My E01 is an airhead.

...or if you prefer, I have an empty-headed E01.

I got bored this evening, so I got out my trusty flat-tipped nail and a hammer, and I knocked the sh*t (i.e. the electronics) out of one of my three E01's. I then cleaned all the sh*t (again, i.e. the electronics) off the tiny little circuit board, and scraped out the last little bit of epoxy out of the inside of the head.

So now I have a clean, flat circuit board with plenty of places to pick up power from the battery, and a head that will need to be reground and fitted with a better LED. (Need? Yes, need. )

I've modded one cheap flashlight before, but that was easy because I was able to take a 5W Cree drop-in for an AA Maglite (with built-in regulator) and just solder the wires onto the leads sticking out the bottom of the drop-in. This is going to be much harder, due to space constraints, and the need to regrind the head...and my lack of understanding how voltage regulators work. I'd like for it to come out right the first time, since I can't very well undo any mistakes, so I was wondering...

...can I talk anyone into tackling an LED upgrade on my airheaded E01?

Upgrade to what? If brightness/efficiency is your goal, you just removed the most efficient 5mm currently made.

The E01 already uses the best 5mm LEDs available. There is no other brighter 5mm LED that I know about(Nichia GS). Swapping in a high power LED might improve output a tiny bit and improve the tint but you will probably get a floody beam unless you modify the head to be a reflector(it will still be a pretty wide hotspot).

Try asking a mod to move this to the Homemade and modifed section and maybe contacting a few modders.

If I want efficiency, I can use one of the other two E01s I have, or the Peak Shasta sitting on my desk. I want something like MillerMods' Cree Arc AAA, but maybe with a warm-tint Luxeon LED. I could care less about efficiency with this one; it's a toy more than anything else.

Besides, the Nichia GS has a nasty purple spot in the center of the beam, unlike the DS that my Arc-P used to have before I lost it. (I'm still pissed about that.)

You should have bought 1 LD01 instead of your 3 E01

Gunner12 said:

The E01 already uses the best 5mm LEDs available. There is no other brighter 5mm LED that I know about(Nichia GS). Swapping in a high power LED might improve output a tiny bit and improve the tint but you will probably get a floody beam unless you modify the head to be a reflector(it will still be a pretty wide hotspot).

Try asking a mod to move this to the Homemade and modifed section and maybe contacting a few modders.

Click to expand...

Sorry, I'm new. Can I get a move to the Homemade forum?

Regrinding the reflector was part of the plan, but I honestly have no idea how to do that properly. Looking at the construction of the head on this, there's actually a pretty good amount of metal to work with, so the final reflector should be pretty deep compared to its width.

kts said:

You should have bought 1 LD01 instead of your 3 E01

Click to expand...

By that same argument, MillerMods is a fool for modding Arc AAA's to use Cree Q5's when LD01's would do the same job for the same price with zero effort involved. The point of this particular exercise is to see what the E01 can be turned into, but I don't have the knowledge or the machining tools to do it myself.

I got the E01's because I couldn't get olive-colored Arc-P's, and the E01's were a quarter of the price. At the time I bought the E01's, I didn't realize LEDs like the Q5 existed, so I didn't know what I was missing.

I couldn't get olive-colored L0D's either, FYI; I checked.

LOL... by posting this to the wrong forum, you've got a bunch of folks telling telling you why you can't mod an E01. Mods hopefully will move this to the right forum. Dont' sweat it Im sure the DIY crowd will have some ideas.

IMHO a red colored LED would be great for preserving night vision. Dremel the corners off a Q5-WC, leaving just enough solder pad on the bottom and run it off the driver at ~20-25mah. It will be really floody though. Its not wise to use an XR-E without a glass window though.

Sh*t happens, I guess. I'm not too worried about what they think. I modify everything I own, from my computer to my car and everything in between, often with great success. Taking out the electronics in the E01 was an impulsive move, but once I processed it a bit and realized the parts to do a mod like this do exist and are already being used by various people, it really doesn't seem like so much of a challenge. Besides, I have plenty of cheap flashlights, so I won't miss this one if I totally fail.

I do want the mod to turn out as well as possible, though. I'm not worried about it being a floodlight, because I'm not going to be mounting it to an assault rifle or anything like that. Just putting out a lot of light will be enough, though having some kind of hotspot would be nice.

