Hello, I just caught the bug of AAA size lights! I don’t have any just yet, but would like to keep two on both of my keychains.
Can you guys recommend me or tell me which hosts you guys used for a good mod that will hit the 500 lumen mark with a 10440? Is this even possible for a 10440 light, or am i just dreaming?
If there is a light in stock form that produces this number, please tell.
This is possible with a quality IMR 10440 and an XML, XPL or XML2 emitter. The Peak Vesuvius did this a couple years ago with an XML in direct drive and outputted 600 lumens. However runtime at 500+ lumens is going to be very brief. Maybe 3 minutes before the battery runs dry.
I have an Olight i3s which uses an xp g2, claims 80 lumens on an Alky, does a lot more with a 10440, but gets too hot within about a minute. I don’t see a practical increase in continuous output due to heat in the 1xAAA size.
Zebralight says 500 lumens with a 14500 for 60 seconds on the SC52. The SC32 is smaller, but maybe close in output with a 16340.
Really nothing practical in the 500+ output range that isn’t old school 2xC cell sized light, but once you get that size, 18650 etc plenty to chose from.
The new thrunite ti, with an xpl maybe?
My current favorite AAA light mod host is the Jexree Mini.
I put in a XP-L V6 3D on a cut down Noctigon that i currently run DD with a Efest IMR10440 in for now………and it blows past 500 like nothing :bigsmile: i say it is easily up somewhere around 800-1000 at least, probably higher the first seconds but dropping fast of course.
It last 10-12 minutes obviously dimmer and dimmer as the battery runs down, and get as hot as you can stand 
if it gets to hot just turn it of a little bit, it cools down very fast.
It is shockingly bright to anyone who have ever tried it 
if you even the slightest bit have the lumens bug you wont be sorry and have a big smile on when you use it for many weeks before you start to get used to it.
It is at least as bright or brighter at first than both my Zeusray & the stock BLF X6 but with much shorter run time of course but that why we have multiple batteries
When you learn to use it as the big light it can provide, it have been extremely useful, by that i mean by holding it at the waist and not pointing it at too close items just like a big powerful light, because that is blinding
I plan to build and install one of wights 12/13mm FET+1x7135 drivers in it for some nice modes & long runtimes (with the extra AMC7135 chip on the FET driver you get very god efficiency in the modes up to 160 lumens) and low volt protection but for that i still needs a lot of component that is still in the mail.
With keychains I’m more worried about weight. I love the DQG series, I purchased mine off of Taobao. I use a DQG Tiny titanium with a short nylon cord hitched to my wrist while running at night, ready to use at a moments notice or let dangle. A Spy as a necklace anytime I’m out at night or walking around house at night. And I have a cheaper special edition 1.5v only for general keychain use that I don’t care if it gets used looking. But they only go up to about 240 lumens, the 1.5v only half of that. I would love if there was a group buy with the guy that makes them, as he doesn’t like to push the limits with his regular run, worrying about the short runtimes.
Hi fellow night runner i used the light i mentioned over your post, this night to illuminate some extra dark and icy slippery & snowy parts of the woods i like to run in, what do you use the DQG Tiny titanium for when you run?
Now in the winter it is extra nice with the intense hand warming effect also
I would also be interested in special edition extra high output DQG Spy GB.
There’s a world of difference between ‘can be done’ and ‘worth doing’. A 10440 light at 500 can be done but is it worth doing for a keychain light and ending up with the equivalent of a flare that starts bright but within seconds diminishes and goes our inside 3 minutes?.
A XR-E or XP-G2 based 10440 light will have less total output but last longer and throw further than any high lumen alternative. So there’s not a lot in it bragging-rights-wise either. I see throw in AAA sized lights which most folks think are of no use other than really close-in to always impress more than total output. A Tank-703 with a 10440 has throw out of all proportion to its size.
If one wants to impress with sheer output on a keychain then a 16340 light wins hands down. A Trustfire Mini-01 or 02 hits that spot. Come to that the Trustfire Z1 has sensationally good throw given the tiny size of its reflector. That baby really surprises folks. But its not really suited to keychain use but its a great emergency light for a vehicle’s glovebox loaded with a lithium primary in case of severely cold weather.
