Recently I purchased a red hs-802. It had a single mode driver, not sure of the amps, and a 16mm XR-E emitter. I was very impressed with the light to say the least. Very good but I thought I could improve on it. I used a 1.4A, 3 mode driver with the 7135 chips swapped out for 380A’s pushing to just a hair over 1.5A. I used a XP-E2 red led mounted to a noctigon mcpcb. I was disappointed to say the least in the end. Very focused hot spot but not as much throw as I was hoping. Its like the set up is not working well with the deep reflector of the hs-802. Can anyone explain why this might be, and why the original set up worked so well?
If it were me, I would copper braid the tail cap and add another chip to the driver and try it out again.
I have done many c8 builds using the exact same parts, other than running at 1.5A. Usually just 1.4A. The results have been very good, especially with a deep reflector. I was told running a XP-E2 anything over 1.5A is useless for its maxed out for brightness at those amps.
Reflow the old emitter and see what that looks like, this will tell you if that new one is in need of more juice or just is as bad for for that light.
Definitely agree with n10sivern on braiding the tailcap.
I have made the mistake of replacing all the components at once and then not knowing which one helped/hurt the final outcome.
So now I try one mod at a time, sometimes, or I just screw up the whole deal and throw things (last week).
Nothing to pizz you off more than to spend a couple hours and come back with a worse output than what you started with. can relate.
I have 2 lights with super deep reflectors like that 802 and they are such a small spot that I don’t think they are ever “just right”
Mine are the TrustFire 168A-T6 with the steel head and an XML T6, the other is a WF-980L with Q5.
Others have not been happy with that over square reflector.
Later,
Keith
not true
Never attempted to braid the tailcap. Im guessing you would just run copper wire from the switch to the prong? Does it really make any difference?
You can use 20 ga wire or solder braid. It can make a huge difference depending on the light
Also you typically have to get the xpe-2 farther into the reflector. On the few I messed with, I had to grind on the bottom of the reflector so the LED would go deeper into the reflector. I have also heard of a few that had to space their reflector out a little more.
The red XP-E2 has a relatively low vF, so you should have no problem at all hitting and maintaing 1.5A. Since you already know what kind of output to expect from your other builds, I would look at the reflector focus. The XR-E and XP-E2 likely need to be adjusted differently to achieve similar focus.
What number do you see in this image! 
Seriously, though... My thought would be to experiment with improving the focus of the emitter (you said it was already focused though?) and see if that helps any? Maybe you are just expecting too much from the red emitter; I find that red, even when focused properly, just doesn't show up as exciting a hotspot as I would like at longer ranges.
The XRE is on a larger substrate. It may sit under the reflector where an xpe will sit completely inside the reflector hole. Try shimming the reflector up off the Noctogon.
Telephoneman maybe on to something. I used screws to hold down the mcpcb but the bottom ofthe reflector was hanging up a bit on top of the screw heads. I ground them down with a dremel tool until I thought the led was above the base of the reflector. Maybe ill take another look at it.
I put the XR-E back in my hs-802 with my 1.5A board. So far so good. I think the problem was the reflector would not clear the screw heads holding down the mcpcb to the pill, even though I ground the heads as much as possible. Wish they made a pill that excepted a 20mm star SinkPad! I think I may try screwing the mcpcb from the other side of the pill next time.
Maybe the root of evil is not about mechanical issues like a loose led, or something like that.
Could it be that the wavelength of a red led is such, that the light is “out of focus”?
I used to own a top brand analogue camera with manual focus.
There were two markings on the barrel (?) of the lens. The white one was for normal focussing.
When making a foto in IR, you had to shift the value of the distance from the white marking to the red marking.
However, when this is not relevant, maybe it is because the human eyes has not the same sensitivity all over the spectrum.
Even when a lightmeter gives you an equal high reading, you eye may perceive some colours less intense as other colours.