New Fenix Digital Series! P1D and P1D CE with Cree XR-E !! Part 2

Here is a beamshot of the ring (left) and another shot after backing out the reflector about 1/4th of a turn (right).
Distance is approx 1 meter, exposure is the same.


Opening the bezel was easier than expected. A pair of hollowed out wooden blocks and a sheet of rubber were used to grip the threaded end in a vice, and the exposed end was twisted with a belt wrench. The piece was heated before this procedure.

I am blown away by the size and brightness of this light. Great fun as a modding host too.
Another order needs to be placed soon!

.
Nekomane , it's hard for me to tell ...........

Are you saying ... you removed the dark ring ... that was outside the corona , by adjusting position of the reflector ???

Is that all it takes ????

I have been trying to get mine open ..... no joy.

.................................. TMG/*
.

nekomane said:

Here is a beamshot of the ring (left) and another shot after backing out the reflector about 1/4th of a turn (right).
Distance is approx 1 meter, exposure is the same.


Opening the bezel was easier than expected. A pair of hollowed out wooden blocks and a sheet of rubber were used to grip the threaded end in a vice, and the exposed end was twisted with a belt wrench. The piece was heated before this procedure.

I am blown away by the size and brightness of this light. Great fun as a modding host too.
Another order needs to be placed soon!

Click to expand...

Just based on that picture, it now looks like the center beam is smaller and you are sharing those lumens with the outer corona.. I guess its according to what you want.. I like maximum throw myself.

Whoa - nice job nekomane ! "To boldly go where no modder has gone before...."

You said you backed off the reflector a 1/4 turn - so the reflector is actually threaded into the outer head?

What did you warm up the head with?

i tested the ce for 3 days now!
i don`t care about the "rings", i really don`t realize them in real-world-use!

but:

1.: one-hand-use is not easy, cause of the "loose threads". twisting the head with one hand results often in the second next stage and is not precise.
i got an old L0P and this one can be perfectly twisted by one hand.i also got the realy small "raw ns", which is very easy to controll by one hand.

2.: I NEED A CLIP!!!

the other side: this light is really bright and great for walking on forrestways, cause of the great spill.

perfect would be : clicky + twist-selection (levels) + CLIP !!!:rock:

greetz to all of u

Actually, I think that perfect would be: mine + shipped + soon. I ordered mine as soon as I saw them available, and I still don't have one. :candle:

for all you guys complaining..... I am like order 7150!!!!!!!

TooManyGizmos said:

*snip*
Are you saying ... you removed the dark ring ... that was outside the corona , by adjusting position of the reflector ???

Click to expand...

Yes. I wouldn't say the ring is gone but it is much less noticable.

windstrings said:

Just based on that picture, it now looks like the center beam is smaller and you are sharing those lumens with the outer corona.. I guess its according to what you want.. I like maximum throw myself.

Click to expand...

The hot spot is blown out in the photos. By checking with my own eyes, it does look like the hot spot is slightly less intense though. It is hard to tell. Another optical illusion?

LightBright said:

You said you backed off the reflector a 1/4 turn - so the reflector is actually threaded into the outer head?

What did you warm up the head with?

Click to expand...

Yes, the reflector is threaded into the head. There are 2 holes where you can insert a pair of needle nose plyers to twist. This part came out without any effort.
I heated the head by dropping it into a small ziplock bag, and boiling in hot water for 3 minutes. Use gloves! Not sure if heating is a must, but I found some dried out pink thread locker on the threads.
There is little to grab on to for the threaded side, and the threads make it even worse to secure. The wood block and rubber sheet did the trick without any damage to the threads.
Hope this helps.

Thanks ... nekomane , great info .


As to ... TigerhawkT3 ... I'm sorry to have to say this ... but ..........

Santa knows who has been naughty ... and who's been nice ... if ya know what I mean .... :whoopin:


I hope ya get it soon ..................... TMG/
.

If we go by Nekomanes results maybe we could get 4seven to ask Fenix to start supplies of this light with no thread locker applied. This way we could all simply fine tune our own lights by simply loosening or tightening the reflector a little.....It really does look much better in the adjusted photo and I can not believe it is as easy as simply raising or lowering the reflector however the pics show that it did improve the beam in my opinion......if nothing else we could experiment with other reflectors using this light as a host as long as we could get it open easily.

