Ti Sapphire w/Neutral Cree XP-E

Just finished this mod. It's tricky because theres not much room to work.
it uses the original sapphire light engine.

neutral white xpe on left, high cri seoul sapphire on right.
Had to coat the outter edges of the xpe so it doesnt short out on the head.


xpe on left, high cri seoul on right
i was surprised, the neutral xpe is really bright and has a wider beam than the seoul. the seoul has got a noticable ammount of red in it.
used by themselves, however they both look white.


xpe vs an old nichia 5mm :laughing: :laughing: :laughing:


seoul on bottom xpe on top. at least twice as many lumens. :devil:


side shot of finished pill.


another shot


beamshot on its own. nice tint.


another shot


inside the head..heatsink sits flush against the inner lip.


I could easily design a large heatsink in there for pushing 200-350mah
to the led. plenty of space inside the sapphire. I have some driver ideas
that fit.


flattened the 5mm led and drilled hole thru center


just some in progress work.


more in progress..


workspace.


guaging the height


hole thru led. the nichia makes for a solid base,
and it seems as if the plastic 5mm's do transmit heat..fingers got hot while
drilling thru the 5mm core. haha

Well done! :twothumbs I can really appreciate how difficult it is to work with such small parts in such a small space. I bet you really gave those helping hands and tweezers a workout. It's a testament to your patience that you didn't go :tinfoil:.

Ohhhhhhhh, so so sweet ! Another spectacular mod, Clint! :twothumbs

Seeing this thread again just made me pick up my Ti Arc with Clint's mod in it. Absolutely lovely tint in a setup that would make neutral flood fans faint!

Clint, thanks again for the emitter and this excellent post and all the pics too!

Nice mod. May I ask what tint/brightness bin this XP-E is?

BTW, we're both in Albany, NY!

Clint- that is super slick....flattening the nichia nd using as a base- excellent idea. Nice pic of your workspace- all neat, tidy and squared away. Inspirational work.

Hey CLint, reviving an old thread. Other than the metal heatsink, what is the difference between this mod and the previous one you did:

http://www.candlepowerforums.com/vb/showthread.php?230450-McGizmo-Arc-Sapphire-Neutral-white-xp-e

Did you find it necessary to use a heatsink? Can you fit an 8mm board from the shoppe? I am planning on doing the same mod soon, so glad to have found this. Never though of using a 5 mm led as a base, great idea!

What's the approx. output after this mod?

Bump. Would still love your insight on this vs your other mod.

gunga said:

Bump. Would still love your insight on this vs your other mod.

Click to expand...

sorry gunga, didnt notice your question earlier.

it's obviously a more robust mod using the heatsink and i prefer it, but i doubt the 25ma going to the led really needs it. (although the older arc circuit pushes 65ma+ on lithium AAA primary)
i dont have the ability to do temperature tests..so i can only speculate, but neither pill failed during burn in testing, running a fresh nimh for an hour.

8mm is too large..maybe file it down to ~5.5 mm and it'll fit, but if you notice, i did raise the led, there's actually 2 peices of alumnimum there..
one is the small disk and the second is a square peice to raise the led up so i can solder the wires to the base of the xp-e.
this also pushed the led further up into head to allow more light to escape.

imo, if you stick with nimh or have the newer saphire 25 circuit, you wouldnt need a heatsink. just thermal epoxy it to the 5mm led.

if i had to guess ~10 lumens or so.

Hey thanks. One more thing, I see that you trimmed the corners of the led on you last mod, so is that unnecessary after all? ALso, was it hard to drill the 5mm wihout messing anything up? I just got my Ti Arc. Will do the mod sometime later once I have more time...

drilling through the 5mm is pretty simple. just make sure you keep it centered while you drill as you dont want to eliminate the original 5mm leads as they become a structural peice.
also in hindsight, i wish i filled the resuling hole in the 5mm with some silicone glue or even AA, to make the entire structure even stronger(in the case you want to swap out the pill many times over),
would add some extra durability.

one one xpe i filed the edges..the other i did not. the reason why i did on one of them was because i had previously removed the gelcoating on the surface of the led and didnt want it to accidentally short.