best driver for r2 in 2aa

Pretty new to torches, or flashlight rather, apologise in advance for being a brit hehehe. Been looking at making a few new lights as gifts for xmas pressies for family, I like fenix for my own everyday use but I don't like them that much to spend that much on them. Just kidding, kind of anyway, I am just poor and they like personalised gifts. By "like personalised gifts" I mean humour the junk I make them. Multi battery types not necessary but I was thinking of 2 flavours. I am using a romisen nc3 for the host but wasn't too sure what driver to use. It doesn't need to be driven hard but well enough to make it worth while sticking an r2 in otherwise it's pretty much the same as leaving stock stuff in, it's the ones on dx I ordered and not the sb q5's btw. 750mA is kind of the region I am thinking in. Modes wise just 2 or 3 basic low/mid/high is plenty and nothing fancy but I don't mind fancy it's just not a requirment. I need to put an order in on dx so was going to tack it to that but I'd consider it from elsewhere as long as it's free or very low shipping to uk and similar price to dx.

Hello Ten, :welcome:.

Off the top of my head, I am thinking you are best simply leaving the stock driver and doing the emitter upgrade. Keep in mind, you aren't going to see a glaring difference. Even if you pick up as much as 50 lumens, it isn't so noticable without a side by side comparison. DX simply calls it a Cree XR-E emitter so I wouldn't be entirely shocked if the lastest shipments had Q5's already.

Otherwise, you are of course going to need a boost circuit of the appropriate size, so you will need to measure it, and however many modes you feel meet your needs.

You can have a look at the driver thread, which in turn will lead you to Torchboy's website.

Ah thank you, indeed I didn't think about leaving stock in as it will probably be fine. The n3 hasn't arrived yet as only ordered a week or so ago (I'm in the UK so probably in for a long wait) so don't know what type it is since I notice some on dx report getting different mode versions. I ordered a Q5 too because I will find something to put it in even if it's surplus to requirements and an R2 as well.

I had plans for the R2 though and was going to put it in a romisen G2 with a dx7880 driver. Bit too many modes but like the look of the rest of it and staying in 1 group shouldn't get annoying..... I hope! That one is for me to use for cheap EDC of the floodier kind as my regular light is an ld20.

Lumens wise I don't need anything incredible and I have heard (open to correction if this is wrong) that although newer types like q5 and r2 are a little brighter it would make little difference to me as I'm powering single LED lights off 1 or 2 NiMH and never running at 1a or over, I'd prefer to underdrive even if the power source would manage it just to keep heat down. From what I've seen R2 to Q5 is not visible difference to my eyes but are a bit more efficient so worth the $1.

If you want to save yourself some work, you could have gotten the Romisen RC-N3 II from shiningbeam and gotten a 2 mode light with a Q5. But what's the fun in that

:welcome:

I looked at those and liked the look of them and thought

"hey I can build one like that myself for the same price and have a longer wait on postage"

If I was in a rush I'd probably buy from shinning beam to be honest but I like soldering........ yeah sad I know hehehe. Seriously though I think for a personalised gift it's quite nice to put the extra effort in even an I get more flexibility on driver used (thinking of modes in particular) this way.

I'm ok with circuits and the like but never made a flashlight before. Well I have built regular white and UV 5mm ultrabright LED lights before now but they don't count since they are just a resistor and battery and not much fun. Before now if I needed a decent light I bought one but I never considered making one before coming across this place recently.