KL6 with SSC P4 - throw monster!

ladies and gentlemen,

I've been wondering why there hasn't even been talk of someone entertaining the idea of putting a seoul P4 in a surefire KL6 head. there have been some XR-E mods done to the KL6, with relatively good success regarding throw, but still, the narrow viewing angle of the cree lets many of those precious photons escape from the head without being packed into the throw portion of the beam.
considering this, I thought it would be a good idea to use a SSC P4 instead of the cree. so that is what I did.

the result was freaking shock and awe on my part! :bow:

I will not elaborate on the how-to tonight, (it is alsmost 3 o'clock in the night here..), let me just say that according to my first impressions this thing throws as far as I care to look with the naked eye. take your surefire E2L and look what it can light up at 40 meters. the KL6 SSC P4 will do the same at 120 meters. no poop.

beamshots below show a comparison between the KL6 SSC P4 (upper row) and the stock KL6 (bottom row) [edited, thanks KDOG3], with the brightness reduced by 100% (left), no modification (middle) and brightness reduced by 50% (right). scientifically these beamshots could be considered worthless, since my stoneage digital camera does not permit manual settings, but the pictures pretty much show the perceived relative brightness.



regards,

david

These Seoul's are fantastic upgrades. Glad to hear it works in a KL6 too!

Yes indeed, great throw from the Seoul. I have two Turbo LED modules for the KT4 head, one with the Cree and one with Seoul, and the Seoul kicks but in the throw department

Turbo LED Module with Cree: link

Turbo LED Module with Seoul: link


Will

My CM Cree modded KL6 (Iamp to led) seems to be doing ok in the lux department. Just rechecked lux with LM and got 7200 lux at one meter. Has good sidespill also, not just a "pointy" beam. I could see a Seoul putting out better lux, considering the beam profile. Prior to modding to Cree, my KL6 with a good WWOS put out 2400 lux at 850mA's to led, not really great.

Bill

Are you sure the stock KL6 is the upper row? Cuz to my eyes the top row is smokin' the bottom row...

I was thinking the same:thinking:...

I have the parts for this mod en route to me now- I would love to see your how-to! Thanks!

KDOG3 said:

Are you sure the stock KL6 is the upper row? Cuz to my eyes the top row is smokin' the bottom row...

Click to expand...

the modded one is the upper row of course..
did I mention it was late at night when I posted?

I just measured current to the emitter (690mA) and voltage parallel to the LED (3.2V). when comparing this to newbies graphs, this seems to be very low voltage for that current level. 690mA also seems a bit low, but I wasn't able to find much information about stock current of the KL6 anyway. Bullzeyebill, did you measure those 850mA with the stock driver?
I don't know wether this could be an explanation, but shortly after taking this measurement the protected batteries were empty and shut down. since these batteries in my E2L used to shut down before the driver dropped out of regulation, this in theory should not have any impact on the measurement though. anyway, I'll do another measurement on freshly charged batteries just to be sure.

more on the how-to later.



