I upgraded a few lights with the XM-L2 and found them to be slightly brighter than the cool tints of the t6’s I swapped.
I swapped my zy-t08 and my Coast Hp50 and both were noticeable. My t08 gained a good bit of throw with a dedomed xm-l2 versus the dedomed t6 and my coast has a much brighter pleasing flood to it. Though zoomed in it doesnt do much justice toward the swap, it really isn’t noticeably brighter or throwier.
I do however love the warmer tint and my dedome is VERY warm and pleasing to my eye. I DO NOT like cool lights, neutral is the coolest I want.
The forward voltage of XML2 is higher than XML so you’ll need a higher cell voltage if you want to drive your led at 3000 mA. If you just replace the LEDs you may be getting a lower current on XML2 and getting the same power as the original LED. You’ll need your cells topped up, current strictly controlled and/or use a 2 cell light to be able to make a proper comparison. A direct drive light would not be suitable for such test.
There seems to be some confusion about my purpose in this thread.
This thread is the tantalizing and thrilling story of an old guy replacing EXISTING T6 emitters (Whatever they may be — Tint CB76 lawnmower carp 78B) with XM-L2s from lck-led. This experiment is what it is. I hope some find it helpful. If not, then they can skip the thread and read one more to their liking.
At the end of the day with the two lights I used — the aforemetioned Small Sun and a Aurabuy C8 — the emitter changeout was not worth it TO ME, for the reasons I have already stated throughout this thread. Little gain in PERCEIVED light output and a tint to me that renders everything in the desert an unappealing yellowish orange.
Rather than do this emitter swap in a closed room and closely guarding the results, I decided to share the results on BLF.
YES, comparing the existing T6 in the Small Sun with the orangey tint of the L2 is DEFINITELY comparing apples and oranges. It was done intentionally. ;) ;) Because I thought — like me — quite a few modders here are contemplating changing out existing T6s for L2s. By using one of the most popular lights here on BLF (the Small Sun T08) and one of the cheapest (aurabuy C8), I hoped to provide a hint of what modders can expect with the L2, imperfectly fitting 21-mm star in the T08 and all.
I could change out the existing driver in these lights for a P78yh65 Cow Head Nanjiboom Exploding Smiling Gopher Bat and get more power, but that was not the point of my failed experiment. It was to see if simply switching an existing (whatever tint it may be) T6 for the new sooper-dooper L2 would light up the 38 miles from my house to the nearest gast station. It didn’t. :–0
If anyone has success with an L2 in any stock light, I hope that they will post the results here on BLF!
And once again. I appreciate all the suggestions from everyone and all their keen observations. Hopefully they will aid others in maximizing the L2 i whatever light they choose!
I have never bought from LCK-LED, but even the best make mistakes. There's no way to know what a bare emitter is once it's snipped off the reel, and you might not get what you ordered either because of honest mistakes or lazy and/or unscrupulous resellers. Your findings do not match what others have done with what are supposedly the same parts. You need to dig into this a little more instead of just getting bad results and then condemning all XM-L2s as worthless. :)
>>>>>>Wow, what a breathtaking landscape. Must swallow up any light you can throw out there.
Yes, it does. Lights that seem like the brightest on the planet in the city seem ineffectual out here.
>>>>>Nice clean air and you can see out as far as the eye can see.
Yes, the air is USUALLY very good. But lately we have been getting some air pollution from China (especially sand storms from Mongolia) that really hazes everything up. They even announce it on the radio here when it happens. This Chinese haze was nonexistent 10-15 years ago.
>>>>>Do you have scorpions out there?
We’re at 5000 feet in the mountains above Death valley proper so it has just started to warm up …. And I have been finding scorpions for the first time with my BLF-member-suggested UV light. BOY does it make them show up!!! Fluorescent glow-in-the-dark green. Pictures don’t do justice to how bright the UV lights makes them.
With the Uv light, it has given us a chance to really check ’em out. They seem incredibly docile and eager to avoid humans at all costs. Which explains why I have only been stung once in 25 years. You really have to beat on them to make them show any aggression at all.
>>>>>Wow, living that far away from anything you really dont like people, do you?
There are plenty of people here. Death Valley has over a million visitors a year …. And MANY of those visitors are German! I have been in area restaurants where Germans outnumber the locals two to one. French too. And the Germans almost always come in the summer.
I think this is a good thread. It’s good for people thinking about upgrading to see the good and bad. Gives a better feel for the potential outcomes they may experience themselves. It also shows that if you don’t need NW, you may be able to get more bang for the buck with XML U3’s.
I have only upgraded 2 lights and built one with the XML2 (T8 3C). I’m very happy with them, but I don’t feel compelled to upgrade the remainder. At least not until prices drop significantly.
I appreciate you doing this thread & posting up your personal experiences with XM-l2 swaps. I personally had just the opposite results and posted them above. And I feel likely something was wrong with the LED’s you received. None the less, it is important for you and others to post useful info like this up. This could indicate an issue of a batch batch of xml2’s, possibly your seller has sold the wrong LED’s, or possibly who knows - but it’s always useful to have test results and personal experiences on forums like this. And yes your post title is a little controversial, but it doesn’t mean your wrong. If I was there with your same lights, I might be seeing and saying the same thing.
So thanks for your post.
