milkyspit
Flashlight Enthusiast
7/28/2006 Update: Photos!!
Okay folks, I finally gave in... photos you want, photos there now are! Let's jump right into 'em, shall we?
No doubt everyone has seen a stock SureFire G2... but the careful observer might ask, "What's that butt-ugly white label doing on the bezel?" Er, uh... AHEM... I mean, "What's that strange blue ring at the body end of the head?" That's our first tipoff that this is no stock G2!
Working our way around the G2 we can see into the head a little better. At first glance, maybe it looks about right, but the lens is a little dirty. Actually it's not dirt, but rather a very mild diffusing film... not strictly necessary, but it does afford some protection to the head and allow for a compromise between closer usage (as in a foot from the intended target) without impacting throw much. It's what's INSIDE that counts though, as they say... and what's visible here is NOT the stock P60 LA reflector, but rather a McR-27L (the L as in LONG... and it truly is!) reflector, perhaps the most frustrating reflector on the planet Earth. :nana: Don, I'm only teasing! Teasing! I'm sorry!! Actually I really like the beam this reflector produces... just that finding a suitable host, Don's own creations aside, turns out to have been quite a challenge... most are just a bit too narrow, or much too shallow, or far too wide! (I really dislike building single reflector lights where the reflector has lots of space around the sides... seems like that real estate could go to better use.) Until good fortune smiled and nature revealed itself in the form of the humble G2.
Here (above) we see the parts that comprise the upgraded G2. Head, body, and tailswitch are of course essential ingredients... and that big, deep, shiny cone? That's the McR-27L reflector! The tiny white thing with a hole in the center is a tyvek sleeve I made to slip over the emitter... bottom edge of the reflector will rest on that, relieving some pressure on the emitter itself and reducing the likelihood that the aluminum reflector will short out the emitter connections. The big blue thing is a Battery Station protected 17650 rechargeable Li-ion cell... capacity of 1500mAh if memory serves... and the emitter sitting on that strange copper thing? That's the magic smokehouse!
This is a closeup of the new G2 engine, completely custom manufactured here in the Milky Labs.
(It's sitting on the 17650 cell... made a good pedestal for the macro photography!) Atop the engine is a Luxeon III UXOJ emitter. That big solder blob in the foreground is the ground plane... emitter and converter board are both connected here, and when the engine sits in the G2 it contacts the inner metal sleeve, connecting both with the negative terminal of the cell. On the backside, barely visible in this photo is the positive lead coming out of the engine to attach to the emitter. Some more looks below...
A collage of engine views! Left, a side view showing the thickness of the thing... the narrow copper portion actually settles down into the battery tube itself, while the wider portion rides on the top edge of the inner metal sleeve... this puts the emitter dome at just about perfect height for the McR-27L to sit over it with things at or near the focal point. Center, the bottom of the engine showing a FLuPIC board with raised solder blob for positive battery contact... this later got covered (except for the positive connection point of course) with a foam ring for added protection against shorts. Right, a top view of the engine... positive connection is visible here, as is a bead of Arctic Silver thermal epoxy just squeezing its way from underneath the emitter.
So how's the beam? The above photo shows a 12-step posterized look at the hotspot, where we can see the virtues of the McR-27L reflector... there's still quite a potent hotspot, but the beam shares the love significantly farther outward through the sidespill area, and intensity falloff is smooth... this will hopefully make for a great outdoorsman, or camping light, where it's more of a virtue to have that smooth falloff and get a good look at what's to either side of the hotspot, too.
The beam profile is pretty nice as well, IMHO. Beam angle isn't overly wide, one reason the sidespill can be brighter... and yet the hotspot is still clearly visible, so this is no mere flood reflector! The McR-27L, for its challenges in fitting into a host, does indeed turn out to be a compelling creation. Kudos Don!