regards,


david

good evening,

now a few words about the procedure of "seouling" the KL6.
the heatsink/driver is easily removed and re-installed, since it ist only held in place by three little screws. with the gutted reflector, I was able to determine wether the SSC LED would provide a good beam prior to permanently changing anything. I had previously put an SSC P4 in a fenix L0P, so with the bezel/reflector removed, I put that LED into the reflector of the KL6 to determine wether it would provide a usable beam. and sure it did! :naughty:
I did not change anything on the reflector and I suspect that removing just a little bit of material to push the led further into the reflector might give an even better beam, but it is already great the way it is, so I just left it that way. in order to put the LED into focus (or very near focus) while using the stock heatsink, I had to put a shim under the slug to raise the LED to the point where it touches the reflector. the correct thickness for this shim turned out to be 0,2mm, and luckily I had phosphor bronze sheet spring material of that thickness. with this shim, the LED housing is pressed firmly against the back of the reflector when the heatsink is installed. people have advised against putting pressure on the led housing due to the isolation issues with the positive slug, but as far as I can see, the heatsink of the KL6 is not part of the electrical circuit anyway. if you remove material from the back of the reflector, you won't have to worry about this at all, but for me it works the way it is.
so basically I just removed the LuxV LED, made a 0,2mm shim, glued it into the heatsink with AA and glued the seoul emitter on top. against the often given good advice not to do so I did apply pressure on the emitter housing while it was curing in order to keep the AA layer thin for good heat transfer to the heatsink. (if you want to be sure about electrical insulation, you can glue the shim onto the slug of the emitter first and check for insulation.) afterwards I soldered the driver wires back in place and screwed the driver/heatsink unit back into the reflector. that's about it, no black magic involved.
I'm still stunned by the output, it has good flood and a tight hotspot with impressive throw. although the hotspot is very tight (not everyone may like this, it is quite different from the stock KL6 beam pattern), the transition from hotspot to spill beam is really smooth, without any kind of rings or other obstructions. when you look at the beamshots with reduced brightness, you will notice that the hotspot of the "seouled" beam isn't actually smaller, there just is this immensely bright center portion that makes the rest of the beam look dimmer in comparison. the truth is that even the spill is considerably brighter than the stock KL6's.
taking into account that at the same time power consumption is about cut in half, I consider this mod a success.



regards,

david

Do you know how close the KL6 is to the KL5? Are they basically the same with different housings or are the internals different? I have a SSC p4 and want to possibly do this upgrade. The stock emitter is very purple and more output with longer runtimes would be great. Any help?

DaFABRICATA said:

Do you know how close the KL6 is to the KL5? Are they basically the same with different housings or are the internals different? I have a SSC p4 and want to possibly do this upgrade. The stock emitter is very purple and more output with longer runtimes would be great. Any help?

Click to expand...

hi,

I don't know from first hand experience, I've just read here that the KL5 has a boost circuit that provides <6V to the LED =>will fry the SSC-LED. :thumbsdow
you would probably have to install a new driver, too.

regards,

david

DAMN!! Oh well.......
I ended up using it on a Turbohead tower module for my KT1. UNREAL!!! GREAT BEAM & OUTPUT!!!
We need some how to's on this swap!

dcjs - what type of battery you use for this SSC P4 set up?I thot SSC P4 will fry if you run it on
LuxV board becoz i might swap the emitter on my LuxV Nuwai ALX352-L.
Anybody else care to chip in regarding this issue & resolution?

DaFABRICATA,

the how-to ist in post #9, there really isn't anything more to it! emitter swap plus shimming => done!


nanotech17,

I'm by no means an expert on LED drivers, but from what I've read so far it depends on the specific circuit of your driver. the KL6 has a buck circuit providing constant current of 700mA to the led, which is perfectly fine with the SSC P4-LED. I can use 2x or 3xCR123 (4xCR123 should work as well, haven't tried though) as well as 2xRCR12.
according to my understanding 2-cell LuxV lights have to use a voltage boost circuit to provide >6V to the LED, which will indeed fry the LED.

Hi Thanx dcjs,

Maybe i should swap the star with the Edison Opto KLC8 and fire it up with a single 17670 cell.
https://www.candlepowerforums.com/threads/150918

nanotech17 said:

Hi Thanx dcjs,

Maybe i should swap the star with the Edison Opto KLC8 and fire it up with a single 17670 cell.
https://www.candlepowerforums.com/threads/150918

Click to expand...

Nano, this is the wrong thread here, but the vf is too low for the driver in your Nuwai ( boost step up converter). Just swap the LuxV to one with a better binning. I used a WX0S....=perfect result.

Best regards

_____
Tom

I actually did this mod already. Nothing to write home about compared to the Cree in my opinion. I like the spill provided by the Cree. For those that want more lux and more into the main beam, then the Seoul P4 is the way to go. It's all about preferences.

Man, this thread is making me want to buy a L6/KL6 just to do this mod!

KDOG3 said:

Man, this thread is making me want to buy a L6/KL6 just to do this mod!

Click to expand...

Me too. It may be time for me to buy my first real surfire!

About how much longer runtime do you get? Anything wrong with running this setup on 2x17500s?