E2e's with underdriven 5 watts - Twins: SE & HD (beam Comparisons)

[McGizmo]

E2e\'s with underdriven 5 watts - Twins: SE & HD (beam Comparisons)

I'll keep it simple: E2e with stock reflector and drop in module consisting of 5 watt SE white luxeon driven by standard 500 mA Bad Boy.

MORE INFO

After 5 minutes, the whole flashlight is warm. I suspect that a finned cowel should be thermally bonded to the entire bezel if long contioious runtimes were desired. Both primary (reflected) and secondary (direct) beams are wide in angle and very consistant in light dispersion. There are no artifacts or rings in either beam. With 500 mA of current, this light easily punches out 20' and will certainly illuminate objects further away. The center of a KL1 beam does have more throw. This mod was a successful study for a more sophisticated mod in the works.

- Don

 

[**DONOTDELETE**]

Re: E2e\'s with underdriven 5 watts - Twins: SE & HD (beam Comparisons)

Does this number mean anything to anyone?

Y1SW 0000001 4002LXHLLWSC

Got mine in the mail today.
To be honest - I'm not sure what I bought

But I do have a couple of em.

Just finished hooking it up direct drive to a 9volt transistor batt. The heat sink I made handled the heat quite well - warm to the touch. Not sure how fresh the batt was though. The battery was about the same temp as the sink when it started to peter out. The 9 volt pocket Zorch, or as mine will be called the pocket Borsh - is still a go. Still waiting for my Palight to come in so I can gut it in favor of this Borsh.

 

[MR Bulk]

Re: E2e\'s with underdriven 5 watts - Twins: SE & HD (beam Comparisons)

Hmmm, I see that someone else has decided to take up the 5W underdriving endeavor...

 

[Wolfen]

Re: E2e\'s with underdriven 5 watts - Twins: SE & HD (beam Comparisons)

That is a very white light!

 

[Doug S]

Re: E2e\'s with underdriven 5 watts - Twins: SE & HD (beam Comparisons)

Originally posted by Pi_314:
Does this number mean anything to anyone?

Y1SW 0000001 4002LXHLLWSC

<font size="2" face="Verdana, Arial">Use Luxeon application brief AB21 to decode the Y1SW. I suspect that you may have misread it and your "Y" is actually a "V".

 

[Doug S]

Re: E2e\'s with underdriven 5 watts - Twins: SE & HD (beam Comparisons)

Don: Do you know the bin codes for your 5W white SE's and HD's? I'm just curious what their early production is yielding.

 

[McGizmo]

Re: E2e\'s with underdriven 5 watts - Twins: SE & HD (beam Comparisons)

Doug,

No idea what the codes are as I didn't buy a spool

I would guess that the color bin is somewhere around 3. As to flux, no idea. Relative to the 4/5 bins of the KL1's the color is definately a cooler temp and is almost reminicient of some green tinge. The SE is hotter than the HD color temp wise. The EOS (if I got this right) definately evens the color and beam distribution throughout but as Peter G. posted elsewhere and PK also confirmed to me, the Luxeons will still likely be binned through a wide range of color temp as well as flux. It is certainly unfortunate that Future doesn't pick up the bin code in their labeling but this would require them to increase their SKU's by a bundle!

- Don

 

[Darell]

Re: E2e\'s with underdriven 5 watts - Twins: SE & HD (beam Comparisons)

Dude.

 

[Doug S]

Re: E2e\'s with underdriven 5 watts - Twins: SE & HD (beam Comparisons)

Don. Thanks for the info. You probably know this but I'll say it for the benefit of others reading. One benefit of buying "Star" configuration rather than the bare emitters is that the bin codes are laser etched on the back of the primary heatsink.

 

[Slick]

Re: E2e\'s with underdriven 5 watts - Twins: SE & HD (beam Comparisons)

Very nice pill (horse pill)! I suppose I haven't quite reached the level where I'm willing to pony-up for the serious mod-base. Someday tho...

 

[lambda]

Re: E2e\'s with underdriven 5 watts - Twins: SE & HD (beam Comparisons)

Very Nice McGizmo!

So, the stock reflector looks to make for a very nice beam from the pic on your web site.

Ah, Friday at last, can't wait to see what this weekend brings!

 

[McGizmo]

Re: E2e\'s with underdriven 5 watts - Twins: SE & HD (beam Comparisons)

Lambda,

The beam is flawless but very wide in angle. Fortunately the 5W, even underdriven puts out enough light to punch out a ways. This is'n even close to a tight beam for real throw! The small reflectors were designed for a "focal object" much smaller in size than the 5W dies. We need to use the larger reflectors dessigned for larger incandescent envelopes for any throw. The die of the 1W HD's work better and the 1W Red HD is actually very good at getting out there!

