Surefire MODs

[bartko09]

Is this beam coming from a surefire l2 head with XPH70? I'd love to see a picture of the light

Nooooooooo. That was a Convoy L2. Sorry if I got ya excited [emoji23]

 

[maxspeeds]

Nooooooooo. That was a Convoy L2. Sorry if I got ya excited [emoji23]

I'm glad you cleared that up. It is confusing when you posted that picture in the Surefire Mods thread...

 

[precisionworks]

Since a Kroma is similar to a U2 can the emitter & driver be upgraded?

 

[Nitroz]

Since a Kroma is similar to a U2 can the emitter & driver be upgraded?

PM sent!

 

[Nitroz]

Surefire Kroma

Just modified this Kroma with a Nichia 219BT 90CRI. These are always a fun one, especially getting the board back onto the pins blindly. The beam shot does not show the rosy tint of this LED and my cell can do it justice. Here are some photos of the mod.

Top half opened

Stock Lux III

Copper spacer

Finished!

Beamshot, I edited the color to try to give an idea of what the tint looks like.

 

[sp5it]

Can you please update pics for U2 xhp50? Thanks, Mike

 

[Nitroz]

Can you please update pics for U2 xhp50? Thanks, Mike

Are they not showing up?

 

[Offgridled]

Are they not showing up?

Can't see pictures also

 

[Nitroz]

Can't see pictures also

The new ones, or the XPH-50 mod?

 

[Offgridled]

The new ones, or the XPH-50 mod?

New ones. I can only see beam shot you edited pic!

 

[Nitroz]

New ones. I can only see beam shot you edited pic!

How about now?

 

[sp5it]

Not visible.
Can you please post photo how xhp50 is mounted in U2? I have MC-E modded U2, but I would like to put other led into that.
Mike

 

[Offgridled]

How about now?

Yes sir got them now. Cool pics thx!!

 

[Nitroz]

Not visible.
Can you please post photo how xhp50 is mounted in U2? I have MC-E modded U2, but I would like to put other led into that.
Mike

I'm not sure how the MC-E is done on yours but I machined the ears off of the heat sink and then mounted the XPH-50 to that.

 

[precisionworks]

I would love to have you mod my Kroma with the 219 B. Have you figured out a price for that service?

 

[F89]

Re: L2 XPH50

I was not sure how this would turn out in such a shallow reflector, but I can say that the XPH50 in an L2 is awesome! Now I need to find one of these gems for my own.

Interesting note: I did not have any non rechargeable batteries to test the L2 and was not sure if they would smoke the circuit or not. A quick "Google" and many CPF'ers using IMR123s and I just had to see what this thing was like. All I can say is, WOW! With IMR batteries this sucker pulls 3 amps and put a huge smile on my face, and after a minute was a nice hand warmer. I'm not sure I would run this wide open like this unattended but it was insane!

Even at 1.3 amps Cree's product characterization tool says the J4 bin XPH50 puts out 1200 lumens at the emitter, and at 3 amps that goes up to a whopping 2375, again at the emitter. All that with a tint that, IMO is beautiful.

I have a few photos and did my best at two beamshots. The were underexposed -2 on low and high with regular cr123 batteries at two feet for the low, and twelve feet for the high to show that it has absolutely no donut hole. From inches from the ground to as far as I can see the XPH50 does not have a donut in any light I have modded unlike the Cree MC-E, or the Easywhite XM-L. This is one of my favorite LEDs.

Cool post.
I've got a NOS L2 on its way and had been finding old MCE upgrade posts that looked great and when looking at LEDs decided on a 5000K high CRI XHP50 (also on the way) thinking I might be the first before finding this post.
Sounds like I've chosen well.

What size PCB did you use? I've ordered 10mm.
Did you need to make many or any adjustments to the heatsink and/or PCB?
I'll be doing this mod in a few weeks so any tips will be appreciated.

Another question,

I don't suppose you tried running this on a single liion like the keeppower 16650? I'm hoping the boost driver works well with the XHP50 and 16650 battery as I don't want to use 2x16340 or CR123.

