Introducing the Milkyspit L1cx2 "Legolas"

[Crenshaw]

Introducing the Milkyspit L1cx2 "Legolas" *ITS BACK! IMPROVED!*

New Info!

after my damaging the original LED, i sent back the head to Scott, with the request of putting in a Q35A.

its pretty much identical...except for the oh-so-warm beam

Quark 123 Tactical Neutral White Turbo on left, Legolas Q35A on right

Malkoff M60 on left, Legolas Q35A on right

This thing is BRIGHT



*Original Post*

I requested a pocket thrower from milky, in an L1 format. Two Damaged L1 bodies, later...

This monster of a light:

CreeXRE Focusable TIR 150ohmTail Acorn 1.3 ('C-Crenshaw' Firmware) Optimised for 17500 rechargable

If you are observant, you will notice that its pretty much a Creemator head. :devil:

yep, thats a KX2 head.

The body of the L1 has be bored out. Meaning the top is now empty, its just a hollow tube.

and man can this light go low...

The UI of the light works like this.

Single mode Creemator with 1.3A drive level. 303lumens.
ML1cx2 vs Malkof M60

ill take some low exposure shots later..

Because of the Tail cap, you immediatly gain an extra, low level, such as in the regular L1

Arc-DS ML1cs2 Low (150ohm Tail)

and then, there is the Miser Mode :devil:
Which is activated by Momentary-on 40+ times in quick succession.
Miser decreases the Light output but percieved Half, while increasing run time but correspondingly more.

ML1cx2 Miser High vs Malkoff M60

And because of the Miser, you get the Bonus of an even LOWER low...

What more could one ask for in a small light?

many thanks to Milkyspit for this excellent light. it took awhile to get exactly right, but i think the result speaks for itself.

btw, anyone want to buy my older ML1 PM me, i might be willing to sell it now that ive got this baby.

Crenshaw

 

[tx101]

Very nice light Crenshaw .... waiting for my own mod from Milky as well

 

[Metatron]

great stuff Crenshaw, yup it takes a genius like milky to turn a SF into a torch

 

[jumpstat]

Thats one cool Milky! Congrats..

 

[Flashlight Aficionado]

Crenshaw - Any outdoor beamshots to show how good a thrower that little guy is? If he really throws good, I will be sorely tempted to buy one. An easily EDC thrower, :naughty:

 

[Crenshaw]

well, its no Tiablo or Dereelight. But it does have a heck of alot of throw for a small light. milky quoted me 10,000 lux at 1 meter. I got that once, but some how keep missing it on my lux meter. I think it might be my batteries. I dont have 17500s yet, so im running 14500s, maybe they cant handle the current draw. Ill see what i can do about outdoor beamshots, although i will tell you that theres so much light pollution round here....it wont be easy..

Crenshaw

 

[m16a]

Thats real nice how much did that bad boy cost you?

 

[KeyGrip]

How do you get out of miser mode? 40 more taps?

 

[Crenshaw]

yup, 40 more taps to get out of miser.

how much did that cost...uhhhh...lol....it was more then my previous one...

in excess of $300 im guessing, not much excess though

Crenshaw

 

[jchoo]

Nice! I hadn't realized that the e-series heads threaded onto an L1 body. Oh, the possibilities!

 

[Blindasabat]

But they do not work on the L1 without modification.

Nice! I hadn't realized that the e-series heads threaded onto an L1 body. Oh, the possibilities!

 

[jchoo]

But they do not work on the L1 without modification.

Nod, I figured that part out... two driver boards and all... still one heck of a mod!

 

[Blindasabat]

I agree, one awesome mod. I'd probably prefer to go somewhere in between a straight Creemator and the Legolas route, but I'm not sure wich way. I really like the L1 switch, so it may work well for me, but not sure how I'd do it yet. I direct drive most of my ML1 heads (including two with SSC and one U-bin Lux3 all modded by Scott) off single RCR123's, so I may just have to go that route. But I just got an Aleph 17500 body that I am using as well. I have been talking to Milky already, so we will see what I end up with. This is another good idea to ponder, though I already have an old L1 body bored and stroked by Milky to fit that 17500.

Nod, I figured that part out... two driver boards and all... still one heck of a mod!

I know you knew that. I just didn't know if everyone knew that...

 

[milkyspit]

Well, I'm sure late to the party here! Somehow I never noticed this thread until now, and no one happened to mention it, either. Sorry guys!

Some quick mentions just to bare my soul on what was a terribly frustrating build with great results...

Crenshaw's $300+ price tag included what he paid for the parts themselves, which he sourced elsewhere. My part of the project was less expensive.

I did indeed damage not one but TWO L1 bodies, ironically ON MY LATHE, which was supposed to make the boring-out process BETTER! Sourced the replacement parts myself, out of my own pocket, so Crenshaw would have a good piece. Unfortunately, this also put me in a hole over the entire project and caused some emotional scar tissue.

The L1 tail came from the body Crenshaw had originally sent over. The minor scrape on the tail was already present.

