I like the way you think, so I bought several of these on the 20th. I’ve not actually built a triple yet, so it looks like a fun project. I was actually thinking of 14650 rather than 14500 — there’s room on paper, thanks to the shorter optics. Needs a custom pill for best results, of course. (FWIW, I think of a one-piece head/body as a benefit here — better heat transfer to the whole surface area available. The bezel thing is annoying, but if I can’t find a better solution, I’ll make a bezel and cut a thread. I’m open to other ideas, though.)
The first one arrived today, and thus earned the honor of sacrificial victim. Damaged the emitter and destroyed the reflector and lens (both press-fit), but the only damage to the host is a few dings up front — perfectly serviceable host for a working light, or maybe it'll be covered by a bezel... Now that I know how it goes together, of course, I think the next ones should come apart with no damage to the host.
So here's pictures and measurements.
We already saw this end:
And not much to see here, tailcap threads are M18×1:
Lens off, lens is 22mm diameter and was glued to the reflector:
Can’t tell if there was glue between body and lens or reflector, or just press-fit.
Reflector savaged and removed:
At this point I preemptively ripped the LED off, but it turns out the pill just unscrews; no glue, and not particularly tight:
About the pill:
- Threads are M18×1 right-hand, same as tailcap.
- Pill takes 16mm star and 15mm driver.
- Pill is hollow, 14.2mm ID, which would ordinarily be bad, but could be useful if you want a 14650 — bore it out a smidge, put the driver on top, and there you go. But you’ll need about 2-3mm extra space somewhere — either a spacer so the pill won’t screw down all the way, or a spacer/adapter to hold a 17mm driver above the top of the pill. Really too much hassle, IMO -- go for the easy 14500, or make a wholly-custom pill. (More on that below...)
Body dimensions
- OAL of head+body is 90mm.
Features starting from head:
- Bore in head is 21.8mm diameter, 20mm deep, with a square shoulder at the bottom for the pill to seat against.
- Pill threads are M18×1, 30mm deep from the head end (i.e. 10mm from shoulder), and are bare aluminum.
- Through-hole for battery is 15.1mm.
Starting from tail:
- 1.5-2mm step for o-ring
- Tail-cap threads M18×1, 9mm deep from tail end, again bare aluminum.
- After the threads, there’s a taper (purpose not entirely clear) from about 16.5mm down to 15.1mm over perhaps 6mm of length.
- Through-hole for battery is 15.1mm.
This host has plenty of room to bore it to 17mm, perhaps 17.2 or so, which I find exciting. You may be able to run some 17500, but AFAIK 14650 has same or better capacity than 17500 anyhow -- IMO the only point of boring it 50mm deep would be for an oddball single-emitter setup, maybe with 2s IMR15270 and an XHP70? But 3x XP-L with 14650 should be more lumen-hours, and not much less lumens.
Some 16650 options, OTOH, are really tempting -- a choice of high-capacity cells with over 2Ah honest capacity, or high-current cells that still best 14650 for capacity. There's just not room to bore the pill out that far, and still have strength in the threads, so you can't do electrical and thermal contact through the bare threads like the factory pill. But if you deanodize inside the head for a press-fit pill to make contact, it should all work out. I feel like, if you're doing the work for 14650, it's worth boring the body for 16650. (Bonus points if it'll run on 2xCR123 in a pinch.)
Of course, this is just guesswork -- looking at dimensions of components, I don't see why I can't shove a bezel (if present), optic, 3-up star, pill, and a FET driver in the first 15-17mm, and have room for a 65mm cell, but until I actually come up with a definite plan and sum up the numbers, I may well be mistaken.
