Inside the Jetbeam Element (Nudity, make the kids leave the room)

Unscrew bezel with battery still installed, the light engine unloads through the top. I separated the switch and spring for cleaning. You may find the last picture interesting.

I think the light is a bit underpowered for using a warm emitter. I'm going to put a R2 in there... but I will add thermal grease on top of the boosting washer.

Shaaammmmeeeee on JB! thanks for the show EngrPaul. Now we know and knowing is... I almost pulled the trigger on one of these last week. But I have a feeling it'll be a little too slippery for me.

1anrm said:

Shaaammmmeeeee on JB! thanks for the show EngrPaul. Now we know and knowing is... I almost pulled the trigger on one of these last week. But I have a feeling it'll be a little too slippery for me.

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It may be effective enough. The emitter isn't driven all that hard.

Now that I have it back together, I can say it's a much more useful light with the R2.

umm the nudity? cant see any? only something for robots.. wheres the nude fingers.. i thought to see atleast some of those in these pictures! :huh: :wave:

*back to topic

cool pictures.. and a suprising end.

did you do beamshots b4 after?

Ha! Sorry to disappoint you.... :nana:

No comparison beamshots. Just 5 bins colder and 3 bins brighter. :candle:

I think I know why Jetbeam says don't use 14500's.

If you want to do so, I would at least recommend doing a pre-82 penny upgrade. :wink:

Is the washer at least secured?

Maybe they should have called it the Jetbeam MacGyver

Epoxied down...

That's one hot mama!

uhh did you clean it that well or is there something missing here ? is this some sort of new cleargel diamondCote super stealth areogel gassious thermal transfer elements , yet known to us mere mortals, kept in secret in the jetbeam labs , and in goverment offices awaiting pending patent

Here are your beamshots showing 3EP's compared, modded to stock.

R2 on the left, Q5 on the right. (Sorry, no neutral Element to compare).

Normal exposure:





I'm pulling apart the Q5 to put a red emitter in... I'll see if that one has the same lack of thermal paste.

place your bets ladies and gentlemen.
3-1 odds on the blueish one doing a pole dance later on tonight

I figured while I'm at it, I might as well show you her bottom.

Great pics! I sure have been impressed with JB quality as of late.

Here's disassembly of a SECOND Jetbeam.

See also a picture of a RED LED I'm going to put in.

No thermal compound under the emitter. Misaligned steel washer with barely and adhesive under it.

Well, I went back and "upgraded" both lights to have 3 copper discs under the emitter star. They are epoxy bonded to the aluminum pill. Before laying the star on there, I added some arctic silver thermal grease.



After reassembly, I found that the red jetbeam didn't have much of a difference between high and low. I guess it's because of the lower emitter Vf.



So I pulled the NiMh and put in a 1.7V Lithium primary. It was much more competitive against the R2.



Here the both are on low (automatic camera exposure) Remember, the R2 is running on NiMH, the Red on a AA Lithium PRIMARY.


And here they both are on high (automatic camera exposure)


For the heck of it, I also put a 14500 in for a few seconds. HOLY CRAP I never saw so much red in my life.

So here are a couple unnatural Elements, R2 and Red. Used to be 5A-Q3 and Q5.



If you enjoyed the thread, please say so!

Thanks for the investigation Paul ... very disappointing to see the lack of thermal paste and steel washer in there. That may indeed explain why it isn't driven very hard on Hi. Please feel free to post a link to this thread in my Element review thread - it's certainly very relevant info.

Interesting mod you are doing. I haven't tried a 14500 in these lights (since JB said it wasn't supported by the circuit). I presume you haven't tried more than a few secs?

As an aside, this image certainly gave me pause:

EngrPaul said:

Well, I went back and "upgraded" both lights to have 3 copper discs under the emitter star. They are epoxy bonded to the aluminum pill.

Click to expand...

Hmmm, reminds me of a certain someone's comments in from my VB-16 mod thread from many moons ago:

EngrPaul said:

For a minute there, I thought you were going to install 3 emitters.

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So, how about it Paul? Are you going to make the dream a reality and put my soldering skills to shame? Let's see a tri-Cree mod in there! :laughing:

Oh, yeah... forgot about that! I just put as many in there as would fit. :naughty:

Did you smash yours flat in a vice first, or did you leave them cupped

Hey, since I haven't been modding Lux to SSC, I have these little copper things laying around unused. :devil:

so is this now a red light district?

VidPro said:

so is this now a red light district?

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Exactly... I thought of that but forgot to say it. :sick2:

EngrPaul said:

Did you smash yours flat in a vice first, or did you leave them cupped
Hey, since I haven't been modding Lux to SSC, I have these little copper things laying around unused. :devil:

Click to expand...

As I recall, when I first tried those copper discs in stock form I didn't get a good thermal contact (SSC went blue after a few minutes runtime on max). After that, I typically ran them all through my small table-top vice first (with plastic inserts around the vice grips to keep everything smooth and flat when pressing). That modded VB-16 still sits on my nightstand.

And yeah, I've got a bunch of unused copper shims sitting in my workbench too (not to mention a few SSCs, Cree Q2s, etc,). Ah well, progress marches on. Haven't done a lot of modding in the last year or so, except for a few gifts for family and friends (typically at my daughter's request - she likes it when I "pimp" her flashlights :laughing.

Back on topic though, it is a concern to see a lack of thermal paste under there. I will mention it to JB next time I hear from them.