Cool, too bad you dont live closer- or else i would send you a couple of lights to test out for us.
Runtime on high is not bad at all.......especially for a high output light. Low would be awesome for use in long brownouts.
I was thinking of using this body for a XM-L upgrade, what do you guys think?
Using an AMC7135 multimode regulator, what du you think a tolerable maximum current would be in this body?
Is it running a risk of overheating if I use 6 or 7 amc chips (2100 or 2450mA)? Ambient temp during use would be in the range of 0-(-30) degrees Celsius.
Given the low temperatures, cooling sounds like it won't be a problem. However, quite a bit of heat will build up as it doesn't move so fast through stainless steel as aluminium.
Getting power out of the cells might be an issue at the low end of the temperature range.
I'd not choose this head/body for a hard driven XM-L myself, it isn't particularly hard driven as stock and this is probably for thermal reasons.
Cool review, thanks for the information. The runtime graphs are interesting indeed. Doesn't look to be direct drive? the fact that it has modes should mean there is some form of switching powersupply though... most likely some basic PWM. Also, the emitter appears to be the smaller 900 die, not the bigger 1000. There is a visible orange band around the emitter. This means it cant be an R2 emitter?
Concerning the XM-L upgrade, Id be concerned about the heat generated, however if driven as the original LED was driven, there should infact be less heat generated given the higher efficiency of the XM-L, assuming the way the driver responds to the different LED Vf doesn't increase current significantly. It would be a great floody light thought.
AFAIK, the EZ900 die first appeared around the time of the Q5 and was used for all XR-E LEDs after that. The orange band is diagnostic of the EX900 die.
Leaving an XM-L at the stock drive level would probably give an increase in brightness, but I doubt the beam would be very pretty.
Nice pictures. Is there a way to polish it to flawless mirror finish?
Probably. I tried briefly but got bored. Best bet would be to chuck it up in a lathe, spin it slowly and apply appropriate polishing compounds.
Or a lot of effort and a tube of Solvol Autosol, my preferred (aggressive) metal polish.
Personally, I prefer the more matt finish of the SH-034 but that's a matter of taste. I went looking under the sink and spent five minutes with a can of metal polish dating back to before 1971 as the price label was in the currency we abandoned then. Anyway, having put some water into the can, shaken it then spent five minutes polishing, this is what it looks like.
Awesome. Thanks for the time and effort. I will try that on the C3 SS.
The C3 SS is also a more matte finish. I polished the heads of some more lights. The SH-032 has a glossier finish than most, the Trustfire F25 is probably shinier, at least when polished.
But here are four lights shined up a bit.
I like both brushed aluminum look and polished, i like polished more. The in between not.
Thanks for doing it as i understood you don't particularly like the polished look.
I'm not actually bothered that much about it, I prefer a brushed finish to a highly polished one mostly because high gloss finishes get manky quite quickly. A fingerprint on a high-gloss finish looks bad, but won't even show up on a brushed finish. The degree of polish would have no effect at all on my buying choices. The first stainless light I bought was the RL-118, I can't now remember whether the C3SS or the SH-032 came next. The much-missed Trustfire F22 I lost in Lanarkshire was shinier than the C3SS but I liked it more. I have an R5 version on the way to replace it with. That F22 had the nicest beam of anything I own.
They all needed cleaning anyway....
There is a guy on CPF spends days polishing lights to a mirror finish. Off to dig out the Dremel and some toothpaste too see how shiny i can get the Aurora.
You can see the residues on the Aurora. That C3 has been in my bag and pockets for several years. It is pretty tough.
Stainless steel is a real bugger to polish, it's just so hard. Use progressively finer grades of wet and dry before making a mess with autosol, or stop at the wet and dry stage for brushed finish. It's a real pain to remove scratches because you have to remove so much metal to get down to the same level as the bottom of the scratch and like I said, S/S is just so damn hard. S/S belt buckles / horse bits, etc, are polished in a big rotating drum filled with wax impregnated wood chips (well they were at the foundry I saw anyways), and that takes days !
Personaly I prefer to convince myself that "well worn and dog-eared" is the look I wanted all along :)