Presenting you the very personal *Fenix E1 CE*

ViReN

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Today I got 2 P4 Bin warm tinted Cree LED's from GB Erasmus :goodjob:

Without wasting any time, I started working on Fenix E1, the only Fenix that opens easily.
1) Removed Old LED + PCB (unsoldered the wires)
2) Chopped Off Cree LED's Corners
3) Cut Circular PCB shaped Plastic disk (from Drinking water bottle cap)
4) (Most time consuming) Filed the reflector untill I could see it almost filled Green/Yellow Phosphor, i could have filed still more, it would have given me more throw... but I wanted a flood type beam
5) Soldered +ve and -ve wires to top of LED put back whole assembly.... and .... there you go :)

DCP_6277_CreeE1.jpg


Could you imagine how much powerful it is now? More powerful than Fenix L0P on Lithium!!!

Here are a couple of beam shots
Left is Fenix E1 CE with NiMH Battery right is Fenix L0P with Lithium Battery! ... guess what's brighter of the two... :D

DCP_6271_CreeE1_B1.jpg


EV = 0
DCP_6272_CreeE1_B-0.jpg


EV = -1
DCP_6273_CreeE1_B-1.jpg


EV = -2
DCP_6274_CreeE1_B-2.jpg


Did you notice the even beam, Larger & Brighter spot (I am estimating at least 25 lumen's)...

Notice Smooth Transition from Hotspot to Flood & Corona?
Is there any "Dark Ring" :nana:

Did you notice Uniform Hotspot.....

:)

The Fenix E1 Reflector is really deep and is best suited. There is No void, all of the light is reflected front, you can barely see the LED ring. I purposefully didn't file enough (so as to have more throw). I needed more flood kind of beam.

Fenix L0P Reflector is not as deep and is shallow, if you file off a shallow reflector (to focus deeper LED die) you are gonna loose a lot of light as there would be void around the ring of emitter would be much more visible..

How'z that :)

and NO LED didn't even get warm (I touched the LED base while testing the light in open, it was at ROOM Temperature) so NO heat sinking what so ever required. LED probably is running 90-95 mA (measured by elcheapo meter)
 

Erasmus

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Nice to see what people are making with the LEDs from the group buy! Great job Viren! Greetings from Belgium to Oman ;)
 

EngrPaul

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I've used my 5 Erasumus Crees all up already!

Maybe next time I'll move on to some single AAA lights... :)
 

regulator

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Thats what Im looking for

This is the light I am looking for! I love the style and size of the E1. I also like the balance of output and runtime (and flat regulation). If putting in the Cree just makes it all the more brighter and retain the runtime and regulation - this is a great upgrade.

I dont care for small lights that are amazingly birght and have terrible runtime. These can be made easily by just upping the power consumption. Now, getting better efficiency is a true improvement. Its kinda like getting more light for free!
 

ViReN

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wojtek_pl said:
I wonder about runtime...

On Alkaline, My Primary testing shows 2 Hrs 30 Munites Flat, then diminishing.... I left it ON whole night, only to find that in morning it was still ON on moon mode.

I plan to do a proper runtime test with Alkaline later.
 

ViReN

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Sure, I could :) but the step 4 is most time consuming, especially because of filing down the Reflector with hands...... it took me around 2 hours to file down around 3 mm of reflector. it takes a lot of time because of one has to file solid aluminum. following image would be a rough estimate to guide you for modifying your Fenix E1 Reflector.

FenixE1CEReflector.gif


Tince you are just filing down the cylindrical shape & not the parabolic shape, you wont be loosing any of the reflector properties, most of the light will be directed forward. If you file down the a little (perhaps .5 mm) of the parabolic shape, you would get an excellent throw, but loosing roughly around 5-10% of reflected light directed forward. The focal point of the reflector is right on the base. helps greatly Cree's Deeply laid emitter die.

Problem with L0P Reflector: Although the L0P Drives LED at much higher currents (you could probably get around 70-80 Lumens (out of LED) at that drive level from Cree XR-E P4 Bin) but making all that light to point forward in a reasonable manner is difficult. following image could explain this problem.
FenixL0PReflector.gif


as you can see, there is very little light that would get reflected forward. not only the reflector is shallow (focal point being much ahead), but filing down will still reduce the available reflector surface.
 
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EngrPaul

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ViReN,

My personal experience thus far...

When picking which lights to Cree mod, one of the things I looked for was emitters that were already very low in the reflector. This way, I would have to remove the least amount of reflector.

Each and every mod I did required some degree of reflector shortening. For this task, I used a large ******* file layed on a piece of wood and constantly spun the reflector as I held it flat by hand each pass (since the front of the piece will remove the most material).

"Seeing yellow" is a good way to judge when you are getting close, but I found iterating between filing and checking the beam past that point the best plan.

From your experience, it seems the E1 had more material than usual to remove. I envy the patience it must have took to file something that's too small for the hand to hold!
 

ViReN

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EngrPaul: when I got the LED's (at my work place) I was very eager to go home early... still 3 hrs were left :p ... during that time, in background I had been thinking the same thing. the best of the possible solutions was to mod a light with a deep reflector.

I didn't have any access to late / machine, I had hand filed the reflector using a ordinary metal file. Hand filing gave me full control to pinpoint the focusing and of course sore fingers :p ... yep, it took a lot of time and effort, but results were very rewarding :)
I filed the reflector exactly as i wanted. a little more filing would have given me much better throw, but then i m not a 'throw hunter' for utility lights like Fenix E1 (now CE :) )

Next best reflector that i see is MiniMag 2AA LED, its nice and deep, it's focal point is also very low (in fact below the reflector body) and it wont even require any machining. The led placed right at bottom gives such a great throw, even better than the original Luxeon. I am wondering of for MiniMag 2AA Cree(Xr-E)fication...
 

ViReN

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EsthetiX said:
How are you sanding it? Couldnt you just use a small electric dremel?

dremelstylus1.jpg

wow Nice tool... I wish I had access to such tools....(we have a RadioShack here.. but not enough range available).. the ones that are available in other hardware stores are huge rotating tools, like the ones that they use in Monster House or the Great Biker Build Off....

I sanded down reflector by hand ....
 

EngrPaul

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When you mod the MM2AA, be sure to pay attention to the switching on/off design feature of the bottom of the reflector. By the time it was focused to my satisfaction, there was barely any twist left to turn the unit off!

Excuse my lack of smileys, my Explorer hangs on advanced posts. :)
 

EsthetiX

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Well why not just order a cheap dremel online. I guess it would be great for your mods. Take 2 hours down to 2 minutes....
 

EngrPaul

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EsthetiX said:
How are you sanding it? Couldnt you just use a small electric dremel?

dremelstylus1.jpg

That particular tip has come in VERY handy. I use progressively larger drill sizes until I am very close to the Cree ring size. Then I clean up the hole with the dremel.

Another tip that I found very useful was the conic diamond tip. This removes excess aluminum material from places on the pill, without a lot of chatter/jumping around. It also removes etched copper from printed circuit boards.
 

ViReN

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EsthetiX said:
Well why not just order a cheap dremel online. I guess it would be great for your mods. Take 2 hours down to 2 minutes....

I have been looking on ebay, but problem is shipping ristrictions to place where I am currently living.
 
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