Diamond DB-K2 impression

Hi guys After a long wait I have received my first K2 based emitter globe replacement.
It is called the Diamond DB-K2. This one is for 3 cell and more flashlights. If you use more than 3 cells you need to use dummy cells.
It is very simple to use.
Take the old lamp out put this one in.
What you get is a nice white adjustable beam.
I was able to measure it with the meterman at 8500 lux at 1 meter. This was a rough measurement not done with care or attention. It could be off either way.
Any way you look at it this is not bad for a 30 second mod.
I will be playing with different reflectors and a clear glass lens.

This makes it ever so easy to mod a Maglight. The beam is just fine. The price is not bad either at $25.00.
I used to pay almost that much for LUX III emitters for the space needle Mod.
The K2 Version of the Diamond is rated at 130 lumen's. the package says
6 1/2 watts.
It sort of feels like LUX V power in a LUX III package.
That is a good amount of power.
Is that real power? I don't know yet but I think it is pretty close.
To not stick one of these into a mag light would be silly. It is just too easy.

I look forward to seeing what Mag comes up with in this area. These will be hard to beat.

Yaesumofo

yaesumofo, do you by chance have a Diamond DB-3W as well? I am curious how the Diamond K2 compares with the LuxIII Diamond.

While not as good as a heatsinked o-sink luxeon, for a drop in I'd say it's got better thermal management than the mag-led and costs about the same. It has more mass, but not anywhere to get it to, but thats better than the magled which has little if no mass.

Do you have a o-sinked LuxIII mag to put against it?

What current does it draw?

I've been dying to do something to my Mag 3D

If I use one of these Diamond DB-K2's, would I be able
to run 9 AA's through it??

Would this give me an even brighter beam and longer battery life??


Sorry if this question sounds noobish, I just don't fully understand
all of those other 3D mods.


Ray

I have had five of the K2s on order for a couple of months, since I have 5 3D cell lights. About a week ago I had found one of the MagLed 2cell upgrade drop ins at Wally World, and upgraded the one 2D cell light I had, and was favorably impressed with it.

Today, I received the five Diamond K2s, put one in a Mag 3D light, and am quite disappointed. I am going to see if Wally World has a 3 Cell Mag led tomorrow, and compare them. I will likely send the four unopened Diamond ones back if the comparison is anything like todays comparison.

The Mag Led is whiter, with a smoother beam spot. The K2 is much bluer than I like, and there is a little distortion in the spot, cannot get it adjusted as sharp as I can the MagLed in the 2D light. That is comparing two different reflectors though, so I want to compare a MagLed to the K2 in the same light before making a final decision. There could be some differences in run time before dimming as pointed out in the MagLed tests posted earlier, but that is not so heavy an interest to me as I typically only use a flashlight for a few minutes at a time.

After waiting so long, sure am disappointed so far. The "promises" seem to be way above reality for the K2s.

Where did you get it from? Sandwich Shoppe? Elektrolumens?

Kid9P said:

I've been dying to do something to my Mag 3D

If I use one of these Diamond DB-K2's, would I be able
to run 9 AA's through it??

Would this give me an even brighter beam and longer battery life??


Sorry if this question sounds noobish, I just don't fully understand
all of those other 3D mods.


Ray

Click to expand...

No you will prob instaflash it if your 9 batts are in series (9x1.5v excluding sag). If your batt holder is 3S3P (3 parallel sets of 3 batteries), then that's ok but the runtime will still be less than a 10-11k mah D-cell.

Lux IIIs run around 3-4 Vf depending on their Vf bin, so 3 Alks/NimH making around 4.5v less sag is just about nice for direct drive. 4 cells is often too much.

My friend ran his DB-3W on 4 cells; yes its noticeably brighter but I later measured it at 2+ Amps, and after short use, his reflector surface starting disintegrating and some glow paint around the slug was charred black, in addition to the lux getting overheated and becoming a dim POS.

No I don't.

Yaesumofo

not2bright said:

yaesumofo, do you by chance have a Diamond DB-3W as well? I am curious how the Diamond K2 compares with the LuxIII Diamond.

Click to expand...

What kind of a question is that I have been making O-Sinks for 2 years now. Of cource I have.
Guess what?
The DB-K2 Puts out a beam very much on a par with several of my O-sink modded mags.
I have not done a current draw measurement.
I suspect is direct drive. the package says 6 3/4 watt.
that would put it at 1.5 amps. That is not too far off the mark I suspect.
The thingy (for lack of a better word) gets HOT in about a minute minute and a half.
Yaesumofo

IsaacHayes said:

While not as good as a heatsinked o-sink luxeon, for a drop in I'd say it's got better thermal management than the mag-led and costs about the same. It has more mass, but not anywhere to get it to, but thats better than the magled which has little if no mass.

