Gap between the lens and drop-in in G2 Nitrolon

One of my friends carries around his G2 with the original P60, so I decided to install a Dereelight XP-E R4 pill with Ultrafire reflector so that it will have higher output as well as ridiculous increase in lux. (Between 13,000 to 14,000 lux.)

I inserted the drop-in, screwed the head back on, turned it on and... Nothing.

Upon investigation, the overall height of the drop-in was a little too short for the pill to make contact with the conductive tubing inside the battery compartment. Tightening the head all the way didn't help due to the gap. The contact was achieved only after I repeatedly smashed the drop-in and body of the light together.

The drop-in is snug inside the light at the moment, due to the fact that I applied an absurd amount of copper tape around the drop-in. It would take a major force to get the drop-in out.

However, I have to ask if there is some sort of fitting ring to fill in the gap and prevent the drop-in from becoming loose? Using the contact spring that came with the drop-in is out of the question, because the head doesn't screw all the way in.

You have finally discovered slight machining differences


its possible that the insert:
* needs no spring at all
* is just slightly to short
* is quite too short

You have "problem" 2, imho

to solve:
cut away ONE "ring" from the spring and put it into the light.
That way the back end of the insert makes contact with the body and everything is ok.
(The actual way of hoping the copper tape makes contact is crap. Tape is good for heat transfer, but ...)


[edit]
finally noticed You typed for the nitrolon version.
Duno if this is working the same with it.
And also no clue at all, if that material is able to move the heat away good enough
[/edit]

Not sure if you did this or not, but you do not use or need the outer spring on the drop-ins with Surefire lights. And with the Nitrolon, there is no need to use copper to wrap the drop in. The copper is used as a heatsink to dissipate heat away from the drop in out to the host, but it is usually used for "metal" type hosts, not the Nitrolon. I added a 5 mode XP-G drop in to mine with no problems at all.

yellow said:

You have finally discovered slight machining differences


its possible that the insert:
* needs no spring at all
* is just slightly to short
* is quite too short

You have "problem" 2, imho

to solve:
cut away ONE "ring" from the spring and put it into the light.
That way the back end of the insert makes contact with the body and everything is ok.
(The actual way of hoping the copper tape makes contact is crap. Tape is good for heat transfer, but ...)


[edit]
finally noticed You typed for the nitrolon version.
Duno if this is working the same with it.
And also no clue at all, if that material is able to move the heat away good enough
[/edit]

Click to expand...

I'm going to try that later today. Thanks.

RI Chevy said:

Not sure if you did this or not, but you do not use or need the outer spring on the drop-ins with Surefire lights. And with the Nitrolon, there is no need to use copper to wrap the drop in. The copper is used as a heatsink to dissipate heat away from the drop in out to the host, but it is usually used for "metal" type hosts, not the Nitrolon. I added a 5 mode XP-G drop in to mine with no problems at all.

Click to expand...

Yep. The outer contact spring was removed, and the only thing that remained was the inner spring. Without the outer spring, however, there is a small gap that prevents the pill from coming into contact with the conductive tube inside the battery compartment, hence why I had to smash the drop-in into the body and leave it to the copper tape to make it stay there.

Anyway, the copper tape was more like a measure of desperation than practicality. I figured that the tape alone would give the light an extra minute or two before the drop-in overheated.

You could always try and put an o-ring between the bezel glass and the drop in. That might tale up a little space? Or maybe a small magnet on the top of one of the batteries?
I used a cheap Solarforce XP-G drop in. Seems to fit fine.

RI Chevy said:

And with the Nitrolon, there is no need to use copper to wrap the drop in. The copper is used as a heatsink to dissipate heat away from the drop in out to the host, but it is usually used for "metal" type hosts, not the Nitrolon.

Click to expand...

I have a G2 with XPE dropin. Sometimes, when powered on, quick movement would kill the light. The dropin was a little loose. The fix, I wrapped the dropin with foil and light has been working properly.