 

[Nitroz]

Re: L2 XPH50

Cool post.
I've got a NOS L2 on its way and had been finding old MCE upgrade posts that looked great and when looking at LEDs decided on a 5000K high CRI XHP50 (also on the way) thinking I might be the first before finding this post.
Sounds like I've chosen well.

Indeed you have!

What size PCB did you use? I've ordered 10mm.
Did you need to make many or any adjustments to the heatsink and/or PCB?
I'll be doing this mod in a few weeks so any tips will be appreciated.

Looking at my photos I think I probably used a larger PCB so that it would not short out. But honestly I don't remember the exact size, usually every mod is different.

Another question,

I don't suppose you tried running this on a single liion like the keeppower 16650? I'm hoping the boost driver works well with the XHP50 and 16650 battery as I don't want to use 2x16340 or CR123.

That would be a negative. I have a 16550 and just tried it in L2 and it does not work as expected. The only way to make it work with the XPH.50 would rebuild it with a boost driver and machining a new copper pill would be a must when running the XPH.50.

When I modded this L2 to a triple I created a new pill from copper.

And modded the tail cap to a McClicky switch.

If you have any more questions you can PM me anytime.

 

[F89]

Re: L2 XPH50

That would be a negative. I have a 16550 and just tried it in L2 and it does not work as expected. The only way to make it work with the XPH.50 would rebuild it with a boost driver and machining a new copper pill would be a must when running the XPH.50.

Thanks for the reply.
Are you saying that the stock driver isn't a boost driver?
I had read in old posts that it boosts the voltage to about 6.4V from 2xCR123 (which have a resting voltage of about that anyway) and even boosts a single Li-ion to 6.4V? I think they were using a 14670?
From what you're telling me it sounds like the driver might vary.
Thought I'd post here rather than PM so others can benefit from your knowledge.
Thank you.

 

[Nitroz]

Re: L2 XPH50

Thanks for the reply.
Are you saying that the stock driver isn't a boost driver?
I had read in old posts that it boosts the voltage to about 6.4V from 2xCR123 (which have a resting voltage of about that anyway) and even boosts a single Li-ion to 6.4V? I think they were using a 14670?
From what you're telling me it sounds like the driver might vary.
Thought I'd post here rather than PM so others can benefit from your knowledge.
Thank you.

I stand corrected! It does work off of a single cell. I did not realize the 16650 I had was at 3.8 volts and the L2 did not turn on. I used a freshly charged rcr123 and it does light up so, 1 cell will work with the stock driver but the XPH.50 will not see its full potential but will be a large improvement over stock.

 

[F89]

Re: L2 XPH50

I stand corrected! It does work off of a single cell. I did not realize the 16650 I had was at 3.8 volts and the L2 did not turn on. I used a freshly charged rcr123 and it does light up so, 1 cell will work with the stock driver but the XPH.50 will not see its full potential but will be a large improvement over stock.

Great news, thanks for that.
Sounds like it works as suspected. The 4.2V 16650 probably works a bit harder to provide the power and like you said doesn't give as much guts but the trade off may be worth it. Really looking forward to this project.
Thanks again.

Mod completed.

Just finished the mod and it looks and functions great although it wasn't completely straight forward as I'd hoped but for the most part it's an easy task.
I don't have any special machinery so I had to bore the body by hand using different grades of sandpaper around a length of dowel and finished it off with 1600 grit, a 16650 slides in beautifully with no room to spare.
I used a modified 10mm MCPCB which didn't seat as deeply as I'd like without being able to machine a recess in the heatsink (after I sanded the MCPCB back a bit the square base of the LED at the corners was flush with the back of the reflector, I would have liked it to sit further back toward the heatsink) and I ended up with a mild donut hole in the beam much like the stock LED so I tried diffuser film which had a nice beam but didn't play well with the heat on high which might have just been the type of film I used. Anyway I decided to sputter the reflector in flat white which looks awesome, just like the HDS flood reflector in appearance and probably function, the beam is very floody now like a mule with a bit more throw and no hotspot at all, just a circle of evenly lit beam.
I hadn't intended to create such a beam with this mod but am happy with its evolution.
The mod looks really slick (I know I need pics! I might get around to it eventually).
Anyone with an old L2 laying around should definitely consider sending it to Nitroz.