Do you have a o-sinked LuxIII mag to put against it?

What current does it draw?

Click to expand...

quality-items.com
I orderd it in march and it cost $24.95

Yaesumfo

InfidelCastro said:

Where did you get it from? Sandwich Shoppe? Elektrolumens?

Click to expand...

I didn't even get into the tint. Mine is not too bad looks like an X0 to me.
The Tint on this emitter is totally acceptable to me. So is the brightness for that matter.
I have a PR head don made with a 917ma drive and the tint is almost the same and the mag is WAY brighter.
I did not know that Mag LED flashlights were available. I will have to go buy one and compare.
At the end of the day, the only thing which is NOT GOOD about this is the fact there is nowhere for the heat to go. This will most likely lower the absolute life of the part.
Yaesumofo

DShealey said:

I have had five of the K2s on order for a couple of months, since I have 5 3D cell lights. About a week ago I had found one of the MagLed 2cell upgrade drop ins at Wally World, and upgraded the one 2D cell light I had, and was favorably impressed with it.

Today, I received the five Diamond K2s, put one in a Mag 3D light, and am quite disappointed. I am going to see if Wally World has a 3 Cell Mag led tomorrow, and compare them. I will likely send the four unopened Diamond ones back if the comparison is anything like todays comparison.

The Mag Led is whiter, with a smoother beam spot. The K2 is much bluer than I like, and there is a little distortion in the spot, cannot get it adjusted as sharp as I can the MagLed in the 2D light. That is comparing two different reflectors though, so I want to compare a MagLed to the K2 in the same light before making a final decision. There could be some differences in run time before dimming as pointed out in the MagLed tests posted earlier, but that is not so heavy an interest to me as I typically only use a flashlight for a few minutes at a time.

After waiting so long, sure am disappointed so far. The "promises" seem to be way above reality for the K2s.

Click to expand...

Nope. This being direct drive is very voltage sensitive. Anything over 5 volts or so (CORRECT ME IF I AM WRONG) Will blow the emitter.
Yaesumofo

Kid9P said:

I've been dying to do something to my Mag 3D

If I use one of these Diamond DB-K2's, would I be able
to run 9 AA's through it??

Would this give me an even brighter beam and longer battery life??


Sorry if this question sounds noobish, I just don't fully understand
all of those other 3D mods.


Ray

Click to expand...

The only "real" mods for mag lights involve mounting the emitter on a HeatSink (O-Sink) instead of the pedestal. This requires re-writing the switch to the emitter. These mods also require a modification of the Reflector. None of this stuff is too tough. There are sites describing the mod. It is a fantastic mod to do with a LUX V emitter.
When done...especially the first one...this is very fun and satisfying.
Circuits can also be used to drive the emitter as well, making 2, 4 and 6 battery mags modifiable as well.

Yaesumofo

Kid9P said:

I've been dying to do something to my Mag 3D

If I use one of these Diamond DB-K2's, would I be able
to run 9 AA's through it??

Would this give me an even brighter beam and longer battery life??


Sorry if this question sounds noobish, I just don't fully understand
all of those other 3D mods.


Ray

Click to expand...

***edited*** I saw the answer I was looking for

Jeff

Heheh, I figured my statement would get a response sooner or later!
Just as bright? Hmm. details on what led and driver it is being compared to? That might help figure out if the K2 module is really performing better than a _ bin LuxIII, or if it's just because it's being driven at the max 1.5 amps. I take it is since it gets very hot and is listed as 6 3/4 watts!!! Current measurement would be a better indication too of what it's pulling and what kind of driver it may have.

I found a MagLed 3 cell drop in today, got some new batteries, and will do some comparison this weekend between the Diamond K2 and the MagLed.

I do not have brightness measuring capability, other than Mark I eyeball, but will take current measurements on total draw. Brightness will be pretty much "to the eye" measurements. Same with color. If I can get digital pictures that show differences reasonbaly well I will post. Kinda hard to take pictures that actually show difference with any accuracy though. Cannot set white balance and lock it with my digital that I know of.

I did stick the MagLed in one of my lights when I got home, it seems to be pretty much the same as the 2Cell MagLed, will compare them together when I set up all the lights this weekend.

I am pretty sure the Diamond K2 is going to be a little blue for my taste.

