# 1000 lumen 18V Worklight mod 20W Xenon vs. MTE P7



## ma_sha1 (Jan 31, 2009)

18V Lowes Firestorm work light is modded with 
12V 20W Feit MR16 Xenon (Home depot $9 for 2) , 38 degree, 5000hr bulb.
MR16 ceramic holder was fit into ceramic E27 socket & held in place with a
home made circle wood piece. opening is blocked by carbon fiber trim. 

Picture
MTE P7 on left & 20W Xenon Work light mod at right. 







Beam shot:
20W Xenon work light left & P7 right





Summary,

18V overdriven 20W Xenon is estimated to deliver ~1000 lumen of output,
(only 500 lumen if driven at regular 12V). 
The flood beam is very bright, but very easy to the Eye. 
Excellent for in door use on shot duration job. Get really hot after 15 minutes & 1/2 hr use may possibly melt some plastics even it's not touching. The original nasty & dim beam was turned into a beautiful bright light that has about 2x the P7 out put. 

MTE p7 looks like has about 1/2 of the total lumen out put, with a slightly brighter center spot. Beam is hash & cold, not easy to the eyes at all.
Not really ideal for indoor use as its much more harsh to the eyes. Out door is fine & the flashlight does look nice & well made, get worm but not really hot after 15 min.


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## ma_sha1 (Jan 31, 2009)

MTE P7 2 mode


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## NorCal2500HD (Mar 3, 2009)

I have the same firestorm light and the output is terrible......time to pop a LED in it......


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## 4D223 (Mar 3, 2009)

Awesome mod,  and it seems like it was not to involved/complicated to do. What sort of run time do you get with it. I have a 18v Makita work light which is begging to have something similar done it as the existing incan PR bulb drains the battery in about 30-35 minutes.
great beam shots to.
Pete


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## ma_sha1 (Mar 3, 2009)

I don't know about Run Time, as I only run it about 15 Min,
The plastics is getting pretty hot even it's not touching the bulb 
(1/2'" away).

It's so much more light than the P7, light up the whole room,
and the color is whihter than normal drive Halogen but not as pale as the P7,
really pleasing light. 

The battery looks pretty big, I am guessing 0.5 to 1hr Run time? 
For longer run time, perhaps 10W would be better. 
or a decostar IRC 20W (Less heat), so it can be kept on longer?

The beam before mode was so incredible ugly, even a 10W MR16 bulb mode would still make night & day difference.


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## copperfox (Mar 3, 2009)

Not to rain on your parade, but I don't think 20W incan = 1000lm.
For comparison, the ROP HO overdriven is ~37W and it is only ~700lm OTF.


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## ma_sha1 (Mar 4, 2009)

The 12v Industrial long life MR16 has a much better efficiency response to overdriving than ROP Hi 6V PR Bulb. 

*Take a look of this thread:*
https://www.candlepowerforums.com/threads/214493
on Post #4, from Modcod. Stating >1000 Lumen 

*Then take a look at this chart:*
http://i61.photobucket.com/albums/h75/pike444/bulbs/W-4743.jpg

At 18V, the Halogen 12V MR16 is >1000 Lumen. 
A freshly charged 18V battery can be as much as 20-21V,
therefore, per the chart, it may even put out ~1500 Lumen.

The ROP High is nice, but the 6V PR bulb is less efficient than 12V industrial MR16. You can overdrive the pelican ROP 6V PR bulb until it bursts, but you won't get the same level of efficiency gain. 



copperfox said:


> Not to rain on your parade, but I don't think 20W incan = 1000lm.
> For comparison, the ROP Hi overdriven is ~37W and it is only ~700lm OTF.


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## copperfox (Mar 4, 2009)

I said I don't think 20w incan = 1000lm and I'm right. By running the MR16 at 18+ v it's more like 37w:



mdocod said:


> At ~18.5V it will run ~37W, and be producing roughly 1091 bulb lumen. Your bulb may vary.



You didn't state the current running through your bulb, so I could not compute the actual wattage. 

Pelican calls the big-D high-output bulb 6v, 24W and the low 6v, 11w, but when you overdrive them, they are higher wattage. I'd never call my ROP a 6v 24w light because it's not. It doesn't matter what the mfgr rated the bulb to run at, it matters what you are running it at. 

So MR16 is not much more, if any, efficient than ROP HO. Both are ~37w ~700lm OTF.


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## 4D223 (Mar 6, 2009)

:thinking:Can I ask how you connected the 2 pins of the bulb to the Firestorms power supply? Did you use a standard ceramic socket and wires and then solder the wires or did you do a direct solder/wire. On my 18volt Makita torch I have very little room so I am scratching my head a little trying to work out a solution . Any help would be appreciated, (I'm a noob at modding) Thanks
Pete


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## ma_sha1 (Mar 6, 2009)

I used a MR16 bi-pin ceramic holder, so I can change bulb easily. Which you can get on ebay or Google it up somewhere. It's pretty cheap. like $3-4.

The MR16 holder comes with long lead wire which I connected to wires that 
come out from the light. 

The ceramic holder is pretty small, so I put that into a standard light bulb medium base ceramic base & then hold the medium base it in place with a wood circle piece I made that touches the plastic shell. If you connect the MR16 base directly to plastic, it may be too hot.


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## jasonck08 (Mar 6, 2009)

If the plastic is getting hot, I'd recommend doing the following. Get some high temperature RTV sealent / slicon and smear it on the inside of the light near where the bulb is. This will heat-proof the plastic. I did this to a PVC hotwore I made... works quite well...


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