Got My P1D-CE Natural this morning. Twelve days to the east coast of Canada. (it takes about 12 from Hong Kong, ... USPS is SLOW coming into Canada!)

I blinded myself several times in the first few minutes! - I kept thinking "There's no way it's that bright!, .... Ouch!"

No sloppy thread here, seems nice and smooth. Works perfectly on a 3.0V Soshine RCR, all modes are fine. the 3.6V RCR give the same brightness on all levels.

I will head up the road to an area with little to no ambient light tonight and snap a few shots of it's outdoor capabilities.

Now, the bad part, which doesn't really bother me, but others it obviously does, ... there is a ring in the beam. It is very noticeable on my white ceiling, but much less noticeable at all on my light tan (oatmeal), and blue walls. In everyday use I suspect it will not even cross my mind.

Thanks for sharing your opinions jhawkins1

So do you think, the protected RCR123 (3,7V) from member AW will work fine in all levels?

Thanks and best regards

____
Tom

Long John said:

So do you think, the protected RCR123 (3,7V) from member AW will work fine in all levels?

Click to expand...

Not exactly, AW's 3.7v RCR123 cells don't work quite right, the voltage is too high for regulation to work properly. You essentially lose the Low setting, but High and Medium will work after the battery is no longer fresh.

I just got some 3.0v RCR123 cells, and High, Medium, and Low all appear to work essentially as intended.

Protected cells also have an interesting side effect. If you drain the battery on High or Medium to the point that undervoltage protection shuts it off, you can't turn the light to Low. There is enough juice to run on Low for quite some time, but the higher current drain of Med and High will pull the voltage down, triggering the cutoff. Since you have to pass thru High before getting to Low, Low becomes unacessable.

Thank you very much mboni for your reply

Hmmm, I thought since he wrote:

"Works perfectly on a 3.0V Soshine RCR, all modes are fine. the 3.6V RCR give the same brightness on all levels."

it could work.

Best regards

____
Tom

Long John said:

Thanks for sharing your opinions jhawkins1

So do you think, the protected RCR123 (3,7V) from member AW will work fine in all levels?

Thanks and best regards

____
Tom

Click to expand...

I couldn't tell you for sure how the AW cells will work, I can just go by what I have in front of me.

I picked up two Soshine 3.0V unprotected, and two 3.6v unprotected from Fifthunit just for this light. The multi level works with the 3.0, but not the 3.6. (both at a full charge). I have not run through a battery yet so I will know more with some use.

I plan to pick up a couple of protected cells from AW in the future, but for now, someone with his cells would have to weigh in.

Mboni, Please test the runtime with 3.0V RCRs ? Please ...

Thank you very much jhawkins1

Best regards

____
Tom

Here are a few shots with some other lights to put the size in perspective (one of the toughest things for me while waiting!)

Left to Right - Dorcy Spyder, RiverRock 2xAAA, Ultrafire 602a1-1, Fifth Unit Lyckeby, P1D-CE. In the pics you will see a Nickel for size reference







EDIT: here is an up close and personal beam shot of all 5:

wojtek_pl said:

Mboni, Please test the runtime with 3.0V RCRs ? Please ...

Click to expand...

I've tested a few Tenergy "900ma" 3.0V THREE VOLT Lithium Ion rechargeables

On the Medium Setting, I'm consistently getting just about 1 hour of operation before the battery shuts itself off.

The 900 milliamp hour rating is on the exaggerated side, as usual, unless that rating is at a 50ma load or something.

OK. Thanks for info.

I just received mine. The beam is very white but this dreaded ring is there... OK, I can live with it...
The P1 which was white before, now looks yellow. Though P1 with RCR123 3.7V looks brighter than P1D-CE on Medium with primary battery. My AW's protected RCR123 does not fit in P1D-CE... Fortunately I have some 3.0V Soshine RCRs on the way.
Now back to the topic. After all this comments and all I was expecting hell knows what, so first use was a little disappointing. It is bright but not super extra bright as some of You were saying. I guess I have to get used to this flashlight as I did to ARC-AAA. Nevertheless it is bright. L2T looks dim. Smartfire 3WAA also looks dim.

One interesting thing: I would say that this flashlight primary mode is high, then it is reduced to medium or low as selected. As I turn it on I can see a bright flash then it goes to steady medium or low level. It is especially visible when turning on low setting. Bright flash of high then steady low. This could be annoying.

Anyway... Thanks 4sevens for this Christmas gift ! :goodjob: