So now that we've gotten a fair bit of use from all of these (~2.5 years since this thread was created), how has this been working for folks?
I'm just loving the performance & runtime from 2xAAA Duraloops, ~140 lumens for nearly an hour perhaps? (Never bothered to check the runtime, I run it on 'low' most of the time.)
This setup has been my EDC for over a year and a half, and it's doing great for the same reasons, and more. Plus, the clicky has held up after a lot of use. Same with the ano on both parts... damn thing almost looks like it was put together yesterday!
My only complaint is that even though the PWM rate was highly increased over previous versions, it's definitely there, and shows itself in certain, slightly dangerous situations like when near un-caged, high power fans or other types of rotating parts. Unless you're paying attention, it can lull you into thinking these things aren't moving so fast. I'm also not crazy about the effects of PWM in the rain... not a huge deal, but still slightly distracting when out in the rain playing with flashlights.
Question, recently my LD01 / SL-SP (2xAAA) on 'low' acts normally to begin with, but after a few minutes the output bumps up nearly imperceptibly, the 'inductor whine' approximately doubles in loudness, and the PWM becomes slightly more noticible. After switching it off & back on, the 'louder whine' comes back after a few seconds. Is anybody else getting this behavior? I was wondering if it might be because I've used this unit a lot on ~2.4v vs the ~1.2v spec. :shrug:
Just tried this, and inductor whine volume on low remains steady from beginning to where I stopped testing at about 7 minutes. The shorter on/off cycles you mention give no change either. If your experience is different, I'll chalk it up to "identical" components never being quite the same. Also steady, but MUCH more annoying is medium level, where it'll rattle the teeth out of your head when mouth holding!
As other posters have pointed out, the (leftover) SL MS head doesn't work on the (also leftover) LD01 body, as there isn't enough usable depth to obtain electrical contact.
So removing 0.080" of material from the LD01 body on a lathe yields the following:
Alternately, you could shorten the MS head to get the same result, which should be easier. Someone around here used that method.
I tried this and did not succeed...the head on my streamlight was on so tight when i used a strap wrench and a vice, I literally tore the aluminum body in two breaking it right below where the body threads into the head :shakehead
Hehe... I can just imagine the torque you subjected that thing too.
There was no way in hell mine was coming off either, so I did the boil-in-baggie thing to soften up the glue. It took a few tries, but was worth the patience. In order to avoid melting the reflector and overheating anything else, I did fairly short cycles, and held the bag off the bottom of the pot. To avoid any scratching, I used a pair of silicone oven mitts to twist the parts with hand power only. They eventually seperated with no heat damage, and the ano remained factory new. Spent about the next half hour picking threadlocker out of the threads.
If the latest version of the Stainless LD01 is CURRENT REGULATED, then how can it be any brighter with a 10440? From what I've read on CPF up til now, I was under impression current regulation prevented the hperbrightness from 10440. Please correct me if I am wrong.
This happens because the boost circuit goes into direct drive when Vbatt is higher than the LED's Vf. I wasn't aware (until now... just looked it up) that all LD01's are now current regulated as opposed to PWM, but going into DD should happen nonetheless. However, I seem to remember that Fenix adjusted the circuit some time ago to better handle 10440 overdrive (?).
Since there's no PWM I'm tempted to try a new head, but the XP-G will have less throw than my XP-E version, and stands a good chance of being green-ish (made even worse by the current regulation on low and medium), whereas mine has an excellent tint.
Hmmm... I'm thinking emitter swap!