How about a Cree XP-E on a micro-pcb, direct-driven off a Li-ion rechargeable, with a resistor to control the current?

I agree with Kramer a red nichia cs 5mm would be nice and should be an easy mod

Cree seems to have a new white 5mm LED that is almost as bright as the nichia GS. Here is the link

https://www.candlepowerforums.com/threads/215553

Drill out the reflector
Run a Cree MC-E in parallel
Mega flood light and it will put out more lumens
Embrace the weirdness

If I recall the e01 use a constant voltage driver, so with the low VF on red LED's, you may send too much current over it.

I have no idea what you guys just said.

jzmtl said:

If I recall the e01 use a constant voltage driver, so with the low VF on red LED's, you may send too much current over it.

Click to expand...

Oh. Heh. No, all the existing electronics are gone, cut to shreds by my Dremel and my bench grinder. All I've got now is the bare circuit board -- which is not necessarily a bad thing, because all the traces are intact, but in the interest of having this thing work when I'm done, I think I'll opt for a premade VRM.

Try a Cree XR-E direct drive off a 10440 battery. I'd recommend with a resistor to keep the 10440 from being pushed too far.

Modify the head to fit the XR-E and maybe polish it to be some sort of a reflector. A flashlight reflector is a parabola with the light source at the focal point, so maybe you can make the "reflector" into a parabola, polish it, and then install the Cree, resistor, and Li-ion battery.

Make sure there is good heat transfer between the LED and the body of the light. It will still heat up pretty fast due to the small mass of the metal. I would not recommend running the light for long unless the LED is being driven at pretty low currents.

Do you still have the 5mm LED?

deusexaethera said:

all the existing electronics are gone, cut to shreds by my Dremel and my bench grinder. All I've got now is the bare circuit board --

Click to expand...

You can buy a circuitboard from arcmania, I am sure he can supply an LED as well

jzmtl said:

If I recall the e01 use a constant voltage driver, so with the low VF on red LED's, you may send too much current over it.

Click to expand...

True, but the RED nichia cs is pretty robust, I have overdriven them with no problems

Tekno_Cowboy said:

How about a Cree XP-E on a micro-pcb, direct-driven off a Li-ion rechargeable, with a resistor to control the current?

Click to expand...

+1 on the XP-E.

Gunner12 said:

Try a Cree XR-E direct drive off a 10440 battery. I'd recommend with a resistor to keep the 10440 from being pushed too far.

Modify the head to fit the XR-E and maybe polish it to be some sort of a reflector. A flashlight reflector is a parabola with the light source at the focal point, so maybe you can make the "reflector" into a parabola, polish it, and then install the Cree, resistor, and Li-ion battery.

Make sure there is good heat transfer between the LED and the body of the light. It will still heat up pretty fast due to the small mass of the metal. I would not recommend running the light for long unless the LED is being driven at pretty low currents.

Do you still have the 5mm LED?

Click to expand...

It, um, broke in half when I hit it with a hammer. It still worked, though, the diode itself wasn't damaged. Until I ground it off with a Dremel. So, that's a big negative -- but led-tech.de sells Nichia GS's for 1 Euro apiece, and I've already bought some to upgrade my parents' older Photon 2's, so I'm not concerned about getting a new one.

Why do you ask about the old LED, though? We were talking about what else I could put in. The Cree XR-E is an idea, but I'd rather have something from Luxeon, because I've already got 4 Cree flashlights -- I want something different, and Luxeon seems to do a pretty good job of making white LEDs that are on the warm side of the spectrum.

Grinding the reflector into a parabola would be the hard part, yes; I have absolutely no idea how to guarantee that my grinding will be even remotely parabolic. As for the circuit board, I took the time to clean it off specifically so I could use the existing electrical contacts; I just need a boost-type VRM to attach to it.

I've already contacted Arc Mania, and I'm awaiting his response. Thanks for the suggestion, though.

deusexaethera said:

Why do you ask about the old LED, though? We were talking about what else I could put in. The Cree XR-E is an idea, but I'd rather have something from Luxeon, because I've already got 4 Cree flashlights -- I want something different, and Luxeon seems to do a pretty good job of making white LEDs that are on the warm side of the spectrum.

Click to expand...

You should definately try finding a Cree XP-E ( that's a P not an R, it took me a while to realize that) in the 5A tint which is nice and warm. I'm pretty sure the Luxeon Rebel has a soft dome in case you want to use that and no lens.