KL4 is TRANSFORMED by Chop!

Got a newly converted KL4 head from Chop after he worked on it, replacing the stock 4's innards but still using the stock reflector. It is a TWAK-binned Luxeon III driven at one amp (right Tony?) and let me tell you, the KL4 was transformed into a long distance thrower, with beautifully centered white White WHITE super spot beam with lots of very useful sidespill as well.

Here it is next to a stock L4 (which was one of several that were handpicked by PK himself):



The KL-L3 (what I will call it for reference) is on the left, with the stock L4 sporting an added o-ring near the head/body joint to tell them apart.

Here's another shot for all our poor snowbound brother and sister Flashoholics (KL-L3 on the right this time):




Beam comparos from two feet away in my pitch-dark laundry room (KL-L3 on the right obviously):



The stock L4 had what I thought was one of the whitest beams I had ever seen, but compared to the KL-L3 you can see that I was seriously deluded.

On my cathedral ceiling 20 feet above in the broad bright Hawaiian afternoon sun, the KL-L3's beam is still easily visible but the L4's beam pretty much blends into nothing:




And the lux readings? Stock L4 (the brightest one I have ever personally seen and I have seen quite a few) made 732 lux (not bad at all, as the average L4's have all hovered around 550 lux), but this new KL-L3 made:



Nearly 1300 lux! Actually when I was doing the readings the numbers were running up so fast at first that I thought I would have to stop and reset the light meter to the x10 range!

Thanks Tony, You Da Man!

Outstanding job, Tony!

Great photos, Charlie! Thanks for showing us the <font color="blue"> KL-L3 </font> . I like that designation.

BC

Charlie,

Thanks a lot and yes, the DB was biased at 1A.

I'm really glad you liked it. I know I like mine. I'm really surprised that Surefire doesn't offer these stock. I find the KL-L3 to be much more useful than the stock KL4.

My next experiment is going to be to DD a 3W with a Pila cell in the KL4. The last time I tried this was with a Q3J in a KL1 and that cooked itself in about 3 hours. I'm thinking that I'll fill all of the space NOT being taken up by the converter with AA epoxy for more heatsinking and see what happens.

How about DD with 2X123? Has anyone tried this?

Once again Charlie, thanks for the kind words. I really appreciate it.

Sorry for this off topic post... but I don't recommend DD with 2x123. LED will die eventually, especially if you use K or L voltage bin LED.

AFAIK, Sway, AilSnail and I tried running III in DD with 2x123. Sway burned his TWAK at the second set of batteries, and I burned SY0L in a few minutes. My another TV1L is working for now, but I will add 0.3 ohm resistor to limit the maximum current under 1.5A. If you are interested in my experiment results with this particular TV1L, please see these charts (Current vs. Resistance and Vf vs. Current). However, the required resistance really depends on Vf of LED so I will need to recalculate it if I swap the LED.

***EDIT***
found silly misspelling /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/jpshakehead.gif

Kenji,
Thanks for the info. It's what I figured. You just saved me some money. I was figuring .5 to 1 ohm of resistance for 2X123's with the K Vf luxeon.

Mr Bulk ,

can you tell me at what distance did you take the lux readings ? 1 meter ?

thanks.

How does it compare to e2e beam?

Mark

Micio, one meter -- always.

Minjin, I think someone did this already. Or I may try it and take beamshots later if not.

Just curious: If I read it right, the KL-L3 was modded with a DB biased at 1A. Would it have been possible to run the LuxIII off the factory circuit? If so, what was the advantage of the DB?

The stock circuit is boost-only, so if you use that with a LuxIII, you would have to use 1x123 instead of 2x123 to power it. Since 2x123 is 6v, which is greater than the Vf of the emitter, the stock circuit would go into direct drive mode and so far no LuxIII has survived 6v DD for more than a few seconds.

I was wanting someone to mod my L4 chop do you do work for other people also.

Hey Medic,

Chop is da man to see.

"How about DD with 2X123? Has anyone tried this? "

Yes. I blew an SV1J. The SVOL survived though.
Took almost 1.5 A I think. (edit: the SVOL, that is.)

Yeah, I wouldn't DD any single-die Luxeon on more than 4.5V (alkalines), especially on the bigger C and D cells, probably less if rechargeable. Even the crazy MR Bulk has limits...

I am using a bare cell li-ion in KL4 , would this work using the stock circuit in the head and what if I wanted to go cyan on another head, what mod would need be done besides the cyan LED

Charlie,
YOU have limits...come on. I'll bet you tried it at least once. /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/grin.gif