:bow: :bow: :bow:
So there you have it: my new, favorite G2. For those curious, I've set mine in mode 4 (low, high, burst, strobe, SOS) and calibrated the low beam to the 20-30mA vicinity, and the high beam to 350mA or so. Estimated runtime in this arrangement is 4h17m on high beam or 60 hours on low beam... chose these settings both to limit heat buildup in the plastic housing, and to optimize the output for typical camping situations, where the low beam is great for close work and still manages to carry a good 20 yards to dark-adapted eyes, and the high beam illuminates maybe 50 yards with a veritable rain shower of photons falling all along the way... it's like a little, pocket-sized light cannon! The UXOJ tint of the emitter is IMHO the most neutral white of all the Luxeon tints, and seems to work well in this light, too. The G2's O-rings offer a good seal at all joints, so this light is most likely very weatherproof and probably would even survive a brief dunk in a puddle... and the Nitrolon housing itself seems well-suited for falls on the various rocks and such it will be likely to encounter, and will probably live to tell about it.
:thumbsup:
Done! :sweat::wave::thanks:
Original Post
Either too lazy or too anxious to snap and edit photos this morning, so today we're going with some old-school reading! Hee hee.
FINALLY found a use for the McR-27L reflectors bwaites had so generously sent me. (Generous or curse? I've been banging my head against a wall since receiving them, trying to find a host they'd fit nicely into! And no, Don's "official" 27L host doesn't count. I'm a modder, dangit!)
First fashioned a new P60/P90/P91 (and compatible LA) host using a SureFire C2 head, an E-to-C adapter, an Aleph 2x123 tube, and one of the original Aleph flared tailswitches, all HA3 natural. Moved my SureFire G2 guts (well, just the P60 lamp assembly really) into this new host... so now I've got a completely pointless but pretty G2!
With the G2 host freed of its lamp assembly, I noticed one key thing: the McR-27L reflector fits into the head pretty much PERFECTLY. The bezel doesn't thread down all the way, but it does engage the threads enough to close the head securely. Fashion a cool-looking shim to fill the gap (for aesthetics only... not really needed functionally) and we're in business! :naughty:
There's not much space below the reflector. How much space? Well, I decided to use that most precise of all measuring tools, a stack of pennies. Dropped one penny at a time into the head end of the battery tube and lowered the reflector onto them, until base of reflector met pennies... then compared the thickness of the stack with the height of an emitter, and finally fashioned a piece of copper pipe tubing plus a copper endcap using ye olde pipe cutter until getting the height just right.
Drilled a pair of holes in the pipe endcap for wires, soldered the appropriate wires to a FLuPIC board, and potted the board into place using gobs of Arctic Ceramique thermal epoxy. As a side note, I'd BETTER use gobs of the epoxy! Silly me, I snapped the front end of the hardener's syringe completely off the tube I pressed so hard to get the danged stuff out... and out it came! Of course, it remains to be seen if I'll actually be able to CLOSE that tube ever again, or if the hardener inside will end up completely WASTED. DANGIT!
Waited, waited, waited for the potting to set. Watched some Friends DVDs while waiting. Came back and epoxied a nice UXOJ emitter on top of the pipe endcap. Waited some more for THAT to set. (More Friends episodes a la DVD.) Soldered the wires in place, took time for a quick prayer, and tried to power up this little fellow for the first time. It generated light! Always a good sign.
Stuffed everything into the G2 body, closed the thing, installed a fresh 17650 protected Li-ion cell, and calibrated the output levels to roughly 20-30mA low and 350mA high. Burst capability is also available but given the plastic body of the light, it's probably only a good idea as just that: a quick BURST, several seconds at a time... not more!oo:
Went outside with the new toy, er, LIGHT, to play on a particularly foggy night at 2AM. Fog is a great friend for seeing a light's beam pattern clearly... it's almost like a beam x-ray. All looks good. Added some diffusing film over the lens both to protect the polycarbonate from scratches, and to allow the beam to converge at shorter distances... this one's mission is potentially as an all-purpose camping light.
Results? Low beam throws 30 yards or more (yes, even at 30mA)... high beam does a good job of lighting about 40 yards distance AND maybe 20-30 yards width of my backyard... burst lights up pretty much the ENTIRE backyard... strobe isn't at potent as I thought it might be, but then again I wasn't on the receiving end.
Then I heard several voices out in the orchard next door, and went into commando stealth mode to get closer and investigate...
