HDS EDC XP-G Mod

I put an XPG-R5 on a 10mm board in my HDS U60GT last night.
No special tools were needed. I used side cutters and a utility knife
to trim the board. Beam quality is good even with a smooth HDS
reflector. It has a nice floody throw. Output is an estimated 200-220
lumens OTF compared to a 170 lumen Quark in a ceiling bounce test.
Heat isn't a problem. It was run for 6 min. on max and it didn't get
much warmer than with the original Lux III. No thermal step down.

The tree is about 40 ft. away.

Stock HDS U60GT


HDS U60GT with XP-G R5


Quark AA XP-E R2, 14500 battery







New
The reflector bottom was sanded to shorten it about 0.5 mm to get a good focus.
Otherwise the center of the hot spot had a slightly dimmer center.

The board isn't that hard to trim. The aluminum is soft enough that I did the rough cutting
with wire cutters, and final trimming shaving the sides to fit with a utility knife.

After the board is in place with a little Arctic Silver underneath (also on the top and threads
of the heatsink), you need to extend the wires to the board. I used short pieces of 26g milspec
wire without insulation. Try to keep the wire and solder to the board as low as possible so it doesn't
make contact with the bottom of the aluminum reflector which rests on top of the heatsink.
Then I coated the top of the board and the wires with black nail polish for insulation and a cleaner look
around the emitter. And no, it wasn't MY polish!

Last night I took it for a long walk to do some testing. It works great!
The beam profile reminds a little of my P7 Maglite with a combination of flood
and throw, close to the same brightness, though of course less overall output.
And compared to my R2 Quark, it seems to throw as far or close to it.

That makes me happy because the goal of this HDS project was to have
at least the performance of my Quark combined with the HDS UI and build quality.

Cool. Thanks for the pics. How's the tint? Was it difficult to cut the board?

Great mod, now I just need to wait for warm white XP-Gs:twothumbs

can't wait for mine either.
nice results :thumbsup:

Nice result!

Have you pics of the mod?

Those set of pictures show just how much light the new XP-G really puts out.

The XP-G in most lights does not throw aswell as the XR-E or XP-E but when you look at the total amount of light that comes from the XP-G, it is really a nice beam and has a broader use than just throw.

aceo07 said:

Cool. Thanks for the pics. How's the tint? Was it difficult to cut the board?

Click to expand...

Tint is good, a little green on low or when compared with another light.
It isn't perfect, but it's quite acceptable.
I'm a cool tint lover and the R2 Quark looks perfect to me.

No, the board isn't that hard to trim. The aluminum is soft enough that I did the rough cutting with
wire cutters, and final trimming shaving the sides to fit with a utility knife.

toby_pra said:

Nice result!

Have you pics of the mod?

Click to expand...

Added a few with some more later.

Nitroz said:

Those set of pictures show just how much light the new XP-G really puts out.

The XP-G in most lights does not throw as well as the XR-E or XP-E but when you look at the total amount of light that comes from the XP-G, it is really a nice beam and has a broader use than just throw.

Click to expand...

They do show the hotspot accurately. The spill is actually a little brighter
in all the shots. When I was comparing to an XP-E, the throw of the XP-G
might have been just as good, though more diffused at a distance .

Many thanks for sharing!

The mod seems to me very useful. I really like the beam of the
XP-G...

Huge improvement in output! And a beautiful "wall of light," to boot. Very nice!

Can anyone tell me how hard this light is being driven?

:devil:lovecpf

I wonder if the beam would be tighter if the LED was higher in to the reflector.

John_Galt said:

Huge improvement in output! And a beautiful "wall of light," to boot. Very nice!

Can anyone tell me how hard this light is being driven?

:devil:lovecpf

Click to expand...

Depending on the light the LED could be seeing 800ma to 1A.

tebore said:

I wonder if the beam would be tighter if the LED was higher in to the reflector.

Click to expand...

By raising the emitter, or sanding the reflector more?

With the stock reflector the center of the hotspot was dimmer than the surrounding corona. I sanded the bottom of the reflector a little at a time until
the center was bright and well defined. About 0.5 mm taken off. There is still a small flat surface left around the bottom.

Right now at 1 ft. from a wall there is a well defined hotspot 1.75 inch diameter, surrounded by a 5 inch diameter corona that is dimmer and has a few artifacts around it's edge. Outside of that is the spill beam with a uniform brightness.


Beam at one foot from wall

Now that I took this photo I see that the hotspot still has a dimmer center.
In normal use the beam looks good though.

What do you think tebore? You have a lot more experience with modding these lights.

kz1000s1 said:

By raising the emitter, or sanding the reflector more?

With the stock reflector the center of the hotspot was dimmer than the surrounding corona. I sanded the bottom of the reflector a little at a time until
the center was bright and well defined. About 0.5 mm taken off. There is still a small flat surface left around the bottom.

Right now at 1 ft. from a wall there is a well defined hotspot 1.75 inch diameter, surrounded by a 5 inch diameter corona that is dimmer and has a few artifacts around it's edge. Outside of that is the spill beam with a uniform brightness.


Beam at one foot from wall

Now that I took this photo I see that the hotspot still has a dimmer center.
In normal use the beam looks good though.

What do you think tebore? You have a lot more experience with modding these lights.

Click to expand...

From what it looks like in the picture the focus is close but a few tenths or hundredths of mm will tighten it up more.

Personally I wouldn't touch the reflector anymore because they aren't made, so an oops is a big one.

That said it's difficult to raise the XP-G, unless we could make some sort of tower.

I'm just waiting a bit until XP-G supplies settle down so I can get one to experiment. It probably pretty easy to make a small tower to get XP-G to Lux height, I just can't figure how to access the solder pads once it's mounted.

The other option I can think of is a cutdown 27mm MCR-20mm MCR. Or cut down IMS. The problem then becomes how do you keep the light water proof.

Hmmmm. I'm about to order a Ra and I'm looking for the best emitter upgrade path for it. I like throw so would a K2 TFFC be a better bet?

The K2 might be better for you. The XP-G has decent throw and a bright flood. It can go almost as far as my XP-E Quark, but with a wider spot. A Novatac with a K2 has throw similar to the Quark. Good for a small light.

Hi there,
Any chance you could elaborate on how much brighter the lowest setting became? Even a simple visual observation would be helpful enough.
Thanks in advance,
Scooby

I don't think there's that much difference. My minimum level is at the lowest setting and I use it all the time. I'm still happy with it. The beam also looks tighter than at higher levels as the spill beam gets dimmer.