Mods to this stupid Milwaukee 2354 spot light...... turd....

[fastline]

Bought this light months ago. Admit that I use it a ton but mostly just as a flood light because the spot is simply pathetic.

You guys can look up a pic and see that it has a somewhat reasonable optic for the spot, but I would say it is more yellow in color and just does not throw any lumens! The head is shockingly robust as a solid cast Al piece to sink the heat. I attempted to pull the head apart to see how fun the mods would be and appears I will have to do a full tear down as the Aluminum insert will not come out without pulling the wires on the side.

So as a very quick test, I jumpered the battery so I could test the amperage. To my surprise the batt was at 19v and doing .6A. That is 11.4W. Now, I am not sure how much is getting to the LED chip, but that is more than I expected and now wondering why it sucks this bad. It has different operation modes so that is just the single LED chip for the spot. All 4 flood chips together do 1.0A. They rate it to reach to 700yds. That is 2100ft and it won't reach past 1200ft and you certainly can't light anything up at that distance.

I am wondering if the chip is so poor that the lm/W performance is in the ditch?? If I can get in the head, I would like to just use one of my flashlight heads to shoot into the Milwaukee optic to see what it will do.

The concerning thing is Milwaukee might have current limiting setup on their digital side. I am not sure if I want to push a chip harder or find a more efficient chip, but I spent good money on it and want it to work better!

 

[jabe1]

What led is in it? Milwaukee says it's a neutral one, but don't specify type.
I would call them and ask to speak to someone in the technical department.
I imagine you'll have to change out some of the electronics to get better performance.

 

[fastline]

No one in any technical group will talk to be. All I get is sales and more sales. All you is what is in the 4-5 sentences on their site.

 

[Lynx_Arc]

https://budgetlightforum.com/node/66324
google fu strikes again

 

[fastline]

Ha, my google powers must suck.... However, that one appears to have gone nowhere and not sure how the LEDs were identified. I would be hugely shocked to see actual Cree chips. My guess is China knock offs. Regardless of any spec, it can be proven that my 1.5" pocket flashlight on a single 18650 will out perform that Milwaukee piece. I know run time is a factor here.

but my question still stands, what kind of wattage can these chips handle? Assuming I obtained a real XPL chip? I will have to do a teardown and see what the chip actually pulls though. It does not sound like a party to get that chip out.


EDIT, it's torn down. It runs at 10W and the wafer hasMilwaukee markings and chip is not marked cree anywhere.

 

[Lynx_Arc]

Ha, my google powers must suck.... However, that one appears to have gone nowhere and not sure how the LEDs were identified. I would be hugely shocked to see actual Cree chips. My guess is China knock offs. Regardless of any spec, it can be proven that my 1.5" pocket flashlight on a single 18650 will out perform that Milwaukee piece. I know run time is a factor here.

but my question still stands, what kind of wattage can these chips handle? Assuming I obtained a real XPL chip? I will have to do a teardown and see what the chip actually pulls though. It does not sound like a party to get that chip out.


EDIT, it's torn down. It runs at 10W and the wafer hasMilwaukee markings and chip is not marked cree anywhere.

Likely they are crees as the models mentioned aren't anything that expensive or special and milwaukee doesn't tend to cater in cheap junk, more like overpriced good stuff IMO. An XPL can be pushed to about 2000 lumens I think but likely the problem is proper heatsinking as the harder you drive it the more heat it will put out and the driver in the light will hamper improving it much. From what I've read it was putting out about 700 lumens and around 150 lumens/watt that would equate to about 5 watts and likely take around 6-7 watts.
Without modding the heat sinking you are probably not going to push it that much brighter.
One thing to consider is removing all the LED boards/heatsinks all 5 of them and replacing them with a single LED and a larger single heatsink and if you want it to throw add an optic to make for throw then you would have to check clearance. Likely you will have to replace the driver and maybe the switch too.

 

[fastline]

I probably will not go nuts with this one and build a whole new head and driver, but looking at just updating the spot chip. The chip that is in it now appears to be about 4x4mm, and does not have a lens on it. For testing, I pulled the optic off the Milwaukee and mated it right to my XML flashlight. The performance is indeed better but I am getting a little light spill. I think mostly because the lens on my XML is bypassing the optic. I need to select carefully to get the best fit for this critter. Then I will just have to run it and look to do something different later.

What I really need is a true high power spot that can do 1000ft or more with authority. This will take a bigger optic I think.

 

[Lynx_Arc]

I probably will not go nuts with this one and build a whole new head and driver, but looking at just updating the spot chip. The chip that is in it now appears to be about 4x4mm, and does not have a lens on it. For testing, I pulled the optic off the Milwaukee and mated it right to my XML flashlight. The performance is indeed better but I am getting a little light spill. I think mostly because the lens on my XML is bypassing the optic. I need to select carefully to get the best fit for this critter. Then I will just have to run it and look to do something different later.

What I really need is a true high power spot that can do 1000ft or more with authority. This will take a bigger optic I think.

I would consider investing in a light designed to do what you want as it likely will take more than that light is designed for. You would need a deep reflector or very tight optic and likely several thousand lumens. Someone with experience modding throwers could better advise you than I could they would know what combination of LED and optics/reflector and output is needed to accomplish what you want.