Re: D36 LED Drop - In modules - Red & Green DD available (For Surefire, Pila, Wolf Ey
Got 'er on Saturday. WOW! That's fast shipping! Ordered Wednesday afternoon, in my hands Saturday afternoon.
- The Nichia tint and beam is exactly what I wanted. I wanted a bright white beam, like an old school incan on fresh batteries. It's a nice creamy beam with a clean hotspot. No trace of blue or green, just a tiny step in the warm direction from perfectly neutral. I went with orange peel finish, there's no artifacts, no rings, nothing. Great inside the house, and can keep up with any light to about 100 feet or so outside at night. In terms of runtime and output, I wanted this light to still operate within parameters of it's original design and be capable at close-to-medium range and not just turn it into an LED throwmonster.
A note on installation (I'll see if I can snap some pics later): I got lucky and my bezel ring unscrewed pretty easily. My M3 has the old school finned M2-style bezel. I used a pair of c-clip pliers to get it out. I first installed the unit exactly like the instructions at the top of this thread, but the foam ring did not want to sit on top of the reflector. I'd have it all done, carefully pressing the foam around the top of the reflector, screwed the ring back on, and after some handling and use, the foam would pop out of the channel and get in front of the reflector. After doing this a few times and after some careful analysis, I placed the foam ring in FIRST, then slid the module down on top of it, then the plastic ring (which has a little lip that holds the top of the reflector), THEN the rubber o-ring, then the lens and bezel ring. It sits beautifully, doesn't move around and looks great. The only downside is slightly less pressure on the battery stack since the unit is further away in the bezel. To address this, I put two small magnets in between the batts (using primaries right now) and it's rock solid.
Open to suggestions for Li-Ion(s) to power it. This unit has the wide-voltage range, which I like just for the flexibility of being able to run primaries in a pinch. I realize a narrower range and a specific power source are more efficient, but I don't want the light to be useless (and potentially fry it) without a spacer.
I think I'm still at this stage...
...Just takes awhile to wrap your head around leds versus why Surefire made the multiple celled versions...
A big thanks to Dave for all his patience and help and insight!