Question about lego-ing Quarks

I have a question about creating a Quark Pro XM-L2 light that runs on a single AA, and a Quark Pro with a high CRI LED.

I have on order a QP2A-X with the gen 2 XM-L cool white LED. I'd like to know if I buy a QPA with a XP-G LED, if I can fully lego the two flashlights. i.e., Make a QP2A and a QPA-X out of mixing the parts.

Also, I'd prefer buying the QPA with a neutral white LED, or even a high CRI if that's available. The 4sevens website seems to list it only available in cool white. Are there plans to come out with a neutral white or high CRI XP-G LED offering for the QPA?

The neutral whites and high CRI only seem available in the Quark Mini. Is that the case? If so, is the Mini MA lego-able with the Quark Pro?

If the Mini is lego-able with the Pro, then I guess the Mini MA with the XP-G high CRI LED is the way to go? If I drive it with a 2-AA body, will I get more lumens than 90 out of it?

Thanks for any insight.

Couple of quick answers:

You can generally swap heads and bodies around under certain conditions,

1. The QP2A-X runs from 0.9v to 4.2v, so may work with a single AA, but may not give full brightness, or run for very long. Mine doesn't fire up on a single AA (old 4sevens version)
2. QP2A-X will run with a single AA body, and a 14500 for full output, but be careful not to run 2 X 14500 through the low voltage head, or it will fry the circuit
3. The QPA is a low voltage head, so as long as you feed it 0.9v to 4.2v, it will be fine. Putting the 2AA body on the XP-G head will work no problems
4. Neutrals, Warms and HCRI are generally special runs, and get run occasionally. If the new line up is running XP-G2 and XM-L2 then you would have to wait for new neutrals, warms or HCRI, they may or may not be made again
5. If you are looking for a warm or HCRI, put up a WTB in the marketplace, i'm sure someone has a spare to sell you
6. The mini and quarks are incompatible, they are the wrong sized threads and will not work. however if you want a small 2AA the M2A (mini AA2) is a great little light if you like twisties.

I have a simple question about legoing quarks as well so no need to start another thread-Can I use the forward click switch (JUST the "guts" not the entire tail cap, obviously the tail caps are interchangeable) in a quark pro reverse click tail so I can have forward click and tail stand ability? Or have they somehow managed to make it so you can't swap the switch's "guts" to prevent this? Personally I like forward clickies but if my quark tactical would tail stand it would make a lot better EDC. To me forward click is more important but if I could combine the 2 it would be best of both worlds.

tolkaze said:

Couple of quick answers:

You can generally swap heads and bodies around under certain conditions,

1. The QP2A-X runs from 0.9v to 4.2v, so may work with a single AA, but may not give full brightness, or run for very long. Mine doesn't fire up on a single AA (old 4sevens version)
2. QP2A-X will run with a single AA body, and a 14500 for full output, but be careful not to run 2 X 14500 through the low voltage head, or it will fry the circuit
3. The QPA is a low voltage head, so as long as you feed it 0.9v to 4.2v, it will be fine. Putting the 2AA body on the XP-G head will work no problems

Click to expand...

I have a bunch of Quarks (old logo) in various flavors and have a different understanding (are you sure your X isn't a 3-9v high voltage QP2L-X? sure sounds like it from your description).

The QP2A-XML and QPA-XPG are both low voltage heads 0.9-4.2v and are completely compatible/interchangeable/Lego-able...both run High at spec on a 1x1.5v AA and Max a hair brighter. Both will be significantly brighter (on Max only) with high voltage cells/or multi-configs though. The other option in the Quark line are the high voltage heads "2L" for "2 lithium" and has a 3-9v operating range and so will not run on 1x1.5v AA.

The 2012 re-branding correctly eliminated the "Quark Mini" naming convention to just "Mini" since they are not compatible with the Quark line. All components/accessories in the true "Quark" family (Pros, Tacticals, Turbos) use the same threads and are fully Lego-able, you need only to pay attention to the battery choice and voltage range of the 2 heads, and perhaps how different parts work (or don' work) together (ie, forward clickies on Pros).

I think (but never say never) Foursevens is unfortunately getting out of the tint business, and my guess is anything you still see is left over inventory. David has mentioned a number of times that specialty tint runs tie up his inventory, and was confirmed by Goinggear comments re: Tinted vs CW volumes. I nabbed some of the last Quark NW examples before the inventory dried up.

