And...The 3-stage L0P mod!

[MillerMods]

Wow, this is one tuff crowd.

 

[Solstice]

That looks sweet! You mentioned that the 3 stage version may be more expensive: Care to quote a price?

Also, if you have a bit of disposable income, one way to make these mods more attractive to "impulse" buyers would be to purchase some L0Ps, do the mod, and then sell the completed units in order to simplify the whole process for the buyer.

I for one would much rather just paypal you $80 and get my snazzy new 3 stage light than paypal 4sevens with your address, wait for him to ship to you, paypal you, and then wait for you to ship to me.

I wouldn't be too critical of CPFers just because there hasn't been tons of posting going on- many people are very pleased that you are making this mod available. Not everyone posts often, and there are always so many lights vying for attention with only limited funds available to purchase them (at least in my case).

 

[GJW]

PM sent

 

[MillerMods]

That looks sweet! You mentioned that the 3 stage version may be more expensive: Care to quote a price?

Also, if you have a bit of disposable income, one way to make these mods more attractive to "impulse" buyers would be to purchase some L0Ps, do the mod, and then sell the completed units in order to simplify the whole process for the buyer.

I for one would much rather just paypal you $80 and get my snazzy new 3 stage light than paypal 4sevens with your address, wait for him to ship to you, paypal you, and then wait for you to ship to me.

I had quoted $28.00 for the 2-stage and that will stay, but the 3-stage is more difficult to add than the 2-stage so I'll be asking $9.00 more on the price.
I have 3 L0P's in stock to start out with. I'll be offering these premodified very soon. I'm charging $76.00 (this price may drop 5 dollars or so if I end up ordering them in bulk) for a 2-stage with the option of a boosted high level up to 1.5 watts or down to less than a watt or stock level on high. Add $9.00 for the 3rd stage.

 

[greg_in_canada]

I'm very excited about this light. A single level pocket screamer would be fun to have but wouldn't get much use (by me) because my Arc AAA is my EDC and fulfills my needs 80% of the time. The other times it is too bright (trying to read a program in a pitch black theatre) or too dim. So the L0P with this 3-level MillerMod should be close to 100% for me.

If I had gone with the 2-level I would have gotten stock brightness for high and Arc AAA brightness for low.

For my 3-level mod I chose stock for high, 1/3 current for medium and 1/9 for low. So I think that gives me about 30mA to the Luxeon on low, 90mA on medium and 270mA on high. I think that will work great for me.

I will certainly post a review as soon as I receive it and have used it a bit.

Greg

 

[CroMAGnet]

Bring it don't sing it! LOL ROTFL

I haven't been able to keep up with all your inventions MM but this as well as the others looks great and is temptimg me to have 47s ship mine to you. You'll probably get it here before andrew gets my nano done ehehhe.

It is a tough crowd and you're getting no respect yet. Unless I missed a thread or two (which is very possible) Let's get some of these into people hands so you can get the respect and orders you deserve. I recall you we're going to send me something for eval but I forget the details

Anyway, I'm going to check out JimH's L0P right now and I'll let you know if I like the form factor, power etc. Then I'll have to send a PP to 47s

I need a Miller Lite!!

Bring it on

 

[Monolith]

I'm charging $76.00 (this price may drop 5 dollars or so if I end up ordering them in bulk) for a 2-stage with the option of a boosted high level up to 1.5 watts or down to less than a watt or stock level on high. Add $9.00 for the 3rd stage.

I have a lithium direct drive luxeon solitaire that needs replacing. How might the 1.5 watt compare in brightness? Is the 1.5 watt mod available with the 3 stage switch? (I was thinking 1.5 watt on high 1 watt medium (stock?) and an extended run value on low) How much is the 1.5 watt option?

