Put an MC-E in a Dinotte 200L?

[BentHeadTX]

I have a Dinotte 200L and my Fenix L2D Q5 flashlights kill the poor thing! From what I understand, it is a Seoul Semi LED in an optic that runs at 1 amp. Pretty pathetic with a bluish beam.

Figure I could throw an MC-E underdriven at 1 amp to get a better flood light (reflector) and more total lumens. Anyone take one of those apart and would you think it would be worth the effort?

 

[syc]

This thread was about upgrading a Dinotte Ultra 5 using an MC-E.

According to this thread on MTBR the 200L draws .75a, and a few other places say that it's a SSC P4. The Ultra 5 was being driven at higher current I think.

If I'm reading the charts right, driving each die at 750/4 = 187.5mA should get you a little under 60% of the 350mA lumens rating. An M-bin MC-E will give you something like 250-290 lumens.

So if the MC-E binning is accurate, you might expect a 70 lumen bump. Is 70 lumens worth the time and money?

I have a Dinotte 200L and my Fenix L2D Q5 flashlights kill the poor thing! From what I understand, it is a Seoul Semi LED in an optic that runs at 1 amp. Pretty pathetic with a bluish beam.

Figure I could throw an MC-E underdriven at 1 amp to get a better flood light (reflector) and more total lumens. Anyone take one of those apart and would you think it would be worth the effort?

 

[BentHeadTX]

I checked the dinotte 200L against a L2D Q5 and L1D RB100 and the Q5 crushed it...bad. I even prefer the output of the single AA driven Rebel 100 over the Dinotte.

Since I use L2D Q5's for throw, figure maybe I could mod the Dinotte for flood. Thank you for the review and battery draw figures it helps. 750mA draw on a 4.8V battery is 3.6 watts or even more since most people check the draw on fully charged batteries. Calculate 90% efficiency on a Zetex buck regulator and it sits at 3.2 watts to the LED. Even if the SSC forward voltage is 3.6V, that would mean a drive of 890mA.

The MC-E forward voltage is 3.2V at 350mA so I would estimate 220mA drive to each emitter in parallel. Then again, with the lower forward voltage a current regulator at 750mA will stay at that level, generate less heat and have longer run times.

It will be a pain to put an MC-E in a Dinotte 200L but I could use a bucktoot 1 amp buck regulator to drive each emitter at 250mA to make it jump. It should not have heating problems at 3.1 to 3.2 watts. That would be a future mod since I prefer to use the nice regulator built in.

For optics, I would use a cut down reflector with a glass lens.

My last option would to wait for the Cree R3/R4 bins to become available and add optics to fit.

 

[syc]

It sounds like you'd almost be just making a new light at that point, with a new circuit board, new optics and new LED. ktronik announced a new housing for xpe on MTBR, might make sense to just build a new light from the ground up.

 

[BentHeadTX]

It sounds like you'd almost be just making a new light at that point, with a new circuit board, new optics and new LED. ktronik announced a new housing for xpe on MTBR, might make sense to just build a new light from the ground up.

True,
I have to balance this all out. Since the Dinotte uses a SSC emitter, I can't use the stock optics. On the positive point this is a good thing since I would choose either a more floody beam for bar use, or a more narrow beam for throw.
Using an R2/R3/R4 would be easier and much cheaper as mods go, $12 for an LED and a few bucks for the optic...some soldering and I'm done. This might be the best way for me to go and it will give me time to wait for the bins since the Nov-Feb dark months are over. The MC-E light would be better served as a frame mount light and fed from my DeWalt 32.5V 2300mAH battery. (two MC-E and two R2 LEDs in series direct driven by the 28-36V battery) 10 emitters in series will casauly let me know when the voltage drops below 32V under load.
I can get the R bins on 17mm stars so it will fit inside the Dinotte shell and get about $8 in optics for throw, elipical and flood to choose what I need. Being in CPF so long, I guess it makes me more LED picky.