Q-III + SSCP4 = "oh yeah!"

[Marcus Aurelius]

I just modded my Q-III tonight with a SSC P4 from Photonfanatic and the results are :rock: (Thanks to EngrPaul and to Trivergata for their advice.) The beam is perfect: tight hot spot with a generous spill, brilliant white, no rings, no artifacts and about twice as bright. This single cell light now has the output of its 2 cell big brother. I am particularly happy because my Q-III was the light that got me hooked and I was reluctant to see it fade into obsolescence. If you have a Q-III and you haven't done so already, I highly recomend this mod.

So what do you think is the best way to upgrade this classic? What should I think of adding/changing next? I would love to know what others have done

 

[cqbdude]

nice job....any pics of the mod??

How did you get the head opened? I have a couple of Q3's and they are different from each other...one opens from the very bottom near the tailcap, the other opens closer to the head..

 

[Marcus Aurelius]

Getting it open was the only hard part. It almost got the best of me. I tried boiling it, but for some reason the plastic bag I put it in melted, so I tried the hair dryer, then broke a brand new strap wrench on it. Finally, I let it sit in front of the hair dryer for something like ten minutes and then took some pliers to it, making sure to protect the body with some rubber pads. It actually didn't take much force in the end. The trick is to really get it hot. Then the top of the head screws right off. There is a plastic o-ring that holds the star in the body but it unscrews easily too. Both of my wires were white, so I marked the - with a sharpie, and the rest was soldering. I would say the easiest mod possible is the Dorcy super 1 watt, and then next is the Q-III. I didn't have to change the reflector length or anything.

 

[capplight]

I too installed an SSC P4 star from Photonfanatic in a Q-lll and am very impressed - really bright! I'm very new at modding, but it was pretty easy. The only issue was the thickness of the star was quite a bit less than the Luxeon being replaced, so a spacer/heatsink needed to be added under the new star to raise it up high enough so that the emitter matched up with the reflector. I made my own spacer out of a nickel sanded down with a belt sander - the nickel was just the right diameter. I don't know if nickel is a great heat conductor, but it does seem to work well. It's twice as bright, and with a 3.6v rechargable maybe even brighter. Great light.

 

[Manzerick]

It's funny.. I got the head off botht he Q III and big q III but the plastic o-ring... It wins for now!


:lolsign:


ANy suggestions for round 2?

 

[bray]

another thing to do is throw a flupic in there and well then its even more amazing

 

[capplight]

To get the plastic ring off I think I used a small pair of needle nose pliers opened up. Basically just insert and hold the pliers open while turning. Good luck!

 

[Marcus Aurelius]

Manzerick,
The plastic ring should come right out. I suggest (a) trying to clean out any leftover apoxy that might be in the threads and then (b) trying to screw it back in before unscrewing it. My best is that you may have moved it so that the threads are not properly aligned. This should be the simple part.

Bray: so what does a flupic do for one?

 

[EngrPaul]

Congratulations, your persistence paid off!!!!!

 

[farscape105]

I modified my QIII with photofanatic P4 star and I wasn't real impressed. I used custom heatsink and flupic from Goldserve. I just found the tint to be little bit purple and brightness not so impressive next to my P1d Ce on high. Not much of a hot spot, I know it will be less with orange peel reflector. I put a Cree star in it and ordered a IMS20 which I think I will like better. The Cree is about same brightness but I like tint better than SSC. I am just used to that bright hot spot of P1D ce that I was expecting this mod to be the same.

To raise cree into reflector I found a key ring that slid in perfect that I put under the brass ring and than put some solder glob on flupic board so battery would reach. Now that I think of it, hope the key ring doesn't have too much resistance. I dremeled out the hole in reflector for cree and kind of botched it, beam isn't perfect circle. Anyone know if cree fits in IMS20 without widening it?

 

[ginaz]

i've got an edixeon with ims20 in mine. i run it on rechargables and it's giving more total output than my d-mini. it's become my born-again favorite!

 

[ideefixe]

I, too, see a purple tint from my FluPIC'd QIII w/ SSC P4. Could it be from the way the FluPIC is driving it?

I modified my QIII with photofanatic P4 star and I wasn't real impressed. I used custom heatsink and flupic from Goldserve. I just found the tint to be little bit purple and brightness not so impressive next to my P1d Ce on high. Not much of a hot spot, I know it will be less with orange peel reflector. I put a Cree star in it and ordered a IMS20 which I think I will like better. The Cree is about same brightness but I like tint better than SSC. I am just used to that bright hot spot of P1D ce that I was expecting this mod to be the same.

To raise cree into reflector I found a key ring that slid in perfect that I put under the brass ring and than put some solder glob on flupic board so battery would reach. Now that I think of it, hope the key ring doesn't have too much resistance. I dremeled out the hole in reflector for cree and kind of botched it, beam isn't perfect circle. Anyone know if cree fits in IMS20 without widening it?

 

[vetkaw63]

The flupic needs Rcr123's to run it. You are not running primaries are you?
Mike

 

[ideefixe]

Nope, not primaries. They're 3.6V RCR123's.

I'll probably get another QIII and use the stock circuit to drive a SSCP4 for comparison...

The flupic needs Rcr123's to run it. You are not running primaries are you?
Mike

 

[TORCH_BOY]

I have been tempted to Mod mine

 

[carbine15]

For the love of God.. BEAMSHOTS please!!!

 

[Omega Man]

So what do you think is the best way to upgrade this classic? What should I think of adding/changing next? I would love to know what others have done

Someday I'll be there with you guys too!
I'd go with a 2 stage mod on the tailcap, next.

 

[vetkaw63]

I have a SSC u bin in mine. Custom heat sink, and 2 stage switch. I use rechargables and it is like a car headlight on high. It is almost too bright. It ruins your night vision. It runs for 3 hours on low. Perfect for walking the dog at night.
Mike

 

[mudman cj]

I too have a Q-III with SSCP4 U bin. Mine is nice and white, but I expected color shifting towards blue/purple so I used a warm VO color bin instead of WO. I couldn't be happier with the color!

I have the emitter mounted to a custom copper heat sink with Arctic Silver ceramic epoxy, driven by a BBNG917mA board. I also have a two-stage switch with a 22.1 Ohm resistor that allows me to reduce the current draw at the battery to 72mA for 10 hour runtime off of a 3.7V rechargeable. I also swapped the stock reflector for a McR20s, though it only made a little difference - the hotspot is a bit smaller and brighter now.

Other changes include switching to a UCL lens and adding green tritium vials.

vetkaw63 - PM sent.

 

[cqbdude]

After reading this thread and others similar to this, I decided to do this Mod at 1 am in the morning..

I had bought 2 Q3's specifically to do this mod , but I have not had the guts to try it yet..
Luckily , I was able to crack the head open without having to boil it .

Damn , this has got to be the easiest mod I have even done .
Ones I got the head open , everything just came out easily.
I decided to install a Ubin Seoul P4 star , just soldered 2 wires and I was done..
I didnt even have to do anything to the reflector...

So there I was checking it out , loving the way the beam looks. its definitely much brighter and nicer than the Lux3 that was there before.
I got greedy and decided to try my luck with the other Q3 , this time I decided to install a Cree instead..Again I was able to open the head without much effort. Replace the Lux3 with a Cree , but found out I needed to modify the reflector somewhat to fit the cree led and about 10 minutes later after carefully filing some aluminum off the hole , its done...

I recommend this mod...One of the mod where I didnt blow anything up...:rock:

Ill get some beamshot tonight..It got too late last night...