Easy Aleph 3/Cree MC-E upgrade

The other day, I bought this light on the Marketplace:



It's an Ultrafire with a 3-stage (Hi-Lo-Strobe) Cree MC-E K-WC emitter in a nice ~37mm OP reflector. It was only $35 delivered, so I thought it would be a cheap way to experience my first MC-E light.

It arrived, and, as expected, is a very cheaply built light. It has, however a very very nice beam, with the emitter perfectly focused in it's reflector. I took it apart, and discovered the pill is extremely similar in size to an Aleph light engine, so I decided to play around a bit.



Above is how it looks stripped down, and below is all I needed of it:



The pill, an isolating washer and the reflector.



The pill doesn't thread up into the Aleph head, like a traditional LE, but with a little grinding of the aluminum band between the brass base and the aluminum threads, it will press-fit nicely down into the neck of the head.



Place the insulating washer back around the emitter:



Pop in the Ultrafire reflector, with a 35mm o-ring to snug it into the head, and reinstall the stock Aleph window and a bezel ring. The reflector fits perfectly because the pill extends further into the head than an Aleph LE. The Ultrafire pill doesn't extend as far down into the neck, so a connecting ring is required to make contact with the battery tube.



A little imaginative magnet spacer use to contact the positive spring of the pill, and there you have it. An Aleph 3 with a Cree MC-E emitter.



The Ultrafire is available for $39.23 delivered from Deal Extreme.

http://www.dealextreme.com/details.dx/sku.16958

Looks like fun...!

Output?

Will this fit other Aleph`s...?

The pill will fit in any Aleph head, but the reflector will be the problem. The MC-E is a perfect focus in the Ultrafire reclector, but it will only fit the Aleph 3 head.

Output is perfect. A 2-3' hotspot at 10 feet, with no donut or artifacts. It beats the pants off a P7 in an MCR38 reflector.

I have a Wf 600 Aurora Q5 ,do you know that one
If so how is the throw /beam compared to the Ultrafire with a 3-stage (Hi-Lo-Strobe) Cree MC-E K-WC emitter ??

How much does the Ultrafire draw from the 18650 ?
Does it run hot ?

I'm not familiar with the Q5 light, but I have several others with the emitter, and they don't come close to this beam. The MC-E, with 4 dies, has a much broader beam than the Q5's single die. The MC-E's hot spot, at 10 feet, is twice as large as a Malkoff M60 Q5. That's probably partially due to the large reflector, compared to the Malkoff's optic.

I also compared it to an R2 drop-in, with a D26 reflector and another in a D36 reflector, and again, the MC-E's hot spot is much larger.

According to the DX listing, current is 2800mAH. I assume that's 700 to each die, but haven't measured it.

I can't tell you if it runs hot, because I don't run these big emitter lights continuously. I assume it runs about as hot as a P7, which generates a good bit of heat. I can tell you, however, it has far more aluminum to sink to in the Aleph 3 than the original host. There's no comparison between the A3 head and the Ultrafire. I doubt if UF could have found thinner aluminum to build the host with.

It's funny. The pill, clicky guts and reflector from Ultrafire seem to be very stoutly and well built. The host is pure garbage.