(Photoless no longer!)
Okay folks, I finally gave in... photos you want, photos there now are! Let's jump right into 'em, shall we?
No doubt everyone has seen a stock SureFire G2... but the careful observer might ask, "What's that butt-ugly white label doing on the bezel?" Er, uh... AHEM... I mean, "What's that strange blue ring at the body end of the head?" That's our first tipoff that this is no stock G2!
Working our way around the G2 we can see into the head a little better. At first glance, maybe it looks about right, but the lens is a little dirty. Actually it's not dirt, but rather a very mild diffusing film... not strictly necessary, but it does afford some protection to the head and allow for a compromise between closer usage (as in a foot from the intended target) without impacting throw much. It's what's INSIDE that counts though, as they say... and what's visible here is NOT the stock P60 LA reflector, but rather a McR-27L (the L as in LONG... and it truly is!) reflector, perhaps the most frustrating reflector on the planet Earth. :nana: Don, I'm only teasing! Teasing! I'm sorry!! Actually I really like the beam this reflector produces... just that finding a suitable host, Don's own creations aside, turns out to have been quite a challenge... most are just a bit too narrow, or much too shallow, or far too wide! (I really dislike building single reflector lights where the reflector has lots of space around the sides... seems like that real estate could go to better use.) Until good fortune smiled and nature revealed itself in the form of the humble G2.
Here (above) we see the parts that comprise the upgraded G2. Head, body, and tailswitch are of course essential ingredients... and that big, deep, shiny cone? That's the McR-27L reflector! The tiny white thing with a hole in the center is a tyvek sleeve I made to slip over the emitter... bottom edge of the reflector will rest on that, relieving some pressure on the emitter itself and reducing the likelihood that the aluminum reflector will short out the emitter connections. The big blue thing is a Battery Station protected 17650 rechargeable Li-ion cell... capacity of 1500mAh if memory serves... and the emitter sitting on that strange copper thing? That's the magic smokehouse!
This is a closeup of the new G2 engine, completely custom manufactured here in the Milky Labs.
(It's sitting on the 17650 cell... made a good pedestal for the macro photography!) Atop the engine is a Luxeon III UXOJ emitter. That big solder blob in the foreground is the ground plane... emitter and converter board are both connected here, and when the engine sits in the G2 it contacts the inner metal sleeve, connecting both with the negative terminal of the cell. On the backside, barely visible in this photo is the positive lead coming out of the engine to attach to the emitter. Some more looks below...
A collage of engine views! Left, a side view showing the thickness of the thing... the narrow copper portion actually settles down into the battery tube itself, while the wider portion rides on the top edge of the inner metal sleeve... this puts the emitter dome at just about perfect height for the McR-27L to sit over it with things at or near the focal point. Center, the bottom of the engine showing a FLuPIC board with raised solder blob for positive battery contact... this later got covered (except for the positive connection point of course) with a foam ring for added protection against shorts. Right, a top view of the engine... positive connection is visible here, as is a bead of Arctic Silver thermal epoxy just squeezing its way from underneath the emitter.
So how's the beam? The above photo shows a 12-step posterized look at the hotspot, where we can see the virtues of the McR-27L reflector... there's still quite a potent hotspot, but the beam shares the love significantly farther outward through the sidespill area, and intensity falloff is smooth... this will hopefully make for a great outdoorsman, or camping light, where it's more of a virtue to have that smooth falloff and get a good look at what's to either side of the hotspot, too.
The beam profile is pretty nice as well, IMHO. Beam angle isn't overly wide, one reason the sidespill can be brighter... and yet the hotspot is still clearly visible, so this is no mere flood reflector! The McR-27L, for its challenges in fitting into a host, does indeed turn out to be a compelling creation. Kudos Don!