- Don

 

[Sean]

Re: E2e\'s with underdriven 5 watts - Twins: SE & HD (beam Comparisons)

Originally posted by McGizmo:
Lambda,

The beam is flawless but very wide in angle. Fortunately the 5W, even underdriven puts out enough light to punch out a ways. This is'n even close to a tight beam for real throw! The small reflectors were designed for a "focal object" much smaller in size than the 5W dies. We need to use the larger reflectors dessigned for larger incandescent envelopes for any throw. The die of the 1W HD's work better and the 1W Red HD is actually very good at getting out there!

- Don

<font size="2" face="Verdana, Arial">What kind of beam (tightness) do you get with the same mod shown except with a 1W SE?

 

[DSpeck]

Re: E2e\'s with underdriven 5 watts - Twins: SE & HD (beam Comparisons)

A'course, I'm jealous - the Giz has access to the 5W jobbies. NICE mod.

I had a thought, though - why not try a mod like this in a D2 or 6P? You'd have the same juice, and more mass for heat-sinking. Lots of room in there for the electronics and stuff, and you load the batteries from the tail end, so you don't have to disturb the alignment once it's all set. It's not all that large, either. Is that where you're going next?

Doug.

 

[McGizmo]

Re: E2e\'s with underdriven 5 watts - Twins: SE & HD (beam Comparisons)

Sean,

I don't have any 1W SE's so I can't answer your question. I posted on another thread that I am currently working on a twin set of mods; 5W SE and 5WHD in Ex heads. I am currently at the stage where I am asking myself why I keep messing with these dang lights and don't get on with my life

However, I have noticed some interesting things with the 5W's that can also pertain to the 1W's I believe. It would apear that the SE directs more light at the reflector than the HD. Further, the light source of the SE is not as concentrated in as tight of volume so the reflected beam angle is larger and the beam spot is bigger. These observations are based on locating the two LED's in the same relative position within the reflector. It is possible that by relocating the SE, the beam could be tightened some. This possability is not something I plan to investigate with my current projects as it is problematic on many levels in the current design within the Ex heads.

On these twins, I will be building up the mass and surface area as the mods progress. These lights will normally run at around 200 mA with a magnet/ hall efect switch to kick them up to 660 mA.

DougS,
Your comments are correct and initially I was going to base this light as well the twins on an E2/C2 platform. I have alreadymodified a P60 reflector for the LED but building up from within with the intent of incoporating the hall effect switch was more of a challange than I wanted! Besides, If I can successfully thermally bond a finned cowel to the Ex head, I believe I can provide more surface area within the same volume as the "classic" sized SF lights. I may revisit this particular mod withan external finned cowel and then again I may just let it be. For run times up to 5 minutes, there is no noticible over heating problems and the light is certainly a nice pocketable size.

- Don

 

[Minjin]

Re: E2e\'s with underdriven 5 watts - Twins: SE & HD (beam Comparisons)

What kind of runtime do you expect to see with this? I'm wondering if a direct driven 5w powered by 2x123A cells might be a great daily carry light. Very high efficiency and what looks like many hours of runtime yet still significantly brighter than a 1w...

Mark

 

[Darell]

Re: E2e\'s with underdriven 5 watts - Twins: SE & HD (beam Comparisons)

If we can figure out how to variably (or just two-position) dim a 5W, we're in for something good.

I can't tell if Don got that Hall effect switch to sit up and beg.

 

[McGizmo]

Re: E2e\'s with underdriven 5 watts - Twins: SE & HD (beam Comparisons)

Well, I don't know about the direct drive bit; I leave that to others.

I have been working too long on my "twin" project and one of them died

I had a direct short somewhere and assumed it was in my lead wire from the PCB to the LED. Two attempts at taking the whole thing apart ( three layers of epoxy) with the aid of a heat gun, tweezers and burnt fingers. It turns out the short is somewhere on the PCB under Arctic SIlver grease and I think possibly in regards to the Hall Switch. After 6 hours of micro surgery and with silver grease everywhere I decided it's DOA. I just hope I can get the other one to live

More and more, this under driven 5 W (3 watts) is looking better and better! I used it last night for dog duty and it is a good walking light. I could have made 6 of these in the time I've spent so far on the Low/High proposition. Too much stuff in to tight of space for someone who's all thumbs. Oh well, back to the work bench....................

- Don

EDIT: The Hall effect switch has stopped functioning on the other one. That's it, I quit

 

[Darell]

Re: E2e\'s with underdriven 5 watts - Twins: SE & HD (beam Comparisons)

Fine. FINE!

But is the dog OK?

 

[McGizmo]

Re: E2e\'s with underdriven 5 watts - Twins: SE & HD (beam Comparisons)

Originally posted by darell:
Fine. FINE!

But is the dog OK?

<font size="2" face="Verdana, Arial">Of course Salty's fine! He's my inspiration! How do you think I have learned to run around in circles??