4x XM-L SRK Clone from a US seller on Ebay, kinda sorta a quickie tear down and mod.

Flashlight Modding and DIY Parts
1

I bought this light from a US seller. On Ebay - Seems like more lights are now being shipped in the US, by Chinese sellers with US contacts.

It has an Aluminum bezel and button. The finish is ok. About as good as any other SRK.

The reflector looked good and it was pretty clean.

The tail cap is not glued on. It came off easily.

Same driver as another SRK 3-up that I got a while ago.

Same single FET. Small wire diameters.

The top end. Four XM-L T6 on a single star, glass lens and O ring.

I do not like these tall locaters. It seems like they are trying to direct the light. It doesn't work that way too well.

-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

I just removed the resistors, like I did on the other driver.

I added a Copper disc between the star and the led plate. I also beefed up the wires to 18ga.

I sanded down the locaters till they were flush with the bottom of the reflectors.

I measured amperage with my digital meter and all I could get was about 8-9 amps. I should have done it with the analog meter that has heavy wires. The digital one has thin leads.

This was just a quickie. Stock, it wasn't all that bright. I didn't read amperage stock.

All in all, it's at least a way to get a 4up SRK within the US, so shipping is fast, but it needs to be modded.

2

Looks pretty bright. What lumage is it cranking out?

3

I been aweing the neighbours with the other one you modded. :slight_smile:

4

MFG says 4000 lumens.

No way, more like 2000 stock. Now? Well I would say it's over 3000 lumens, but no exact figures.

5

Once again Old-Lumens kicking it "old school"

Nice! :D

6

How does this compare to the http://www.ebay.com/itm/SecurityIng-3X-CREE-XM-L-T6-LED-Flashlight-4000Lm-Lumens-Outdoor-LED-Torch-/161124217671?pt=US_Flashlights&hash=item2583c07347?

I am planning to buy one of these lights, but I don’t know how many LED’s do I need to be in 1 flashlight…

7

Well, as far as how many leds you need?, that is just personal preference. As far as being practical, I think 99% of the time just a light with one led is fine for most applications. Lights with multiple leds are more of a WOW factor than being useful for most people and they go through batteries fast. It’s just personal preference. I would never own one of these lights. I just mod them.

8

I was thinking probably 4 would be max.
Where do you think I can buy this flashlight with the JB driver and free shipping to Canada?

9

4x, black: http://www.ebay.com/itm/161104795308

4x, gold: http://www.ebay.com/itm/161065417378

6x, black: http://www.ebay.com/itm/161139980408

No guarantees you'll get exactly what's shown in the pictures, stock gets mixed, old pics get re-used even after the lights are switched from XMLs to XML2s, etc.

10

Well it seems as long as I get the JB driver it will be a good thrower correct?

I will try to ask if the seller is selling the JB driver in the 4x black version.

Thanks for the help comfy!

11

Seller might not know what he’s selling. Best bet would be to ask for a photo of an actual sample, asking to see the contact board. A red PCB and that triangular pattern of holes in the middle of the + contact ring are what you want to see.

12

The driver doesn't have anything to do with the throw, that's up to the LEDs and reflector and how well it's focused. The 3x versions are always going to throw better than the others, there's a larger reflector for each LED, nearly the same dimensions as a P60. Add more LEDs and the size of each reflector gets smaller and smaller.

13

Interesting… So the 3x led version has more lumen output then the 4x then?
The JB driver seems like its easy to mod that is why I want something with it.
I want bright bright! Hahaha…

14

Not more lumen output. More throw. The larger the reflector, the smaller the spot. 3x gives a smaller spot, 4x gives a larger one. The tighter the spot, the farther the throw, (usually if the leds are driven the same).

15

You will want the 3x version with XM-L2 emitters. The -L2 can handle higher currents better than the older emitters. You will be best off by doing what Old Lumens did and placing a copper plate under the emitters’ mounting pad. Ideally you would remount the emitters on copper stars, but you will still get an obscene amount of light for several seconds before the emitters heat-soak and their efficiency degrades.

