Gerber Infinity Ultra with Cree XR-E

[Erasmus]

Today I started modifying my Gerber Infinity Ultra. I'm going to swap the stock LED with a Cree XR-E and polish the reflector-like cup at the front end. Before swapping the LED I made some measurements :

• When using an Eneloop AA (1.33V open circuit) the power consumption of the light is 200 mA. The 5mm LED (Nichia CS) measures 54mA and 3.72V (0.20088W). Driver efficiency is 75.51% which is reasonable. I am going to keep the driver since I love the long runtime at a decent light output.
• A Cree warm white XR-E P4 (which measures 3.46V at 350mA) gets 67mA at 3.03V (0.20301W). That is around 17 lumens of nice warm white light.
• A Cree Q5 WC (which measures 3.06V at 350mA) gets 74mA at 2.75V (0.2035W). That is around 25 lumens of pure white light.

Looks like the driver is not a constant current driver but something like a constant power driver, made to supply 200mW to the LED.
When I have time I will continue this mod and post more information. The head of the light will need some modification to fit the XR-E. I think the warm white XR-E will go in since it provides more than enough light for me and I like the tint for reading books, which is it's most important task as it is always on my bedside table. It's just more fun to read a book with a flashlight than with a bedside table lamp

 

[paulr]

Wow, neat. For reading I'd go for a bare led pattern rather than polishing the reflector. Aim for a pure even flood like a McGizmo Mule or a Zebralight H50. No hot spot whatsoever.

It's interesting that the driver circuit is able to run a Cree at 74 mA. I wonder if efficiency is suffering and/or any components are being stressed. I was just thinking earlier today that the ideal general purpose 1aa light should run at 125 ma or so. This is pretty close.

 

[Erasmus]

Tomorrow I will measure the Iin when using the Cree so we can compare driver efficiency rates

 

[koala]

Hey Eramus,

No pics? Show us some pics!!!

Have you seen those early threads regarding Infinity Ultra Luxeon mods? If not I could post some. The Inf. Ultra driver is quite capable actually. Even better when supplied with 3V Lithium. The inductor being the bottleneck.

 

[Erasmus]

Hey Eramus,

No pics? Show us some pics!!!

Have you seen those early threads regarding Infinity Ultra Luxeon mods? If not I could post some. The Inf. Ultra driver is quite capable actually. Even better when supplied with 3V Lithium. The inductor being the bottleneck.

I tried to look for threads on CPF but the search funtion is driving me crazy. It constantly gives a fatal error.

 

[koala]

CMG Infinity Ultra guts removal

Luxeon Infinity (LUXI)

CMG Infinity Mod - by darkzero, mike101 and greenLED you want to read this!!! They are all very cool mods by nice gentlemen.

Ultra G mod - by Robocop

Infinity Ultra Circuit details

 

[Ctechlite]

Back from the dead, any updates on this oh so intriguing (sp?) project. I recently came across in my projects bin one of these that I was going to put a TW0J in but for some reason stopped...

Anyway, I was thinking of doing a cree and wanted to see how you fared!?

Pictures, please!