●-●-● Cree'd-up Arc LS [& LS3 now]●-●-●

[bombelman]

Ok, ok, I admit.... I'm SOOO very spoiled by Lumileds...
Luxeons were (are) SOOO easy to mod/replace...

I was just starting to get into modding Luxeons when Cree
decided to take over the world with their XR-E package...

Well anyway, modding does take a little longer then I was used to,
but the results are quite satisfying, and I must admit, I still don't
really like the Cree-Package :sick2: , but the outcome of the mod is
very satisfying... Same runtime, double the output, need I say more ?

Care has to be taken with isolating this and that,
as well as how to sand a reflector the proper way...

Here are some pics...
Will post of the internals later.
If you ask what's inside this one ? All stock. Stock Arc LS board
at stock current (don't even know, think 350mA something).
I have some other Arc LS boards that run @ 611mA and 667mA,
but those drive some nice colored Luxeons at the moment..

This mod is also possible with either a BBNG, GD500 or FluPIC/Piglet board...
Working on these as I type...

Questions and comments very welcome.
Either post here or PM.

Cheers !!

p.s. That nice lanyard is made by greenLED.
Get your own custom lanyard here.

 

[bombelman]

Re: ●-●-● Cree'd-up Arc LS ●-●-●

Found some time to do a quick mod:
Goldserve Piglet v2.2
Sanded >98% Copper Canadian Penny (thanks mosport :naughty: )
Teflon Wire
Cree XR-E P4

Pics:
Cree waiting for new home - Penny - BBNG1000 - Piglet

Board epoxied to penny. Holes drilled also (well duh )

Cree Lined up.

Epoxied...

IMS17 sanded, but just for illustration... I will use sanded McR-18

IMS-17 placed on Engine

(not really lined up, but you get the idea.... )

Cheers !!

 

[Gimpy00Wang]

Re: ●-●-● Cree'd-up Arc LS ●-●-●

Nice pics. They will certainly help me once I get around to modding some of my Arc's.

- Chris

 

[AvroArrow]

Re: ●-●-● Cree'd-up Arc LS ●-●-●

Nice mod! How's the beam pattern from the sanded down McR-18? And how'd you isolate the McR-18 from the + and - contacts? Just a thin plastic ring around the base of the LED maybe? I was thinking of getting the McR-17-XR but once I saw the specs (16.88mm tall vs 12mm of McR-18) I dropped that idea because I think that'd be too long of a light engine + reflector height.

 

[bombelman]

Re: ●-●-● Cree'd-up Arc LS ●-●-●

I did not do this mod earlier because the longer reflector designed for this XR-E emitter would not work in an Arc, without the front of it sanded down.
However, I had a faulty McR-18 sitting here, so I decided to take about a mm and a bit more off the back and try it on such an XR-E emitter. I only used it indoors for now, and compared to a Arc LS TX0H in McR-18, the XR-E in a sanded McR-18 has a smaller (read: tighter) hotspot. I must note: The Lux-combo runs at 667mAh, while the XR-E I tested was on 350mA... So it's almost the same beam, with almost half less current, and no heat at all...

How did I isolate the McR-18 from the emitter ? I don't have any Kapton, so I just used a disc, cut and perforated out of *paper* Works great ! (Don't think it's a fire-hazard, but isolates great !) Any plastic would to too, just have to find the right one... Maybe those used for hard-drive bags, I have those here...

Cheers !

 

[bombelman]

Re: ●-●-● Cree'd-up Arc LS ●-●-●

Beamshots...

Pics taken on the ceiling about 3ft.
I don't have white walls in this room...

Left: Cree XR-E + Sanded McR-18
Right: Lux + stock McR-18

Apart from tint, what are the *real* differences ?

Canon EOS 20D Manual Exposure: ISO800 1/100s f/2.8 @ 16mm Auto WB

Canon EOS 20D Manual Exposure: ISO800 1/160s f/2.8 @ 16mm Auto WB

EDIT: Cree ran on 350mAh / Lux on 667mAh
My conclusion: Because Cree-beam is different, collamination is different.
However, at same drive-levels, beam, hotspot and corona are similar.

Going to sleep now... Cheers !

 

[bombelman]

Re: ●-●-● Cree'd-up Arc LS3 ●-●-●

Host: LS3 #051

Cree'd-up

Nice, eh ?

Yup, very sexy !

Runs a Piglet v2.2: 350mA + 500mA, 850mA Burst.
Wicked runtimes on 1600mAh 17670 3.6v Li-Ion Cell... Yup, it's my EDC !

 

[lrw2]

Re: ●-●-● Cree'd-up Arc LS ●-●-●

Very nice light. Wish I'd seen the tip about the canadian penny. I just sorted all my pre 1982's out of my piggy bank today. Had a couple canadin pennys and tossed them back since I was too lazy to search Hopefully save you some grief at a later point tho' and mention that electrostatic bags used for packaging hard drives and the like are conductive :duck:

 

[bombelman]

Re: ●-●-● Cree'd-up Arc LS ●-●-●

Hopefully save you some grief at a later point tho' and mention that electrostatic bags used for packaging hard drives and the like are conductive :duck:

hmmmm, I mentioned it cuz I had it sitting on my desk...
I just measured with my DMM, but nothing... I'll try just to be sure
Cheers !

 

[lrw2]

Re: ●-●-● Cree'd-up Arc LS ●-●-●

hmmmm, I mentioned it cuz I had it sitting on my desk...
I just measured with my DMM, but nothing... I'll try just to be sure
Cheers !

I was going on word of mouth rather than personal testing, so I googled after your result. Apprently there are 3 kinds of anti-stat bags. The pink translucent ones are non-conductive, the black opaque ones are highly conductive, and the metallized "shield" bags are highly conductive, but the interior surface is insulated from the conductor.

 

[AvroArrow]

Thanks for the beamshots. Glad I added a McR-18 to my order from the Shoppe. Now I know what to look forward to.

 

[dede]

It is wonderful.
Good works

...the hope of Arc LS3..