TL/Oveready M2-50 Emitter Swap to XM-L

upsidedownviking

Newly Enlightened
Joined
Oct 11, 2009
Messages
120
Location
Anchorage, AK
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..... :poof: :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.

5520298706_9ba48718b4.jpg
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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.

5520299744_7656d93dc3_m.jpg
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Then due to the depth of the head insert/reflector housing I thermal pasted the stack in the bottom of the housing.

5519708469_47a2959398_m.jpg


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
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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
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Thanks for looking!
 
Last edited:

Moddoo

Flashlight Enthusiast
Joined
Nov 19, 2008
Messages
1,243
Location
Minnesota
Nice work, and nice write up.

I know exactly how fun it was to "repair" that thing.:eek:oo:

Too bad you fried the SST50.

I must warn you that the XML direct drive on a MCPCB is a bad idea.
It may survive, for a while, but you are wasting a lot of juice that way.

They are not any brighter after about 3 amps.
You are likely seeing 5+ amps at the led.

I wish I had a simple solution for you, but soldering directly to copper is the best choice.

I've got prototypes built like this, and they blow away the mcpcb direct drive stuff.
 

badtziscool

Flashlight Enthusiast
Joined
Oct 13, 2006
Messages
1,722
Wow. Sorry to hear about blowing the m2-50. Definitely a rare piece that just became more rare. But definitely thanks for the pics and write up. It's interesting to see how the housing and reflector was designed to maximize heat sinking in an M2 head.
 

upsidedownviking

Newly Enlightened
Joined
Oct 11, 2009
Messages
120
Location
Anchorage, AK
Nice work, and nice write up.

I know exactly how fun it was to "repair" that thing.:eek:oo:

Too bad you fried the SST50.

I must warn you that the XML direct drive on a MCPCB is a bad idea.
It may survive, for a while, but you are wasting a lot of juice that way.

They are not any brighter after about 3 amps.
You are likely seeing 5+ amps at the led.

I wish I had a simple solution for you, but soldering directly to copper is the best choice.

I've got prototypes built like this, and they blow away the mcpcb direct drive stuff.

Thanks!

I really like the set up with the deep reflector in the smallish M2 head.

I don't like having to cheat to fill space behind the reflector, I definitly have more reading and research to do before I open this one again!

Looking at soldering LED's directly to copper makes my head hurt, with the pos and neg leads running to the bottom of the LED it looks like a copper slug with recesses giving space around them to prevent a short would be needed, and only the center of the LED would be soldered.

Maybe the negitive side of the LED could be soldered to the copper slug and a wire run to the positive side of the bottom of the LED.

Definitely more reading needed!
 
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