E05SSvn modded light http://www.candlepowerforums.com/vb/showthread.php?388109-E05SSvn-Best-Stainless-AAA
nice suggestions so far…thank you
im not too worried about runtime, or max output for only a minute, or throw, but thanks for the alternatives and head up everybody.
the reason for this is because i also edc, a 18650 light, and a 16340 light as well haha. i just minimized my keychain by a whole lot, and now it looks naked, which is why i decided…hey why not add another light to my edc gear.
i looked up every light mentioned, and the only two lights that caught my eye were the eo5ssvn and the mod it yourself jexree mini. all the other lights are very cool, but just not enough lumens.
anybody else with more host for mods or suggestions for off the shelf stock lights?
I am glad you see the possibility sorry the Jexree Mini is the best host i have found yet, but i am always searching for something better.
Most lights that is in this size have often been glued together in various ways or have had a bad hollow shelf or even plastic pill design, the Jexree Mini have been really easy to mod and have a proper shelf for the mcpcb, the only downside with it really if i am going to be very picky is because every part is dismantlable ,head from lens side & driver side & even the bottom spring is accessible, the twisty grip is a bit short so if you don’t lube it up properly the twisty action can be less than perfect, but everything else is almost ideal so as i started with it is the best i have found for now.
Vinh’s eo5ssvn & DBCstm’s Texas Poker & some inspiring mod work that djozz did on the same host as the Jexree Mini, was the reason i wanted something that small & powerful.
I thought of buying the eo5ssvn but i wanted to learn how to do something similar & hopefully better myself and the eo5ssvn option D for $85 i felt was to much money for something i could create for 12-13$, 5$ for the host (EDIT i just found out it cost more now, 3 for $14 or 1 for $10 
) & 6-7$ for what i believe is a much nicer selection of possible warmer hues in the XP-L V6 3C, 3D at Hank’s, 3A at LEDDNA or if you like CW both those sellers have those now (Vinh says the option D is 5700K so i think he uses the XP-L V6 2C) unfortunately my current favorite the V6 3D tint is sold out everywhere for now.
And the stainless steel host has much worse heatsinking than a aluminum host, i think it’s because it’s SS he says it is for 2min burst only, and the eo5ssvn option D is only in one mode and i knew i wanted some nice modes in the future & a good reason to learn how to build drivers & tune firmwares.
I have used it when running at night in the winter from 4,17v to 3,3v in one long 10-12min stretch, and it got hot real hot but because it was so cold outside it was actually very nice but it didn’t break and i think the battery runs down the volt fast enough that it basically can’t self destruct, but if it did i can still build 5 new ones for the money i saved
But of course if i had such a disposable income, i would also like to collect fully modded & tricked out Vinh monster lights, like i see some do 
but for now i got more extra time than money and a desire to learn something new, so a flashlight modding hobby fits perfectly :bigsmile:
sounds like you saved some work for me already then Cajampa! looking for reliable hosts can be a pita. i think id like to try this jexree. the odd thing and what concerns me is that i have never heard anybody on the board talking about this light. but i trust you nonetheless.
the only other host i will be looking for is one with a tail cap switch for my other AAA keychain light.
to be honest, im not too fond of twisties, but ill let this one slide.
do you mind sharing what are all the parts needed to build one just like yours?
and you mentioned that you plan on building one with wights driver, will this be less bright, but just better modes?
I have made bright lights with Smiling Shark SS-5039 hosts. However this is not the easiest way because the pill and preferably the reflector need to be replaced, in addition to the LED and driver. The advantages are that it looks and feels good and that the host itself is cheap. The thick aluminum head also distributes heat well.
I have probably gotten 500 lumens with direct drive in these, but I don’t have a way of measuring it. That example has nothing but a connection plate for a driver. There should be room for an FET driver, but I don’t know of a board to build it on. I have one with two and one with three 1731 chips, but 500 lumens would probably take 4 or 5 of them, which would be hard to fit in. As far as I know these limitations apply to all AAA size lights. Efest IMR 10440 cells supply amperes of current with no difficulty and little voltage droop. To be practical, you probably need modes and preferably several modes. Two amps. from a 350 mah. cell is about is 10 minutes. It will actually give off useful light for much longer than that, before you need to turn it off to save the battery, but slowly getting dimmer. That’s good for several times looking under the sofa for toys or under your car for something you dropped but not for much walking. I think you can run it continuously at 500 lumens if you keep switching it between hands and hold it tightly. When the head gets too hot to hold, you can hold it by the tail to shut it off if no modes or to switch modes if it has them.
