7000lumen+ : 7* XM-L2 U2 on copper PCB @3000mA in BLUE Elephant II host!

XM-L2 U2 7* XM-L
In succession to the 7* XM-L U2 in FiveMega Elephant II host:
A 7*XM-L2 U2 build in FiveMega Elephant II host in Blue!

Enjoy!

When I had the heatsink of the previous build made, I already had two hosts so asked for two heatsinks.
Most of the building is the same as this build, so for more detail information:
7*-XM-L-U2-in-FiveMega-Elephant-II-host-build-7000-Led-lumen-power-BEAMSHOTS-added!

So, the parts:


- XM-L2 U2 Leds on execellent Led-tech.de 16mm copper PCB's
- 7 Der-Wichtel 23mm reflectors
- Taskled.com HBFlex
- Aluminium heatsink with dremelled wire groves
- Reflector holder
- Template for LED placement (not a part, but a tool to position the LEDS on the heatsink)
- FiveMega Elephant II host in blue (not in this pic )
- 4*18650 battery pack (not on pictures, please refer to the 7*XML buildlog).

A graph of the XM-L version of the LED on the same PCB:
This graph is from a CPF user (added the credits) very well done . His topic here



Lapped heatsink



Glued the LEDS, soldered the wires and covered them with 3M Polyimid tape for electrical insulation.
Mounted the driver (filed slightly to fit the Mag-Lite size tube) with the supplied thermal tape


2mm gold contacts solderd to the driver.



Momentary mod on the Maglite switch


Mounted the other end of the 2mm gold contacts in the switch.



Hot glued the reflectos in the reflector holder



Applied some thermal paste to the threads to use the complete head as a heatsink and grease to the seal for water tightness and easy screw-on.

New Detail: I screwed the head on, drilled a hole and tapped the hole.
This will be used to secure the head when the light is together. This prevents the head to be (accidently) twisted of and causing damage to the light.

Time to put the light together!


Testfire with the battery in place.


The drop-in of the reflector assembly

The completed Light



Beamshots
And to finish everything off: BEAMSHOTS!

To compare the light, I made a new set of beamshots with the following lights.


Lineup (Right to left)
- DX Aurora 35mm reflector light which I modded with a better heatsink and XM-L T6 @ 2800mA
- FiveMega 18650 D36 with XM-L U2 @ 3.8A (see sig for more info)
- Megalennium 2*26500 with XM-L2 U2 @ ??? (wait for topic soon )
- Mag2D Rebel with XM-L2 U2 @ 4.5A (see sig for more infO)
- Light of this topic

Mag2D Rebel 4.5A XM-L2 topic: Two-Maglite2D-builds-XM-L-5000mA-vs-XM-L2-4500mA-Comparing-beamshots

old beamshots (Auto White-ballance) removed.

New beamshots (4000K fixed white ballance):






Hope you enjoyed the topic

26-Jan-2014 update: Temperatures (No airflow, lying on table, tempsensor with AA and insulated on the neck)

Note: Step4 is around is 1800mA
Note: 60DegC is a very conservative step-down setting.

Wow what a great build! It's nice to see the Elly is still kicking butt :devil:

Very nice! :twothumbs

You can tell from the background lights that the exposure (ISO?) for the 7x light is far higher, likely 2-3x.

Semiman

Epsilon said:

XM-L2 U2 7* XM-L







Hope you enjoyed the topic

Click to expand...

SemiMan said:

You can tell from the background lights that the exposure (ISO?) for the 7x light is far higher, likely 2-3x.
Semiman

Click to expand...

Sorry man, but you are incorrect. Besides the beam, all lights have spill through which the picture is taken. This lights everything up in the frame.

If you really are doubting me, save the pictures and view the exif data.

I standardize my beamshots, to be able to compare them on different days. Not really for outside pictures, but for white wall testing extremely useful.
These pictures are ALL taken at exactly the same settings.

- Nikon D7000
- ISO 800
- F5.6
- 18mm focal length (Nikon DX)
- 1000ms exposure time
- Auto white ballance

I'm with Semiman. Look at the sky near the horizon at the right side of the picture. It's substantially brighter, and it's orange so it can't be from spill as you see on the left side of the picture. Clearly SOMETHING is different about that picture.

Ah, didn't notice at first AUTO WHITE BALANCE. I don't know what the consequence of that is, but you are letting the camera do something to the picture, so you are not getting identical exposures.

It's still an awesome light!

is that A SUN....???...:thumbsup:.........

...nice work...

Just realized you have auto white balance on. You cannot do beam brightness comparisons with auto white balance. This allows the cameras to automatically adjust the gain channels, perhaps significantly.

Between the two pictures it looks like the red channel may be cranked up on the 7x picture and at the same time the blue channel may be cranked down but that is just a guess.

Semiman

Yes it is still a great light!!!

Since the comparison between the XM-L2 lights are with exactly the same LEDS, the effect of the "auto white ballance" will be minimal. Definately not substantial.
I will retake them at 4000K fixed white ballance (most natural look) for good measure.

They will be replaced in the OP with the data in the pictures

Edit: Updated the beamshots with fixed white ballance.

I was all "the exposures are exactly the same what are you guys smoking!" - then I saw the last post... Awesome light!

Nice build.
You didn't get any spare reflector templates made by any chance?

Sorry Chodes, I had two of the type I used.

I do have a template for the reflectors which I did not use. It has 23mm holes (top of reflectors) instead of 21.5 (neck of reflectors), so still useable for placement, but less neat.

Updated OP with temperatures .

Light is configured to step-down to lower mode when the driver reaches 60degC (this is a very conservative setting). Tested the light with long runtimes to basically test the temperature step-down. Summary: The light can run around 5 minutes on the absolute max and longer that 20min on step 4 (1800mA drivecurrent).

Very nice light. I am curious - how did you manage to solder the wires to the LED stars after they are mounted ? I have some challenges with making this work. Do you have a really high wattage soldering iron ?

No really high, 40W is plenty. I pre-tin the wires ofcourse .

But you are right, if it doesn't bond right away, best is to wait a little for the soldering iron to heat up. This avoids "cold bonds".

Awesome mod! :thumbsup:

It helps a LOT to pre-tin the pads also before attaching the star to the giant heat sink, which I'm sure you did as well!

Epsilon said:

No really high, 40W is plenty. I pre-tin the wires ofcourse .

But you are right, if it doesn't bond right away, best is to wait a little for the soldering iron to heat up. This avoids "cold bonds".

Click to expand...

Yes I pre tinned the pads as well. In fact, I put a little blob of solder on the pad, and do not add solder later on. This is done when they are already attached to the heatsink.

With a 40w soldering iron you can to this fairly easy. I also have a 12w for very fine PCB soldering, but that is useless for this application where all the heat is soaked away almost instantly.