 

[MillerMods]

It is a tough crowd and you're getting no respect yet. Unless I missed a thread or two (which is very possible) Let's get some of these into people hands so you can get the respect and orders you deserve. I recall you we're going to send me something for eval but I forget the details

Bring it on

Thanks for your support I was looking around for a tester for my L1P circuit. The one that I sent out to Lunarmodule I figured out later was out of focus because of me shaving the ridge on the back of the reflector because I didn't have thermal epoxy. Instead I used thermal compound and used the reflector to hold down the lux. This turned out to be a mistake because the hotspot was twice the size but only slightly brighter. He did a whole review but he made one huge mistake, he said the current draw was 1.3 amps which is not what I measured with my Fluke at home or the one at my work, I measured 1.8 Amps draw, he messed me up here so I didn't much care for that especially when I asked him to delete that detail which is not correct (I hate cheap DMM's, they aren't accurate with rippled currents). Here is the link: https://www.candlepowerforums.com/threads/101480&page=2&pp=30
on page 2.
I've got several more L1P and L2P mods on the way to some folks. I just mailed out 4 mods yesterday so I hope to hear something soon.

 

[JJohn]

For my 3-level mod I chose stock for high, 1/3 current for medium and 1/9 for low. So I think that gives me about 30mA to the Luxeon on low, 90mA on medium and 270mA on high. I think that will work great for me.

Greg

I had almost the exact same thoughts. I sat down and figured out what I would do this weekend. High just a bit lower than stock 200-250mA to the LED, medium about 1/4 current, and low at about 1/10 or 25-30 ma to the LED. We must use lights in a similar manner. Is this really possible? When can this be done? What is the next step? This will obsolete my Arc and Peak 5mm lights.

John

 

[greg_in_canada]

Mine is done and Eric (MillerMods) is mailing it tomorrow. I'm hoping it obsoletes my Arc AAA which has been my EDC (and everyday use) light for 1.5 years.

Greg

 

[JJohn]

Greg: Please report your opinions when you receive it.

Eric: Paypal ready and waiting. And yes, I would prefer to just pay for the LOP with the 3-stage mod rather than worry about two transactions. Any estimates about runtimes at the lower levels? How flexible are you as to set current values? Are my previous post values easy to accomplish?

Thanks!
John

 

[BentHeadTX]

It is a tough crowd and you're getting no respect yet. Unless I missed a thread or two (which is very possible) Let's get some of these into people hands so you can get the respect and orders you deserve.
Bring it on

My MillerMods L1P is in the mail and I am very aware how picky us CPF'ers are when it comes down to reviews. (I am one of them) Since I have a longer pipeline time due to my location, I'll leave the pictures and beam shots to others.

I can bring meter readings to the table, the meter is calibrated yearly and is very accurate. My meter is a Fluke 189 true RMS (calibrated yearly) and a Cadex 7400ER will analyze the Powerex 2500 battery at the MM L1P's current draw (1.7 to 1.8 amps) to calculate runtimes to 1.00 volts (or lower if you want) Oh yeah, also have a infa-red temperature gun to evaluate the cooling ability of the mod to see how the little guy performs.

To get an accurate comparison, I'll use two stock L1P's, a BB500 R2H (an R bin at 500mA minimag with 20mm reflector) two Peak Mediterraneans, one with CR123A--the other 2AA NiMH. The MM L1P will be competing against three lights that put out 1.5 to 1.7 watts through R bins with reflectors... it will give an idea of how well his curcuit performs. I'll even throw a lithium AA battery in to check it against NiMH performance.

Once the Cadex haults the 1.7 to 1.8 amp load on the battey at 1.00V, I'll throw the battery into the modded light and test it's output on my light meter. This will give a very good idea how well it regulates to an almost dead battery. Sorry, no charts--just numbers but it will make the performance very clear.

Trimendo can post the pictures and beamshots VS stock L1P. I'll do the light meter readings, runtimes, current draw numbers and comparisons to modded minimags and Peak 1.5 watt LuxeonIII lights. We will do it consumer reports style, purchase the lights and run them through their paces so see how it all works out.

Enjoy your relaxation time, Miller--you might get your wish and be busy for the next few months!

 

[Solstice]

Like the others, paypal awaits once you say go.

A general question here: considering the Arc AAA is purported to run at 50mA, how does a modded L0P compare at this level? That is, how do the brightness and runtimes stack up? I'd expect the tint and overall beam quality to be better, but considering that I've heard the Nichia CS is the "lumen/watt leader," I suppose either the brightness or runtime must suffer when dealing with a luxeon.