Btw, I have a few Minis too, incl. a HCRI, and am not too impressed - its the one model range in their line-up that doesn't live up to its specs (at least my light meter and stopwatch).

Cereal_Killer said:

I have a simple question about legoing quarks as well so no need to start another thread-Can I use the forward click switch (JUST the "guts" not the entire tail cap, obviously the tail caps are interchangeable) in a quark pro reverse click tail so I can have forward click and tail stand ability? Or have they somehow managed to make it so you can't swap the switch's "guts" to prevent this? Personally I like forward clickies but if my quark tactical would tail stand it would make a lot better EDC. To me forward click is more important but if I could combine the 2 it would be best of both worlds.

Click to expand...

Pretty sure the guts are different... the clickies "throw" is even different and they use different length rubber boots. You can however purchase and Lego the shrouded forward/momentary clicky from the Turbo line which tailstands, although it's a mm or two wider than the regular Quarks and gives a bit of "knob" look to the light.

yeah, my X was a 2AA in Neutral (first batch), and it doesn't fire up at all on 1 cell. Works fine on 14500, or 2AA. Maybe I got a ****ie one, or my cells are shot. I don't care though, I got it so I could go between 2AA and 1x 14500, or 1x 16340 and get max brightness at various runtimes. I can check it out when I find it again.

I don't like the XP-G HCRI, it is pretty disgusting colour (I have mini CR2 and MiniAA in HCRI and both are blecch) but the warms were really nice. Was a tint lottery still, I got a fair few peach coloured ones, but I got one really nice warm orange miniCR2 that I really loved.

At the moment, my personal favourite is a xp-g turbo head and tail on an AA body with clip, and a single finger grip, running an IMR 14500. Hand sized cannon

reppans said:

Pretty sure the guts are different... the clickies "throw" is even different and they use different length rubber boots. You can however purchase and Lego the shrouded forward/momentary clicky from the Turbo line which tailstands, although it's a mm or two wider than the regular Quarks and gives a bit of "knob" look to the light.

Click to expand...

I'm not at all doubting you, this burst mode QP2L-X I have on loan right now is the first I've ever handled (I have a QT2L-X of my own on its way) but I don't see any difference between the tactical and turbo tail caps. I see under accesories the "boot kit" lists having 2 each of the pro and 2 each of the tactical boots so are you sure the turbo tail is different? If it is truely a forward click that tail stands I'll just order that instead of trying to build one as its exactly what I'm after but I had always been under the impression the turbos just used the tactical's tail caps.

L to R: Stock Pro, Tactical, Turbo, and Optional Turbo. First is reverse, last 3 are forward/momentary. Note width of Turbo clickies are a mm or two wider (but guts and boots are the same). Batt tubes on turbos also a mm or two wider (assume cosmetically to match beefier heads) but threads are the same and fully Lego-able with the rest of the Quarks.

If you use the shrouded turbo clicky, it will be wider than the head on your models.

Tolkaze,

I'd send in your X and have them fix/replace it, the ability to run 1.5Vs in a pinch is invaluable (IMHO). My NW QAAX on a 14500, 3v CRAA, or Eneloop is my personal favorite EDC.

Agree on the HCRI minis... Too red/warm, although I'm not too particular on tints. What bugged me most was Max tested at half the output spec and Low half the runtime spec.

Agree on the Turbo AA/14500... How about this one too ;-)

clicky

reppans said:

L to R: Stock Pro, Tactical, Turbo, and Optional Turbo. First is reverse, last 3 are forward/momentary. Note width of Turbo clickies are a mm or two wider (but guts and boots are the same). Batt tubes on turbos also a mm or two wider (assume cosmetically to match beefier heads) but threads are the same and fully Lego-able with the rest of the Quarks.

If you use the shrouded turbo clicky, it will be wider than the head on your models.

Click to expand...

thanks for that, like I said this one is my first (with 2nd on the way) and just lookin at foursevens site I didn't see all those options. Nice to know I can get exactly what I want.

Thanks. I didn't realize the high CRI light may be unpleasant. Probably will stick with neutral white if I can find it. Too bad 4sevens doesn't make these available as regular items. Looks like I'm kinda out of luck with getting it in a Quark Pro anyway. Maybe I'll wait and see if they do a special run, then try and get one in a QPA format.