jchock
Newly Enlightened
OK, I have had a KL3 gen 1 sitting around for a bit, but it's not only dimmer than anything else I've got LED wise, it has a blue purple tint that drives me batty (I recall when SF started making these that people here were talking about how SF was binning the lights to get them whitest of the white and I put mine on the 9Z body and I got blue... sigh).
So, when I got parts to mod my Metal Gear, I got a spare reflector and some resistors to sit down and mod my KL3. So, following the directions that Chop and CM laid out in a prior thread, I hand ground my McR-27 and removed the R10 and R47 resistors and replaced them with R05 and R15 resistors (respectively). I replaced the blue Lux 1 with a TWOH Lux III.
Now I stupidly wiped the reflector negating the week of hand turning the reflector down and now I'd guess it only reflects about 80% of what it should... Sigh. (crap crap crap crap crap...)
So, I put them back together (using O-rings for now instead of a delrin spacer as Chop did as I haven't gotten to the Hardware store to buy the nylon washer to modify it) and turn it on... It works so I rush over to my lux meter...
2500lux/1m (ok) then it starts falling... and falling... and falling... and it steadies out about 2000lux/1m and at one point (on used batts) dropped down to 1500lux/1m. Now this sucks. I have a Nuwai that does way better than that. My Metal Gear mod is almost twice that (3600lux vs 2000lux).
Now I have to wonder if it needs to be altered again. If I can have a 2xCR123 light that puts out 3600 lux/1m, did I gain anything but runtime with a 3xCR123 light that is about as bright as my Nuwai (but might last 6x as long vs. the R123 in the Nuwai Q3)?
Does anyone have any suggestions aside from ordering another reflector and trying to keep my fat fingers out of it as I hand sand the thing down to fit (Can this be re-glazed instead?)? Mod the resistors again (lay another R15 on top of the other R15?)? Leave it alone so that it works and stays in regulation, etc?
So, when I got parts to mod my Metal Gear, I got a spare reflector and some resistors to sit down and mod my KL3. So, following the directions that Chop and CM laid out in a prior thread, I hand ground my McR-27 and removed the R10 and R47 resistors and replaced them with R05 and R15 resistors (respectively). I replaced the blue Lux 1 with a TWOH Lux III.
Now I stupidly wiped the reflector negating the week of hand turning the reflector down and now I'd guess it only reflects about 80% of what it should... Sigh. (crap crap crap crap crap...)
So, I put them back together (using O-rings for now instead of a delrin spacer as Chop did as I haven't gotten to the Hardware store to buy the nylon washer to modify it) and turn it on... It works so I rush over to my lux meter...
2500lux/1m (ok) then it starts falling... and falling... and falling... and it steadies out about 2000lux/1m and at one point (on used batts) dropped down to 1500lux/1m. Now this sucks. I have a Nuwai that does way better than that. My Metal Gear mod is almost twice that (3600lux vs 2000lux).
Now I have to wonder if it needs to be altered again. If I can have a 2xCR123 light that puts out 3600 lux/1m, did I gain anything but runtime with a 3xCR123 light that is about as bright as my Nuwai (but might last 6x as long vs. the R123 in the Nuwai Q3)?
Does anyone have any suggestions aside from ordering another reflector and trying to keep my fat fingers out of it as I hand sand the thing down to fit (Can this be re-glazed instead?)? Mod the resistors again (lay another R15 on top of the other R15?)? Leave it alone so that it works and stays in regulation, etc?
