P60 Pocket Aspheric thrower build

I recently purchased the Ultrafire WF-501a 1xCR123A host from MF with the intention being to build a pocket-sized asperic thrower "just because I can". (I know some here don't care for aspherics.) I had an existing XR-E dropin with a bad driver and a spare emitter that was claimed to be a R2 bin. I also had the DX 28mm aspheric optic and a number of CR123A cells. Along with the host, I purchased this driver from MF but was very disappointed with the results. With a 3V CR123A cell, the tailcap current only read 130mA. I do get a nicely focused hotspot, but it is much too dim in this configuration.

One thing I have noticed is that the MF 1-mode and 5-mode versions of this driver share the same photo:

My driver, while looking the same, has three of the outer pins on one of the two ICs shorted together with a solder blob that looks intentional. Is this how the mode selection is made? And if so, is it possible that mine was incorrectly shorted to a constant "low" mode? Or is this driver not able to work with the lower voltage of the 3V CR123A cell?

Can anyone recommend a suitable driver for this application?

I don't know the answer to your question, and don't know much about aspherics. But a while back I bought an aspheric lens for my L2P / Nailbender 3.1A XML combo, and the beam turned purple and was so ugly I couldn't bring myself to even do any testing with it. Why would the beam turn purple? There are plenty of aspheric budget zoomy lights that don't have a purple beam?

Were you also using a reflector? If so that explains the ugly beam. The purple I’m guess is refraction maybe due to refraction helped along with the reflector as well?
Some aspherics are just better made than others it seems but none of them work well with a reflector.

That driver is for one li-on, not one primary. 3v just isn't enough.

I've been working on a p60/XP-C/Aspheric build but I guess the lenses I have just aren't going to cut it.

what size Aspheric Len's are u guys using for your builds?

i have few 27.2mm Aspheric Len's that might work great in your flashlight

I have one of the DX 28mm optics, but it's one I bought a couple of years ago so it's a good one; more recent reviews have shown that the newer ones aren't as good.

http://www.dealextreme.com/p/glass-optics-for-flashlights-28mm-5297

The driver is not a boost driver, so the voltage needs to be higher than the forward voltage of the LED, plus a fraction of a volt 'overhead.'

The DEFT EDC lenses are the best ones I've seen for P60 builds. The short back focal length is a great match for the wider angles of emission of the XP-G and XM-L.

While plastic, they are better than all of the under-$60 glass lenses I have tested.

I can focus the lenses I got from DX, the results are just really poor. I was getting 1/3 the lux I was expecting.

I just broke down and ordered a few of the ahorton lenses.