MOD Coleman Cree XLamp XR-E LED Flashlight

[K_Labs]

Coleman Cree XLamp XR-E LED Flashlight, 2 "AA" From Walmart! Ha try 3 CR123 's!

DISCLAIMER: First off please forgive me for my lack of knowledge and restrictions. Please feel free to correct me if I'm wrong. Or tell me that I'm crazy. Or just laugh because of something I did or didn't do. I'm still kind of new to this site but from what I've read everywhere on here Cree is the bomb so I had to get one.... and mod or just overpower it. BTW I don't have a lux meter.

I first got the light 2 days ago for mountain biking applications. It has the orange peel reflector on it which is perfect for what I'm using it for. My buddy also got one at the same time as me. I happened to get the one with a white outside and yellow inside led and my friend got a all yellow led. Mine is brighter.

Here is a link to some info on the light before any mods. http://candlepowerforums.com/vb/showthread.php?t=202659

So this light (Out of the box) was really pretty bright compared to all of my other cheap little bike lights. I zip tied it on my bars and off I went. The next day at work I saw that no1 had a mod write up on this so I figured I'll give it a shot. I bored out the body to .005 over 18mm so I could eventually fit a few 18650's in there but I realized that they are hard to come by at a retail store and my length isn't quite right. Then I went to fry's electronics and hit "Battery Central" hard. I wound up with 3 Lithium CR123's. I didn't go the rechareable route because I thought I was going to cook the led so why waste the 25 bucks. Then I got paranoid because of my last little "Magic Smoke" show. So I caked on some Zalman thermal grease all over the heatsink big time. I did it in the car on the freeway so it kind of got ALL over the place. I tossed those CR123's in there and if I'm right it's running on 9volts now. There is some kind of board in there so I probably have some sort of resistor. Really bright compared to the regular 2AA's.

Pics coming later on. My camera phone is horrible quality.

So I used it again last night on my ride. It ran for 30mins. no problems no heat issues nothing. Then this jerk in a car flashed his high beams at me and left them on so I stopped and beamed him while shouting "Check this out ya fat jerk." I know it's not right to shine led's at people but he had it coming. Everyone else I saw last night got a courtesy hand over the light until they were past the beam.

My only concern is that when I try to run it on 2 AA's it will barely power up the LED now. But with the 3 CR123's it's running great.

I'll be buying another one so people in cars can think I'm a vehicle and I want more light! Before I mod it I can do some comparison pics.

 

[clg0159]

The 2AA uses some sort of a boost regulator to bring the voltage up(2X1.5V=3V) to ~3.7V. What you want for your 3XCR123 format is a buck regulator. This will bring the voltage down to ~3.7 which is the forward voltage for a XRE. Something like this:
http://theledguy.chainreactionweb.c...=1004&osCsid=a5509d1a417ce2800495568784bd5d68

I am pretty surprised you haven't fried the LED yet because you are seriously overdriving it. When overdriving an LED you want to feed it more current not voltage. Even then you need an adequate heatsink. I have this light and trust me, the heatsink is not big enough. You could make a new/thicker one out of Cu or Al and epoxy it to the pill.

Ultimately although your light looks bright for now it won't last, and you don't want to end up in the dark on your bike.:candle:

 

[K_Labs]

LOL I was really concerned about that happening so I brought some extra lights with me. Is the biggest concern the heat issue? It was quite cold last night and I wouldn't switch it on until I got moving. The light wasn't even warm to the touch. Let me know more about this Current increase instead of a Voltage increase. Is current measured in MAH? Is it possible to make it just as bright as it is now with the current increase?

I think I could fit a 17mm board in there without any problems did you manage to mod yours yet?

