Hey guys, I bought this light a while ago. It's a little bit uninspiring and it seems like an easy first light to mod. Any "drop in" suggestions or something rather straight forward?
It's got an XPE Q5 and I have easily accessed the pill and driver so I can swap those out and in for something else or something. So looking for suggestions for
-floody reflector
-driver
-LED
Thanks guys :)
I think it’s the same/similar light as in this thread:
It’s a.k.a. UltraFire S5
Those can fit a TIR really nicely.
And while you’re at it, pop in a XP-G2 NW
You will have more light with the same driver and a very nice runtime.
a couple of weeks ago i put an xt-e and a frosted TIR in a similar flashlight.
wanted to try an xt-e, but it had color shifts in the hotspot/corona/flood with the original reflector, so i used a frosted TIR from fasttech: https://www.fasttech.com/products/1108200
now it has a floody soft beam.
i don’t really suggest that you also use an xt-e, i was just curious and wanted to try one.
i guess it has next mode memory? if so, you can use the pencil trick to get rid of it
Stipple the reflector, swap an XML and simply use pencil mod for the driver.
You’ll get everything in your list. The beam will be bright and floody with an XML, orange-peel reflector will make the beam even floodier and smoother, and driver good enough for around 2A (which is good for its size).
Cost only ~$4 for the emitter, plus a can of clear spray paint if you don’t have any.
Sorry total noob here
-With the XML I can just keep the standard driver?
-The XML2 is the same price, should I just get that or it won’t work with my existing driver?
Oh and it must be known that the pill on this thing doesn’t thread in, it just drops in so the heat transfer to the body is quite poor.
It’s really your choice, I’d go for XML2 if the price is the same.
Heat transfer isn’t bad, the pill is pressured by the aluminium retaining ring which is threaded to the body. So there’s still a reasonable thermal path. The total mass is still minimal regardless, so 2A is about max what you want for continuous run. The standard driver will give around that for an XML, a bit less with XML2.
I think it’s maybe only 800mA, about the same as a SK68 running on a 14500.
Or let’s put it this way:
Mine might be only 800mA, or just maybe a little over 1A max.
Or close to 3 Watts, which is max recommended for XP-E.
I found this posted in the Ultrafire S5 thread. It says 1.06 but i’m getting .8amps from mine. So is it better to drive an XPG2 at the .8 or an XML2, which will give more light and efficiency?
Probably the XM-L(2) will have better efficiency than XP-G(2) because it’s a bigger chip, not sure though…
I measure 0.95 A tailcap current, with very short leads on the meter with a 4.1 Volts laptop pull.
It’s only 0.6 A with a cell from the same pack at 3.6 Volts… :~
XP-G(G2) is a better thrower at lower current…its 300% rating is at 1500mA where the XM-L(L2) die is 300% at 3.0A, that host is ultra thin wall and the pill is very light weight…I would throw a XP-G2 on a 16mm sinkpad, with a 30 degree TIR (for floody) or a 10 degree TIR (for thrower) and use the stock driver, possibly up the thickness of the emitter wires…they are NOT capable of handling high heat like a convoy…thee bodies are much much thinner and less substantial to wick the heat away.
Floody Reflector - The reflector on that looks pretty shallow so it should be already pretty floody. A bigger surface area LED would make it even floodier though ;D
Driver - As others have brought up, the light is very thin and isnt much of a heat sink. That said you can make a pocket rocket and stick the usual Nanjg 105C 2.8A driver into it, however you wont be able to keep it on for long, probably a 5 minutes max before it gets too hot to touch. Otherwise you could go for lower amp driver such as Nanjg AK variants (and pair with a cree xpe2/xpg2 LED).
LED - For LED,like some others, I would go for an XM-L2 as they are very floody and pretty damn bright (though not as efficient as smaller ones). Now your problem is “what tint?”. I personally prefer more neutral or slightly warmer tints such as “T6-4C” or “T6-4D” <—note T6 is the brightness bin and 4C/4D is the colour tint. These colours are also sometimes described as around 4500~5000K.
Look up “Cree color bin” on google images for a chart on colour bins and their respective codes.
Brightness bins for XM-L2 in order of dimmest to brightest go something like this: S4,S5,S6,…,T2,T3,T4,T5,T6,…,U2
If you’re still curious then go on cree’s website and look up their datasheets 
Anyways I hope I compiled enough info off the top of my head to help you get started…
Goodluck!
Who cares about throw for this light anyway?
Low power and a small reflector ruins throw.
Gets worse when you upgrade to XP-G(2) and worse some more with XM-L(2)
As stated, this flashlight is not made for heat management.
It’s light and the walls are thin
Yet, I have fairly good heat transmission with mine.
A matter of screwing the pill-retainer-threaded-disc (same as the switch-retainer-threaded-disc) nice and tight.
Makes (a) good enough heat path(s).
By the way, apparently it’s also available as a zoomie:
http://www.gearbest.com/led-flashlights/pp_23494.html
Well I figured he wanted some super floody thing 
(that doubles as a hand warmer)
It’s a first-mod project so although I want to keep it simple I’d also like to keep it within certain boundaries. That is to keep it sensibly efficient while improving flood beam and moderately and moving away from the incredibly blue tint. And most people who posted seem to be very expert so it makes it a little harder to decide which is better! Either XPG2 or XML2 would probably be within my means and a huge improvement anyawy.
One of the things is that I live in a densely populated area, a city.
I don’t need throw from this thing, it’s more like a close® range light, so the (approx.) 2.5 Watts is usually more than enough.
Many BLF-ers live out of town, where it’s much darker and the distances are bigger.
More light, more bundled is what you would want in that case.
But then you would be better off with a 2.8 Ampère C8 or something, keep this one for close range, for which it’s max power is usually more than enough without heat problems.
If you want floody, it’s XML/XML2, no question (the advantage of older XML is you can find neutral tint easier).
I have one on XML-T6-3C. I run it at 2A with standard driver (switch the wire to other pad that skip resistor). It’s floody as heck with beautiful neutral tint. Very useful indoors. It’s one of my go-to light.
Ended up putting this in with a XML2 4C, NanJG 101 1.4a, and a 60degree PMMA lens. Pretty much bang on what I wanted. I thought the 4C tint would be warmer but it’s got a slight red tinge. I have no idea it’s actually a 4C just relying on Fasttech to send the right one!
The tailcap is precisely 1.4a to 3 decimal places. Weird!!
To make the standard driver 2A i need to move the +wire to which other pad? It looks like theres 2. I switched it to one of them and light doesnt work. I hope i didnt blow the driver.
If you could post a pic of the driver (both sides) someone might be able to tell you.