PCC
Flashlight Enthusiast
I purchased this PentagonLight X3 used on the Marketplace with the intention of modifying it. It was sold as a non-working flashlight because the bulb had burnt out and the proprietary bulbs for these lights are no longer available, since PentagonLight is no longer in business. This thread was put together with the intent of showing what I have done with my light as well as sharing ideas from other PentagonLight X3 owners about what they can do with their flashlight to revive it and put it back to use. My example was not a pristine shelf queen and shows a few knicks here and there, but is in otherwise great condition.
Introduction to the PentagonLight X3
The PentagonLight X3 is a tactical style 3 X CR123a incandescent flashlight finished in a slightly green HA III coating. It's a modular flashlight as the head unscrews from the body and at least one replacement LED head was available from PentagonLight at some point. This LED head is of a showerhead configuration and I've only seen pictures of it so far. The end of the body tube has a threaded on plastic and brass stopper to prevent the batteries from falling out if you change the head in the field. It's a very nice design that I'm hoping to take advantage of, as you will soon see. There are double O-ring seals at all major body interfaces: at the bezel, between the body and the head, and at the tail cap. I should note that the threads at the head of the flashlight body are different from the threads for the tail cap so you cannot thread the tail cap onto the head end and vice-versa. I purchased a pair of protected AW 17500 batteries for this light and it's a tight fit with the labels on them. Even with the labels removed they don't just fall out.
The tail cap is thread compatible with SureFire 6P tailcaps and every tail cap that I tried that will fit my 6P fits and functions fine on this light. The tail cap is a LOTC momentary twisty, much like a SureFire Z41 in use but much more complicated in design and manufacture. On my sample there appeared to be a problem as the momentary function did not work well: you had to twist the tail cap down so far to get the momentary to work that a further 1/8 turn would turn it on. Twisting it out a hair from this position would lock it out. I took the tail cap apart and found that the spring that returns the main button was getting in between the button itself and its retainer. I put that part into the lathe and cut off the shoulder that was crushing the spring and the problem was solved. I don't know if this flashlight came like this originally or if the previous owner had done something to it to make it this way. A picture of the tail cap and its guts spread out will be shown later.
Things that I don't like about this light
The light uses a proprietary lamp assembly that incorporates the reflector in its design. This reflector has a diameter of about 35mm. This lamp assembly is no longer available and the 35mm size makes it difficult to find a compatible incandescent or LED lamp assembly from a different company or the aftermarket to work with this light. This pretty much makes this flashlight a dinosaur unless you are willing to modify it.
The tail cap is much too complicated in design, probably to skirt SureFire's patents, and is fairly heavy because of the solid piece of steel that they use for the button and its retaining ring. The button sits under an over-sized rubber cover so finding replacement button covers will be difficult if you tear yours or wear it out. The button cover is 20mm in diameter and the 19mm diameter Solarforce button cover I tried won't quite fit right.
Summary
It's a very nice flashlight with a few shortcomings. Both shortcomings can be overcome with some creativity and a lathe. All-in-all, I'm very happy with this little light and am looking forward to doing some mods on it.
Introduction to the PentagonLight X3
The PentagonLight X3 is a tactical style 3 X CR123a incandescent flashlight finished in a slightly green HA III coating. It's a modular flashlight as the head unscrews from the body and at least one replacement LED head was available from PentagonLight at some point. This LED head is of a showerhead configuration and I've only seen pictures of it so far. The end of the body tube has a threaded on plastic and brass stopper to prevent the batteries from falling out if you change the head in the field. It's a very nice design that I'm hoping to take advantage of, as you will soon see. There are double O-ring seals at all major body interfaces: at the bezel, between the body and the head, and at the tail cap. I should note that the threads at the head of the flashlight body are different from the threads for the tail cap so you cannot thread the tail cap onto the head end and vice-versa. I purchased a pair of protected AW 17500 batteries for this light and it's a tight fit with the labels on them. Even with the labels removed they don't just fall out.
The tail cap is thread compatible with SureFire 6P tailcaps and every tail cap that I tried that will fit my 6P fits and functions fine on this light. The tail cap is a LOTC momentary twisty, much like a SureFire Z41 in use but much more complicated in design and manufacture. On my sample there appeared to be a problem as the momentary function did not work well: you had to twist the tail cap down so far to get the momentary to work that a further 1/8 turn would turn it on. Twisting it out a hair from this position would lock it out. I took the tail cap apart and found that the spring that returns the main button was getting in between the button itself and its retainer. I put that part into the lathe and cut off the shoulder that was crushing the spring and the problem was solved. I don't know if this flashlight came like this originally or if the previous owner had done something to it to make it this way. A picture of the tail cap and its guts spread out will be shown later.
Things that I don't like about this light
The light uses a proprietary lamp assembly that incorporates the reflector in its design. This reflector has a diameter of about 35mm. This lamp assembly is no longer available and the 35mm size makes it difficult to find a compatible incandescent or LED lamp assembly from a different company or the aftermarket to work with this light. This pretty much makes this flashlight a dinosaur unless you are willing to modify it.
The tail cap is much too complicated in design, probably to skirt SureFire's patents, and is fairly heavy because of the solid piece of steel that they use for the button and its retaining ring. The button sits under an over-sized rubber cover so finding replacement button covers will be difficult if you tear yours or wear it out. The button cover is 20mm in diameter and the 19mm diameter Solarforce button cover I tried won't quite fit right.
Summary
It's a very nice flashlight with a few shortcomings. Both shortcomings can be overcome with some creativity and a lathe. All-in-all, I'm very happy with this little light and am looking forward to doing some mods on it.
i have an X3 with original bulb, and tailcap modified to fit the AW 3 level switch My plan is a mod with quad drop-in full custom by me...35mm optic is needed, so i want to try khatod