:bow: :bow: :bow:
So there you have it: my new, favorite G2. For those curious, I've set mine in mode 4 (low, high, burst, strobe, SOS) and calibrated the low beam to the 20-30mA vicinity, and the high beam to 350mA or so. Estimated runtime in this arrangement is 4h17m on high beam or 60 hours on low beam... chose these settings both to limit heat buildup in the plastic housing, and to optimize the output for typical camping situations, where the low beam is great for close work and still manages to carry a good 20 yards to dark-adapted eyes, and the high beam illuminates maybe 50 yards with a veritable rain shower of photons falling all along the way... it's like a little, pocket-sized light cannon! The UXOJ tint of the emitter is IMHO the most neutral white of all the Luxeon tints, and seems to work well in this light, too. The G2's O-rings offer a good seal at all joints, so this light is most likely very weatherproof and probably would even survive a brief dunk in a puddle... and the Nitrolon housing itself seems well-suited for falls on the various rocks and such it will be likely to encounter, and will probably live to tell about it.
:thumbsup:
Done! :sweat::wave::thanks:
Original Post
Either too lazy or too anxious to snap and edit photos this morning, so today we're going with some old-school reading! Hee hee.
FINALLY found a use for the McR-27L reflectors bwaites had so generously sent me. (Generous or curse? I've been banging my head against a wall since receiving them, trying to find a host they'd fit nicely into! And no, Don's "official" 27L host doesn't count. I'm a modder, dangit!)
First fashioned a new P60/P90/P91 (and compatible LA) host using a SureFire C2 head, an E-to-C adapter, an Aleph 2x123 tube, and one of the original Aleph flared tailswitches, all HA3 natural. Moved my SureFire G2 guts (well, just the P60 lamp assembly really) into this new host... so now I've got a completely pointless but pretty G2!
With the G2 host freed of its lamp assembly, I noticed one key thing: the McR-27L reflector fits into the head pretty much PERFECTLY. The bezel doesn't thread down all the way, but it does engage the threads enough to close the head securely. Fashion a cool-looking shim to fill the gap (for aesthetics only... not really needed functionally) and we're in business! :naughty:
There's not much space below the reflector. How much space? Well, I decided to use that most precise of all measuring tools, a stack of pennies.
Dropped one penny at a time into the head end of the battery tube and lowered the reflector onto them, until base of reflector met pennies... then compared the thickness of the stack with the height of an emitter, and finally fashioned a piece of copper pipe tubing plus a copper endcap using ye olde pipe cutter until getting the height just right.Drilled a pair of holes in the pipe endcap for wires, soldered the appropriate wires to a FLuPIC board, and potted the board into place using gobs of Arctic Ceramique thermal epoxy. As a side note, I'd BETTER use gobs of the epoxy! Silly me, I snapped the front end of the hardener's syringe completely off the tube I pressed so hard to get the danged stuff out... and out it came! Of course, it remains to be seen if I'll actually be able to CLOSE that tube ever again, or if the hardener inside will end up completely WASTED. DANGIT!
Waited, waited, waited for the potting to set. Watched some Friends DVDs while waiting. Came back and epoxied a nice UXOJ emitter on top of the pipe endcap. Waited some more for THAT to set. (More Friends episodes a la DVD.) Soldered the wires in place, took time for a quick prayer, and tried to power up this little fellow for the first time. It generated light! Always a good sign.
Stuffed everything into the G2 body, closed the thing, installed a fresh 17650 protected Li-ion cell, and calibrated the output levels to roughly 20-30mA low and 350mA high. Burst capability is also available but given the plastic body of the light, it's probably only a good idea as just that: a quick BURST, several seconds at a time... not more!
oo:Went outside with the new toy, er, LIGHT, to play on a particularly foggy night at 2AM. Fog is a great friend for seeing a light's beam pattern clearly... it's almost like a beam x-ray. All looks good. Added some diffusing film over the lens both to protect the polycarbonate from scratches, and to allow the beam to converge at shorter distances... this one's mission is potentially as an all-purpose camping light.
Results? Low beam throws 30 yards or more (yes, even at 30mA)... high beam does a good job of lighting about 40 yards distance AND maybe 20-30 yards width of my backyard... burst lights up pretty much the ENTIRE backyard... strobe isn't at potent as I thought it might be, but then again I wasn't on the receiving end.
Then I heard several voices out in the orchard next door, and went into commando stealth mode to get closer and investigate...
(Photoless no longer!)
Last edited:
