Arc-aaa modded with a Luxeon?

I have an opportunity to purchase one of these lights and I'm wondering if anyone knows anything about them. Does anyone out there have a luxeon Arc mod? If so, what is the runtime like? Is it a huge improvement over stock? Any big downsides? Thanks in advance...

I guess it's only a good as the person who did it. If it was done by LED_ASAP, go for it. Be sure to use Energizer E2 lithiums cells. I love mine.

I would like to hear more about this mod that LED_ASAP puts out.

How bright is it compared to the newer stock premiums that are being put out now?

Any runtime #'s?

thanks!

Okay I found a for sale thread where somebody mentioned that it has a 1 hour runtime.


Any comparable brighteness to other popular lights so we can tell how bright this mod makes the ARC AAA?.....:

fenix LOP ?
SL Jr lux ?
RR 2 AAA ?

This is somewhat unfair, since only the Arc-AAA Lux-III had the Energizer E2 lithium cell and these other lights had the alkalines, however using the E2 in these other lights would prolong the runtime by a bit, increase the brightness ever so slightly and make for a more constant regulation throughout the run-cycle. What this chart does represent fairly is that the modded Arc-AAA will kick the snot out of every single-AAA based light I've ever had, with very good runtime to boot (on lithiums).

Ray, It's great to see one of your comparitive output graphs again. Back when you had a bunch of them in a sticky thread I thought it was a great asset to the forum. Do you think you will ever bring them back? I understand if you just got tried of answering the same questions repeatedly even though you had an excellent post explaining your methodology and it's possible limitations.

The one I'm looking at has a ball lens that puts out a squarish hotspot. Has anyone seen one of these?

There is an ARC AAA on the sell forum right now. I had an opportunity to buy it last night but the seller says the mod by LED_ASAP but is not as bright as the new Premium ARC AAA. I bought the smoothy ARC AAA instead.

http://candlepowerforums.com/vb/showthread.php?p=1293469#post1293469

:help: :thinking: *confused*

mrdctaylor said:

The one I'm looking at has a ball lens that puts out a squarish hotspot. Has anyone seen one of these?

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I forget the name of the modder who was doing these, but I had a couple of these types. I didn't care for them all that much. The beam wasn't very usefull for me doing close-up work. That square shape in the beam was a big distraction for me, so I sold them.

Doug S said:

Ray, It's great to see one of your comparitive output graphs again. Back when you had a bunch of them in a sticky thread I thought it was a great asset to the forum. Do you think you will ever bring them back? I understand if you just got tried of answering the same questions repeatedly even though you had an excellent post explaining your methodology and it's possible limitations.

Click to expand...

Thanks. I think that sticky is still around, but buried due to my lack of updates. I'll have to see if I can resurect it.

I had an ARC AAA Premium modded by LED_ASAP with a Lux I that pulled 400ma from the battery. With an 850 Energizer NiMH cell, it would run about an hour and 40 minutes, then it would start to flicker and drop out of regulation, then it would run a long time at a lower output.

I was 100% happy with mine. Mine didn't have the full 'half dome' mod where the acrylic would actually extend past the end of the flashlight, but it had a little acrylic that looked like a 5mm LED but shaped a bit different. It had a square-ish beam but that was never distracting in over a year of use.

I think back in the day, he charged $80 or $85 for the mod and the lights were $30 to $40. They usually sell for around $60 on B/S/T though I think one was recently sold for $30. Outstanding deal. LED_ASAP did/does top notch work.

mrdctaylor said:

The one I'm looking at has a ball lens that puts out a squarish hotspot. Has anyone seen one of these?

Click to expand...

I think that was tonyb making those (or was it shiftd?).

LED_ASAP and d'mo (or however he spells it) offered the half acrylic dome as well.

I love mine :wow:

I have one with a luxeon that uses no acrylic. It is definitely a flood light due to the limited reflector surface of the original ARC AAA. Much whiter and brighter than the old ARCs. One of my favorites for the small size, toughness, flood, and whiteness.

cratz2 said:

... d'mo (or however he spells it) offered the half acrylic dome as well.

Click to expand...

That's it!

Monolith said:

I have one with a luxeon that uses no acrylic. It is definitely a flood light due to the limited reflector surface of the original ARC AAA. Much whiter and brighter than the old ARCs. One of my favorites for the small size, toughness, flood, and whiteness.

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I couldn't agree more. I have mine mounted on a Peak pocket-style tube and EDC it.

Yep, d'mo the's one. I had gotten a couple of them. Nice light, but it wasn't for me. I wanted flood. Now that you mention it, I know that LED_ASAP was offering some dome-thing on his MOD, but I asked not to get that. I'm glad that what I did. This light has the most flood I've ever seen.

this_is_nascar said:

Yep, d'mo the's one. I had gotten a couple of them. Nice light, but it wasn't for me. I wanted flood. Now that you mention it, I know that LED_ASAP was offering some dome-thing on his MOD, but I asked not to get that. I'm glad that what I did. This light has the most flood I've ever seen.

Click to expand...

Yeah, though mine were quite different, I preferred without the dome thingy... I considered my 400ma LED_ASAP mod to be a single AAA version of the Inova X5T but with more throw and less runtime... MUCH less runtime!

Great light though... impressed every single person that ever saw it including countless non-flashlight junkies.

Does LED_ASAP still offer those? Can somone post a link if he does?


BTW This is Nascar...That is a real cool (and easy to read:goodjob: ) and informative graph.