Akoray XP-G R5 Mod

[old4570]

So many XP-G mods .

Here is my Akoray AK-16 moded to XP-G R5 .
Output is fantastic , over 300Lumen , Im not so sure about throw though , could be really lacking , like maybe 50% less .

 

[shortstack]

beam shots?

 

[dealgrabber2002]

Great mod. I am also interest in the beam shot if possible.

"I want a Akoray mod" just in case you decided to give this away like the MM modded.

 

[old4570]

Hahahaha oooooh dear !

The long and short of it is , its a Cree XR-E Q5 again ... :wave:

Why ?, well , it seems the Akoray Ak-16 has thermal protection !
So after about 2 minutes on high , and the thermal protection kicks in , and the output drooooops down to about 30 Lumen .

Sure you can kick it back up to high , but depending on how warm the light is , your lucky to get 10-15 seconds on high before the thermal protection kicks in again . Anoying when your hot roding !

So the kicker is , the body is just to thin [ lacking the mass ] to handle the XP-G R5 . The Ultrafire A20 is much better , being a nice small EDC built like a tank .

Sorry , was out of bandwidth again , so takes for ever for CPF to load , so I havent updated the situation till now .

So programable Akorays may not be a good choice for XP-G R5 upgrades .

 

[liketotallyrandom]

How hot does it feel when it shuts off? Even though the body is thin, is the thermal path any good? Did it ever shut off with the XR-E?

 

[old4570]

No never shut down with the XR-E Q5 ..

Yes , very warm . Which is why I went back to stock .

 

[liketotallyrandom]

Interesting. Would it be possible to defeat the thermal circuit and manually regulate the temperature? I need a small light like the AK-16 for developing a bright floody 17500-powered caving light for my helmet (the 17500 mod is mentioned in another post). I only need high output for small bursts of a few minutes. I'm just wondering how to deal with this speed bump on the AK-16 road.

 

[old4570]

Interesting. Would it be possible to defeat the thermal circuit and manually regulate the temperature? I need a small light like the AK-16 for developing a bright floody 17500-powered caving light for my helmet (the 17500 mod is mentioned in another post). I only need high output for small bursts of a few minutes. I'm just wondering how to deal with this speed bump on the AK-16 road.

Take a look at the Ultrafire A20 , its a great host for mods .

 

[M52 POWER!]

I put a XP-G R5 in my akoray too! I have the 3 mode programmable version, on high it's pulling 1.5 amps. It's blindingly bright, gets warm quickly. It has never shut down from extended use though.

 

[polkiuj]

Erm, the XP-G's runs a lot cooler than the XR-E's.

All my XP-G modded lights gets hot far longer than my XR-E's. Hmm..

 

[gcbryan]

That is odd. As was mentioned XP-G's are more efficient therefore more energy ends up as light output rather than heat.

However if you are using the same driver which is expecting a vf in the 3.6 V range (I guess) and you put in a XP-G with a vf as low as 3.2 V then you may just be running too much current through it (I think this makes sense).

 

[Sprinkles]

I have an xpg R4 in my 3-mode AKOray 106. It's pretty good actually. It's mostly floody, but it's a BRIGHT floody that's really useful for most tasks. The drive current didn't change much with the new emitter. I think it went up to 880 instead of the 770 it was pulling before. That's a good range for that light. I get about an hour on high with a 14500. No heat issues etc..

Very odd that someone has one of those akoray lights pulling 1.5. That seems high.

 

[romteb]

@old4570 , very cool mod, that's a long time i think of doing it, thanks for sharing.

@Sprinkles

It depends on the vf of the led, all the first programmables akorays i had were 1.9 on max (basically direct drive) the leds probably had a very low vf, i swaped the leds in the one i kept with neutral tint from cutter.au, now the higher i have on max is 1.2 A if i remember correctly, i guess the vf is higher.

Another thing i noticed is while the sellers say these akorays come with Q5 xr-e i find this doubtfull, when i swapped one of mine for a R2 xr-e the difference of light emitted at the same amperage was dramatic, going from a Q5 to a R2 should be a very small improvment in perceived brightness if any.

The pictures below are taken with the exact same fixed photographic manual settings and at the exact same current drive (350mA) just before and after emitter swap from original supposed xr-e Q5 to R2 from cutter in a 3 mode akoray pdc AK-16.

original xr-e supposed Q5 led

xr-e R2

Q5 ? I dont think so.

 

[old4570]

Also depends on many other things .. How well the beam is focused , and what the emitter itself does , and just how good the emitter is .

Often its a combination of variables , I have a Q5 that just blows away most of my R2's for output , so are my R2's not R2's , or is the Q5 not a Q5 ..

Same thing happens with CPU's , usually really good cores go into higher spec CPU's , but every now and again , really good cores go into lower spec CPU,s simply because there are not enough low yield cores ..

Same thing might be going on at cree , they might be yielding better , so when an order comes in for 10,000 Q5's , they just might ship out a bunch of higher yield LED's because they dont have enough low yield ones ..

Also some of the R2's etc might be even better , and even though there is no official XR-E R3 in production , some of the LED's may indeed rate higher ..

Two recent purchases seem to bear this out , I have a R2 P60 drop in that just blows everything away , and comes close to the XP-G R5 in output ...
And my Ultrafire A20 - Q5 is almost as good as the R2 P60 ...

I think a XR-E R2 made today , is going to be much better than a XR-E R2 made 12 months ago , and if your real lucky , your XR-E may be really a R3 or a R4 sold as a R2 ... I think Im lucky to have got two that are much higher performing than there rated for .

As for the thermal protection on my Akoray , it did suck a fair bit of current , 1.5A or better from memory on high .

 

[romteb]

You may be right about the led being Q5.

Was the built in protection mode of your akoray desactivated when you experienced the thermal safety ?

I never experienced it, all my akorays have the built in protection turned off.

 

[old4570]

You may be right about the led being Q5.

Was the built in protection mode of your akoray desactivated when you experienced the thermal safety ?

I never experienced it, all my akorays have the built in protection turned off.

Im not sure it can be turned off ?

The light got really warm [ hot ] and then just switched to low ..
The only time Ive had a light get that warm was when I did a SSC P7 mod to a A20 [ 1x16340 ] ..

But every time it hit that thermal point the light switched to low , so rather that lose the programmable driver , I just put the Q5 emitter back .
And all works as it should .

 

[romteb]

When you give 3 taps to the switch the light flickers once (protection off) or twice (protection on) but i i was under the impression that it was only a battery protection mode (overdischarge etc...).

Maybe the thermal protection you experienced is something different. (i have not experienced it and didn't know it existed in akorays)

 

[old4570]

When you give 3 taps to the switch the light flickers once (protection off) or twice (protection on) but i i was under the impression that it was only a battery protection mode (overdischarge etc...).

Maybe the thermal protection you experienced is something different. (i have not experienced it and didn't know it existed in akorays)

Yep , the protection is for the batteries ..
Thermal protection ? Possibly a faulty driver ? either way ... It acts as thermal protection .. Im happy with the Akoray , even stock .