WF-500 2x18500 Led mod more powerful than P7

[ma_sha1]

WF-500 was a real popular flashlight a while back, 500lm for $25 incan bargain.

With 2x18650, it's a bit too long for my liking, however, it has a nice rare option to
Run 2x18500 instead. Here is a size comp. vs. Mag 1D 1185 & kel-lite 2C ROP Hi. with the WF-500 in 18500 shorty mode.
Only 6.5" tall.

It fits in hand perfectly like Mag 1C, with bezel diameter same as mag as well.

The Stock light has a hot spot as bright as ROP Hi, just a bit smaller & it's not as bright as mag1185.
The only flaw is that it draws ~3A & needs double click to turn on even with AW 18500.
The hot spot is also not perfectly round, kind of egg shaped, which bothers me a little bit,
as I am pretty picky about white wall beam quality.

My mod is simply to fit in a 5xCree LED module that's only recently become available.
Fit in perfectly. The heat transfer was limited to just the top of the reflector where it's screwed into the bezel.
So I wrapped around a bunch of aluminum wires to make body contact between the reflector & the head.
It gets pretty hot after 5 min on high, but stablized, so I think it should be fine to run non stop.

The light with the 5xcree module is incredibly bright. I made quite a few direct drive P7, none of them come even close to this. I am estimating close to 1000 lumen, the hot spot is smaller than p7 & it's quite a thrower.

It's as bright as my mag 1185 but with a smaller hot spot, it throw just as far as 1185 if not further.
The beautiful pure white bean is more pleasant than the P7 mags I've owned. Here are some beam shorts.
(I found some P7 has different tints on each die, causing a hot spot with ring slightly different color)
The tints of each cree in this module are identical, making the hot spot flawless.

Overall, I am glad I re-visited the WF-500, this is a real winner over p7 mag shorty, both from cost,
lumen and beam quality angle. I am a bit surprised as how bright this have turned out.

It also only take one click to turn on, module comes with 5 mode va. original incan single mode.
A real winner in my book.

 

[Lighthouse one]

Who sells the 5 cree drop in?

 

[richardcpf]

Who sells the 5 cree drop in?

This one I guess.

 

[Grue]

Nice! Is that the 5 cree from DealExtreme? How long a life span do you get running the 5 leds on one full charge? And the 5-modes, easy to switch through?

 

[ma_sha1]

Yes, it is.


I only run it for 5-10 min. It's suppose to pull 1A per led, so 5Ax4v =20W at leds. I think it pulls about 3A from battery, 3x8v =24W total power draw.

On AW 18500 battery ~1800mah or ~1.8Ah, i.e 1hr at 1.8A draw.
Assume battery is bit less than claimed, ~1.5Ah (instead of 1.8Ah)
3A draw, should be about 30min run time.

Mode switch is easy, all it take is one soft click.

 

[Grue]

Thanks for that! Time to get my old WF-500 out then. Probably stick with the 18650's though for a little bit more battery life.

 

[ma_sha1]

Just make sure to use aluminum wires or foil wrap around the module base to make good additional heat transfer contact with the head. Otherwise the module will burn out.

 

[meatshieldChris]

do the modes have memory, or does it go back to one of the modes after an amount of time? have you unscrewed the brass part of the heat sink and looked inside?

 

[jar3ds]

are those WF-500's hard anodized?

 

[ma_sha1]

No, not HA-III

 

[ma_sha1]

Took some beam shots against Mag 1185 during Vacation. Shinning on the trees 200 ft out. Mag 85 left & WF500 5xcree right. The P&S camera can't take night shots very well, so it looks much dimmer than reality, but hopefully, It's enough to show the relative brightness of the 5x Cree drop in vs. mag 85.

Mag85 3x17670 freshly charged
WF500 5xCree drop-in 2x18500, freshly charged
The square beam in between is Aspheric Mag with R2 @ 1A.

The point is that I am amazed at the WF500 5xCree
can keep-up with the Mag 1185. The distance to the tree is about 200ft.

Deep in the woods, there is some mist, the mag 1185 looks kind yellow,
(Where at home in doors, it looked whiter).

The WF500 5x cree tint is still pure white (no blue tint) out doors & is much more preferred than the Mag85, I can actually see things better wit it.

Also, Incan. suposed to have higher CRI, but the leaf looked yellow,
which obviously it's not the correct color rendition, so I am not sure
higher CRI means much here, as the whiter LED actually tells the tree leaf color more correctly, the trees are dark green not yellow.

 

[Grue]

Packed mine out with aluminium foil, and heat transfer is a lot better - good call.

Running AW's 2 x New P18650-26 batteries, I'm getting a runtime of just over an hour total - although have yet to time it precisely in a single run.

Thanks for this idea! Really enjoying this torch again.

G

 

[ma_sha1]

Thanks & I am glad you enjoy the mod.

I am still surprised by how tight the spot is
given such small reflectors.

 

[Grue]

..... and less than a month later and the driver's burnt out. Had packed out the head with as much foil as it could take, and the heat transfer was working well (I thought!).

Back to the old bulb I guess! 🙂