# Surefire ARC2 Up Close and Personal, Info, PICS, custom made charger



## djjoonie (Mar 21, 2018)

Hello all, I didn't want to invade/hijack an old thread so here is my own little amateur review and some info that I found, ill start with a custom build charger 

This is the oem 3 pin connector that came with the vehicle charger, pins are numbered: (1)negative(black), (2)positive(white), (3)green(ground? but not connected)











to find out which is positive and negative, used a reverse protected 12v vehicle battery trickle charger:










found out that my balance boards connecter has same 3 pin connector so I cut them and rewired them to vehicle plug:















temporarily using a dominator charger to test out the build (success  )





bought a ac to dc adaptor on amazon it is rated at 15amps 180watts (I'm using 14 awg wire so the light can be charged while in-use with this 180watts charger. (the light draws 70w to charge and additional 70w to charge while in-use according to manual)​










found out that oem surefire connector is WEIPU SF 12 3 pin connector, just purchased 2 to swap them out and build another set for home and vehicle.









built quality is just amazing





the HID bulb seems like it is modified to fit in ARC2 for the reflector. I'm sure I can mod an existing HID bulbs to fit in the reflector since surefire seems like they are mostly sourcing the parts and I'm 100% sure its not in-house hid's 















This is the Charger port and Lanyard hole from the battery. I ordered a defective battery pack from ebay I will try to dismantle it and see whats inside soon.(arriving in 2 days)










to access the hid bulb and reflector:










battery contacts:





contacts from the head part





for size comparison:


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## djjoonie (Mar 21, 2018)

XeRay said:


> Looks like the bulb and reflector are integrated into one unit, making for a very expensive and more difficult bulb replacement, likely $600 to $1000 to replace, if they still had any replacement parts. Based on their response, it doesn't bode well for you in the future.





XeRay said:


> This really sucks for you because the resale value just plummeted, based on the response you got from Surefire. No support on this light of any kind. So much for a "serial production" product.


Thanks for your help, but I'm pretty sure they used an off the shelf HID bulb modified and fitted in the reflector.




IlluminatedOne said:


> I do wonder if you would be better of sending it back the the seller if you have the option too and getting a XeVison XV-LX70 or XV-LX50 which in my opinion seems a better light all round.





IlluminatedOne said:


> Looking at a few of the specs of the lights:
> Arc2
> 4500lumens
> 1600m Throw Distance
> ...





IlluminatedOne said:


> .
> Not so important but I also think it looks way better too just far more pleasing to look at imo, but i could never stand the way the surefire UDR dominator and there arc series lights looks too much like a hellfighter with a battery stuck on the back or a toilet plunger haha.
> Although quite liked the SF Beast kinda looked like a mace ​.
> 
> ...


​Thanks so much for your input, I still don't want to return the light, I really love the look of it and I'm 99% surefire fanboy lol, I'm willing to buy lx50 or lx70 next 
Thanks for the welcome! love this forum and so much info everywhere!


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## djjoonie (Mar 21, 2018)

My little collection + size comparison


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## XeRay (Mar 21, 2018)

djjoonie said:


> Thanks for your help, but I'm pretty sure they used an off the shelf HID bulb modified and fitted in the reflector.
> I'm willing to buy lx50 or lx70 next
> Thanks!


The bulb appears to be "potted" to the reflector with a ceramic material. Based on the tip of the bulb glass shape it's no common HID bulb, not automotive from Philips, Osram or GE. Not a standard P32d base on it or an integral igniter. It must be a much rarer and not easily found bulb. I've not seen anything like it for Xenon Metal Halide HID. Not sure why they went this route instead of standard HID bulbs used on the Hell fighters.


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## djjoonie (Mar 21, 2018)

XeRay said:


> The bulb appears to be "potted" to the reflector with a ceramic material. Based on the tip of the bulb glass shape it's no common HID bulb, not automotive from Philips, Osram or GE. Not a standard P32d base on it or an integral igniter. It must be a much rarer and not easily found bulb. I've not seen anything like it for Xenon Metal Halide HID. Not sure why they went this route instead of standard HID bulbs used on the Hell fighters.



I found an old d2s bulb that was lying around in drawer and they look pretty much the same for the tip of the glass...maybe its an older style d2s bulb modded?


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## bulbmogul (Mar 21, 2018)

Why were you not provided with the factory charger that comes with the light..? I have 3 of them as it also is the same one provided with my new Hellfighter5...


