V11R Emitter Swap, Boost?

So I picked up a couple V11Rs from Illumination Supply while they were on sale recently. I like the light and mainly picked them up so I could give one to my wife. She now appreciates the concept of variable brightness in a light. Anyway I was really wishing for a warmer tint then what is delivered by the advertised XML2 U2.

I picked up a couple neutral XML2 emitters that came pre assembled on 10mm boards from FastTech. I ended up using the XML2 T5-5A2 for this swap.

My V11R was easy to disassemble. I actually took the light apart at the head on accident when trying to remove the body one day. The swap was fairly easy. I just disassembled the light by unscrewing the head. De-solder the old emitter board and solder on the new one. The led is self centered by a plastic insulating spacer that mates the emitter to the reflector. Once the head is tightened it presses the emitter board to the body. There was already some thermal compound from the old emitter so I didn't bother applying any more. The whole process only took about 10 minutes.

I was really happy with the tint after the swap. Check out a comparison between my wife's stock V11R and mine with the neutral emitter.


Now can anyone tell me how to boost this light like I have heard Vinh has done?

-Mason

How did u remove the plastic gasket around the emitter?
I am having some difficulty removing it because I'm afraid that i might damage or scratch the emitter.

Nice! Does it work for v10r as well?


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The plastic gasket is just held in place by a close tolerance to the emitter. It is just lightly pressed onto the square chassis of the emitter. You can just take a small screwdriver and press down on the outer edge and it should pop up on the other side. You might need to try pressing down in a few different locations because the wire leads are soldered on 180 degrees apart and if you push down directly over the wire it may not be able to push down. Another way would be to unscrew the driver board from the other side by removing the small Phillips head screw and pulling off the aluminum ring and black gasket. Now you should be able to untwist the leads and push them further through which will push the emitter board and white gasket out where you can just easily pull it off by hand. The third way that worked for me is just giving the whole assembly a hard tap and see if it will just pop off.

DellSuperman said:

How did u remove the plastic gasket around the emitter?
I am having some difficulty removing it because I'm afraid that i might damage or scratch the emitter.

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Then v11r is my first Sunwayman. I am not familiar with the head design of the v10r. I will try to get some better photos if others are interested in the process. I did a search before posting to see if this was already covered somewhere and I didn't find anything. If anyone knows of any other v11r modding or v11r/v10r comparability please share.

Toolboxkid said:

Nice! Does it work for v10r as well?


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I just started another thread asking about the existence of continuously variable, warm LEDs, before finding this. That was in part inspired by my attempt to go back to my V11R after using a warm Xeno E03 for a while and hating the CW tint.

Now I'm wondering, having not modded any lights before, whether this would be an easy starting point or likely to lead to a ruined V11R? To start with, I haven't looked it up, but I presume there is also a warm XML2. Would that also work in exactly the same way or would it have different electrical properties to take into account?

I'm mostly interested in low/med output so don't care about boosting.

DellSuperman said:

How did u remove the plastic gasket around the emitter?
I am having some difficulty removing it because I'm afraid that i might damage or scratch the emitter.

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Get one of those dental pick-like tools from your local hardware store. Then just hook under the outside edge of the centering disk and lift. It's a great tool for flashlight modding.

robert.t said:

Now I'm wondering, having not modded any lights before, whether this would be an easy starting point or likely to lead to a ruined V11R? To start with, I haven't looked it up, but I presume there is also a warm XML2. Would that also work in exactly the same way or would it have different electrical properties to take into account?

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I think this would be a good place to start modding. The only difficulty will be disassembling the head and soldering onto a board.


Here are a couple links to Cree xml2 info:

http://www.cree.com/~/media/Files/C... Modules/XLamp/Data and Binning/XLampXML2.pdf

http://www.cree.com/~/media/Files/C... Modules/XLamp/Data and Binning/XLampXMBL.pdf

I think you can swap leds with no problem if you keep it an xml2. All of the xml2 leds are going to have the same electrical thresholds. They can all run up to about the rated 3 amps. The driver in your light will be set up for the xml2 so there would not be a concern there. The warmer tints are not as efficient when it comes to lumen output so you may get a little more heat and not quite as high of an output. The trade off as you know is a more usable light.

Here are some different lights I have with xml2 leds. The order is:

v11r stock xml2 u2 COOL WHITE
mod v11r xml2 t5-5a2 NEUTRAL WHITE
zebralight sc52 NEUTRAL WHITE
solarforce host w' nailbender xml2 90+ cri WARM WHITE

The lights are shown in order as listed above and then shown high, medium, low. The high is 1\40 f2.8. The medium and low are 1/5 f2.8. White balance is set to daylight. The v11r lights are shown at lowest low and highest high with Li-ion, medium is set manually. The zebralight is on Li-ion highest high second to lowest low and highest medium. The ZL low low is so low. The nailbender is 100% 30% 5%.

Awesome! I'm going to try pulling apart and reassembling my V11R later today to see if everything looks as straightforward as it sounds. I might find something else to practise my soldering on, as I haven't done any for ages and recently got a new soldering station, so I'll need to figure out the best temperature settings before I go poking it anywhere expensive.

I've got a V10A as well, so I might take a look at that too and see if the internal construction is the same as the V11R. It's a different emitter though (Cree XP-G R5 I believe) so I'm not sure what would be drop-in compatible and what wouldn't.

I had a look at LEDs on FastTech and noticed that there are quite a few XM-L2 3000-3200K emitters listed. As far as I can tell, the only difference between them all is the size of the base they are mounted on. Is that right or are there other differences I would need to watch out for? Also, what's the correct size base for the V11R? I did not see any 10mm ones at all, as mentioned by the OP. Looks like there are also different thicknesses and shapes, as well as different board diameters; not sure if these are all standardised (i.e., a 10mm board will always be the same thickness). If FastTech don't have any the right size, where else is it possible to buy them?

If you have a XPG in your V10A, you probably can`t change it for an XML, unless you do some griding and opening the led hole in the reflector.
If the V10 has the same reflector as the M10A.
The reflector opening is very small. I have both the M10A xml and M10A xpg, and the XPG has a much smaller opening in the reflector.
so you probably should look for a XP-G2 led, or if you`d like a Nichia 219A/B

You can try cutter electronics for some other led options:

http://www.cutter.com.au/

I think the v11r led cavity is around 13mm inner diameter so a 10-12mm round board should work. You can sand them down as well. The terminal pads need to be spaced properly though and it seems like 10-12mm is a good fit. I think the thickness is standard.

As posted above the xpg should be swapped with another xpg but the Nichia 219 are driven the same way and should work as well.

MMD said:

As posted above the xpg should be swapped with another xpg but the Nichia 219 are driven the same way and should work as well.

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I rather like the idea of putting a Nichia 219 in the V10A...

MMD said:

You can try cutter electronics for some other led options:

http://www.cutter.com.au/

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Looks like the only warm-white XM-L2 LEDs they have come on a 20mm star shaped board.

An idea just popped into my head. Any thoughts on converting a V11R to a mule?