16

So is it the champane color one with the 3x led from Chinavally that has the XM-L2?
How can we be sure? which ebay link was it again? Sorry for all the spoon feeding, I’ve dumped too much money in buying the wrong things on ebay and on chinese sites. I want to be sure of what I am getting.

17

A copper plate under the stock aluminum board won't do a single thing to help with heat, might even make it worse because it's just adding another interface the heat has to try to get across. The dielectric layer inside the stock aluminum board is what hurts it, not what the board is sitting on.

Link to the ebay listing that ships to Canada is in this thread. Or, browse the seller's other listings. It's in there.

There is no guarantee which driver and which LEDs you'll get. In stock form, when used by normal people, they're all functionally identical (note: we are not normal people). I have bought three lights all from the same ebay item number and one had XML2s, the other two had XMLs. All had the JB driver. Really, the LEDs it comes with shouldn't matter, you need to ditch the original thin aluminum board and stick in 3 16mm copper boards with LEDs already mounted (and you get to choose a nicer tint than anything the light will come with stock). If you keep the stock Al board you might as well leave the driver stock too, since using the stock board means you'll have to reuse the stock skinny wires or else the LEDs will fry, and all you're doing there is eliminating the resistors on the driver and using the wires as resistors instead. Like buying wider wheels but keeping the same size tires.

18

This applies to ALL aluminum stars?

19

Copper Stars are thermally superior to aluminum stars, but, I am going to say that with all of the mega mods I have seen over the years, using Aluminum stars, because there were no copper stars, that I cannot state that Aluminum stars will not work, given a big enough heat sink behind them.

That said, a SRK or SRK clone has literally no real heat sink behind the stars. The stock light just does not do well with extended run times and even with Copper stars, it still has no real place for the heat to go. With a Copper star, you will have a little longer run time on high, but that heat has to go somewhere sooner or later and with such a thin backing plate and overall thin head, it just isn't that great of a light for pushing the leds. Of course, we do it anyway, because we can, but that does not mean it's sensible or realistic.

The only reason I ever put a copper plate behind an original plate is because there was no other way for me to do it at the moment due to lack of materials or ability and I usually pin the two with copper rod, so the heat goes down to the copper plate below.

If you want to be assured of what you are getting from any of the ebay sellers, then you can forget that route. So far, I have gotten different versions every time, so there is absolutely no guarantee what you will be getting.

Truthfully, if I wanted a SRK for me, I would go to Fasttech and buy the Fandyfire UV S5 or the (alternate model) and modify the three toroid driver that it comes with, but that's me, not anyone else.

20

The screw-in plate that comes in the Securitying 3x lights is .165" thick, and if it's seated in the bottom of the bore so it has contact at the bottom face instead of just depending on the threads (as it is in stock form, because the Al MCPCB is too thin to fit the lens/o-ring/bezel correctly) it works fine at over 10 amps. The stock thin MCPCB would not tolerate that kind of current, the dielectric layer will cook the LEDs. Switching from the thin MCPCB to thicker copper Sinkpads/Noctigons automatically adds enough thickness that everything fits just right with the plate screwed all the way into the head and seated against the bottom of the step.

Adding a copper spacer fixes the positioning of the screw-in plate, but leaves you with the thin MCPCB and its dielectric layer. And only two wire attachment points, and only two wires at the kind of current the JB driver does with the limiting resistors bypassed really need to be 18AWG or bigger. That's because of the length - there's no way to keep the wires short and still put the thing together. With 3 16mm MCPCBs you get six wires instead of two, and that means smaller 22AWG wire works fine even though it's still longer than what you'd get in other lights that are easier to put together.

This one works great:

this one did, too:

This one IS bright, at the start... and then drops like Wile E. Coyote running off the edge of a cliff:

And that's with the copper pins helping out. I don't wanna think what it would be like with the unmodified MCPCB.

All 3 are using the original aluminum screw-in plate.