The head differs from a standard Creemator in one additional respect that Crenshaw didn't mention: I had to replace the entire underside contact area... in addition to the issues some have already noted, there's not quite enough room for a 17500 cell lengthwise even after the body has been completely bored-out... I resolved the latter problem by pulling the positive contact further up into the head itself, to buy enough extra length in the body tube to accommodate the 17500 cell. I'd like to credit McGizmo and his now-obscure L1-PR-T builds from long ago with the inspiration to pursue this approach to fitting the battery.

I'm cropping and uploading some photos I'd taken prior to shipment, and will post them later this afternoon for folks to see.

BRB... :sweat:

 

[milkyspit]

[size=+1]Some Build Photos[/size]

Crenshaw approached me in hopes of building a turbocharged L1 suitable for a variety of purposes, but chief among those being an ability to generate output comparable to that of the Creemator builds. Didn't seem realistic at first, but as the idea had time to gestate it became clearer how one might do this while also keeping the great things about the L1 platform: AWESOME tailswitch; immediate dual stage capability; high beam and full lockouts; great ergonomics come to mind. :naughty:

The above photo certainly looks like a stock SureFire L1 Cree! And that's the intent... but under the hood this little monster is somewhat different, heh heh. The label gives a hint...

I will admit that I'm a big fan of Lord Of The Rings in both book and movie form, as are my kids... and wanted to make this light a little special, so I imported a crude facsimile of the character Legolas from the movie, into the label. For those who don't know, Legolas is an elf with a certain elegance while also capable of serving up some serious, er, punishment when needed... and he has a particular proficiency in long-range archery with his bow. Since this light was among other things designed for both unusually high output for the L1 platform and an exceptional throw-to-size ratio, the name seemed appropriate.

One thing I did was move from the stock 123 cell to the larger, higher-capacity 17500 rechargeable... this allowed me to design the light to run higher output for longer, and since I stashed the circuitry itself in the head, there was really no penalty other than what admittedly turned out to be a LOT more labor and parts expense in getting the thing right.

At the business end of the light, I substituted a KX1 head for the stock L1 Cree head... other than being a minuscule bit longer, which in most cases is near-unnoticeable, the KX1 has exactly the same dimensions and styling as the stock head. Inside I shockmounted an Acorn 1.3 driver running custom firmware programmed for the project (it's a variation of the 'Bailey' firmware tailored to use on the L1 platform) plus custom-fabricated the battery contact points (more on that later). The head retained the SureFire TIR optic, albeit in focusable form, as that particular optic already does a great job with throw... the new focusability helps it do the job a little better.

The underside of the head needed new battery contact points to give the 17500 cell more depth in the body... for this I fabricated a flat contact board, with the negative outer ring in the usual place but the positive connection at the same depth in the head, no longer on a post as the stock positive contact had been... this in turn gave the battery upwards of 1/4 inch greater depth, enabling it to fit the body without need for any sort of extender.

How did the light turn out? Pretty well, if I dare say so. The beam profile shows the narrow-angle throw goal seemingly achieved, plus demonstrates a surprising amount of residual spill from such a narrow-angle optic...

Compared Legolas to a 303-lumen Creemator here in the Milky Labs. Distance to the far wall is perhaps 20 feet, and note there was already a decent amount of ambient light in the room. Still, the comparisons show Legolas' performance accurately... look in particular at how low beam is visible in the retroreflective roadside warning beacon toward the right of the visible area... also note how similar the beam is to the Creemator itself, both in pattern and output. In truth, Legolas on a fresh 17500 cell may be marginally brighter.

Same comparison as above, but this time looking into the basement. There was little to no ambient light for these photos, so all the light you see comes from the test subjects themselves. Tint as shown in the photo is pretty realistic, at least as it appears on my computer monitor. YMMV.

The final couple photos highlight Legolas' color rendering properties, which are pretty decent! The emitter in this build is NOT one of the high-CRI variety, but IMHO it still does a good job. These photos also give a sense of using the light in real world scenarios, showing both the hotspot and sidespill the light produces. Remember, Legolas is providing ALL the light seen in these photos.

All in all, this was a satisfying build. My own enthusiasm was dampened by my wanton destruction of some expensive parts, but somehow the finished product still managed to put a smile on my face. I sincerely hope the same was true for Crenshaw! Thanks for reading, everybody. :bow:

 

[Crenshaw]

wow, i had not realised milky replied in this. Thanks for all the extra details!


i know im really happy with it. The only time i dont carry it is when im going somewhere im afraid ill lose it.

Crenshaw

 

[KDOG3]

That is just plain sick. Now you got me scratching my head....

 

[mudman cj]

Crenshaw - that is a unique and fantastic light! I would love to see beamshots with the LED defocused to different degrees.

 

[Blindasabat]

Search for Milky's thread on the Creemator If I remember correctly, he did de-focused beam shots.

 

[Crenshaw]

hmmm, i might do that if i get a chance.

Oddly, fully tightened, it isnt one tight hotspot, its still a smaller hotspot with spill..etc...unlike what you typically find in Surefire LED TIR lights.

Crenshaw