I received my 3-cell K2 a couple days ago and finally bought a 3D Mag last night to put it in. I will have to agree almost completely with what Yaesumofo has posted. My K2 is very white and bright. If anything there might be a very slight hint of pink, or just a slight warmth to the color.
I applied a little ProGold to the threads and electrical interfaces before I screwed the heatsink onto the flashlight. I measured the current with my DVM this morning (10A scale) and it consistantly measured an unbelievable 678mA. Hopefully someone else can do a measurement, because this seems way too low for all the light it produces. This meter has been very accurate on other lights so ???????
I do think I will lightly sputter the reflector to see if it smoothes out the beam a little. It's not bad, this thing kicks out a lot of usable light. I just want a little impovement when looking at walls, I know most CPF'ers understand that. I did have an extra UCL lens, so I installed that when I installed the K2.
So far, with only limited use, I am impressed with this inexpensive, easy to install, mod.

Luxeon lottery will always have an affect on the color tint. So you can't say the K2 Diamonds are always gonig to be blue, as others have stated theirs are different.

java, 678ma, well it could have a low VF and a buck/stepdown circuit in that case it would draw less current than what the led is seeing. But I doubt the low Vf with the samples of K2's everyone has been getting. But still at ~700ma it should be making ~70-80 bulb lumens same as a luxIII before heatsoak takes affect anyways.

Hi,

I want to upgrade my Mag 3D cell with this Diamond K2 emitter. Where I can buy it, except on Flash-Lights.com. They want $55 for shipping to Germany for $25 K2 emitter !??


Who can help?
Thank´s...

DShealey said:

I found a MagLed 3 cell drop in today, got some new batteries, and will do some comparison this weekend between the Diamond K2 and the MagLed.

I do not have brightness measuring capability, other than Mark I eyeball, but will take current measurements on total draw. Brightness will be pretty much "to the eye" measurements. Same with color. If I can get digital pictures that show differences reasonbaly well I will post. Kinda hard to take pictures that actually show difference with any accuracy though. Cannot set white balance and lock it with my digital that I know of.

I did stick the MagLed in one of my lights when I got home, it seems to be pretty much the same as the 2Cell MagLed, will compare them together when I set up all the lights this weekend.

I am pretty sure the Diamond K2 is going to be a little blue for my taste.

Click to expand...

OK, have done some un-scientific testing today, and I definitely prefer the 3D MagLed drop in to the Diamond K2!

Some rather unexpected results though when doing current measurements.

I knew from a previous posters in depth testing that the MagLed has temperature driven current limitation, and expected that to drop the output well below that of the K2 after some run time, and it did drop the current drastically.

I measured voltage and current on both at start with new batteries, and got:
K2 4.55 volts, 675-680 Ma. which surprisingly is only 3.09watts. (so much for the 6.5 watt claims) Current rises slowly as temp goes up.

MagLed 3D drop-in, 4.6 volts, started at 720 Ma, but drops FAST as modules temp starts to go up, which is almost instantaneously. At 1 Min, 45 Seconds it was down to 500 Ma.

I ran both for 30 minutes, and the K2 was up to 770 Ma, at 4.2 volts, the MagLed down to 360 Ma at 4.45 volts. The K2's current RISES with temp increase, the MagLed is regulated down.

The Maglite head and end of case was very noticeably warm with the K2, the one with the MagLed felt the same at the head that it did at the other end of the light, so the temperature driven current limitation of the MagLed sure does work to keep the temps down.

BUT: The K2 spot is not nearly as nice as the MagLed, and cannot be focused down to the size of the MagLed. It is also not as consistent, with some distortion in it. :thumbsdow The MagLed spot is nice and round, with a smooth consistency across it.

Even more surprising though is the APPARENT brightness, visually, not measured. Even after 30 minutes of running, and the current on the MagLed half that of the K2, the MagLed is barely dimmer visually, maybe 10%, if the spots are adjusted to the same size. The MagLed has to be focused out almost double it's smallest size to get it to the smallest size of the K2. When both are at their smallest spot size the smaller MagLed spot appears brighter, and with better throw! Even across my 4 car garage to the opposite wall the MagLed spot is brighter, with the K2 using twice the battery current! Gonna try to across the road to the next house tonight when it gets dark.

My first impression before comparing the two together was that the K2 was going to be bluer than the MagLed, but that is not so much the case. It does have a slightly blue/green cast to it compared to the MagLed. I like the MagLed color much better.

Looks like I will be contacting Diamond Monday to request a return of the 4 unopened K2s! Gonna just get more MagLeds, when I can find them.

I think for the non flash-aholic general user the MagLeds are a very nice product.

Just for the heck of it, I tried the K2 with four D cells, nearly 2 amps draw! It surely would not last long over driven like that.

When it gets dark I will attempt pictures. No promises though.