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## XeRay (Mar 21, 2018)

djjoonie said:


> I found an old d2s bulb that was lying around in drawer and they look pretty much the same for the tip of the glass...maybe its an older style d2s bulb modded?



Nope that "D2S" bulb in your hands is Chinese crap. Aftermarket replacement. No way Surefire would use that kind of sourcing.
The other bulb with the brown return ceramic, is likely real, not Counterfeit or a very good looking copy.
I have been in the HID bulb and ballast business for more than 16 years, the bulb mounted in the reflector is NOT common manufacture, it is relatively obscure. BVH might have a good guess who made it.


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## djjoonie (Mar 21, 2018)

bulbmogul said:


> Why were you not provided with the factory charger that comes with the light..? I have 3 of them as it also is the same one provided with my new Hellfighter5...


the light came with the vehicle charger, but I need an extra for my other car, and I need one for my home  so I wanted to order them but sf doesn't have them anymore.
I thought hellfigher uses 5 pin connector btw.


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## bulbmogul (Mar 21, 2018)

djjoonie said:


> the light came with the vehicle charger, but I need an extra for my other car, and I need one for my home  so I wanted to order them but sf doesn't have them anymore.
> I thought hellfigher uses 5 pin connector btw.


I also was provided with a car charger as well as a home charger and I use the same charger to charge both my Arc28C as well as my new Hellfighter5..


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## djjoonie (Mar 21, 2018)

XeRay said:


> Nope that "D2S" bulb in your hands is Chinese crap. Aftermarket replacement. No way Surefire would use that kind of sourcing.
> The other bulb with the brown return ceramic, is likely real, not Counterfeit or a very good looking copy.



icic.. I have bunch of hids lying around, I'm still keeping my hopes up lol... sf is using Chinese charger, Chinese connectors, probably other parts as well. bulb might be Chinese too, who knows. my next project would be finding out the source of the bulb.


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## djjoonie (Mar 21, 2018)

bulbmogul said:


> I also was provided with a car charger as well as a home charger and I use the same charger to charge both my Arc28C as well as my new Hellfighter5..


That's good to know! the hellfighter 5 and arc2 might be sharing same lamp assembly as well by looking at your video. thanks!


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## XeRay (Mar 21, 2018)

djjoonie said:


> icic.. I have bunch of hids lying around, I'm still keeping my hopes up lol... sf is using Chinese charger, Chinese connectors, probably other parts as well. bulb might be Chinese too, who knows. my next project would be finding out the source of the bulb.


Ask BVH if he has any good guesses. Who made it for them. The Chinese suck at making HID bulbs, impossible that Surefire would use a bulb made there. A very small chance it came from South Korea. Most likely it is very low volume USA made, also NOT European at all.
It's possible the newer Hell fighters use this bulb and reflector, if so, only very recent vintage in say the last 2 or 3 years.


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## djjoonie (Mar 21, 2018)

bulbmogul said:


> I also was provided with a car charger as well as a home charger and I use the same charger to charge both my Arc28C as well as my new Hellfighter5..



It kinda looks like it has 4 pin plug in this photo? were there multiple version of hf5?
Thanks


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## djjoonie (Mar 21, 2018)

XeRay said:


> Ask BVH if he has any good guesses. Who made it for them. The Chinese suck at making HID bulbs, impossible that Surefire would use a bulb made there. A very small chance it came from South Korea. Most likely it is very low volume USA made, also NOT European at all.


yes, I will, thanks so much XeRay. If the oem bulb is impossible to find, my option 2 would be retrofitting a differnet version of Hid or Led conversion down the road, I'm sure there are plenty of creative ppl in this forum who can make it happen like making p60 drop ins, ie malkoff, pflexpro etc. so I'm sure theres a way for this light to live indefinitely.


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## BVH (Mar 21, 2018)

No clue on bulb origins. I'm better at guessing with Short Arc lamps.


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## bulbmogul (Mar 21, 2018)

djjoonie said:


> It kinda looks like it has 4 pin plug in this photo? were there multiple version of hf5?
> Thanks


This does not look like the back of my new HELLFIGHTER5, can not provide any more pictures as I am still at my winter home in Sri Lanka and not back until the middle of April. Will get you a picture then, however i do know I use the same charger for both lights as mentioned above..


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## XeRay (Mar 21, 2018)

djjoonie said:


> yes, I will, thanks so much XeRay. If the oem bulb is impossible to find, my option 2 would be retrofitting a differnet version of Hid or Led conversion down the road, I'm sure there are plenty of creative ppl in this forum who can make it happen like making p60 drop ins, ie malkoff, pflexpro etc. so I'm sure theres a way for this light to live indefinitely.



