I always just go by the bond wires, they’re positive. Easy to see em in there…. there are a few emitters this doesn’t work and the datasheet is necessary, like the XP-G3 and Nichia 219C, MT-G2, and XHP series.
ah thanks!
And the bond wires aren’t always the same side… One of them is opposite from the rest, XP-L maybe? When I’m in doubt, I just google a picture of whatever emitter it is and look which way the bond wires are pointed in the picture.
edit: I just checked: first gen emitters (XP-G, XM-L, XP-E) the bond wires are negative. 2nd gen (XP-G2, XP-E2, XM-L2, XP-L) the bond wires are positive. That was where I got it mixed up. But I still never remember that, I almost always have to google a picture to remind me. :face_with_monocle:
But these days it’s hard enough to get a 1st generation 2nd generation emitter! 
(back when they’d do the amps)
Checking datasheets is always a good idea, kind of in the measure twice cut once theme.
Diode tester on any DMM will light the emitter when in the right polarity also 
Today it was a productive day…
Blf X5 , quad xp-g3 s4 3a
Blf X6 , triple xpl hi v2 1a
I had only cute-3 medium optics available , so i used them , and probably i will switch later .
And a group photo :
What’d you do to that Noctigon?
I had to grind it a little to fit , but i did it a little more , so my DMM showed continuity between the copper and the negative ….
And guess what , i couldn’t find the spot there was a short, it was the last piece of trace i cut .
Long story short , it was my last xp32 board …. But it has enough traces to handle 5A per emitter .
giorgo, for future reference, if you drill the center hole first you can then mount it on a bolt and spin it in a drill to file it down to fit, cleaner work, truer circle. Then with a file or a piece of sandpaper you can put a bevel on the top edge to separate the trace and masking from the ground underneath, doesn’t take much of a bevel for the angle to get separation and avoid a short. I use the scissors tip to cut this bevel on the edge of the center hole, for separation and to ensure the wire insulation isn’t cut.
Nice work, great lights huh? 
I really love the triple X6, an all time favorite of mine.
X6 is awesome , a lot of lumens and great runtimes without the feel your hand will catch fire , but i should get the cute-s optics asap .
X5 puts a ton of light out there for its size , and quite tricky the tint of the xp-g3 . It’s cooler in the middle !
I have been collecting the different pieces to mod them over 2 months , and finally they are almost ready .
A lot of people helped me , including you Dale , with your detailed answers. Thanks
After some dirty soldering DONE
NICE tinted SRK wth smart UI (long press high, short press moon)
it just started to flcker on high after a while, hmm seems like I need to open it up again
"Totally out of Kester solder paste, and Arctic Alumina Thermal Adhesive as well. So I used the old MG paste and the stars are being permanently affixed with JB Weld as I type this."
Are you sure you want to do this? I don't think it is a good idea for future modding/repairs? Maybe you better wait until you can order some more paste.
This is great advise. I've learned the hard way also on trimming down stars. A simple bevel will fix it.
An emery board does a nice job of cleaning up the edges and removing any “chads” that may cause a short.
I see what I did wrong with boring out the tube. The grinding bit I used is a standard one from OSH and is much smaller than the tube diameter. No lathe or even drill press. I put the body tube in a wooden vise then manually used an electric drill with the grinding bit to bore out the tube.
This works well for the top of the tube, but for the bottom it’s sometimes hard to see what is going on and keep the hole aligned. I see now that I should have checked my grind against the anodizing at the bottom of the tube. That way I could have insured that all sides were ground roughly equally and I wouldn’t have gone through the side.
Grinding through the tube only occurred at one point at the bottom of one of the inset vertical grooves. You can see in the picture how I covered it up with the bare aluminum strip. The slightly rough area outside the strip is where I first tried covering the damage with painted super-glue. Most of the area under that part isn’t damaged.
This mod didn’t come out perfect, but it’s still quite usable. I modded the light as follows:
- Replaced stock emitter (3000K high-CRI XML) with XML2 5A2 tint on copper Noctigon. The stock emitter was getting rather long in the tooth and had a very orangish tint. the 5A2 tint looks a bit less orange and is much more pleasing to the eye, in my opinion. One of my favorite Cree tints.
- Lubed up control ring with very thick brake caliper grease (stock ring had no lube). This gives much more resistance and helps the ring stay in position.
- Replaced interior clicky switch mechansim with a Veleno Designs e-switch circuitboard from Steve Ku.
- Replaced rubber switch boot with titanium boot that came with the V11R’s optional metal clicky.
- Rebuilt interior structure between the switch circuitboard and the boot. I used a combination of hardened sugru, metal strips and plastic rings. I also added a separate spring. This took quite a bit of experimentation to get the right combo. The switch is stiffer than most e-switches helping to minimize risk of accidental activation. Travel distance on the switch button is longer than most e-switches but much shorter than a clicky, and the switch is quiet.
- Bored out interior of battery tube to fit 18350.
- Added aluminum strips on side of tube to hide grinding error.
A very simple mod to one of my BLF D80’s. I like the light’s physical points; size, shape, reflector pattern, etc. But I have grown to not like lights with memory. Plus I prefer lights that start low and increment brighter with each additional button tap.
So, I replaced the driver with one of mtnelectronics FET/DD drivers in 20 mm. I got it with the guppydrvr V.1 firmware and am running option 18; ML, 1, 5, 15, 40, 100%, No Memory. I like it. Definitely brighter than stock when running on turbo / DD. The head gets rather hot after 5 minutes on high/turbo. I wish I had a light integrating sphere. (I already had done a tailcap spring bypass and the driver comes with a braided bypass.)
This looks like a very cool new control unit for continuously adjustable brightness.
Hi,
If the LEDs draw 1 amp, the battery (and driver) would need to supply 7 amps. So if you had a 3000 mAh battery, that would be about 3000/7000 or ~0.42 hours theoretically.
If 1.5 amps, the battery would need to supply 10.5 amps. So if you had a 3000 mAh battery, that would be 3000/10500 or ~0.28 hours.
What would be using for a board?
I want to try one of the 7 emitter DTP SinkPad 2 that Luxeon Star mounts their rebels with a khatod optic. I’d really like a compact host with an e-switch. Might have to go with 26650. Lens diameter between 39mm and 50mm. The smaller the better.
Ohaya. Remember those triple boards we bought long ago? I always thought they were rebels, but they’re Luxeon R emitters. I still have a bunch…
Convoy M1 “CYANIDE”
Rebel Rebel, you’ve torn your dress
Rebel Rebel, your face is a mess
Rebel Rebel, how could they know?
Hot tramp, I love you so!
