Hi All,
I no modder by any means! But I thought I would share a project that I recently undertook.
It started with a bonehead move.... I had just received my new Torch Labs Moddular hosts and was trying different combos when I accidentally stuck one of my favorite heads, a Torch Labs direct drive M2-50, onto a 18 x 100 body loaded with two 18500 IMR's..... :shakehead
Here's more info on the M2-50:
http://www.candlepowerforums.com/vb...ct-Drive-SST-50-M2-Head-in-limited-production
I happened to have a few XM-L T6 in 1C tint that I picked up just to play with. I had voltage at the SST-50 leads so I knew that it was the LED that was toast.
After disassembling the head (not easy!) the first problem was a size issue, my XM-L was on a short 12.8 mm board and the SST-50 was on a taller wider board.
I decided to reuse the SST-50 board to fill the space, removed the emitter then filed and sanded the top until it was flat then flipped it over and stacked the XM-L, board and all, onto the bottom of the SST board with thermal paste in between.
Then due to the depth of the head insert/reflector housing I thermal pasted the stack in the bottom of the housing.
Soldering the leads was really no fun, with all of the heat-sinking it was hard to get the contacts hot enough even with a bit of solder applied to the contacts on the board before assembling. The depth was also a battle and I had borrowed the thinnest iron from work that we have.
Having the head apart I thought it would be a good time to change the finish on the exterior, the easy way, so I ordered a non-custom HA M2 head in matte.
Original M2............. Matte HA M2
I have no good way to compare the XM-L to the SST-50 with this reflector, but it is still a very bright light with awesome throw.
I don't think that this mod/swap is worth it if your M2-50 is working I'm not sure that you will notice a difference, a light meter may and a side by side could show one of them to have a tighter beam.
Here's a breakdown of the head. (Taking it apart tore up the plastic bezel ring and is not recommended unless you have a spare.)
Head..... Housing...... LED....... Reflector
Thanks for looking!
I no modder by any means! But I thought I would share a project that I recently undertook.
It started with a bonehead move.... I had just received my new Torch Labs Moddular hosts and was trying different combos when I accidentally stuck one of my favorite heads, a Torch Labs direct drive M2-50, onto a 18 x 100 body loaded with two 18500 IMR's..... :shakehead
Here's more info on the M2-50:
http://www.candlepowerforums.com/vb...ct-Drive-SST-50-M2-Head-in-limited-production
I happened to have a few XM-L T6 in 1C tint that I picked up just to play with. I had voltage at the SST-50 leads so I knew that it was the LED that was toast.
After disassembling the head (not easy!) the first problem was a size issue, my XM-L was on a short 12.8 mm board and the SST-50 was on a taller wider board.
I decided to reuse the SST-50 board to fill the space, removed the emitter then filed and sanded the top until it was flat then flipped it over and stacked the XM-L, board and all, onto the bottom of the SST board with thermal paste in between.
Then due to the depth of the head insert/reflector housing I thermal pasted the stack in the bottom of the housing.
Soldering the leads was really no fun, with all of the heat-sinking it was hard to get the contacts hot enough even with a bit of solder applied to the contacts on the board before assembling. The depth was also a battle and I had borrowed the thinnest iron from work that we have.
Having the head apart I thought it would be a good time to change the finish on the exterior, the easy way, so I ordered a non-custom HA M2 head in matte.
Original M2............. Matte HA M2
I have no good way to compare the XM-L to the SST-50 with this reflector, but it is still a very bright light with awesome throw.
I don't think that this mod/swap is worth it if your M2-50 is working I'm not sure that you will notice a difference, a light meter may and a side by side could show one of them to have a tighter beam.
Here's a breakdown of the head. (Taking it apart tore up the plastic bezel ring and is not recommended unless you have a spare.)
Head..... Housing...... LED....... Reflector
Thanks for looking!
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