ARC LS + XR-E

So, I'm just getting into the XR-E bandwagon and figured I'd play around with some spare parts I had. Mix an Arc LS, FLUpic, P3 XR-E, and IMS17 and this is what you get…







The following shots are taken 2' from back of light my tent at a fixed exposure. Sorry about the blooming. I wanted to take these at a farther distance, but the beam from this reflector is sooo wide, I couldn't move my camera setup back far enough to cature the whole spill area. (Plus, my room is a mess.)



Low…





High…





Burst…









I LOVE the beam from this IMS17. It is great for close to midrange work. No unusably tight beam, no rings, no donuts. The home sputtering job was done using clear auto body paint. According to my dieing lightbox, I lost an insignificant amount of total light output. I also cutdown an McR18 to fit as well, with similar results, but the with the plastic IMS I don't have the contact shorting issues as with the aluminum McR.



Now for the embarrassing photo:





The LED is actually elevated off of the emitter board using a cut and filed penny in order to prevent shorting the contact pads and to provide some thermal relief. Well, at 1.2A on burst, that little bit of copper is nowhere near enough. Light output initially starts out in the range of some of my V-bin LuxV's, but plummets quickly due to heat. Since I had it all AA'd together, I figured I'd just go whole hog and pot the whole mass. It helps stabilize the light output, but there is still a big enough drop that burst should only be used as it is titled…in bursts. Next time, I'll do better. This was more of an experiment for myself. Just getting my feet wet and testing the waters if you will. Actually, my first XR-E project was my RR lantern…now XR-E powered. :naughty:




-DF

With a clicky that would be close to my ideal flashlight
The Arc LS is such a beautifull light!
Nice job!

that's excellent!

:goodjob:

Nice, D. :rock: Better than anything I could hack together! On Burst it looks like you could do Lasik with that thing!

:goodjob:
EM

Cool ! Thanx for showing !!
My beloved old ArcLS is one candidate for an upgrade in the future, once the dust about those new LEDs has settled.
bernie

Hey, wow, what a nice mod ! Great platform ! It's so rugged, as you can see it in the pic. Not the easiest, but I see you managed to screw the bezel all the way down . Keep us posted on any progress, keep up the good work. Cheers !

EDIT: Just noticed your IMS 17 is sputtered, is this always the case ? The 2 IMS 17s I own are like mirror-polished... However, 1 melted due to the heat produced by Cree emitter . Cheers !

Thanks everyone for the compliments.

Regarding the IMS, they are indeed smooth reflectors. I did the sputtering job myself using clear auto body paint. Just barely press the tip down to get the paint to "spit" out almost like the nozzle was clogged and this surface is what you end up with. I've been doing the same thing to my plastic Mag reflectors with great success.

KnOeFz said:

With a clicky that would be close to my ideal flashlight
The Arc LS is such a beautifull light!

Click to expand...

I actually had a kroll switch on it, but it occasionally had a bit of "rebound" action which would cause the FLUpic to select the next item in its UI. The twistie isn't too bad, but I too prefer clickies.

-DF

Nice mod DFiorentino! I've been itching to do the exact same mod (except I've got a P4 XR-E) and have all the ingredients already, but didn't quite know where to start with it. You've inspired me to do mine now.

I have a few questions about your mod if you don't mind sharing. It looks like you've sanded down the top and bottom of the IMS17, do you have the final height measurement of reflector? Figuring out the bottom side should be easy, just keep sanding until the Cree fits through. I'm just not sure how much to take off the top.

Next is the order of your pill/sandwich. Your write-up and pic indicates that it should be the following:

- Cree XR-E
- filed and cut-down bit of copper penny
- emitter board
- FLuPIC
- copper slug??

The only part that puzzles me is the thing (I'm assuming it's a copper slug of some sort) on the bottom. If it is indeed a copper slug, wouldn't it short against the GND and LED+ wires on the battery contact side? Or is that your battery contact? Or do you have a pic of the underside of the pill?

It also looks like you didn't use the original metal retainer ring in the front bezel to hold the reflector since you didn't clip off the "fins" of the IMS17, how do you keep it centered?

Avro