I have been wanting an Xsearcher for quite a while now… I thought I might wait for a one stop throw shop version to be released …but I got impatient and happened to stumble across a heck of a deal on a lightly used one. I managed to pick one up with an XMLU3 and XRE EZ900 pill for less than $100 shipped. There were a few tiny specs of anno missing on the tail cap… but otherwise mint!
I had the idea of putting an XPE2 de-domed in this light from the beginning. With ~125klux with the stock XML U3 and ~175Klux with the XRE EZ900 - I set the goal of 300klux from this little light. Was it even possible? I didn’t know. Rather than try and de-dome an already tiny XPE2 myself, I had Vinh from CPF create a pill for me. I sent him my XRE pill from dereelight to upgrade.
The pill came back today with a nice shiny new XPE2 de-domed, mounted on copper of course. It is heavily over driven at 3 amps. The entire pill is solder filled for extra heatsinking as well. ALSO - the driver is 7135 based and 4.2v, instead of the 8.4v dereelight uses. This is a HUGE improvement IMO, as it allows for the use of a single 18650 cell vs the standard 2x li-ion setups the stock dereelight driver requires (for max brightness that is)
I was a little worried about the XPE2 not being able to focus correctly… when switching from the XML to XRE pill I noticed the light had a significantly different focal point. Meaning the aspheric lens had to be unscrewed a few turns to achieve the correct focus.
I dropped the pill in and fired it up - after a few turns of the head/lens, my jaw dropped to the floor. I couldn’t even look at the white wall 30’ away with the light on high without having to quickly look away it was so bright! I quickly setup my light meter (at 25’) and measured a whopping 380k lux!!! This light is now the second farthest thrower in my collection, only just ~51k lux short of the heavy hitting TN31 MB.
It gets even better… this whole mod cost me less than $150!! I’m sure those who are more mod savvy than myself could easily get in under $120 with a used xsearcher and the xpe2/parts.
I cant wait until it gets dark here!
Here are some photos
host is now in the 1x18650 format (instead of 2x 16430/2x 18650 8.4v)
de-domed xpe2!
on high in my bedroom… blinding!
exposure turned to –2.0ev… still cant even capture the hot spot with my point and shoot camera
The hot spot has a typical aspheric blue-ish hue, but it definitely is more neutral colored from the de-dome… even better
Nice mod there,I wanted the x searcher since it came out and now I want it more!I can really tell by the pic just how bright that is,I would love to see some distance shots too.
Man that’s some serious throw. I really can’t imagine it. If you know off the top of your head. Is the lens glass? What is the overall diameter of the lens?
awesome! im about to order one of these but ive read that there you can just screw any p60 sized pill into the light, is this true? I see that you sent yours to vin, so this has me wondering if theres a couple different types.
i do not have a c8… so not sure how much bigger it is than a c8… its a little bigger than my supfire x5 with the head being about 2.5x the diameter due to the large lens
you wont be pocketing this light but its small and i have eliminated the ugly 2x 18650 length (i really dont like lights that are that long)