The 5039 switch is steel. With the spring braided, it works fine at 1 amp., but my most powerful version is a twisty.
Yes, is must be made if aluminum, brass, copper, silver, gold or diamond, or be fluid cooled. There is a table of heat conductivity somewhere in Wikipedia.
Check out my mod thread for some more info on the host
djozz have 1 2 mods on this host, the host is also called Ultrafire LZZ-06
This is wights 12/13mm driver, it should be almost as bright maybe some 0,1-0,3A less (guesstimated ;)) I have not even upgraded the wires yet or drilled through the driver board so there is more performance to get so i think it will end up about the same or a bit more with full low resistance mods & the FET driver, i have held back those till i can get some modes because it is plenty bright & hot already
This newer package version that wight uses for his tiniest driver of these tiny MOSFETS is more efficient than the old one used in the Tiny10DD & Tiny12DD drivers, and the best part is with a single AMC7135 chip that controls all the lower modes up to ~160 lumens it should have a possible very long runtime + the benefit of max lumens when ever :bigsmile:
I agree that a good clicky host would be preferable but i haven’t found one that i liked yet, but am still searching, i like the Hugsby XP-1’s i have finally gotten the head apart but i haven’t removed the star yet so i can’t determine yet how the star connects to the shelf and it is a tiny tiny star only 8mm wide…….but i am still searching for the optimal cheap host that are easily modable.
Most are expensive and very glued it looks like……
Here is the Jexree Mini link again somthimes they sell them for 5$ for one somthimes they want 5$plus shipping, and most times you can buy 3 for 15$, if you know aliexpress you know that they run sales all the time so you can always wait them out if you don’t want to pay full price
I used the XP-L V6 3D hue bin on a Noctigon XP16 that i cut down to size with a big sheath metal scissor, that hue bin is unfortunately sold out but
LEDDNA have the sinpads with V6 3A for a NW hue & 1A for a CW, Hank at http://intl-outdoor.com sells the Noctigon with V6 3C, 2C & 1A, if you like one of Hanks tints i would chose one of his, generally people around here seem to regard the Noctigon as a higher performing option and that is what i used on my first Jexree Mini mod, but i think i like the 3A hue over the 3C so it tricky if you want a particular hue, i guess you could always reflow some nice led on a Noctigon.
I have bought a bunch of different ones of these and plan to build some variations with different tints, when i get some driver building action going………
just read through your mod thread….am i reading this right. so all you did was put in a xpl on noctigon and that created this 1000 lumen monster!?
stock driver and everything?
Yes, the trick is the XP-L with the V6 flux bin, they are very bright direct driven at 3-3.6A & the right host + the Efest IMR10440 battery.
And these new XP-L’s fits in the reflector+plastic protector perfectly, because they are XP package sized but with an XM-L2 die.
When djozz did his mod with a similar host, these where not available and he used a XM-L2 that made the fit more problematic.
Because this is a twisty with a good short bottom spring, there isn’t so much losses like in a clicky with a long thin steel spring+switch pcb+switch assembly
That why i said almost everything is almost ideal, to really give it lots of output but i still want to find a good clicky host
These boost drivers goes DD when you use a lithium battery in them, you don’t even lose the 1,5v functionality, at least at first as you can read in my mod thread when i tried to use the QTC i broke the stock driver, so i can’t know how long it would have lasted if i hadn’t tried the QTC.
And there is more refinement you can do to really get max out of it, like sanding down the anodizing layer on the shelf to get better heatsinking, and upgrading the wires to as thick gauge you can comfortably fit, and drill through the stripped driver board like djozz did to lessen the resistance losses through the pcb.
Holy $&@! You got 6 amps out of a event 10440?
I’d be afraid of it blowing my fingers off.
No, 3A to 3,6A, you misread the Efest IMR10440 is only good for max 3,6A.
The reason i write it like that is because the last bit of amp, depends a lot of how low you can make the resistance in the circuit, from the battery through the spring and through the pcb with heavier gauge wire to the Noctigon mcpcb.
And it is not certain you even want max amp without any modes because then it gets even hotter and lasts even shorter.