Tri P4 XR-E M@g 3D W/Cree Optics & Shark

My cousin is going for a 1 year trip to Australia so i decided to mod his 3D mag with some Xr-E's and here is the result:

I custom made a heatsink and attached 3xP4 Xr-E stars i got from download


I added a pot and a Shark converter board which i attached to a seperate HS which i attached to the body


added some glow powder and assembeled


Result


beamshots @ 1 meter using 3 Alkaline D cells which can not deliver enough juice to power the leds at full power. the led's are only getting about 680mA



Compared to Steroid 4 ( 4 x U-bin Lux @1A each ) @ 2 meters from wall. Tri XR-E mag on top.


The tri XR-E mag seems to be a bit brighter ( it is still on Alk D cells so it should be a lot brighter on Ni-Mh cells ) The XR-E's are a bit warmer which may not be visible in the photo. also the spill on the Steroid 4 is a bit wider but the penumbra on the tri XR-E mag is larger and brighter.

Thanks for looking

P.S. i originally wanted to put 4 x XR-E's but with the holder 4 cree optics do not fit ( i even had to grind down the optics to fit 3 ) 4 optics will fit without the holder but it seemed to me that the optics alone sitting on the LED's do not focus perfectly.

Great work

One thing to remember though. Use as little as possible thermal compound / Epoxy. You only need enough to fill the voids in between the heatsink and Star. Sometimes more is not a good thing.

Mac

Nice, any lux readings?

thanks for the pointer mac. ill kep it in mind. i kept the led's very well pressed against the HS while the AA was curing as i made the HS sitting on the ledge of the mag head a bit high so that i could press the assembly firmly by screwing the bezel tightly therefore there is not much of a layer of AA between the HS and the stars, in fact it should be visible that the bezel is not completely screwed in but it just covers the o-ring to keep the waterproofing. i also thought that some AA on the side of the star would help dissipate more heat. the HS is also pressed against the ledge in this way and it is also thermally connected to the mag head by the use of thermal grease. as is the head to the body so i guess thermal issues should be minimal.

Unfortunately i did not have time to take any lux readings but i should be able to take some tomorrow.

Nice build.

I am considering a similar build with the Mag head. I have seen several similar builds here at CPF and was wondering why you decided on optics over reflectors? Any thoughts on this would be appreciated.

FWIW I am thinking about building a bike light, mostly MTB, where I need a long enough throw but also a decent spill. This means probably a combo platter of reflectors or optics that could give me both.

I used optics mainly because it is what i had available ( and mcr reflectors for crees are expensive and not that good on throw ). i also prefer optics because they collect more light, have better throw and the beam is more to my likings. but that is a question of personal taste.
however you could always sand down the front of one of the optics for a flood type beam.

Look very similar to my dual Cree Mag lite bike light w fatman & 4 AA NMH cells

How much efficiency is lost through the use of a pot?
Mike

i dont think any efficiency is lost as i just replaced the onboard trimpot with an external one. the setup is run by the shark driver which is about 90% efficient.

Great mod !! I'm on a 2yr trip in Rotterdam, will you make me one too ?
:lolsign:

I also ordered these emitters, from what I've seen so far, they rock !!

btw, Welcome Xc-204 !