 

[clg0159]

Well, if you are riding (constant air flow) in the cold, then the heat will not be so much of an issue assuming you have a good thermal path to the body.
Current is measured in amperes. I have not measured the stock driving current, but I would guess it is around 500ma(milliamps). The SOB1000 board I directed you to will drive the LED at 1000ma(1amp)or double the stock current if my guess is correct. It isn't really worth trying to go any higher than that. You will definately notice the increase from stock to 1000ma, and your LED will not go . The forum is full of test data on driving Cree LEDs so just spend some time reading.
I swapped the LED out for a P4 7C (warm white Cree) because I use my lights outdoors and appreciate the better color rendering of warmer colors. I just left the stock driver and run it on Eneloops although I have considered putting in a Madmax Plus driver and improving the heatsink in the future.

 

[K_Labs]

So do you have any idea of what Cree Led came in the stock light? I noticed it says that the board can run up to a 5w led which one is the best one you could get to swap in there? Would I have to run a resistor on there? Does it already have one? Or do I need one at all once I get the board?

 

[clg0159]

It's almost impossible to tell by looking at the LED. The only thing I can say for sure is that it is a cold white bin.
You can swap the LED out if you want. What is most important to you, flux(output), or color? You have choices in cold, neutral, and warm white.
I believe the SOB comes pre-configured with the proper resistance as per your order. E-mail wayne to make sure before you place your order.

 

[K_Labs]

It's almost impossible to tell by looking at the LED. The only thing I can say for sure is that it is a cold white bin.
You can swap the LED out if you want. What is most important to you, flux(output), or color? You have choices in cold, neutral, and warm white.
I believe the SOB comes pre-configured with the proper resistance as per your order. E-mail wayne to make sure before you place your order.

So what is Flux? I definitely want the max output. I'm going to mod this one as much as I can and then buy another if I'm satisfied with it.... If not I might make a 12 led light with all three types of optics 4 of each all stacked up in a machined block of aluminum. I saw a board today that can run up to 12 or 15 leds at 2amps with a 36v input max? I think

 

[Gunner12]

9V! The Cree XR-E(most white LEDs for that matter) are only supposed to run at 3.3-3.7v. I'm really surprised that the LED survived. You probably fired the boost circuit that was supposed to power the LED.

Ignore the wattage rating, the Cree XR-E is rated to 1 amp max, and that could be 3.5-4 watt depending on the Vf(forward voltage) of the LED.

The LED board is just the LED with a board, nothing else. No circuit.

The highest binned Cree XR-Es avaliable is the R2 bin.

A resistor will waste too much energy.

It has(well had, it probably doesn't work anymore) a boost circuit which raises the 3v from the 2 AA battery to the working voltage of the LED(around 3.5-3.7v). It will not lower the voltage unless it is a buck or a buck/boost circuit. Circuits are usually more efficient the resistors when that amount of voltage is being dropped.

Luminous flux from wikipedia

 

[K_Labs]

:candle:I just got back from using my light tonight and it was on for 5 minutes and but it was just the batteries. It was a total of 30-50 minutes give or take when I was screwing around here and there to test how bright it was.

Good thing I have 3 back up lights. Time for some rechargeables. :candle:This is what 3 different multiple 5mm leds looked like running all at once in comparison to my cree :candle:

 

[K_Labs]

If... I mean when the cree led burns out I was looking at putting some mods in the coleman. I found this board for the P7 but I wasn't sure if I could run 3 RCR123's (3.7V instead of a 3.0V primary?) on it without surpassing the Vi (I don't know if that's the correct symbol for input Voltage) 3 RCR123's would be pushing 11.1V cold and 12.6 hot off the charger? Let me know what you guys think. If it is to much and I can't run the 3 RCR123's could I put a dummy in there to fill the empty space? I saw that it can run 4 AA Eneloops.