Just curious so I'll have more of an idea of how I'd like my Millermod configured .

 

[MillerMods]

I had almost the exact same thoughts. I sat down and figured out what I would do this weekend. High just a bit lower than stock 200-250mA to the LED, medium about 1/4 current, and low at about 1/10 or 25-30 ma to the LED. We must use lights in a similar manner. Is this really possible? When can this be done? What is the next step? This will obsolete my Arc and Peak 5mm lights.

John

Yes I can do this without a hitch.

 

[MillerMods]

Greg: Please report your opinions when you receive it.

Eric: Paypal ready and waiting. And yes, I would prefer to just pay for the LOP with the 3-stage mod rather than worry about two transactions. Any estimates about runtimes at the lower levels? How flexible are you as to set current values? Are my previous post values easy to accomplish?

Thanks!
John

Runtime estimates for low at 30mA is 8 hours with a 900mAh cell, medium drives at about 90mA and will run for about 2.5-3 hours and high depends on how I set it (well really they all depend on how I set them), but stock is about an hour on high with a 900mAh cell. I can set pretty much any drive level I want within a tolerance of some error (20% at the most I'd say) for any of the 3 levels.

 

[MillerMods]

Like the others, paypal awaits once you say go.

A general question here: considering the Arc AAA is purported to run at 50mA, how does a modded L0P compare at this level? That is, how do the brightness and runtimes stack up? I'd expect the tint and overall beam quality to be better, but considering that I've heard the Nichia CS is the "lumen/watt leader," I suppose either the brightness or runtime must suffer when dealing with a luxeon.

Just curious so I'll have more of an idea of how I'd like my Millermod configured .

The L0P has an advantage and a disadvantage when compared to 5mm prefocused LED's. The L0P has much much more corona so the hotspot is only comprised of for maybe less than half of the light being produced. Don't get me wrong, the L0P is very efficent at 30 and 90mA, and the throw maybe just as good or better but intensity might be slightly less at the hotspot than with a 5mm LED at close range for the same drive level, you have to consider that it's a bit of apples and oranges here.

 

[greg_in_canada]

Greg: Please report your opinions when you receive it.

Eric: Paypal ready and waiting. And yes, I would prefer to just pay for the LOP with the 3-stage mod rather than worry about two transactions. Any estimates about runtimes at the lower levels? How flexible are you as to set current values? Are my previous post values easy to accomplish?

Thanks!
John

I certainly will.

Greg

 

[nekomane]

MM great work :thumbsup:
Sorry if this has been answered before, but are you willing to offer just the parts for the 2 stage switch?
Or would you do the mod if I just send in the tailcap? Prices?
I am planning on getting a L0P but want to stick with the stock circuit at the moment.

 

[MillerMods]

MM great work :thumbsup:
Sorry if this has been answered before, but are you willing to offer just the parts for the 2 stage switch?
Or would you do the mod if I just send in the tailcap? Prices?
I am planning on getting a L0P but want to stick with the stock circuit at the moment.

Thanks. The L0P uses a barrel that you turn to switch it on so there is no tail cap switch. My mod requires the circuit to be removed and destroyed in the process, it's not easy. The stock circuit is potted. I replace the circuit with my own. That's why this mod is a bit pricey, but I think I'm being very fair with the price considering.

 

[MillerMods]

I have a lithium direct drive luxeon solitaire that needs replacing. How might the 1.5 watt compare in brightness? Is the 1.5 watt mod available with the 3 stage switch? (I was thinking 1.5 watt on high 1 watt medium (stock?) and an extended run value on low) How much is the 1.5 watt option?

I have no idea how it would compare. What is it driving? Difference in reflectors will be a factor, the L0P may be better, I don't know. The 1.5 watt option is included in the price I stated. The circuit I designed can be adjusted to what ever drive I set it to on high upto 1.5 watts. It will draw 1.7 to 1.8 Amps from the cell though, so runtime on high with a 900mA NIMH cell will be about 20 minutes.