TR-1200 modding!

[riccardo]

I have one of the "rare" healthy TR-1200 that it's producing an amazing quantity of light but I really don't like the cool-white light produced by the 5 XR-E Q5.. it's really too much for me. Especially outdoor it is making things look weird, it is much cooler than my T20C2 MKII..

Now I found a source for some Q3 neutral white (same CRI 75 of the cool ones), at 1A I'll lose just 28 lumens per LED... 140 total lumens.. I'm seriously thinking of making the first "TR-1200-NW". It could be a fantastic mod!

What do you think about? Is the swap easy? is it a good idea?

I found also some XR-E warm white Q2 (CRI 80)but it seem that at 1A they will be fried since they can sustain a maximum of 700 mA and I think that I'll lose too much light combining both lower current and lower bin...

Anyway, does anyone have any picture of the TR-1200 drop-in opened? I have my flashlight in another home, it's far away and I'll not be able to get it before a couple of weeks while i'd like to start evaluating the mod right now..

:naughty:

 

[FlashPilot]

Have you thought about 5 x XP-G's? Now that would be BRIGHT! :huh:

There are several threads discussing the modding of this light here.

Please let us know how it goes.

 

[rekd0514]

You could try some R4 as well since the one in my RC-N3 is a neutral color as well. You could then have a brighter light as well.

 

[riccardo]

Have you thought about 5 x XP-G's? Now that would be BRIGHT! :huh:

There are several threads discussing the modding of this light here.

Please let us know how it goes.

On that forum I didn't find anything about modding except the guy who say he has wired all LEDs in parallel...

I have no idea about how much it will be complicated to resolder new LEDs especially if XP-G that have a different form factor compared to the XR-E used on this light.

Moving from actual XR-E Q5 to XP-G R3 (neutral white) at 1A should increase the LED lumens from theoretical 1177 to 1525 of beautiful warmer light. Given the slightly lower VF at 1A of the XP-G we should see also a little less generated heat.

Everything sound nice but:

I don't know if the board where the XR-E are soldered can accept the XP-G
I don't know how difficult will be the resolder job.
I don't know what will be the effect of the reflectors on the XP-G (they are made for the XR-E)..

May be in absence of other user's reports and pictures, just not to destroy my pretty bright TR-1200 (2,3/2,4 A at tailcap with two 18650), it's better to buy the single mode dropin and to play with that..

 

[JP Labs]

Subscribing with great interest. I'm still deciding on a driver option for my stock LEDs, but if you can figure out other LEDs which will mount, and not have a horrible pattern, that will be valuable information. If warmer color, terriffic!

I have a few XR-E Q5 Romison lights, but no XP-Gs. But anybody with a TR-1200 and any XP-G light could simply pull the reflector from the TR and shine the XP-G (led only, no reflector) through it for a quick check.

I'll check with a friend that has several LEDs (LED Lenser, Mag drop-ins, Duracel 2C, at least) and see if any of his are XP-Gs. If so, I'll try it out.

The XP-G mounting footprint is considerably smaller, so at least it should fit the hole, if you can bridge the connections:
http://ledsreview.com/news/214/

EDIT: Well, I found a thread on swapping a Luxeon III based Fenix L2P V2 over to XP-G, with details on alignment to the original reflector, here: http://www.candlepowerforums.com/vb/showthread.php?t=246926

I also read that the XP-G likes a deeper reflector than the XR-E. I see that the XP-G has a wider beam angle than the XR-E, so I think that would mean you would change the pattern some, if keeping the original XR-E reflectors. I'm not sure in what way, though. XR-E is 90 decrees, XP-G is 125 degrees:
http://www.cree.com/products/xlamp_xpg.asp

Maybe that will help a little.