Is modding a Fenix P1D hard?

I was wondering how hard it would be to swap out the Q5 in my P1D with a XP-G R5? Anyone ever opened up the head of a P1D?

Ace12 said:

I was wondering how hard it would be to swap out the Q5 in my P1D with a XP-G R5? Anyone ever opened up the head of a P1D?

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I don't know if it's hard but it should be illegal! P1D is a great flashlight and Fenix will never make another P1D. It's like modding a '57 T-Bird with led tail lights!

Hard to get past the glue. I think changing the emitter is easy enough. Don't know what kind of beam you will get though.

I also have a Fenix P3D that only has a XR-E Q3. I would like to beef it up also.

You may need another driver as well (I don't know since I don't know the spec's of the one in there now).

The vf of the XP-G is lower than that of the XR-E. If they are just using resisters you would need a different one. If the driver is set to output a constant 700mA for the XR-E then you would be under driving a XP-G.

gcbryan said:

You may need another driver as well (I don't know since I don't know the spec's of the one in there now).

The vf of the XP-G is lower than that of the XR-E. If they are just using resisters you would need a different one. If the driver is set to output a constant 700mA for the XR-E then you would be under driving a XP-G.

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Well If thats true than I will just leave it as is. It would be nice to upgrade the P3D though. It's not even as bright as my P1D

If the driver is anything like the BB NG, it'll still supply 700mA, just at a different voltage

Ace12 said:

I also have a Fenix P3D that only has a XR-E Q3. I would like to beef it up also.

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I don't have P1D but recently I modded my P3D XR-E with a XP-G R4, you can get decent focus if the reflector doesn't go towards the LED all the way as with XR-E. I'll try to take a beamshot or two later when it gets dark here.

Like MarNav1 said, it might not be easy to deal with the glue (try mousepad) but once the head is opened, soldering the XP-G is a painless procedure compared to XR-E (I used 10mm round base from Cutter).

P3D driver works perfectly fine with XP-G, but just doesn't make the XP-G work hard enough (if output or throw is of concern). P3D drives the LED @~850mA on Turbo so theoretically, I should get ~280-299 lumens from the LED (~315 lumens if R5).
However, if IIRC, my ceiling-bounce measurements some weeks ago indicated that my R4 is only a tiny bit brighter than my XR-E R2 (on another P3D). My guess is that quite a portion of the light was lost because it didn't get to the reflector (if reflector is too close to the XP-G, beam will be out-of-focus).

Hope that helps

dudu84 said:

I don't have P1D but recently I modded my P3D XR-E with a XP-G R4, you can get decent focus if the reflector doesn't go towards the LED all the way as with XR-E. I'll try to take a beamshot or two later when it gets dark here.

Like MarNav1 said, it might not be easy to deal with the glue (try mousepad) but once the head is opened, soldering the XP-G is a painless procedure compared to XR-E (I used 10mm round base from Cutter).

P3D driver works perfectly fine with XP-G, but just doesn't make the XP-G work hard enough (if output or throw is of concern). P3D drives the LED @~850mA on Turbo so theoretically, I should get ~280-299 lumens from the LED (~315 lumens if R5).
However, if IIRC, my ceiling-bounce measurements some weeks ago indicated that my R4 is only a tiny bit brighter than my XR-E R2 (on another P3D). My guess is that quite a portion of the light was lost because it didn't get to the reflector (if reflector is too close to the XP-G, beam will be out-of-focus).

Hope that helps

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Even an XR-E R2 would probably be much bette than the Q3 I have now.

Ace12 said:

Even an XR-E R2 would probably be much bette than the Q3 I have now.

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R2 is ~20% brighter than Q3 so it's PROBABLY noticeable by naked eyes
I modded mine with XP-G mainly because I prefer smooth beam (also less throwy) ,and I only use 17670/18650 batteries hence the XP-G should work better than XR-E due to its lower Vf; I might try to do a runtime test tonight.

Here are the photos as promised (and runtime graph), hope they help :]


I'm sure the GITD O-ring will reduce the output of my P3D XP-G R4 a little bit, but I can't measure by how much.

In the following beamshots, P3D R4 is always on the left and P3D R2 is on the right. The two lights were held by my hand ~1m from the wall.






There's no mistake in the image above, the P3D R2 actually has slightly brighter spill and also better throw with a tighter beam. Also, my P3D R4's beam isn't artifact-free. I measured the ceiling-bounce output again last night and here are some numbers:
-P3D R4: 8.92 lux (Throw = ~3000 lux @1m)
-P3D R2: 8.80 lux (Throw = ~4360 lux @1m)
-Eagletac P100C2 Q5:8.60 lux (Throw = ~8000 lux @1m measured at brightest spot)
-L-mini 2 R4 modded: 8.45 lux (Throw = ~3500 lux @1m)

However, all those lights have different beam profiles so the numbers didn't tell much.
***All of these data was obtained for personal use and I have no guarantee of their accuracy

For the runtime, I used a 120mm PC case fan to cool the P3D R4 so the light stayed cool throughout the test. The AW17670 battery was fully charged to 4.17V and rested ~3h.

Indeed, the P3D R4 stays regulated most of the time on 1x17670 battery. Its output increased slightly near the end of the test indicated the light was direct-driven, just for a couple of mins.