Okay, so I've been using a Solarforce R2 for a while now and want a brighter drop-in.

I've been using the Solarforce R2 D26 drop-in in a C3 Centurion with three AW RCR's. It's a nice LED drop-in and is decently throwy, but I'm looking for something brighter. I've been hearing about the P7 for awhile now, are there any drop-in's available for this yet?

I understand it has a larger emitter area for more flood like a Luxeon 5. If the P7 is to the Cree X-lamps what the Luxeon 5 was to the Luxeon III I'm very interested in it. I'm not interested in a Malkoff because I don't think it would be a whole lot brighter than what I already have if at all. I'm looking for a major step up in output.

Any new drop-ins with new emitters to look at for me?

Thanks

The one-mode Q5 and R2 P60 modules at DX and KD and 0-100% "3-mode" (actually 15 modes in 6 groups) at DX are both brighter at 4.2-8.4V. If you run the Solarforce one-mode R2 with 3X16340 (12.8V) it's about as bright and warmer than the others.

bspofford said:

The one-mode Q5 and R2 P60 modules at DX and KD and 0-100% "3-mode" (actually 15 modes in 6 groups) at DX are both brighter at 4.2-8.4V. If you run the Solarforce one-mode R2 with 3X16340 (12.8V) it's about as bright and warmer than the others.

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Yea, mine is the one mode version. It's warmer than the DX? That's a little bit of a surprise, since I thought both of my samples were a little on the cool side as they remind me of many cool white Luxeons I used to have. Like an XO tint as they binned the cool white Luxeons.

:candle:

So where are the P7 drop-ins?

I think the problem will be finding a buck converter of the appropriate size that can supply 2.8A.

Tim.

Timson said:

I think the problem will be finding a buck converter of the appropriate size that can supply 2.8A.

Tim.

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Thanks for the reply, I did not know it used that much power. There appears to be some smaller P7 lights. Do you know what the forward voltage is of the P7?

The Vf of the P7 varies as with other emitters and are binned accordingly.

Have a look at Photonfanatic's P7's - They appear to be a very efficient bin as far as Vf goes.

Many people are Direct driving P7's from 3 x NiMh cells or 1 x Li-Ion cell (3.6 - 4.2v)

The P7 is pretty much - just 4 x P4 dies driven in parallel - each die seeing about 700mA @ spec.


Tim.

Thanks Timson. It looks doable. I would imagine any drop-in with a buck would have a voltage range of 6V-12V and higher for batteries sake. Runtime on two CR123A's would not be much better than with a P61 since it would be drawing about 2 amps off the batteries. Might be a good combo with a couple of AW 18500's.

Why not just buy a drop-in module without emitter:
http://www.dealextreme.com/details.dx/sku.5955
You would be better off with the stippled reflector, but I didn't see one on they're site.

Then a P7:
https://www.kaidomain.com//WEBUI/ProductDetail.aspx?TranID=4312

You might have to bore out the body of the light to hold a 18650 but it should work. I know my 6P would not hold the 18650 I had but it was close. The P7 should run on an 17670 just with shorter run times.

Its that simple.

I would imagine at that current draw the voltage of the cell would drop below Vf very quickly if not right away.

An 18650 should run quite happily at 2.8A .....Not done any testing - but I recon it should hold around 3.6 - 3.7v under load - putting you in ballpark DD territory.


Tim

Oh yes, and 18650 will definitely run at 2.8 amps . I'm just not so sure about runtime or brightness though. I would also like to be able to use different types of batteries.