My 1st budget light purchased were light C8 LU3 powered by 3400 maH protected Panasonics and was impressed a couple of weeks later I read a post bout the newer XML2-U2 as being the new king of the hill in xml series so I ordered a Kiadomain.C8XML2-U2. when it came in I couldn’t wait for sun to go down to compare beams well iwas a little disappointed as there was almost no visual difrence other than XML 2 being a little cooler tint than XMLU3
It’s already been hashed about, the fact that going from XM-L to XM-L2 U2 or even U3 may not net much of a visible difference unless the driver is replaced with one that will drive the LED harder. I’m a firm believer in the logarithmic levels required to see any appreciable difference for the naked human eye.
However, there is one benefit you may be getting without realizing it — increased run time. If you get at least a 20% increase in run time, that makes it a worthwhile investment to upgrade if you intend to use the light frequently.
I have a NovaTac 120P that provides sufficient lumens for my uses, but what bothers me about it is the anemic run time relative to what the newer emitters provide. I intend to replace it with a new emitter down the road, and all I’m expecting is longer run time without an appreciable boost in output. I know there will be some, because coming from Luxeon V can’t help it, but the longer duration of run time is the key motivation.
This, I’m literally blown away by my 3a aly star xp-g2 convoy l2, I cant wait to get to upgrade it to a sink pad and up the current but for me, I find the xp-g2 much more interesting than the xm-l2.
I am planning on building up a c8 pill with an xp-g2 later on this year, I just need to get a convoy c8 host first, then I can just swap pills/reflectors, find my ideal set up and go from there. I strongly suspect that it will be an xp-g2 with a 3a qlite driver and the hybrid xp-g reflector I have.
My most used light is my Convoy M1, XM-L U2 2.8Amps. It has Low-Med-High, 5, 40, 100%
Estimated lumens 5% (50 lumens), 40% (400 lumens), 100% (800 lumens)
In a room its easy to tell the difference between 5% and 40, but barely a difference between 40 and 100%.
Outdoors if i light up a tree thats 5ft over my head, again i can only somewhat tell the difference between 40% and 100%
If i light up a tree some distance away i can easily tell the difference between 40% and 100%.
If i’m lighting up a dark trail i can once again easily tell the difference between 40% and 100%
Our eyes adjust to the amount of light, and a spot a short distance away seems saturated with light at 40, and you can’t get much more then saturated, so 100 doesn’t seem much brighter
When dispersed over a larger distance that 40% saturates the illuminated area far less then the 100%
So the 10-20% increase from XM-L to XM-L2 is not worth it in a small room, and only useful for large spaces, and even then you can’t reliably tell that its 10% brighter
I use medium most of the time if i am in a room that only marginally lights up better if i go to high, and i get the benefit of longer battery life
Another twist, my two CFLs that light the same room mentioned above are 1600 lumens each for a 3200 lumen total, but i can easily tell the difference between them and two 60W equivalent which would be 1500 lumens total.
In this case I’m guessing the difference lies in the flashlight being a spotlight instead of omnidirectional lighting of a lightbulb, and the fact that the flashlight lights up the room by bouncing off the wall or ceiling, so indirectly. So again it defeats determining lumens by eye.
Maybe you got a lower Bin and the position of the led relative to the reflector are different that is why the hotspots look different, I upgraded my TN31 with a XM-L2 that I reflowed to he same Copper MPCB board and the hotspot remained exactly the same but the intensity of the beam was noticeably brighter.
Good to see that you weren’t willing to give up on this project…! And out there who would know?!
Thanks for the pics. Used to drive around there back in HS days w dad in the family wagon, had the old canvas water bag on the front of the radiator of the car, canvas tarp & tent poles to create shade mid-day and massive Cibie and Marchal driving lights that just disappeared into the inky darkness for night crawls on some knarly roads…thanks for making me think of those trips.
Stock, my experience says U3 over L2 everytime, w budget lights that I have multiples of. Same w some P60’s as well.
>>>>>>>Stock, my experience says U3 over L2 everytime,
>>>>>>>w budget lights that I have multiples of. Same w some P60’s as well.
I ordered the kai domain C8 U3 recently and regretted it the next day. WTH did I order that for? I have like 10 C8s at this point.
But the regret vaporized when it arrived two weeks later last Friday. That light beats just about every C8-C2-C12 clone that I have, including the unbeatable famous xin and a couple u3 self-modded lights.
The thing I love about the light is that it never seems to dim. Even at 3.8 volts, it STILL beats every other light I have. That thing is bRIGHT. How bright? Well, I just ordered a lux meter because my other light meters really aren’t suitable for this kind of measurement, so I’ll know soon enough.
Further, last night, I was bored. So against my better judgement, I put a fasttech U3 into a Uniquefire C108, a nice light with meh performance with its stock T6.
All I can say is wow!!! WOW WOW WOW.
Now here is a recommended simple mod. Not as bright as my new kaidomain C8, but darn close. What a thrower!!! With the existing T6 in the C108, no fourth phone pole in my testing range was visible. With the new U3 in it, that fourth DARK pole against a dark background lights up like no tomorrow. (I can’t do pictures of the pole for another couple weeks. There has been a HUGE moth hatch out here and I am absolutely COVERED in moths — including bird-size sphinx moths — within 10 seconds of turning on any light.)
But I haven’t given up on the xm-L2. I also ordered the famous light malls C8 XM-L2, and will put that up against the other C8s.
Finally, I REALLY REALLY hope that the people who have had great luck with L2 upgrades will get some beam shots up on BLF showing how it does in real world situations.
I hear ya