Techjunkie
Enlightened
I've had this RayOVac Sportsman Xtreme 4W 3C light for a few years now. It's one of the first LED lights in my collection after the Lowe's Task Force 2C X-lamp light.
This is its 4th incarnation, at least.
Recipie for this latest incarnation:
Once upon a time, I replaced the collimator lens with a 40mm MOP reflector with brass base. That was no easy feat as the collimator was only 35mm in diameter. It took some grinding inside and trimming of the base height, but it just fit. At the same time, I replaced the stock reverse click switch with a KD forward click switch and replaced the small rubber switch boot (which tore) with a more standard GITD tailcap boot. In the pill, I put an MC-E 4p star and direct drove from three AccuPower Evolution LSD NiMH C cells. That was incarnation #2 (#1 being stock XR-E config with addition of a frosted glass lens.) It was at that time, one of my brightest flashlights and the 2nd best reflector I'd ever used the MC-E in.
Incarnation #3 came about when I was experimenting with XP-G emitters. A 4000K XP-G replaced the MC-E and 1.4A regulator was squeezed inside of the cut-down brass base. The light got a warmer tint and much longer runtime with regulation over most of the discharge. The XP-G was a bit ringy in this 40mm MOP reflector meant for MC-E but seemed to cast a better spot, only with dimmer spill. The XP-G was recently repurposed in a SmallSun CY-Z37 with a modified KD deep SMO XP-G reflector and a 22600 battery, fwd switch 1.65A driver, etc.
Here, you can see I've wrapped the inducter of the new DX SST-50 driver with kapton tape to avoid shorts and it just fits into the cavity in the brass base. (I had to thread the LED leads through the center of the inductor to make everything fit.) There's literally not a mm of height to spare. The PCB base of the driver bottoms out on the retaining ring above the switch shown in the picture above. For the ground connection, I've run a lead to the brass base which has served me well in the past, as the base connects to the refelector which mates with the exposed Aluminum in the head. The positive wire from the switch is soldered directly to the pos pad on the driver.
The two 26650 batteries leave a little room to spare compared to the standard 3 C configuration.
An old cut up Mag D spring replaces the stock spring to make the battery swap possible.
In this incarnation, the driver's modes (and the different batteries) provide a variety of runtime choices. Here's 1.84A measured at the tail on high mode. Very rough calculations make the driver about 80% efficient. That's not great, but I can certainly live with it.
The XM-L in that MC-E reflector provides more output and a ring-free beam with brighter spot than either the MC-E or the XP-G ever did. I'm very satisfied with the results, although now that the light uses the Sony batteries instead of NiMH, it gets removed from my kids' reach. No worry, I'll just drop those 3 NiMH cells into a Mag mod for them. Here's that XM-L centered nicely in that MC-E reflector.
And the finished light:
And for comparison, here's the new beam on the left (XM-L @3.5A in 40mm MC-E MOP) compared with a Neutral White MC-E overdriven in the best reflector I've ever used for the MC-E, the 53mm version of the same DX OP reflector with base combo on the right.
This is its 4th incarnation, at least.
Recipie for this latest incarnation:
- Driver: DX sku 50025 - 8.4V SST-50 5-mode with memory driver Clamp tested 3.5A out on high
- Batteries: 2 Sony 26650VT LiNiCoMn 3.7V cells (BatterySpace 26650 4AH LiMn would also work nicely here)
- CREE XM-L T6 on 20mm star
- Extended tail spring made from Mag tailspring
- Other parts installed from previous upgrades: DX 18073 41.5mm OP reflector with base for MC-E, KD fwd. click switch, GITD switch cover, glass lens
Once upon a time, I replaced the collimator lens with a 40mm MOP reflector with brass base. That was no easy feat as the collimator was only 35mm in diameter. It took some grinding inside and trimming of the base height, but it just fit. At the same time, I replaced the stock reverse click switch with a KD forward click switch and replaced the small rubber switch boot (which tore) with a more standard GITD tailcap boot. In the pill, I put an MC-E 4p star and direct drove from three AccuPower Evolution LSD NiMH C cells. That was incarnation #2 (#1 being stock XR-E config with addition of a frosted glass lens.) It was at that time, one of my brightest flashlights and the 2nd best reflector I'd ever used the MC-E in.
Incarnation #3 came about when I was experimenting with XP-G emitters. A 4000K XP-G replaced the MC-E and 1.4A regulator was squeezed inside of the cut-down brass base. The light got a warmer tint and much longer runtime with regulation over most of the discharge. The XP-G was a bit ringy in this 40mm MOP reflector meant for MC-E but seemed to cast a better spot, only with dimmer spill. The XP-G was recently repurposed in a SmallSun CY-Z37 with a modified KD deep SMO XP-G reflector and a 22600 battery, fwd switch 1.65A driver, etc.
Here, you can see I've wrapped the inducter of the new DX SST-50 driver with kapton tape to avoid shorts and it just fits into the cavity in the brass base. (I had to thread the LED leads through the center of the inductor to make everything fit.) There's literally not a mm of height to spare. The PCB base of the driver bottoms out on the retaining ring above the switch shown in the picture above. For the ground connection, I've run a lead to the brass base which has served me well in the past, as the base connects to the refelector which mates with the exposed Aluminum in the head. The positive wire from the switch is soldered directly to the pos pad on the driver.
The two 26650 batteries leave a little room to spare compared to the standard 3 C configuration.
An old cut up Mag D spring replaces the stock spring to make the battery swap possible.
In this incarnation, the driver's modes (and the different batteries) provide a variety of runtime choices. Here's 1.84A measured at the tail on high mode. Very rough calculations make the driver about 80% efficient. That's not great, but I can certainly live with it.
The XM-L in that MC-E reflector provides more output and a ring-free beam with brighter spot than either the MC-E or the XP-G ever did. I'm very satisfied with the results, although now that the light uses the Sony batteries instead of NiMH, it gets removed from my kids' reach. No worry, I'll just drop those 3 NiMH cells into a Mag mod for them. Here's that XM-L centered nicely in that MC-E reflector.
And the finished light:
And for comparison, here's the new beam on the left (XM-L @3.5A in 40mm MC-E MOP) compared with a Neutral White MC-E overdriven in the best reflector I've ever used for the MC-E, the 53mm version of the same DX OP reflector with base combo on the right.
