Mod'ing the Terralux TLE 300M

Hi, I've very recently joined CPF after having been a reader of the forums for a couple of years. I tried to join CPF several times, but all the e-mail addresses I have tried have either been turned down, or I haven't received the confirmation e-mail to finalise my account. I decided to give it one more try, opened a gmail account, and here I am.....



During those two years, I've had a few questions I wanted to ask, and have obviously had time to search for those answers, but not really found what I was looking for.



I wondered if anyone had had any luck in changing the LEDs on the Terralux TLE 300M Mag upgrade, or carrying out any other modifications to it?



I have one of these that I use in a 3D Maglite. Contrary to the accepted wisdom, I have been able to use it effectively with both alkaline D-Cells and NiMH re-chargeables - well under the specified 6 volts that this module is said to require. It's bright enough, I guess, but perhaps not surprisingly, not particularly bright.

Thing is that a 4D cell torch is larger than I really want to carry - hence the use of a 3D Maglite - and in all honesty, something smaller than 3D would be handy.





So my first plan is to switch the module to a 2D body, and then switch to a 6AA battery pack, or a couple of Li-Ion batteries. Maybe just increasing the voltage to within the recommended range will boost the power a bit anyway.



I'm also not so keen on the spiky beam pattern that the TLE 300M's optics produce, so I was then thinking of switching the optics for LEDiL boom reflectors.



The final possibility was then to change out the LEDs. Mine seems to come with some variety of CREE XR-E LED.



I would greatly appreciate any info that anyone could supply me with regards to having successfully modified this drop in. I would be grateful for any advice, ideas or experience that anyone may have with working on this unit.



Many thanks

Stephen

Hi, I would like to know the same, I have both the old and newer versions of this drop-in and I'm assuming the new one has different LED's since there is a 200 lumen jump. It might be fun to experiment with xp-g led's but I don't know what LED is in the drop-in in the first place. I would be willing to give it a shot with the older single mode version.

Saw this thread back up and got all excited that someone had responded to my post! Sadly, you're looking for info like myself..... Oh well. :shrug:

Someone help us, please!

When (if) Der Wichtel releases his triple XM-L kits, that'll probably become my go to triple LED light anyway (well, alongside a Der Wichtel triple P7 ), in which case I'll give changing the TLE-300's emitters a try anyway, and see what happens.

Well, lets figure it out.

After some googling, These are XR-E LEDs

tle300m by laddscott, on Flickr

"I'm also not so keen on the spiky beam pattern that the TLE 300M's optics produce, so I was then thinking of switching the optics for LEDiL boom reflectors."

The issue here is the collimator which is the plastic lens on each LED creates the spiky beam pattern. The reason is that it is similar to an aspheric lens, each projects a square image of the LED into the same area, all 3 create a unorganized looking beam pattern. Not very pretty but it throws the beam farther. The reflector you mentioned would get rid of that on its own and be an easy mod.

I think if I go for this I will try to keep the colimators and move up to a different CREE, These are slighty larger than an XM-L so those would fit well but I am not sure how many amps the LEDs receive this will take some toying around.

Interesting thread.

I have an early 300, with K2TFFC emitters, and I never thought about swapping in new emitters. It does pretty well with the old ones.

OTOH, it can't compare to my DerWichtel Triple XM-L.:devil:

Damn you for getting to one of the two he released (before I'd even seen the thread..... ).

dl - Yep, I was thinking that XM-Ls might be the best switch, both in terms of size and performance. Certainly on my pre-EX version, the XR-Es don't appear to be hard driven, so the XM-Ls efficiency would be a bonus as far as making the module brighter would be concerned. The other option would be to stick with XR-Es - that way you know that fit of the emitters will be spot on - but something brighter/"throwier" (as made up words go, that's pretty nasty) such as an R2. Assuming of course that they aren't R2s in the first place..... I know they are XR-Es, but what exact type, I haven't a clue.

As donn said, Terralux used to use the K2 emitters on these modules, and when I bought my TLE-300M, the Terralux site still said that that was the emitter being used, so I was quite surprised to have the XR-Es.

Stephen Wallace said:

Damn you for getting to one of the two he released (before I'd even seen the thread..... ).

Click to expand...

Actually, there were 3, and I bought two of them. I've only installed one, so far. You definitely want one when he gets them back in stock. I got 4-speeds, and it's a serious piece of light-emitting hardware.

My memory sucks.

I was right in one respect though - only two people got to buy them!