SF E1e SSC P4 DD Mod / Failed, sort of..

This was the first non reversable mod I have done to a Surefire, as well as the first time
to work on the business end of a light (only tailcaps and bodies until now).
Soldered a LED for the first time too!

KDOG3's post Any new LED mods for E1e? got me interested, and fellow members
Energie and Long John's great mods Surefire E1e with SSC-P4 made me think of a
simplified version.

No modification was done to the reflector.
Direct Drive, no regulation.
Read on to see the rather dissapointing results. Was great fun tho

Opening the bezel

You don't necessarily have to do this, but it makes removing any metal shavings
that get into the reflector easier.
Crude wooden clamps and a thin rubber band were used for a better grip.
Would be better to sandwich something between the wrench and bezel to avoid
scratching the HA.
No heating was necessary to loosen the thread locker on this particular unit.
YMMV.

Removing the jut and leveling it out

A lathe was used here, but a Dremel and some patience should get you similar results.

Widening the emitter hole

I was originally going to use a Cree XR-E and widened the hole with a 7mm drill bit.
This resulted in a lot of space between the SSC P4 emitter I later decided to use

Converting a MN01 LA into a pill

This is a burnt out MN01 in the original condition.

Step 1

Prying open the positive contact.
Snipping off the bulb leads, leaving a short length for resoldering.

Step 2

Sawing off the bulb and removing the epoxy.

Making the heatsink

A milling machine and lathe was used during this process (experimenting with some ideas ),
but all you need to have is a simple copper disk (diameter 19.10mm, thickness 2.6mm) with
2 drilled holes.
I had a chunk of 5mm thick copper, so milled a 20mm square down to 2.6mm and sawed it off.


This is a jig I made for securing the copper square to the lathe. Cap screws are M2.
With all the excitement, I forgot to take photos before the square was turned down
to a disk.
I have a feeling no one will understand, but this part was the most fun for me.

Converting a MN01 LA into a pill
Step 3

Soldered new leads and drilled a hole in the stock plastic ring.

Step 4

As discussed elsewhere, the P4 emitter slug has a positive contact.
A bit of extra Arctic Alumina Epoxy and gentle pressure was used to secure it to the heatsink.

The gap as mentioned before


Beamshots



These were shot from about 20 inches from the wall.

I have a feeling I am losing a lot of photons somewhere. The BIG donut hole and
complete lack of a hotspot makes it look really dim.
But the flood is amazing

I'm thinking of getting a McR 20 reflector and working some more on the bezel with the lathe.

Any suggestions to improve it are welcome.
nekomane

Hi, this is a nice mod and probably easy to do for everyone. In the beamshot picture it looks like the LED reaches to far in the reflector. Have you tried to move the LED away from the reflector to see which way you need to go?

A nice clean mod IMO. I don't think your far off, a little adjustment will probably fix
the hotspot.

daywalker, thanks
I'll try that but have a feeling that the emitter is actually not reaching enough into the reflector.

MN1, hope to post results soon but I need some :sleepy: now...........

I think the SSC needs to go deeper into the reflector too, possibly by using a copper shim under the emitter, or sanding the back of the reflector and enlarging its hole even more to fit around the black base of the emitter. Be sure to insulate the terminals and wires to avoid their being shorted out by the reflector.

The SSC seems to work OK when mounted that low in a deep reflector but not a shallow one.

You might like to start with a thicker piece of copper and turn a small post for the LED to sit on to get it a bit deeper into the reflector. As bfg9000 said be careful about shorting the LED on the reflector, I use wad punches to make plastic washers using plastic from margarine lids.
Norm

Very nice work Nekomane :twothumbs...:goodjob:

The best result in view of a perfect beam you'll get with a sanded McR20:thumbsup:

Do it, you will not regret it


Best regards

_____
Tom:wave:

Just add a washer between the copper and the original MN01 base. You might have to add longer wires, but I doubt it.

nice pill! if you figure it out i might just be mailing my e1e to you! LOL

Very good work, nekomane!!
Professional pics and explanations. Very clever, to leave the
wires on the MN01.
I had no success with the stock reflector and SSC/CREE emitters too.
Still working on it.

I tried the standard reflector with a Cree, and got a very nice but relatively dim flood with no hotspot.

I think Toms suggestion of an McR20 is the best idea, and it just might all fit in the head with your nifty pill/heatsink :thumbsup:

Superb step by step photos too - I like :twothumbs


Colin.

There is not much space in the E1e head for an uncut McR 20 or
McR 20 S reflector. A cut down reflector produces a beam with moore flood.

Energie said:

A cut down reflector produces a beam with moore flood.

Click to expand...

With more flood than an uncutted reflector yes, but with the floody beam is nothing wrong.
It has a very bright and large hotspot incl. spill without any donut-hole. Take a look at my beamshots, my best beam of single ermitter-lights up to 30-40 meters:

https://www.candlepowerforums.com/threads/157529

I can highly recommend this setup.

Best regards

___
Tom

Hi and thanks for all your advice and encouragement



The base of the reflector has about 1.5mm thickness, preventing the emitter to be pushed further up.
The central dark spot is probably a result of this.

There is only so much the original shallow reflector can do, and I will not remove any more
material until the reflectors arrive.
'McR-20 Seoul' is what I want, right?

Personally, I am pretty fond of floody beams, and may cut it down a bit.

I've played around with an E1E head in the same way.

If you drill out the hole to 8.x mm and put the LED flush with the back side, it will still not focus properly. A .030 shim from the Shoppe works perfectly, and puts the Seoul at the correct focus point.

Toshi

Currently doing a similar mod.
Good to see your way of approaching this head,
quite a challenge, nonetheless.

e-mail sent

Thanks all for your advice.

My intent was to find an easy way to convert the E1e to an LED without the need of
lathes and such (OK, Long John did it, hats off to you :thumbsup: ) but it looks like
the stock reflector is just not up to it.

A couple of McR20-S reflectors were ordered and arrived just a few days ago.
The following is based on Energie's mod.

Boring out the bezel along with the stock reflector finish


Cutting down the reflector

I considered using a thinner lens (1.00mm) but felt more comfortable with the stock lens
(2.87mm) in case of drops so the reflector had to be cut down.


Now the hard part for me..

The parts are ready, but some more searching and homework is necessary to assemble it

Very clean and nice work nekomane:twothumbs...:goodjob:...:bow:

I envy you about your lathe


Very best regards

_____
Tom:wave:

I REALLY want to do this mod. I too have thought of using the stock LA and copperheatsink to run it. I also thought about getting a GD400 driver board and mounting it where the positive contact plate is on the LA, just swapping them, using the plastic tabs the hold the driver board.

I'm watch this thread VERY closely...

Where did you get that heatsink from and what driver board is that?

Well now you've done it. I've just ordered an E1e-BK...