Modifying a nice Garage sale find

Went to an estate sale this last week and found this incandescent 2D cell Aluminum Snap-On Flashlight for $3. i checked online and it looks like this light (including its led counterpart) are discontinued. It is listed at $17 on amazon


It seems to be decently built with some nice thick aluminum and rugged rubber bumpers on each end. Taking it apart i found that it might be quite easy to do a nice conversion to a much brighter LED.



It also appears to have plenty of room to add a driver if i were to remove the incandescent bulb socket in here.



So i looked around and found some Cree XM-L's on 20mm star pcbs for $6 on ebay.
they were listed as U2 bins but i dont have any way to confirm that they are and with how cheap they were i kinda doubt they are, but i think they will still work nicely:



To start out, im planning on just driving the bulb directly off of the batteries. my plan is to drill 3 holes in the aluminum bulb cap,
2 to secure the led with some machine screws and 1 to route a positive lead through. i will solder a negative lead directly to the aluminum cap.
ill be sure to add some TIM between the star pcb and the aluminum cap to keep the heat flowing away from the emitter. Ill also have to take some of the material off of the rear end of the reflector (which is plastic),
but im not quite sure how im going to do that yet. I have access to a bench grinder, but im afraid that may do more harm than good.

Let me know what you guys think of my little project here, what drivers i might be able to use down the road to get some more functionality out of it than just a straight light,
and maybe ways to get some of the material off of the back of the reflector. Ill post more pics if as i get time to work on it.

-Nemesis

$6 isn't much cheaper then the going rate for an XML2. The U2's aren't any more expensive than the other bins. So I think it's pretty safe to say, you got a proper XML2 U2

Search out an online store called intl-outdoor.

I don't think the XML2 is going to run very well directly off 2 D cells.
You might as well just get a driver right away. That store I mentioned has a step up driver for exactly this application.
It'll take the power of 2AA or D cells and boost it to the voltage the LED needs, and then run it at about 900ma power.

And 900mah, you'll get gobs of usable output without generating too much heat.

I was under the impression that XML2s were more orange in appearance and that you couldn't see the trace lines on the die:


looks like the XML2 also only has 2 leads where the XML has 3

You could also get the Malkoff drop in mod for this light. The Malkoff uses an XP-G2 LED and produces a stated 270 OTF lumens. Just an option for you.

http://www.malkoffdevices.com/drop-...-fit-mag-lite/2d-cell-drop-in-to-fit-mag-lite

After a little trial and error i got a drill bit the right size to use some extra ODD screws i had laying around to secure the pcb. I was originally planning to take some pictures of the process but i got caught up in it and finished it without doing so, but i did get some decent results. I will probably add a driver from that intl-outdoors site when i get one, but its already halfway there for now. here is the finished product:


a shot accross the room with the light sitting on my desk using a walmart LED upgrade for D cell flashlights:


then, using the same camera settings, the XML modification:



again, using the same camera settings for these two shots, the walmart LED drop in vs. XML Mod:




Id estimate somewhere between 4-500Lumens as compared to my Ozark trail 500L light.

The color of the die is dependent on the color temp. Warmer tints tend to be more orange when unpowered. But colors don't necessarily compare across manufacturers, or even families necesssarily.

Those two you showed pics of do look like a cooler XM-L and an warmer XM-L2. However the XM-L2 usually has a pattern of faint dots across the die instead of the parallel lines of the XM-L or the uniform surface of the other one you show. Maybe we just can't see the dots in the pic?

That's an impressive amount of light for 2 cells and direct drive. Unfortunately, with DD the output will drop a LOT as the cells discharge.

Nice work on the mounting. Soldering skills need a bit of work though:devil:. FYI, I find it's a lot easier to solder to stars before they are mounted on the heatsink. I don't know if that's obvious to everyone.

i did solder them before attaching it but i need a smaller soldering iron, the one i have is pretty big and a little excessive for projects this small. I did check the intl-outdoor site but i didnt see any good drivers which would work with just 2 D cell batteries. most of them require ~3V minimum. does anyone know of a good XM-L driver that would work on 2 D cell batteries?

Nemesis158 said:

I did check the intl-outdoor site but i didnt see any good drivers which would work with just 2 D cell batteries. most of them require ~3V minimum. does anyone know of a good XM-L driver that would work on 2 D cell batteries?

Click to expand...

LD-30 Boost 1/2*AA Cell Circuit Board.

On Drivers page 2.
0.9 - 3.0v