R2H Modded KL1

Hey guys,
I am patiently awaiting the return of my KL1 that I am having modded with an R2H Luxeon. The mod will consist of the stock led simply being replaced with the R2H. I'm planning on using it primarily as my EDC on an E1e body. I guess I'm just getting anxious awaiting its arrival and need to just talk about it.

I was wondering if anyone else has done this mod and what the results were. More throw, more brightness or both?

Chop:

I am awaiting the return of both of my KL1's. CM is putting R2H's in each and changing a component on the SF board to increase regulated current to 700 mA. I should essentially have the output of a 3 watter. CM gets home from vacation today and should make me happy in the near future.

Better brightness definitely (unless you were really lucky with your KL1), there will be slightly more throw due to the change from a LD to a HD*.

-YC

* LD - Low Dome emitter
HD - High Dome emitter

lemlux,

I considered doing something more than a simple LED swap, but I really like the 4.5 hr runtime that you get with a stock KL1.

The increase in regualted current you are getting should be about double what a stock KL1 is. Do you have any idea what effect your mod will have on heat and runtime.

Tony

Chop:

At 700 mA the heat should be a little less than half way between regular KL1 and KL4. This is because the very low vF of the R2H will reduce total Wattage.

I imagine that single cell run time will be around 40% that of a normal KL1 and 2-cell run time should be around 45%.

In a 2 cell light driven by a 68mm Li-Ion at slightly over Vf I imagine the run time will be more than double that of a KL4 with brightness I'm hoping will approach 60% of the KL4 brightnress.

lemlux,

So you're talking about a KL1 that should put out around 40 lumens with a runtime of about 2 hours on 2x123's and probably close to 45 minutes on 1x123. Sounds like a cool pocket light. Please, after you get it, post the results. I'm really interested. I have a new KL1 with the new crown coming in on Monday (Now, what do I do with this). The only problem is that Dat2Zip seems to be out of R2H's.

Tony

I bought 5 of the R2H's from Dat2Zip while the getting was good.

lemlux,

Smart thinking. I've just recently gotten into lights. I surprising how much you can learn surfing CPF. I didn't realize how lucky I was to get an R2H. If I had known, I would have ordered a few myself. Any chance you wanna part with one.

Oh, what component is it that you are having changed on your surefire board. Is this something that CM is supplying to you. I'm only asking because CM is doing my KL1 too. I'd like to have my new KL1 modded like yours, so I can have the best of all worlds, the KL1 with R2H running stock current, the KL1 with R2H running at 7?? mA's and the KL4 (If I can find one. ~$100 is too much for me right now).

Tony

lemlux,

I'm just looking at your first post again. That's right, CM get home today. YaHoo!!

My other 3 R2H's are being sent to HotBeam. They will be driven in serial at 700 mA controlled by a PowerPuck regulator fed by a 10AA battery pack.

The light will be a 3 headed headlamp modded into an existing headlamp body.. Each R2H will be in a separate aluminum head from a 6*Nichia aluminum donor light.

Two of these aluminum heads will have NX-05's and the third will have a McFlood. I expect a very bright, very usable field of light with at least a 3 hour run time per belt mounted battery pack (I'm using Sanyo 2100 mAh NiMH's)

lemlux,

That sounds like a nice setup. It seems that there is a plethora of uses for 1 watt LED's, especially the R2H's. They seem to be a good compromise between brightness/useable light and runtime.

Kind of a bummer, but maybe not. The R2H that I had put into my KL1 turned out to be on the green side. I haven't gotten it back yet, but I've seen the beam shots. On the other hand, it looks really bright.

Has anyone else gotten an R2H that turned out to be on the green side? I'm asking because I seem to be the only one that didn't get white. I might give it another try when more are available, if the green turns out to be something that I can't live with.

I'm baaaaaaaaaaack. lemlux, you have e-mail as I also sent you some results of your mods last night. Chop already knows the disappointing result of the mod (greenie). I think that Chop's greenie should probably be the norm with the 2 color. However, I've seen several R2's and most were much closer to white than Chop's. I wish there were much more consistency to these things since I also lost the Lux lottery a while back and ended up flushing $40 down the toilet. I've only bought mostly finished lights since then because I just wasn't comfortable with flushing more $$ into the lottery.

Thanks, CM:

I'll be able to see my email in a couple of hours.

What about using Q3? bin luxeons? Are the odds better since they are a 3? I've seen a few floating around. How much of a difference in brightness would there be?

Look at this. Now I just can't leave well enough alone. I guess I've gotta find another KL1.

CM,
Although I wish my mod was white, I can't say that I'm really disappointed (not having seen it yet). I did want brighter with more throw and considering what I'll be using the light for, green won't matter.

Lemlux,
How does CM say you mods turned out? Really bright or what? White? I seem to be the only one that got a greenie R2H from Dat2Zip. The only one I've heard about, anyway. When you get them back, post something about them. I'm really interested to see the results of pushing a 1 watter with that much current in a KL1. More specifically the heat issue.

[ QUOTE ]
...considering what I'll be using the light for, green won't matter.

[/ QUOTE ]

Although it's nice to have a purely white beam I like the slightly green LS in my EDC SLS very much. It appears to be brighter to the eye than the bluish white Luxeons and you won't notice the green as long as you don't do white wall comparisons. Hope you'll be happy with the finished mod.

Chris

Chop and CM,

This is the first "Greenie" I have heard of from the R2H's but given the 2 bin, I anticipated the tendency towards a greenish tint to be the rule and not the exception that it has become. I have noticed with some of the LED's that you can see one dominant tint while using an optic and yet see a different tint when using a reflector?!?!?!? And of course the optics tend to keep color variations throughout the distribution pattern in tact whereas a textured reflector seems to have a stronger homogenizing effect. Since various color wave lengths have different refractive inducies, I wonder if this also comes into play with lens optic systems more so than reflective optic systems.

- Don

The KL1's are very bright and,apparently, white. The hotspots have a very defined circular edge and the bright corona is square.

The yellowish KL3 is considerably brighter than Cris's KL4. The hotspot is about 60% the diameter of the KL4 without a donut hole. The Corona is much bigger and brighter with four soft lobes. I was really concerned about what the NX-05 might do with the 5 watter.

I'm very happy with what I see.

(BTW, I'll take a slightly yellow 5-watter over a purple 1 watter in a KL3 head any day.)

Cris says that the KL3 doesn't heat up much, but that the KL1's warm up much more quickly. I've asked him how close to the target 700 mA with the KL1 and 800 mA with the KL3 he was able to get.

Edit: Cris says the KL3 does have a donut hole which is washed out of the picture.

I feel guilty at the amount of time Cris has to spend to center the LEDs as perfectly as he did.

Hey all,

I feel like an a**. With all of the concern about the color of my mods, I didn't comment on the work. Kudos to CM. The beam shots that I have seen show that the luxeon is about perfectly centered. Hats off the CM

Tony