quite up to that of the BD-2, but this is Balder's budget entry and it does cost only 1/2 as much. Interesting that the SE-1 does not share styling cues with the BD-1, -2 or -4, which all look somewhat like different sized versions of each other.

The SE-1 uses a forward clicky, which is a surprise and opposite of the BD-2's reverse clicky. Nevertheless, it is solid and functional and does have mode memory and thankfully no disco modes. Switch protrudes, so no tailstand.

H-M-L are well spaced. I have no idea on lumens, but it is comparable to the BD-2 on high although it is more floody, so it doesn't appear as bright. OP reflector is pretty deep so it has some throw, but it's more for close up work anyway. Beam is very smooth, with minimal rings, no artifacts and crisp white tint which is my preference. Threads on the head and pill are smooth, but the tailcap threads are gritty and rough, nothing a little oil can't fix. I was told to expect 17-18 minutes run time on high, 55-60 minutes on medium and 6+ hours on low. Honestly, other than wow, medium and low are more than adequate for everyday use.

As mentioned above, Wayne installed a new driver and heatsink. The pill is noticeably heavy. He also installed a copper spacer ring to the bottom to prevent the battery from crushing the chips on the pill bottom. This seemed to have done the trick - the light starts getting warm within a minute of turning on in high and pretty hot (but not uncomfortable) within 3-4 minutes. Interesting note on this: Using the UF protected batteries, the light gets much hotter, much faster. The AW IM unprotected cells are Lithium-Manganese and they seem to generate less heat. The copper spacer also means the head cannot screw all the way down, so I'll be keeping this one away from water, and the small gap lets some aluminum show through the black - adds a nice accent to my eye and helps it look a little more like it's brothers in the BD series.

I am thrilled with this light. My first EDC, it's a good size for jacket or jeans pocket, although too big for dress pants. That's ok by me, as I have new AAA and AA lights on the way to handle the fancy pants. Great deal too: A new SE-1 runs about $25. C-X shipped it to me with all mods and two batteries for $39. It definitely has potent wow factor, everyone (including me) is amazed at the amount of light coming out of this small package. Thanks to Chicago-X for making this great little light available to me.

Thanks for reading,

Dave

10

Wow !

What a great, thorough review. Thanks very much for giving this one a good home.

11

You are welcome. BTW, thanks for sending the diffuser film - I had no idea this stuff existed. Not gonna use it on the SE-1, as I like the beam as it is. But I hate the beam on my Yezl Z1, spotty with several rings, probably made worse by the SS bezel. I did a quick press on cover over the lens and it’s a 100% improvement - great stuff!

12

Chicago X:

Now that Lighthound has re-badged this light (http://www.lighthound.com/Lighthound-AA-Tactical-Flashlight-Cree-XML-T6-LED_p_3958.html), they offer an extended version (http://www.lighthound.com/Lighthound-2xAA-Tactical-Flashlight-Cree-XML-T6-LED_p_4019.html) and an extension tube (http://www.lighthound.com/Lighthound-AA-Tactical-Flashlight-Extension-Tube-2xAA_p_4018.html) for use with 2xAA batteries.

They warn that the extended version should only be run with AA, not 14500, but I was wondering if your beefed up mod can handle 2x14500? Extension tube is only $4.50, so I'm thinking it's worth a try but I don't want to fry one of my favorite lights.

13

Please don't use two 14500s in that beautiful little light you will burn the driver up. That driver is rated for 2.8-6.0 volts so you could buy a couple extensions and run 2,3 or 4 AAs, but only one 14500.

14

Thanks, E. That's what I need to know. :)

15

Nice work on that SE-1, Wayne!

Congrats to you, BR, for snagging it and giving it a happy home!

Like X said, running more than one Li-Ion will burn out the driver. You might get away with running two 3.0v primary lithiums in it but IMO even that is not recommended. Any driver using AMC7135 chips should only be run with a single li-ion cell.

16

Thy beam is perfection .

17

Thanks, gentlemen. She is a beauty. My go to light for finding my almost black dog out in the back yard. Always amazed by so much light out of such a little package. Only limitation is run-time. The 14500 goes for about 15-17 minutes. I guess 2 eneloops with the extension tube would be a fine alternative, just not as bright.

18

Thanks to all for steering B-R in the right direction.

If using Eneloops, I would try for 3 cells. With two, you may be limited to low and medium settings.

19

Would 2 eneloops even provide enough voltage to fire it up at all?

20

Two Eneloops will deliver about 150mA to an XML. Not that much light, but its usable. About the same as low mode of the MF XML dropin.