Gladius battery & LED options

Hi folks, I've been away for a long time but I'm now back and looking to mod my Night-Ops Gladius.

I find the CPF search option a bit variable with its results and quite hard to follow TBH so please excuse me if this has been asked elsewhere.

Firstly, I currently run my Gladius on the normal 2 x 123's but am looking to move to rechargeables - what do I need to know? I have a Nano charger with a couple of 3.6v 700mAH 123's but I havent dared run them in the Gladius for fear of damaging something electronic. What is the 'best' batteries to run it on?

Secondly, I see Night-Ops are offering a new LED model and I have read that some people have modded the LED in the Gladius's head - can someone point me in the direction of the options that are available for modding the LED? I'm quite hapy to send my Gladius to someone offering a service.

Many thanks to all that reply, I really appreciate it.

Ross

Seems like You've been missing for a year, have you read about the Newer generation of LEDs yet(Cree XR-E, Seoul, Rebel 100...)?

About the modding service, try this thread. This thread also tells you has a bit of info on how to DIY.

I don't know much about the batteries.

Welcome Back!

I have heard that regular rechargeable maybe too much for the gladius to take. Remember each RCR123 is 4.2V freshly recharged. Two of that is 8.4V. Gladius specified that it could take up to 7V. I understand that the RCR123 voltage dropped rapidly on use but not sure how long before that happened. I have tried these 4.2V rechargeable for brief period and seems to be fine. Gladius will flash intermittently if you uses one cell rechargeable Li-ion to indicate low voltages. My solution is to use the new generation rechargeable, namely LiFePO4 RCR123. These batteries registered 3.4V freshly charged. When the voltage drop in use, the Gladius flashes and you know it is time to recharge them. It works out very well. The only issue is these LiFePO4 is about 1/5 the capacity of the primary CR123, so you will need a few of these with you .

More on other upgrades HERE and HERE

I had mine modded under the Strategos program (links above) and have been extremely pleased.

Thanks folks, those links are helpful.

I am aware of the CREE etc but nothing in depth at all......I'll get there!

Not sure whether I'm correct in hearing an implied question there...as far as a retrofit goes, the Cree emitters really aren't much of an option right now, as they seem to require substantial redesign work. The SSC emitters, on the other hand, are more or less drop-in (well, solder-in). The Cree has some advantages, but the SSC is a huge step up from the Luxeons. The Surefire L1 and Gladius I've got are immensely better lights after being modified.

I use the Tenergy 900 mAh 3.0 volt rechargeable Li-Ion's in my HX2 Typhoon (same as a Gladius) they work great. I got the from MattK at Battery Junction.com . If you have any questions just send MattK a PM he's a member here.

Is the Tenergy 900 mAh rating accurate?

Don't know if its capacity is accurate but I just finished a runtime test. I got a average runtime of 1 hour and 7 minutes. I'm also doing a runtime test with the AW 17670 and Ultrafire 17670. All batteries are protected rechargable Li-Ions.