The P7 C-Bin: http://www.dealextreme.com/details.dx/sku.12721

The UCL lens: http://www.flashlightlens.com/str/index.php?app=ccp0&ns=prodshow&ref=ucl_lens

This board is,"- Designed for SSC P7 LED for maximum output 740lumen-900lumens (C bin)":
http://kaidomain.com/ProductDetails.aspx?ProductId=1770

 

[K_Labs]

Better yet how about just one RCR 18650, A 17mm x 30mm long solid piece of aluminum to fill the gap while acting as my heat sink with fins cut into it and 2 holes drilled through the sink for the wires. The board would be under the heat sink and have to ground out on the heatsink itself. My only concern is the board. What should I use to keep the board isolated?

I was going to be making the heat sink on my lathe and drilling it out on my mill. If it all works out I'll go buy another one and have 3 comparison shots. Stock cree w/ 2 Lithium AA's, stock cree w/ 3 Lithium CR123's, and P7 w/ Li-Ion RCR 18650. This forum has made me want to mod the hell out of my light until it blows up in my face.

 

[Gunner12]

If you are going with a 18650(RCR is not needed, for CR123s, the RCR is to specify rechargeable) and a P7, then you can probably just direct drive the LED, no driver.

But anything other then a Li-ion battery(or something of simialr voltage) might either not light up the LED or burn it out.

Also make sure there is enough heatsinking. The hotspot would be much wider.

 

[K_Labs]

So I can run it from the battery straight to the led with a Rechargeable 18650? What is better protected or unprotected? That would save me alot of work phasing out the board. However will it run as efficiently w/o the board as it could with the board? Or is it exactly the same?

 

[clg0159]

Definately go with a protected cell.
Yes, you can run it DD(direct drive)(no driver) from the 18650. The output will not be as flat as with a driver, but it will allow you to create a larger heatsink that protrudes into the barrel.

 

[K_Labs]

Oh it's gonna be flippin huge. basically it's going to be as large as a cr123 minus 7mm for the board and .5mm isolation on each side and around the board. The 18650 is the size of 2 cr123 s? So if I can fit 3 in there now I can put a huge heatsink in there. I drew up plans today but I don't have a scanner to put them on here.

So the 18650 is 18mm x 65mm and the protected one is the same but 5mm longer? Oh this is gonna be so awesome it's already really bright compared to every1 elses bike lights.... But I want a flame thrower.

BTW I took some of that advice you guys were giving me and took one of the cells out. So I should be running at 6v now. Which is still excessive but hey it's better than 9v. I made a dummy cell today at work out of some aluminum and wrapped it in electrical tape so it wouldn't ground out on the case. I figured if they can ground the board to the flashlight case then I could use aluminum to make a dummy cell. So now I am only running 2 cr123s and it's still rocking. The batteries didn't die one of them just blew up. LOL. So I put the 2 back in there that looked good and :thumbsup: So now it's been running for 3 days and a total of around 1.5-2 hours. It's so bright I only use it when I'm hitting a downhill bomber, a drop off, or a jump. I figure why blow it up before I get my P7 in hand.

 

[K_Labs]

Where do you guys get your wire from? What is the gauge of the wire? What type of solder do you guys use?

 

[clg0159]

You can't beat solid copper core wire. You can get it at radio shack if you have one near you. If you have trouble soldering here is some great teflon wire I have also used:
http://www.candlepowerforums.com/vb/showthread.php?t=122273
I personally don't use smaller than 24ga.
:thinking: There is a physics formula for calculating resistance along a wire (including conductor type), but I cannot recall it off of the top of my head.

 

[K_Labs]

You can't beat solid copper core wire. You can get it at radio shack if you have one near you. If you have trouble soldering here is some great teflon wire I have also used:
http://www.candlepowerforums.com/vb/showthread.php?t=122273
I personally don't use smaller than 24ga.
:thinking: There is a physics formula for calculating resistance along a wire (including conductor type), but I cannot recall it off of the top of my head.

Is there a place that you know of that I can order wire from online?

 

[K_Labs]

lol nvm link right in front of my face

 

[K_Labs]

So what kind of lumens should I be expecting out of this led Min/Max?