Warm white / natural white led suggestion

I have been doing upgrades to my flashlights for a few years now with mostly T6 and U2 led's. I'm interested now in a more natural light led upgrade. I have low lumen led flashlight that I use everyday at work. Milwaukee M18 18v really 20v when tested and M12 around 12.6 when tested. Their battery packs use 18650.

I've recently bought from aliexpress a mtg2 that specs at 18v 18.5w 1a max. I haven't been able to find specs for this led but I bought one regardless. It's specs are correct its still pretty bright and I like the colour temp but I thought it would be brighter. I don't have a way to seat lumens.

My question. Is there a better or nicer led and driver combo for my M12? I dropped a 4x T6 bike light head in onenof the M12 I have but I did this cheap and nasty with no driver. The leds are in series taking the 12 Volts and only drawing 1.2a. bright bit not exactly what I'm looking for. I only did it because I had the parts laying around to do it.

Did this drag on too long? I'm sorry.

Any suggestions please let me know where you got your parts. I usually use DX, aliexpress, fasttech.

Thanks for any help.

Go XHP35 or XHP70. Both are pretty neutral/warm. As for a driver I suggest contacting Richard at Mountain Electronics. He will have all the info and likely all the parts that you need.

The MTG2 is a nice LED, 5000k usually and good for maybe 3500lm pushed. As CC says, the xhp70 is another good option, good for around 4500lm and available in 6000,5000 (sure i have seen in the 4000's k as well)and some hi cri now.

Out of the mtg2 and xhp70(have both in 5000k), its a tough one.............imho both excellent choices. I like the shaved/de-domed xhp70 that seems to take around 500k off and gives it a bit more reach.

For a bit brighter the xhp70 seems a little step up!


xhp35 does have some available 4700k hi cri going of the zebralight site, more of a throwy LED over the larger xhp70.

got my first XHP70 light showing up likely towards Christmas Convoy L6 from GB. Shipped out two weeks ago from China hoping to have it before New Years. Got the 5000k version. Am kind of leery of the 3800 lumen claim with just 2x26650's. We will see. Ive got my indestructible never say fully discharged ET MX25L2 backed up by 2x32650 FeiLong cells that just never lose their charge for some reason to compare it against. Already got 2 King Kongs for the on a slow boat from China L6. Freaking love the XHP35 in my MkIII HI the output from such a small light is amazing and the tint is "golden" only way I can really describe it.

You should really like it CC, my k60vn is the closest light i have to the L6 and its one of my all time fav's/ The beam is near flawless, 200kcd and would put it around the 5200-5500k as its the 6000k shaved dome. Spill/huge hot spot is ...............well spot on, enough throw and lots of usable bright spill. It is like a perfect beam tk75 but brighter if makes sense, no petals like what you get from multi well lights.

iirc yours is around 5a so it must be in the region of 3500lm give take a couple of 100. You should find it a very usable amount of light............

GB??? you never said which Christmas



I have the xhp35 HI in a k70vn and yes very impressive, around 2600lm and 570kcd............really an impressive thrower but mine is the CW and it is CW . Luckily its not an issue for me and throwers, cool is fine for this use.

brisco said:

I have been doing upgrades to my flashlights for a few years now with mostly T6 and U2 led's. I'm interested now in a more natural light led upgrade. I have low lumen led flashlight that I use everyday at work. Milwaukee M18 18v really 20v when tested and M12 around 12.6 when tested. Their battery packs use 18650.

Click to expand...

I will be interested to see what you come up with. I tried to do something similar with my Ryobi and barely succeeded, but I am not happy.

They have two lights, a 18 volt lantern, with a single led, and a hand held incandescent flashlight with a rotating head. I needed to step down the voltage from 18-22V down to the 3.5 or so for the XM-L2 led.
The buck driver generated a lot of heat, and the LED did too. There wasn't much of a heat sink, and the plastic of the light body acted as an insulator. Even though there are some ventilation holes, the light got too hot, and the out put of the led dropped in half. So to fix that issue, I had to cut the voltage even more.

While trying to melt some solder to create a heat-sink for the emitter, and attached to the reflector, I managed to un-intentionally orange peel it. It definitely improved the beam.

Hopefully going to an LED that will handle higher voltages, will work out better, but I can only imagine that they are going to have a heat issue as well.



If you do get it to work, please post pictures.

Thanks for the suggestions. I've not been following up much with the new technology LEDs but I did upgrade one of my M18 led lights with an MTG2. I have it set at 18 volts and 1 amp from an adjustable single mode driver I got from DX. SKU:156788. It has 2 pots on it for both adjustments. I tried to up the amperage but it got hot enough to de solder one of the wires from the led. Too much heat. It got hot fast. Although these heads are all aluminiumit wouldn't wick away fast enough. Not sure what to do better.
Fasttech has some sticky silicone tape that is supposed to help with heat transfer and that's how I have the star mounted in the lamps head. I feel like that is doing more harm than good.
I'd like to actually use these for work but would like some 3 mode drivers that are adjustable with pots like the single mode ones that I'm using. These are big but I don't need small in these lights.

I was going to post a photo of the M18 with the mtg2 but I can't see how to do that. Strange.

Let's see if this works.

Where did you guys get your xhp70 LEDs? How much?

Thanks. I guess I could have just done that.

CelticCross74 said:

got my first XHP70 light showing up likely towards Christmas Convoy L6 from GB. Shipped out two weeks ago from China hoping to have it before New Years. Got the 5000k version. Am kind of leery of the 3800 lumen claim with just 2x26650's. We will see. Ive got my indestructible never say fully discharged ET MX25L2 backed up by 2x32650 FeiLong cells that just never lose their charge for some reason to compare it against. Already got 2 King Kongs for the on a slow boat from China L6. Freaking love the XHP35 in my MkIII HI the output from such a small light is amazing and the tint is "golden" only way I can really describe it.

Click to expand...

how much did you get yours from? Anyone selling them here for a half decent price?