After reading RaceR86’s post about this light I ordered a couple for myself. I’m camping next week with a couple of friends and thought these would be great gifts for my non-lithium friends.
I modified the first one essentially the same way RaceR did using an Int’l Outdoor NW P60 but while I was doing it I got to thinking (always dangerous and usually expensive), so this is what I did this evening.
First, the original 3AA light.
Original plastic reflector and pill.
The pill is little more than a threaded ring with a small raised shelf for the LED and driver to sit on, they are both lightly pressed in.
After I removed the LED and driver I made a few measurements then cut a 9mm piece of 3/4” copper rod. The rod is slightly larger diameter than the inner diameter of the “shelf” so I filed the bottom 2mm of the new pill until is was a nice tight press fit. I then filled the gap above the shelf with artic alumina. Photos are prior to final lapping of the pill.
To mount the new driver I filed the top of a P60 pill flat and attached it to the underside of the threaded pill with AA, it was a nice snug fit.
Added three XP-E2s in parallel and a KD V2 moonlight driver set to 3 modes with memory.
All that was left to do was add a little thermal paste on the threads and a Carlco clear, tight optic.
I get just under 3A at the tailcap on fresh eneloops and the head gets plenty hot on high, the thermal path seems to be better than I expected.
I may just pick up a couple more and make one for myself, just have to decide if I want XP-E2s, XP-G2s or Nichias. I was hoping the XP-E2s would provide a tighter beam, it doesn’t look much different than my XP-G2 triples.