Always a way, just a question of resourcefulness and MONEY !!


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## djjoonie (Mar 22, 2018)

bulbmogul said:


> This does not look like the back of my new HELLFIGHTER5, can not provide any more pictures as I am still at my winter home in Sri Lanka and not back until the middle of April. Will get you a picture then, however i do know I use the same charger for both lights as mentioned above..


Just found out they had 2 versions of each battery packs, just did a quick google and found some pics:
these 4 pin connectors are probably for remote switch.









and here is what yours looks like:


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## djjoonie (Mar 22, 2018)

XeRay said:


> Always a way, just a question of resourcefulness and MONEY !!


you are absolutely right. 
for the bulb, I just realized its totally different than the automobile hids since the burning (capsule) point location is very different.
In Arc lights the illumination point is all the way down at almost starting of the reflector and the d2s etcs are at the center.
So this may be really impossible to find... Or it may be easier to identify?


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## bulbmogul (Mar 22, 2018)

djjoonie said:


> Just found out they had 2 versions of each battery packs, just did a quick google and found some pics:
> these 4 pin connectors are probably for remote switch.
> 
> 
> ...



Yes your last picture is what the back of my HELLFIGHTER5 looks like and that is the same pin format as my Arc28C


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## djjoonie (Mar 22, 2018)

bulbmogul said:


> Yes your last picture is what the back of my HELLFIGHTER5 looks like and that is the same pin format as my Arc28C



awesome. do you have hellfighter5s manual by any chance? as for the arc2 manual, spare lamp assembly part# states HF5-ARC2-LAMP so we can compare if it uses the same bulb.


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## bulbmogul (Mar 22, 2018)

djjoonie said:


> awesome. do you have hellfighter5s manual by any chance? as for the arc2 manual, spare lamp assembly part# states HF5-ARC2-LAMP so we can compare if it uses the same bulb.




Yes I do however as I mentioned above, I am still out of the country at our winter hideout in HOT and Sunny Sri Lanka in the Indian Ocean..!


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## djjoonie (Mar 22, 2018)

that's awesome! we just had our 4th nor-Easter yesterday here in ny :duh2:


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## djjoonie (Mar 23, 2018)

partially dismantled the battery pack and it is now confirmed 8 x 18650's


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## djjoonie (Mar 23, 2018)

Just spoke with SUREFIRE Technical Support Manager​ and just confirmed that the spare bulb CAN be ordered (special order) but it will cost $780/ea.


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## XeRay (Mar 24, 2018)

djjoonie said:


> Just spoke with SUREFIRE Technical Support Manager​ and just confirmed that the spare bulb CAN be ordered (special order) but it will cost $780/ea.



I guess I nailed that price window when I said (guessed) $600 to $1000, smack dab in the middle of my range.
If the reflector is still good, maybe they can rebuild it, reinstall a new bulb into it and cut the cost in half.


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## BVH (Mar 24, 2018)

OUCH! That is a ton of money for a what....35 Watt HID bulb? Even if it comes potted in a reflector.


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## djjoonie (Mar 24, 2018)

XeRay said:


> I guess I nailed that price window when I said (guessed) $600 to $1000, smack dab in the middle of my range.
> If the reflector is still good, maybe they can rebuild it, reinstall a new bulb into it and cut the cost in half.





BVH said:


> OUCH! That is a ton of money for a what....35 Watt HID bulb? Even if it comes potted in a reflector.



Lol yea you nailed the price and they do come as a set with the potted reflector. ridiculous price to have a spare though:scowl:
Well I hope my original bulb doesn't go out, but it will at least be free replacement if it ever goes out.


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## bulbmogul (Mar 24, 2018)

I purchased last summer from B&H in NYC my 2nd Arc28C as it was onside for 1900 as i paid over 2500 for my first one from Surefire..


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## XeRay (Mar 26, 2018)

djjoonie said:


> Lol yea you nailed the price and they do come as a set with the potted reflector. ridiculous price to have a spare though:scowl:
> Well I hope my original bulb doesn't go out, but it will at least be free replacement if it ever goes out.



Free Replacement on a wear item ??

I answered your PM now.

Dan


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## djjoonie (Mar 26, 2018)

XeRay said:


> Free Replacement on a wear item ??
> 
> I answered your PM now.
> 
> Dan



Pm replied and yes even o-rings and switch


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