Fenix Lego?... Fenix noob question?

[kramer5150]

I was reading up on another thread where a CPFer swapped bodies and used an L1D body tube with his L1T. Just a straight one for one body tube swap. Lighthound sells L1D tubes for $12, so its a cheap swap. Is there any advantage in doing this?

thanks,
New Fenix guy

 

[Gunner12]

The L1/2T V2.0, the L1/2D, P2D, LD10, LD20, PD20, all have compatible threads and the circuits work with 1 AA, 2AA and 1 CR123.

Swapping a 1AA body with a 1AA body won't do anything.

Swapping a L1/2T V2.0's forward clickie tailcap with a L1/2D, LD10 or LD20's reverse clickie tailcap is also a choice and liked by some(P2D and PD20s have a different thread for the tailcap).

 

[kramer5150]

ooh wealth of info in just a few lines. thanks Gunner!!

 

[kramer5150]

I just noticed fenix-store sells the P2D body with tailcap for $24 :twothumbs.

https://www.fenix-store.com/product_info.php?products_id=235

-How much brighter would my L1T V2.0 be running off 3V? Will CR123 lumen output be similar to the L2T v2.0 Q2?
-How long would the run times be using a surefire primary cell?
-How much hotter does the Q2 emitter get at 3V?

thanks!!

 

[Gunner12]

The L1T V2.0 and L2T V2.0 use the same driver, so output should be the same as the L2T V2.0.

With the P2D body+ tailcap, you also loose the forward clickie unless you swap the guts of the switches.

As for runtime, IIRC a CR123 has a similar amount of energy as a AA battery(lithium) so runtime should be around half that of the L2T V2.0. I might not be right though.

Heat shouldn't be a problem unless you leave your light on high by itself(thermally isolated area) in a hot area for a long time.

 

[KiwiMark]

I bought an L1D body for my L2D, now I have the option of making my L2D shorter if I want to.

 

[Igor Porto]

That's a good thing a lot of Fenix parts are interchangeable. I had two L1Ts and a L2D. I tried the L1T head on the L2D body and was amazed how bright it was, but I didn't like my L2D so I returned it to the store.

Then I made a L2T body and now have L1T and L2T.

Here's the difference between L1T and L2T:

 

[alfreddajero]

Wow that is a big difference.

 

[Igor Porto]

That's quite a difference, using the same head.

I've noticed a lack of consistency in the LEDs used by Fenix. I had 3 L1Ts from the same batch, and all three are VERY different. The best one has a pure white tint, and is very bright and throws great on 1AA, that's my EDC. Its brightness is something between the two pictures above, with perfect tint.

The second is the one I took the pics above. It has a slight cooler blue tint, but very normal for a LED, wouldn't bother 99% of us, but not as bright as the first one. I guess that's the standard Q2 brightness, it's good for me. This one has a perfect centered LED.
I'm currently using this head in my L2T.

The third one was crap, it wasn't as bright as the other two, and I ended up selling it.

The L2D Q5 I bought was so lame I returned it.


Now I'm afraid to buy any Fenix light from any store out of my country, because I don't know what I will get and returning it would be a hassle.

There's only one store that sells Fenix in Brazil, and they don't have all models available. But their service is great, no questions asked returning policy.

 

[Gunner12]

LED tint is not something a company like Fenix(or any company with LED lights) can control. The tint depends a lot on the LED itself and the tint bin it belongs to, but even within the same tint bin you can have two LEDs with a visibly different tint. This uncertainly used to be called the Luxeon Lottery because Luxeons were the king when it was coined.

 

[Igor Porto]

Definitely Luxeons are the kings of tint lottery. I had 3 MagLEDs 2D and all three are VERY different: one blue, one purple and one green. Kept the blue and gave away the others.

 

[kramer5150]

WOW... thats quite an improvement. I think I'll go for the P2D/CR123 upgrade:thumbsup:.

I get a size decrease and a major lumen increase, all without significantly decreasing run times... I can't loose:thumbsup::twothumbs

This setup could replace the RC-N3-Q5 in my EDC pack

 

[Igor Porto]

If CR123s were cheap and available around here, I wouldn't think twice before getting a P2D body for my L1T...