Silviron
Flashlight Enthusiast
The new $12.** 3AAA 3 LED Brinkmann LED from Walmart that I reviewed earlier HERE was pretty sad. So I modded it>
Replaced the weak 5mm LEDS with three Direct Drive SX1J Luxeon emitters:
Bored out the tailcap a bit to hold a 18650 LiION, tapped the back for a Kroll switch, Made as large a heatsink as I could fit in:
Had to grind out the bottom of the OEM reflector a bit for the Luxeons to fit:
Using the original 'optic'... Primarily because three 17mm IMS reflectors won't fit in the head... (not even 2 would fit):
(those little rings of white dots in the photo are the reflection of my homemade LED macro ring light on the camera)
It pulls ~ 2 amps off a freshly charged 18650, so each led is running at about 660ma. At 1 meter it puts out 1600 LUX (peak) of pretty nice white light.
Kind of a weird beam pattern: the square from the LED die/phosphor is repeated by the optic into an interlocked Y shape pattern with some kind of odd artifacts:
Although some of the artifacts are caused by the slots in the bezel:
Yeah, it gets a little warm... it is well heatsunk, but the small overall size of the light doesn't dissipate heat as fast as a similar mod on a M@g etc. Doesn't seem to get hot enough to deep fry the LEDs, but I wouldn't want it to get much warmer.
Throw is fair; Better than I expected given the cheesy reflector optic combination. I'd call it a 'good 65 meter light'....
It lights up the side of a house 75 yards away, but for tactical use, you would want it a little brighter at that distance. It has about 85% of the throw of my 3X 3watt M@g mods using IMS 17 or 20 mm reflectors and about the same beam spread at a given distance.
It is an OK light, but I don't recommend it as a first choice for a modding platform: takes a LOT of work for a mediocre performing platform.... Still, it does put out a fair amount of light for a small package.
Replaced the weak 5mm LEDS with three Direct Drive SX1J Luxeon emitters:
Bored out the tailcap a bit to hold a 18650 LiION, tapped the back for a Kroll switch, Made as large a heatsink as I could fit in:
Had to grind out the bottom of the OEM reflector a bit for the Luxeons to fit:
Using the original 'optic'... Primarily because three 17mm IMS reflectors won't fit in the head... (not even 2 would fit):
(those little rings of white dots in the photo are the reflection of my homemade LED macro ring light on the camera)
It pulls ~ 2 amps off a freshly charged 18650, so each led is running at about 660ma. At 1 meter it puts out 1600 LUX (peak) of pretty nice white light.
Kind of a weird beam pattern: the square from the LED die/phosphor is repeated by the optic into an interlocked Y shape pattern with some kind of odd artifacts:
Although some of the artifacts are caused by the slots in the bezel:
Yeah, it gets a little warm... it is well heatsunk, but the small overall size of the light doesn't dissipate heat as fast as a similar mod on a M@g etc. Doesn't seem to get hot enough to deep fry the LEDs, but I wouldn't want it to get much warmer.
Throw is fair; Better than I expected given the cheesy reflector optic combination. I'd call it a 'good 65 meter light'....
It lights up the side of a house 75 yards away, but for tactical use, you would want it a little brighter at that distance. It has about 85% of the throw of my 3X 3watt M@g mods using IMS 17 or 20 mm reflectors and about the same beam spread at a given distance.
It is an OK light, but I don't recommend it as a first choice for a modding platform: takes a LOT of work for a mediocre performing platform.... Still, it does put out a fair amount of light for a small package.
