E1L Upgrade Options

Hi all, I recently picked up a Surefire El1 with the KX1 head, single mode. It's a great little light, but I can't help to want and upgrade it, as all of my other flashlights are custom builds of one sort or another. My only "requirement" is that the flashlight be single mode.

I would like to tap your collective knowledge to determine my options as to making this light a little bit brighter. I have a Surefire 3P clone which is quite bright running off of a Solar Force drop-in, and would like something in the same ballpark of brightness -- 150 lumens, 2 hours of runtime, and a warm tint would be ideal.

I believe one of my options is the Veleno Designs drop-in unit but they seem to be pretty hard to come by. Are these compatible with the KX1 head?

I would prefer not to swap out the entire head, but if that's the only option, then I can live with it. I've seen that Veleno and Lumens Factory both make custom heads, which is another option.

I've also heard of there being options to upgrade the driver and/or the emitter buy building or modifying the internals. Would anyone happen to have advice as to how this is done? While I prefer quick and easy drop-ins and love the selection for the P60-sized heads, I'm not completely opposed to doing some DIY assembly.

Thanks in advance for your help.

The KX1 along with all E series LED heads is a sealed independent module and is not compatible with any drop in like The Veleno drop in. It is not the easiest thing to modify but it is possible. Look for builds from Darkzero, milkyspit and some others. For that option take a look in custom bst to look for a completed modified KX1 or to find someone to modify it for you. Or if your up to the task of modifying it yourself there are some threads detailing the process.

To get the head open takes some work including heating/boiling the head inside a baggy and using rubber strap wrenches. The head consists of several parts. The front optic area, the middle on top holds the led and on bottom holds the driver and the base that holds the electrical contacts. The base is connected to the driver via wires and you must be carefully when twisting the pieces apart or risk damaging the wires or solder connections.

If you get it apart now you need to have thought about what you want in it. Me I would take out the optic and put a 20mm reflector in it. Next I would replace the led with a High CRI XPG. Then the driver, you could direct driver and have no driver for maximum lumens but it would have short battery life and get pretty warm, I would go with a single mode driver as you said with around 500-750ma drive current will net you between 130-200 lumens or so out the front. Put it back together and there you are. If your handy with the sodder iron and have some patience you can get her done fairly simply. Good luck!

The other options you mentioned are buying a new head The new Veleno E2S is do out soon and you can custom order the led beam pattern and driver and levels you want and that is my next purchase highly recommended. Also you can pick up a Malkoff VME head and any M60, M61, M30,, M31 module you want and have a pretty nice setup.

Maybe I'm confusing the head name (I don't have the light in front of me), but my light screws apart into 4 pieces. The head has a glass lens-like piece rather than the typical orange piece mirror. There is a collar between the body and the head that can be unscrewed and removed, and that's where the LED lives. Finally, the tailcap unscrews (obviously). It seems I could easily remove the LED emitter and driver with a small hex wrench, and drop in a different one. This is a used light, so maybe the previous owner did the boil thing? It appears I could just remove the old emitter/driver combo, and pop in a new one. I'll post photos shortly to clarify.

Thank you again, and please keep the suggestions coming!

The previous owner must have broken through the epoxy. That is why you could separate the head in two. If my memory did not fail me, I recall someone started a thread on modding a TIR Surefire with an XP-G emitter and got a lot of flood out of it.

If you can't be bothered to mod it, you might want to purchase a Malkoff VME head with an M31 drop-in? It will be single mode.

Below is the image of my flashlight with the head disassembled. It is a KX1 head and it does appear the epoxy was broken. Ideally I'd just like to replace the driver and emitter, as I do like the beam pattern on the light. I also purchased this light to be a easy-to-carry replacement for the 3P clone, as that one is a little too fat to carry in my pocket.

Get an E1B and have the best of both worlds...why mess with a good thing???

angelofwar said:

Get an E1B and have the best of both worlds...why mess with a good thing???

Click to expand...

I'd rather stick with the light I have. Thanks though.

Ok yep someone did break the epoxy that's half the battle. Question now if you take the head off of the body can you take the head apart into three pieces. The top piece or optic side, the led and driver in the middle and then the contacts on the bottom. The middle piece with the led on top is double male threaded and the other two pieces thread into it. If you havent got that far see if it is possible as the part with the led in your picture is jut an led on the pcb board and not the driver. the drivers mounted on the reverse of the led.

Viper715 said:

Ok yep someone did break the epoxy that's half the battle. Question now if you take the head off of the body can you take the head apart into three pieces. The top piece or optic side, the led and driver in the middle and then the contacts on the bottom. The middle piece with the led on top is double male threaded and the other two pieces thread into it. If you havent got that far see if it is possible as the part with the led in your picture is jut an led on the pcb board and not the driver. the drivers mounted on the reverse of the led.

Click to expand...

To do this, I assume that I unscrew the hex head screws on the board?

Thanks again.

caneau said:

Hi all, I recently picked up a Surefire El1 with the KX1 head, single mode. It's a great little light, but I can't help to want and upgrade it, as all of my other flashlights are custom builds of one sort or another. My only "requirement" is that the flashlight be single mode.

I would like to tap your collective knowledge to determine my options as to making this light a little bit brighter. I have a Surefire 3P clone which is quite bright running off of a Solar Force drop-in, and would like something in the same ballpark of brightness -- 150 lumens, 2 hours of runtime, and a warm tint would be ideal.
....
While I prefer quick and easy drop-ins and love the selection for the P60-sized heads, I'm not completely opposed to doing some DIY assembly.

Thanks in advance for your help.

Click to expand...

You could get a VME head and a M31W (Malkoff) dropin, for 210 lumens of single mode warm output. Or an E2C adapter (various options, such as VG or FM or TnC or LU60A, among others) and a Z44, to use whatever P60 dropin you like....

caneau said:

To do this, I assume that I unscrew the hex head screws on the board?

Thanks again.

Click to expand...

Nope. The screws hold the LED in place. You have to unscrew the HA-III ring off of the black aluminum part just like you unscrewed the front part of the head. The big difference is that now you have next to nothing to hold onto on the black aluminum side. I bought a pair of strap wrenches from the local hardware store, heated up the bezel, then went at it with the strap wrenches while the thing is still hot.