Long time lurker. :wave: First time I have something worth posting…
The Oval flashlight seems like a neat light for walking and running, and it is. But being a flashaholic, I wanted to see if I could crank up the power a little bit. So I opened it up.
There's quite a bit of room in there – looks like enough for a Luxeon, heatsink, and reflector.
I decided to remove the stock cluster of 4 leds and replace it with a 1W luxeon and IMS reflector. The compromise? No more regulation (check out the runtime graph at flashlightreviews.com!) and reduced runtime. Possibly some issues with heat. I decided to direct-drive the luxeon at about 200mA, underdriven to maintain decent battery life and reduce heat.
The install is simple. Desolder the power and ground wires going to the stock circuit board. Solder the resistor(s) (I used two 2.2Ohm resistors) into place, and solder the power and ground to the luxeon. You don't need to touch the switch or downward-facing led cluster. I found a little cpu heatsink that fit perfectly and stuck it to the back of the luxeon. It's dimensions are .825" x .825" x .25".
Next came a 17mm IMS reflector (great beam!) and .75" mineral glass lens (from ofrei.com) which slides right into the existing slot. It all fits really well.
Screw the body back together and that's it! It works great. Puts out more light and I love the beam quality that the IMS reflector gives.
I would like to install a regulator of some kind - like a micropuck, except I think the micropuck goes direct-drive when over 3V, so it would overdrive the Lux1 and create a lot of heat. Any ideas on a different driver? There's plenty of space in there to put it. :help:
It also might be fun to throw a 3 watter in there, but I'd probably drill out the body to try to get some ventilation… I think the 3 watter would also completely overpower the 'downward' leds and make the light less functional, but it might be fun anyways.
Enjoy!
The Oval flashlight seems like a neat light for walking and running, and it is. But being a flashaholic, I wanted to see if I could crank up the power a little bit. So I opened it up.
There's quite a bit of room in there – looks like enough for a Luxeon, heatsink, and reflector.
I decided to remove the stock cluster of 4 leds and replace it with a 1W luxeon and IMS reflector. The compromise? No more regulation (check out the runtime graph at flashlightreviews.com!) and reduced runtime. Possibly some issues with heat. I decided to direct-drive the luxeon at about 200mA, underdriven to maintain decent battery life and reduce heat.
The install is simple. Desolder the power and ground wires going to the stock circuit board. Solder the resistor(s) (I used two 2.2Ohm resistors) into place, and solder the power and ground to the luxeon. You don't need to touch the switch or downward-facing led cluster. I found a little cpu heatsink that fit perfectly and stuck it to the back of the luxeon. It's dimensions are .825" x .825" x .25".
Next came a 17mm IMS reflector (great beam!) and .75" mineral glass lens (from ofrei.com) which slides right into the existing slot. It all fits really well.
Screw the body back together and that's it! It works great. Puts out more light and I love the beam quality that the IMS reflector gives.
I would like to install a regulator of some kind - like a micropuck, except I think the micropuck goes direct-drive when over 3V, so it would overdrive the Lux1 and create a lot of heat. Any ideas on a different driver? There's plenty of space in there to put it. :help:
It also might be fun to throw a 3 watter in there, but I'd probably drill out the body to try to get some ventilation… I think the 3 watter would also completely overpower the 'downward' leds and make the light less functional, but it might be fun anyways.
Enjoy!