p1 clone at dealextreme $6 bucks

dealextreme has twiste 123 lights for $6 bucks shipped. and hopefully a cree star will fit right in there.

A link to the light would be handy
Norm

3W MXDL CR123 lights in white blue black and gray for $6.50 shipped.

These use the same reflector/LED as the stock Elly, so if you were to buy two of these CR123 lights, two U-Bin Seoul stars, and two of the $10 Cree lights, it would be possibel to put the aluminum reflectors in the CR123 lights with the Seoul emitters, and put the plastic ones back in the Ellys. You'd end up with 4 good Cree/SSC lights for a grand total of $47 shipped.

2xtrinity thats a great idea. of course as soon as I order some of these they will come out with a cree version with an aluminum reflector.

I wouldn't call it a P1 clone.

I have one of those and no way a star will fit without considerable cutting. A star is 20mm across, the emitter board in that light is 15mm, maybe one of those mini stars. Reflector is smaller than the Elly too. Unless I have a different one. Everything is the same as in the picture. It's pretty tinney too. I bought it to mod, but thought not worth it.


Also there's only 2 1/2 threads in the body that connect to the head, that bind up when you unscrew it.

*bought*

Like the styling, will be interesting to see how it compares the the LR12 - the rear section is visibly very similar in machining.

$6.50, cheap as!

Nake said:

I have one of those and no way a star will fit without considerable cutting. A star is 20mm across, the emitter board in that light is 15mm, maybe one of those mini stars. Reflector is smaller than the Elly too. Unless I have a different one. Everything is the same as in the picture. It's pretty tinney too. I bought it to mod, but thought not worth it.

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Hmm. That kills my idea about using the Cree Elly reflectors. It looked similar to me, but you'd know better as you have it or one like it. I still think a U-bin Seoul emitter coudln't possibly hurt it though Have you done any current measuring tests on it? It's probably just resistored, and if so have you checked it with an Ohmmeter?

If it ain't got a tailcap, I don't know how to check current. I'm thinking it's direct drive, it takes a 4V RCR123 with no problem, just gets a little warm.

Nake said:

If it ain't got a tailcap, I don't know how to check current. I'm thinking it's direct drive, it takes a 4V RCR123 with no problem, just gets a little warm.

Click to expand...

Hmm. The resistor value shouldn't be too hard to determine -- you can place one contact of the Ohmmeter on the (+) on the LED star, and another on the (+) battery contact (assuming positive goes "facing in"). Current may be tougher as you say though, but if we know the resistor value, that should be easy to guess/estimate without reading current directly. Based on a runtime of an hour, it's probably pulling about 3W on average -- as that would be 800mA * 3.7V. Since the battery is 800 mAh that gives a runtime of one hour. That light could be awesome with a Seoul LED.

2xTrinity said:

Hmm. The resistor value shouldn't be too hard to determine -- you can place one contact of the Ohmmeter on the (+) on the LED star, and another on the (+) battery contact (assuming positive goes "facing in"). Current may be tougher as you say though, but if we know the resistor value, that should be easy to guess/estimate without reading current directly. Based on a runtime of an hour, it's probably pulling about 3W on average -- as that would be 800mA * 3.7V. Since the battery is 800 mAh that gives a runtime of one hour. That light could be awesome with a Seoul LED.

Click to expand...

I put the red lead from the MM on the batt + and the black on the emitter + and got 7.3. If I reverse the leads the numbers are all over the place.

Nake said:

I have one of those and no way a star will fit without considerable cutting. A star is 20mm across, the emitter board in that light is 15mm, maybe one of those mini stars.

Click to expand...

Not sure if this one could fit?
http://www.kaidomain.com/WEBUI/ProductDetail.aspx?TranID=1340

NetKidz said:

Not sure if this one could fit?
http://www.kaidomain.com/WEBUI/ProductDetail.aspx?TranID=1340

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It should. 1.3cm comes to 13mm which should be just the right size.

It looks like pretty neat light for that cheap, but I think it might have one of those crappy Sapphire LEDs. Unless they are a radical improvement over the ones from a couple years ago, those things are J U N K !

Is the miniStar a U-bin?

- Vikas

Whoever has one of these, what is the runtime like?
I'm curious as to whether there's any regulation going on there.

If they're running it direct drive, wouldn't the output from a 3V CR123 be quite dim especially if it can handle a LIR @ ~4V?

Ordered one to **** around with. Hmm if there's not enough threading for the twisty to be reliable, I wonder if it would be feasible to modify the lil bugger to accept a Kroll in the back... hmmmmz

When the light is twisted on, is it a nice solid fit?

I put the red lead from the MM on the batt + and the black on the emitter + and got 7.3. If I reverse the leads the numbers are all over the place.

Click to expand...

7.3 would tend to put the power consumption at around 300mA/1W if this is direct drive -- based on the fact that 7 Ohm resistance is what the two level mode lights at DX all use for "low".

Considering that you got different results with the resistance depending on the polarity of the meter, that suggests there's a diode in there -- I'm guessing the light has a simple linear regulator (basically a regultator that bleeds off excess voltage across a resistor, but bypasses the resistor if the battery voltage is the same as what the LED wants so output doesn't dim)

Those 3W MXDL CR123 light aren't good candidates for modding.
The cicuit board almost melted after putting in a a Cree and a CR123 3,6V.
Had to put it out in seconds

kanarie said:

Those 3W MXDL CR123 light aren't good candidates for modding.
The cicuit board almost melted after putting in a a Cree and a CR123 3,6V.
Had to put it out in seconds

Click to expand...

Hmm.. the driver is probably voltage regulated. I just did a test right now hooking up a freshly charged CR123 to a MXDL LED -- at 4.2V it was only pushing 500 mA. A Cree would probably draw in excess of 1.5A in the same conditons, so a "safe" voltage for the MXDL may in fact be overdriving the Cree, and with such a small light, it could get HOT fast. That's too bad, perhaps adding a bit of resistance in series or something would fix it. I have one on the way from an order at Kaidomain a couple weeks ago that might be at the post office monday, so I will report if I find anything out.

berto said:

of course as soon as I order some of these they will come out with a cree version with an aluminum reflector.

Click to expand...

:laughing: Exactly my case - ordered 4 Ellys a week ago with Seoul stars to mod.

This time I'm going to hold my finger on the paypal for a while... If I can :lolsign: