Nite-Ize Cree Edition (dumbest mod ever?)

First the excuses. I have had these Cree XR-E P2 or P3 (not sure which) stars sitting here for like a week now. The Elle flashlights I ordered from FifthUnit that I was gonna put them in haven't come yet and might not come for another 10 days. I have since ordered more Cree's in a brighter bin (P4). So I'm sitting on these Cree stars and nowhere to put them, but just ITCHING to see what they can do.

I start looking at my Nite-Ize mini-maglite and think hmm... I wouldn't care if you died... Shall I sacrifice you to satisfy my Cree curiosity? But that's silly, this flashlight uses three 5mm LED's... it can't work...


Next thing you know I have the Nite-ize module out and am tearing the LED's off the circuit board. The PCB appears to be superglued into a plastic housing. I manage to break it out of there, then my stomach sinks as I see that... when the circuit board broke out of the housing, a little inductor coil stayed behind SO I just tore the coil off the circuit board. Great. That's not all, looks like a SMD resistor tore off too, taking the solder pads with it Oh man I got sloppy didn't I... So I spend the next 30 minutes doing micro surgery to re-attach the little coil with its microscopic wires, then re-attach the SMD resistor with some copper wire to bridge areas where the traces were destroyed. Basically I had to rebuilt the circuit board becuase I tore it up pulling the module apart.

Finally I get it working again and take some measurements, it appears that the board is supplying 3.5 volts, and when I connect one of my Cree stars with my ammeter in series, I get 300 MA so I figure it should be acceptable. Then I do the most crappy mod ever and use wire snippers to cut the Cree star smaller so that it fits into the top of the plastic Nite-ize housing. So now I have a Nite-ize module with a Cree XR-E on it, and the pathetic Nite-ize reflector does almost nothing, so the end result is a completely floody beam that has pretty much no hotspot whatsoever. Wow good job probably the worst mod ever!

On the BRIGHT side, the Cree really surprises me at how bright it is! It's not even getting its normal 350 MA and it's shining way brighter than the Nite-Ize module did. In fact, when I tried using it in a dark room, the entire flood beam of the cree appears to be considerably brighter than the hotspot of the nite-ize original LED's! I am starting to understand why you guys are CREE-azy for Cree... these suckers perform...

I took the flashlight to bed with me and for a while I just lied there, turning the light on and off, marveling at how much it illuminated the whole room. The light that comes out of it is beautiful, such an elegant white light that I can't believe is coming out of my previously dim Nite-Ize module. The darn thing almost seems to be putting out as much light as my MagLED 3D except it's not focused so there's not a hotspot. I really am amazed at the LED technology compared to what it was in the past.

So anyway, it was my first attempt at a Cree mod so go easy on me...hehe... Besides, sometimes a flood beam is useful...

Actually, this mod sounds truly useful (and good job with the microsurgery to fix your initial ham-handedness)! I'm a floody lover myself, but I think most regular folks would love to have a flashlight in the kitchen drawer that will sufficiently illuminate most of the room with a LuxV-type "wall of light" without having to swivel the light around to see. Gee, it's like that TV show--From Tactical to Practical.

Thanks, I kind of had camping in mind because sometimes when I'm camping what I could really use is a floody more lantern-like light. I bet if I stood this on its tail and put a ping-pong ball diffuser on there it would be a perfectly usable camping lantern.

My only concern is whether the LED will get too hot. There is probably less than half the star left, after I cut the rest off, I potted the thing into the module but I don't think the plastic housing or the Nite-ize PCB are going to dissipate a heck of a lot of heat. I can feel the lens of the Cree gets hot to the touch after being on a minute or so but it doesn't seem to get noticably hotter after 2 or 3 minutes so I dunno. I had thought that heat wouldn't be an issue since it's only getting about 300 MA but I dunno.

I also wonder if my meter is wrong or I measured wrong because it seems like it puts out a lot of light for 300 MA, but then again, I have not seen a Cree in action before so I don't have a point of reference.

Nice mod Hellbore. I was planning to do the same thing with my nite ize. When you measured current did you measure what the led was getting or what the booster was drawing from the battery? If you measured at the led could you maybe get a current draw measurement for the entire unit? I am curious as to how efficient the nite ize unit is. Thanks. Vin

Sorry I measured what the LED was getting not the module.

I will go ahead and measure the current draw at the tailcap.

For now, here are some pictures:
My quick and dirty mod ("potted" if you can call it that, with RTV silicone


Beamshot, such as it is... Flashlight is ONLY 12" from the wall in this shot, I had to hold it this close otherwise you wouldn't see the edges, since it's so floody

Good idea for a mod! (it's not dumb but the execution could have been better.)

