Hey everyone, I just wanted to share what is not only my first mod but one far more frustrating than I care to admit. When I finally got everything put together I sat there and cussed at the darn thing for a solid 20 seconds.
The worst part was sanding away the lip on the bottom of the reflector, which was designed to sit on the luxeon V's black plastic seat and pretty much completely incompatible with contemporary emitters. I know the lux Vs were notorious for having donut holes, but I strongly suspect Surefire goofed up here with designing the reflector. That lip at the opening was definitely holding back the lux V by 1-1.5mm and not flush with the reflector (the 2nd inner ring is the actual reflector opening). From what I understand fractions of a millimeter matter with these things.
Pic of finished mod, tape is to cover the solder joints in case of shorting by the bare metal on the reflector base
As a hopeless degenerate collector who has long since jettisoned all rationality and logic when it comes to this hobby, I obviously do have another L5 in stock form for comparison
The driver is from Kaidomain, their 17mm 1-cell 7135 driver. I removed all but 1 chip for a max current of 380ma. Modes are 3-5ma, 30% and 100%. All beamshots are at 30%, so 120-ish ma. The stock L5 is a single mode of course, I believe it was rated for 1.5 hrs @ 100 lumens. Both lights are powered by Keeppower 16650's.
The XML2 is a U3 5a3 4000k currently sold by kaidomain.
indoors Left XML2 / Right Stock (donut is even more pronounced in person)
outdoors XML2 4k (120ish ma)
outdoors stock lux V
Left XML2 / Right Stock
Left Stock / Right XML2
Pretty crazy how far flashlights have come. By my poor calculation the stock SF L5 from 15 years ago is anywhere from 10-20 times less efficient, does that sound right?
Also can anyone chime in on the benefits of a nichia 519 4k vs the XML2? I have a nichia 519 4k in an eagletac d25 and next to the XML2 it actually looks slightly green, despite the same 4k ratings. I don't have a spare nichia laying around but am waiting on ordered ones. Would the nichia be less efficient since vf is slightly higher? As mentioned this is my first real mod and nothing is too obvious to point out.
If anyone is interested in seeing any other emitters out of this reflector just ask! I caught the modding bug and will be swapping in a nichia and probably an xhp50 just for fun, as well as doing some P60 mods with identical emitters/drivers just to get a feel for how much farther the L5 reflector throws vs a p60.
The worst part was sanding away the lip on the bottom of the reflector, which was designed to sit on the luxeon V's black plastic seat and pretty much completely incompatible with contemporary emitters. I know the lux Vs were notorious for having donut holes, but I strongly suspect Surefire goofed up here with designing the reflector. That lip at the opening was definitely holding back the lux V by 1-1.5mm and not flush with the reflector (the 2nd inner ring is the actual reflector opening). From what I understand fractions of a millimeter matter with these things.
Pic of finished mod, tape is to cover the solder joints in case of shorting by the bare metal on the reflector base
As a hopeless degenerate collector who has long since jettisoned all rationality and logic when it comes to this hobby, I obviously do have another L5 in stock form for comparison
The driver is from Kaidomain, their 17mm 1-cell 7135 driver. I removed all but 1 chip for a max current of 380ma. Modes are 3-5ma, 30% and 100%. All beamshots are at 30%, so 120-ish ma. The stock L5 is a single mode of course, I believe it was rated for 1.5 hrs @ 100 lumens. Both lights are powered by Keeppower 16650's.
The XML2 is a U3 5a3 4000k currently sold by kaidomain.
indoors Left XML2 / Right Stock (donut is even more pronounced in person)
outdoors XML2 4k (120ish ma)
outdoors stock lux V
Left XML2 / Right Stock
Left Stock / Right XML2
Pretty crazy how far flashlights have come. By my poor calculation the stock SF L5 from 15 years ago is anywhere from 10-20 times less efficient, does that sound right?
Also can anyone chime in on the benefits of a nichia 519 4k vs the XML2? I have a nichia 519 4k in an eagletac d25 and next to the XML2 it actually looks slightly green, despite the same 4k ratings. I don't have a spare nichia laying around but am waiting on ordered ones. Would the nichia be less efficient since vf is slightly higher? As mentioned this is my first real mod and nothing is too obvious to point out.
If anyone is interested in seeing any other emitters out of this reflector just ask! I caught the modding bug and will be swapping in a nichia and probably an xhp50 just for fun, as well as doing some P60 mods with identical emitters/drivers just to get a feel for how much farther the L5 reflector throws vs a p60.
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