Streamlight TwinTask 2D modded with Quad CREE Q5

I had a bunch of CREE Q5 stars laying around that I pulled from various torches (to upgrade them to MC-E) and felt like putting together a multi Q5 torch. Also in my box of left over parts were a metal slab to use as a heatsink, two P7/MC-E 3A buck drivers from DX, two 3AA-D battery carriers and a tactical forward click switch from KD (not to mention all sorts of springs, wire, epoxies, screws, etc.) and six Duraloop AAs.

For ~$4 I got a quad CREE collimator lens from DX that I had always been curious about. (I always liked the TaskForce 2C and other single CREE+collimator flashlights.)

I had originally intended to throw all this into a new (red) Mag 2D, but looking at my collection decided I needed to diversify a bit more than just a color change. For about the same price, I picked up a beat-up old Streamlight TwinTask 2D torch.

I'd heard how the higher end aluminum Streamlight torches are built like Sherman tanks so I figured I'd give it a go. Getting the 10 LED + 1 Xenon light assembly out of the TwinTask took some effort, it was epoxed in at the factory. Unfortunately, replacing the polycarb lens for glass was a no-go. On this model, the lens is press fit with a beveled edge and must be flexed into place. Not a big deal, the collimator is plastic also, so this kind of continues on the theme. The lens is pretty scratched up but it's completely unbreakable and hides a couple of small marks I carelessly made on the quad collimator lens.

I removed the driver board that the stock 3-way switch is mounted on and replaced it with the KD tactical switch shimmed by some clear tubing and a woodwn dowel. A machine screw runs through the dowel, holding the spring I used for positive contact in place, secured on top with a nut to keep the whole switch assemby together. That kind of switch is capable of surprisingly high current. When testing for a short beyond one of those switches with a multimeter, I once measured (briefly) 18A. I quickly removed the leads, corrected the short and found the switch no worse for the wear.

I tapped a hole on the inside of the head on a diagonal, at the top of the switch assembly. The screw holds the assembly in place and also serves as the ground contact. PC-Farenheit heat-proof putty epoxy coveres everything, leaving only the two lead wires exposed. At this point, I could drop some serious power into this host, but that poly lens beckons me to continue with the quad Q5 collimator combo.

I test first with two drivers, each powering two Q5's in parallel. Too much heat and one driver whistles. The drivers are already puttied together to protect from shorts so I simply desolder one entirely and connect all four LED leads to the other. Bingo. Heat I can live with and about an hour of runtime off 6AAs. It works just as well with six Alkaline batteries so this torch can easily be given to a non-flashaholic in the future.

:EDIT: I rewired the LEDs in series and replaced the drivers describe above with a DX 26106 boost driver described in post #5 below

This well worn tank of a light is smaller than a Mag 2D, brighter than one or two of my weaker MC-E torches and has a really nice beam pattern - super tight spot, but much to my surprise a nice bright spill not unlike a good reflector. Every other collimator I've had before was all spot and no spill.

Some pics:

The Host:

Compared to Mag 2D:

Completed:

Pos contact replaced with spring:

Rebuilt switch assembly:

Putty epoxy (PC-Fahrenheit) isolates from shorts:

Quad collimator Q5s:


(Most of these pics were taken with my phone.)

Very cool. Looking forward to the beamshots

Will

wquiles said:

Very cool. Looking forward to the beamshots

Will

Click to expand...

Thanks. I discovered that the lens can be removed by first removing a well hidden rubber gasket. The lens must be flexed ever so slightly and it has a beveled edge so a glass relplacement would not do. I put this one right back in but it's nice to know it can be changed if necessary.

Beamshots up next...

Beamshots at 30 feet from wall and 12 feet from wall (camera at 31ft):

All shots taken at fixed ISO 200, F4, 1/4 sec. exposure, auto white balance.

Control shots provided with room lights on (six incandescent hi-hats on full) and off.

Test subjects include:
1. warm white CREE P4 @ 1A, 18mm MOP
2. cool whtie MC-E 2p2s DD 6AAA NiMH, Fraen 34mm reflector
3. cool white MC-E DD 3C NiMH, 40mm MOP reflector
4. 4*CREE Q5, DX 20330 regulator, 6AA NiMH, quad-collimator (this Streamlight mod)
5. 3*neutral white MC-E, DD 3C NiMH, OP triflector
6. 3*cool white MC-E 6p2s, DD (.23ohm resistance) 2x26650 IMR, OP triflector


*Edit: This 4*CREE Q5 driven by the DX 20330 driver is no longer brighter than the cool white MC-E in the 34mm Fraen reflector, now that I've rewired that MCE torch to 4P and installed a 2.8A 8*7135 driver. The pics below are outdated with regard to the brightness of the MC-E in the 34mm Fraen.



















