I was playing with my 4xAA Dorcy 41-4750 that I bought at Sears for 20 bucks a year or so ago. It uses an XR-E emitter and has a pretty large, smooth reflector giving it a very long throw (but narrow) and long run times with 4 AA's.
Anyway, that challenge. Do you think this thing could be modded with an XM-L? I believe the reflector is close to C8 size. I guess I may take it apart at some point and try to see if it could be easily modded, but I am curious if anyone has tried to do it yet. It might be glued together, and since it is plastic, that might create some problems...
if you can get it apart without breaking it, I think it is a great mod. It probably just uses a resistor to 'regulate', so the xml would draw roughly the same current, and not get any, or significantly hotter than the XRE. It probably has at least some heatsinking - check out the plastic light (with internal aluminum heatsink) in the pics link here.
on high (1.4A) I can drain 4AAs w/o a problem (heat failure). There is plenty of useful light on medium.
For me, xml makes just about any light better. I'm not in the habit of trying to spot an owl in a tree 200 yards away...I like lots of flood and spill so I can see as much as possible in my immediate vicinity, and xml is going to do that better than xre, every time.
Now, is it worth the chance of breaking the light and spending $10 on an emitter? Well that's up to you - I have a box of lights I've broken as proof I just can't resist trying ;)
all true - but I bet the description of the dorcy's fate is even more likely if UNmodded ;)
I have gotten better at resisting now that this forum has made me aware of how cheap the better stuff can be...but the desire to correct someone else's poor implementation, coupled with the embarrassment of having purchased their engineering mishap, will never be eradicated completely :)
if I owned that light, the only way I could resist modding it would be to throw it out
OK, you guys talked me out of it. Funny, it is one of the best budget lights that I own in terms of throw. Also a nice size to carry around, and i like that it uses regular old AA batteries. I think it might be the best 'over the counter" light that you can buy, at least at retail stores like Sears, Walmart, etc, in the USA.