Where did the old maglite reflector go? Is it possible to get one to try to focus the cree?

OK I just measured, the LED sees 300 mA but the module it drawing 500mA.

eebowler said:

Good idea for a mod!
\
Where did the old maglite reflector go? Is it possible to get one to try to focus the cree?

Click to expand...

I think I placed it on the ground, and kicked it into the garden and the hungry, hungry praying mantids thought it was something yummy to eat and subsequently struck at it. Whatever I did, I can't find it now, but maybe I can find another...

Hellbore said:

I took the flashlight to bed with me and for a while I just lied there, turning the light on and off, marveling at how much it illuminated the whole room. The light that comes out of it is beautiful, such an elegant white light that I can't believe is coming out of my previously dim Nite-Ize module. The darn thing almost seems to be putting out as much light as my MagLED 3D except it's not focused so there's not a hotspot. I really am amazed at the LED technology compared to what it was in the past.

Click to expand...

I had to laugh here for I do the same thing too with my flashlights. For I am amaze at how tiny the lights are and the long run times too.

Shawn

Hellbore said:

OK I just measured, the LED sees 300 mA but the module it drawing 500mA.

Click to expand...

Thanks alot. Just what I was looking for.

Looks hack performs nicely.

Hellbore said:

(...)

On the BRIGHT side, the Cree really surprises me at how bright it is! It's not even getting its normal 350 MA and it's shining way brighter than the Nite-Ize module did. In fact, when I tried using it in a dark room, the entire flood beam of the cree appears to be considerably brighter than the hotspot of the nite-ize original LED's! I am starting to understand why you guys are CREE-azy for Cree... these suckers perform...

I took the flashlight to bed with me and for a while I just lied there, turning the light on and off, marveling at how much it illuminated the whole room. The light that comes out of it is beautiful, such an elegant white light that I can't believe is coming out of my previously dim Nite-Ize module. The darn thing almost seems to be putting out as much light as my MagLED 3D except it's not focused so there's not a hotspot. I really am amazed at the LED technology compared to what it was in the past.

So anyway, it was my first attempt at a Cree mod so go easy on me...hehe... Besides, sometimes a flood beam is useful...

Click to expand...

Ha, liked the micro surgery bit. Just discovered these new Cree LEDs myself, and I agree they're amazing. Vastly improved light quality compared to many of the older white LEDs.

Well, just an update. Something went bad on the driver board I think. Maybe something I soldered broke loose, I dunno. What it is doing now is the light comes on, then after a few seconds it blinks, then blinks faster and faster until it becomes a strobe light!

Turning it off for a few seconds then on again makes it turn back on normal but after being on like 5 seconds, it starts slowly flashing again, getting faster and faster until I have a fun disco strobe light

I didn't want a disco strobe light...

Any ideas what went wrong?

Hellbore,

Could it be low batteries? I had a custom boost circuit (found it on ebay -created by an experimenter) that powers a 1W from 2 cells, but when the batteries get low, the thing cuts off until the voltage of the batteries increases (from no load) enough that the circuit starts boosting again. So it will turn on and off and the speed it flashes faster over time. If its not the batteries, could be something with the components. They could be faulty and turning on and off because of heat issues. I dunno. I am sure its the batteries, though. A near 1W LED will still drain your batteries quickly. Good luck!


-Tony

I tried a couple sets of new batteries, it's not that.

That is too bad. I liked how you tried this mod anyway. I tried to replace the LEDs in the nite-ize device a while back, but I did the same thing and messed something up. I couldnt find the problem though, so I just have a dead circuit. Luckily I convinced my dad to switch over to the SMJLED in his mini maglite before, so no big deal. After seeing your results, I will have to try it out again more carefully. Thanks for doing what many of us thought (minus the XR-E part exactly).


-Tony

Great mod! Most important thing is that it works.

Try it with Nimhs - I think the alkalines may not be supplying enough juice? same thing happened to me with my MM Quad cree mag. He told me to use only nimhs but i got impatient b/c my nimhs weren't done charging, so on alkalines, it worked okay for a little bit, then one, and another, Cree started to strobe. On nimhs they're fine, b/c they can handle higher current draw.

Guys I don't understand why everyone is thinking it's the batteries? It worked perfectly for several hours. Then one day all of a sudden when I turned it on and it flickered, and it has been having this problem ever since with fresh batteries, with NIMH, anything I put in. It worked perfect before. I know for sure it's not the batteries something broke loose in the circuit board, I kinda felt it when I turned it on. Some of the super glue I had holding the board broke loose too, I can see when I open it up.

This thing only draws 500 mah I think alkalines can do that can't they?

My bad, didn't realize you'd already tried it with nimhs.
Darn, hope you are able to figure out which piece broke off.