Worth the upgrade to 3 watt?

Hi all... first post (after a long time reading and enjoying!)

My EDC is currently a (beloved) 2C Mag, with a (modified) regulated Diamond 1 watt. I've modded the brass lampholder tube by drilling and tapping a new hole for the focussing wheel a few mm's lower, as the Diamond wouldn't quite go low enough in the reflector to get a really tight beam (it does now!!).

I've also upgraded the Luxeon emitter to an RY0J, and it also has (modded!) lightweight plastic adapters in it so it usually runs on lithium AAs (or can take a single CR123 in the top adapter, regular AAs/Cs, NiMh, etc., etc...). Lightweight, great runtime, and fantastic throw with the Luxeon being slightly overdriven at about 360-390mA.

I'm thinking about upgrading it to a 3 watt Luxeon (with PWM dimming control), but I'm wondering if it's worth it? Will it throw that much further? Especially as at full power it will be drawing over twice as much current as it does now...

More light is always fun (!), but runtime and versatility in what cells it'll take is a big factor, too...

Any thoughts?

Cheers!

How much runtime will be lost with the upgrade?

It would depend on the driver: a simple boost circuit would mean the runtime would effectively drop to rather less than half. Not worth it--I don't think--unless the throw is massively increased.

In a Mag reflector is, say, a U binned Lux III at 1 A dramatically brighter than an R binned Lux I at 390 mA?

A good driver board would give much more flexibility (a couple of levels [night-light/low/max] would be really nice), but that would mean running it from rechargable Li-Ion, (or multiple AAAs perhaps) to get enough voltage to power the board (>2.7 V) for any decent amount of time, so losing the flexibilty of what cells it will take. Even new lithium AAs drop to around 2.8 - 2.9 V when half an amp's being pulled from them...

You've got a decent 1 watt luxeon there so if you do switch to a 3watt, then choose a T**J bin or a U bin if available.
You won't see a huge visable jump in output with a 3 watt S**J ot S**K binned luxeon. A 3 watt T bin will throw farther simply because it's brighter than your current 1 watter but don't expect eye-popping improvements.
Going from 40 lumens to 80 lumens will not look twice as bright to the eye.

If you make the switch, heat management will come into play, and even more so if you overdrive a 3 watter beyond 1000 milliamps. This is going to mean extra $$$ for heatsinking.

Are you prepared to give up more than half your run time for extra brightness?

Thanks very much for that: no, I'm not sure it's worth it!

Just working it out mathematically, it would seem that even a good U binned Lux III would only be marginally brighter. I've tried overdriving one of these RY0J Lux I's at about 500+ mA -- it's certainly brighter an throws a bit further, but for the extra heat (amazing!) and current used, it really didn't seem worth it.

The thing that would convince me to upgrade would be adjustable levels, but like I said, this creates minimum voltage problems...

I've got a Terralux SpotMiser PR bulb in the tailcap with the retaining ring, if I'm really stuck!

Well, I have a TV1L in a 3D body, a TV1L (or possibly TV1K) on 3 C cells in a 2 D body and my baby, a UX1L in a 2C body on a full reg Wiz2 at 937ma running on 2 unprotected 18650s. I also have a Dorcy 3D Super 1W with a RYAK star.

The UX1L is without a doubt, brighter and further throwing than the TV1L lights. The TV1L on D cells runs about 7 hours by my eyes at nearly full brightness. The UX1L runs just a hair over 3 hours on the 18650s. The 1W should run for almost a whole day according to Quickbeam's page.

The UX1L is definately the brightest out of all of them, but in all honesty, the Dorcy 1W is nearly as bright as the TV1L lights.

I also have one of the PR-base 1W bulbs from the Craftsman lights in an otherwise stock 3D Mag. It's also quite impressive and throws slightly better than the Dorcy.

Take this for what it's worth... which is not much. I like them all and I love the runtime of the 1W 3D lights, but if I could only keep one, it would definately be the UX1L.

Thanks--I know exactly what you mean!

Quite often, I end up using mine for short bursts at night (pitch black around here), so super-throw is good

But similarly, I sometimes need it for an hour (or two) at a time, so not having to worry about how many minutes of runtime I have left (or keeping the thing cool!) is nice.

Thanks guys: useful info!

Of course, to paraphrase the official CPF mantra, why not keep the 1W and build a 3 watt? I built the 3D 3W myself and it cost $15 for the light, $12 for the LED and $10 for the O-sink... And I bought the 3C in 2D light for $30 shipped.

:naughty:

I have plans already! Actually, what I'm thinking is that my 2C EDC is okay (especially with lightweight lithium AAs: though a 'low' mode really would be nice--not sure modding the drop in to do that is possible, not as easy as a two stage switch, I don't think), and I'll get a 2D to modify and keep around the house.

I was thinking of building a 3 watt mod in a wall clip, that houses some AA NiCds or NiMhs kept on trickle charge from a little wall-wart. It would be easy to make it turn on in the event of a power loss, and beamed up at the ceiling, that could be very useful (even though I always have some form of lighting on me!!).

My idea for the charging socket is to perhaps use the set-up from a Braun electric toothbrush: the ones that sit on the base and use induction so that they can remain waterproof and still charge