This Streamlight Mod at 30ft:

















This Streamlight Mod at 12ft:

I seem to not be able to leave lights I've already completed alone lately. After changing the power and driver configuration of the 2C sized torch I compared this torch to above, so that it is now rigtfully brighter than this torch as an MC-E should be (see edit comment atop post #4), I then changed the wiring and driver in this one too.

The darn DX 20330 driver had a really annoying buzz whenever the batteries weren't fully topped off. Besides the buzz being annoying, I was concerned that whatever causes the buzzing might caue the driver to fail eventually. I rewired the Q5s in series and installed a DX 26106 driver instead which accepts 5v-8.4v in and drives up to 5 LEDs in series @~800mA. It has 5 modes, hi-med-low-strobe-sos, kind of a poor man's shark with remora. I don't really care for modes, but at least the buzz is gone and the high mode looks just as high as before, maybe higher.

I discovered the best way to reassemble it was to pop the lens out so I could reach through the bezel to hold everything inside in place while I tightened it, then press the lens back in after the bezel was fully secured without twisting the LED assembly around in circles and shredding the wires.

I'm currently running this on 6 Duraloops in two KD 3AA-to-D carriers and the current pulled from half charge to power the driver is 1.4A on low and 2.7A on high, considerably above the recommended spec for thos carriers (and double what's pulled from two Lithium 26650s). If it weren't for the fact that this was strictly a spare-parts build, I'd look into a better battery pack (or carrier). Two D sized LiFePO4 would have been a nice fit, but would have tripled the overall cost of this project.
:EDIT: upgraded to better carrier - see post #7

Nice work. The Streamlight full size lights make a nice host. I just picked up a pair of used SL-20Xs to play with. They aren't the smallest light, but it is handy to start with a battery pack with a voltage already above the LED Vf.

It is nice to see someone else modifying them so I can get some ideas.

Thanks for the nice examples and pics.

Harry

I didn't want to spend $30 on a new battery solution, but I was uneasy about the amount of current that I was pulling from the KD battery carriers. I went in search of a cheap and easy solution and a thread over at the market place mentioned a Ray-O-Vac flashlight at Walmart for $8 that comes with a 3p2s 6AA carrier. I picked one up tonight and found that the springs in the carrier are thicker and stiffer and are a single piece from one battery to the next instead of spring to sheet metal to spring as in the KD carrier. The carrier is constructed as two 3s carriers connected in parallel (pos-pos and neg-neg) by two strips of sheet metal. After a quick solderless mod (remove the top strip entirely, cut and bend the bottom strip and fasten it under the screw that held the top strip), I have turned the carrer into 6s and am very pleased with the cheap and easy results. Pics tell the rest:

The donor:


The carrier mod:


Springs compared:




*UPDATE* (for my own reference):

I recently reworked heatsinking on this light a bit by using screws to make thermal contact between the head and the heatsink that the LEDs sit upon. While at it, I replaced the switch with (another) new KD forward click. I also tossed the 26106 driver and rewired the XREs as 2p2s. I used the poor man's method to employ a 4x7135 1.4A regulator here. The light is now one mode, delivering 700mA to each of the four XREs and has been tested with extended runtimes. I feel it can take much more abuse in this configuration than previously, where the driver and LEDs weren't sufficiently heatsinked for the 1A drive current delivered by the (sense resistor value adjusted, single mode modded) 26106 driver. This reliable beater is now the go-to light for the kids to use.


**Another update**:
Now that the light was working reliably without overheating, I bought another quad collimator thing from DX to replace the marked up one with and the holes in the new one weren't the same size. I wound up killing some of the LEDs and decided to go back to basics on this light. It now has a 53mm DX MOP "reflector with base" (like in the WF-500 LED) in it that I reduced in size to fit the diameter of the head. A single CREE XR-E is driven to 1.8A by a single mode driver, still powered by the 8AA carrier. The next time I salvage an XML from something, I may open this one again, but for now, it's a good beater that I can let the kids use without worry: