Upgrading magicshine with XM-L question..

PapaLumen

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Hi, im looking to replace my magicshine p7's with XM-L's. I realise the xm-l needs a spacer underneath its star to bring it forward a bit.

What are people using for this spacer? A blank star? If so any pointers to which one.

I'll be getting the xm-l's on 20mm stars from cutter. Having some trouble locating a blank star for the spacer though, any pointers to a suitable one from cutter or DX please.

Cheers.
 

darkmilk

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I've done the spacer the other way round... between the optic and the glass, so the star sits right onto the pill. I imagine the same would work for the reflector.

As I've swapped the reflector for narrow/medium XM-L TIR optics as well (all from cutter, Eva XM) the spacer is a ring about 4mm wide. It sits into the recessed edge of the optic, and the pressure from screwing the front on keeps the glass against the o-ring via the spacer and the optic, which also clamps the optic to the star. The lack of spill from the optic means the extra space in front doesn't scatter very much light, and the little that does hit the white spacer provides some visibility from out wide.
 

PapaLumen

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Thanks. I wasnt intending to swap reflector but im interested what sort of beam you get from that setup. Im after as much throw as possible as i have a couple of 6x xpg lights already that flood plenty.
 

BrianMc

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FYI. I have an Iris and an Eva with XM-Ls. The Iris is the better thrower, with a narrower hot spot an a more rapid cutoff to the beam. The Iris sans holder needed a spacer behind the flange to fit a 32 mm IB light body, but worked fine. It is deeper that the Eva and may not need the spacer.

BrianMc
 

PScalfano

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I just swapped the P7 in my bastid for an XM-L. I used a blank P7 star from DealExtreme as a spacer. I suppose if you were getting rid of the P7 on your bastid, you could salvage the star from it. Sand the PCB and copper off to expose the bare aluminum for best heat transfer. I used arctic silver epoxy to hold the 2 stars together (forming a ghetto-star) and put some thermal grease between the bastid body and the ghetto-star (there was none previously!! :duh2:). The screws which held the P7 in place were not re-used. They just fell right out without even using a screwdriver when I took the bastid apart, so I don't think they were doing anything, anyway. This thing just oozes with quality. :thumbsdow Another note, the bastid solder joints are tough to melt. A trick for melting those stubborn joints is to use flux, and also use some solder on the iron tip to help conduct heat to the stubborn joint.

Here's where it got interesting. Due to the extra thickness of the ghetto-star, the xm-l solder joints are up higher than they were with the P7, so the bastid reflector touched them. This causes 2 issues: the reflector will not nest all the way down, so the bezel is not able to be screwed all the way, and the aluminum reflector shorts out the LED (very bad :( :poof:). Luckily the bastid came with a plastic ring over the P7 so I re-used that over the xm-l. To allow the reflector to nest correctly, I used my dremel to make 2 "crevices" in the bastid reflector to accommodate the solder joints. It was a little bit tricky to screw the bezel on and make the crevices go exactly over the solder joint while ensuring the plastic ring is still in place, but luckily that's only something that needs to be done once. The reflector fits down over the ghetto star very snugly so retaining screws are not needed to hold the ghetto star securely to the bastid body allowing for good heat conduction away from the LED.

Once everything was put back together, I fired it up and immediately noticed a tighter hotspot. Also, the bastid seems to heat up a LOT faster than it used to, perhaps due to the better thermal path. It does not get as hot as it used to.

Pics - later... if you want them. It's just a bastid with an xm-l, not too hard to imagine. :shrug:

I hope this information is useful.
 

PapaLumen

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Very useful thanks. Have you got an sku for the blank p7 star from DX? Pics would be cool, intrigued to see the reflector mod. Maybe if i grind the star a bit thinner the reflector would be less of an issue? Although I dont want to take away any throw...
 

PScalfano

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12193 is the SSC P7 star 3 pack.

4512 is a cree LED star 5 pack.

I'll get some photos of the bastid in a bit. :twothumbs

edit: photos added - note on the last photo the 2 irregularities on the reflector caused by my hacking and dremeling.





 
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PapaLumen

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Thanks.
I wonder if there is a smooth reflector out there that drops right in...
 
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