The lens was a bit hazy when viewed from the back side on the one I modified, and the focal length is pretty long. The pill is probably the harder situation for most people to modify. It’s got a big X in it that’s all air on the emitter shelf. Drilling it out and affixing your own shelf for the MCPCB is a must if you want to run much current. On the plus side mine had a genuine Omten switch in the tail.
I bet I’m losing at least 10% with the LED defocused, so the lens should be capable of 200kcd or more. In flood mode it’s actually very smooth, wide, and even, without the rings and other artifacts I’m used to with the cheap glass lenses in Uniquefire’s.
Edit: The lens in the second one did not have the slight haze in parts of the flast side of the lens.
I’m ordering 2 A249’s from Optolife as replacements for the stock lens. At $12 they’re not super cheap, so hopefully they perform a lot better in throw.
I’ll add some sort of collar to limit lens travel to match the new lenses.
I forgot to mention, I hit it from the driver side. No idea if it works from the LED side.
I was let down by Optolife, they didn’t have the 52mm lens I wanted to buy in stock. I may have to ask MEM what he recommends. He was asking me about hosts with a 52mm lens.
In post 59 I mentioned that it measures 190kcd, but is slightly defocused so it’s probably capable of a slightly higher number with the stock lens and an S3 3C dedomed in full focus.
Thanks Kloepper. It worked. I don’t see any glue. I guess they are just screwed in so hard they stick. I guess the penetrating oil must have helped, but it didn’t come out till I used a hammer.
The driver was also crimped in, instead of just pushed as usual.
Hm, what do you think about just replacing one of the emitters with a different color? Or switching the wires around to choose which of the three comes on first?
I’d like to try making it amber first, then warm, then cool.
I don’t suppose we’re lucky enough that anything commonly available matches the host’s threads, to just substitute something for the existing pill and hold a new emitter and driver board (sigh).
The pill doesn’t look so bad to me for high power. The gaps are narrow, and it seems reasonably flat. Maybe a copper disc under the copper star would help. With its stock lens, this seem it would be good with a big LED. Too bad it isn’t 2 x 26650.
The aluminum coated plastic disc holing the star in was also hard to get out. It is forced rather than screwed in. They really assembled this thing with vigor.
The star is 27 mm.
Though the pill is somewhat odd, it's large and fairly heavy. the pill top/shelf has huge holes (X pattern), but what's there is very thick and just might be good enough to pull heat and provide support for a tapping a couple of screws.
The Maxtoch 26's are the closest (MtnE or BG), or work down a 31.5, but lot of work. For the driver, I would piggyback one in - using the stock driver as a contact - done' lots this way, and it's a cavernous pill.
