Tag: Seoul Semiconductor

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Ultrafire C2 modded with a Cree MC-E

Ultrafire C2 with Cree MC-E
Ultrafire C2 with Cree MC-E

In late 2007, I bought a couple of Ultrafire C2 flashlights. They were nicely made for an inexpensive flashlight and they used Cree XR-E LEDs (P4 bin).

Last fall, I modded one of my C2s with a Seoul Semiconductors Z-Power LED P7. The P7 is a quad die LED. I made it direct drive running off a single Li-Ion 18650 battery. There were mods that could be made for a circuit board to drive the P7 but I was too lazy to make one.

I recently found a 3-Mode Regulated Circuit Board for Cree MC-E and SSC P7 LEDs (SKU 1217) sold by Shiningbeam.com that advertises an output current of 2500 mA on high. It has only three modes: high, medium and low. The 17mm diameter of the board is a direct fit in many pills, including a lot of P60s and the Ultrafire C2. I used one of the boards to improve a DealExtreme P60 MC-E drop-in.

I had another of the Shiningbeam boards and a quad die Cree MC-E LED, so I decided to put them in my other Ultrafire C2.

Ultrafire C2 pill with Cree MC-E
Ultrafire C2 pill with Cree MC-E

I soldered the LED to a trimmed down DealExtreme Star Connection and Heatsink for Cree MC-E LED Emitters – Parallel (SKU 16545). I’m not sure why they call it a parallel board, because each die is separately addressable with the connections on the board. I soldered all the anodes together and all the cathodes together, so it would run in parallel.

With a fully charged Li-Ion 2400 mAh battery, I measured the current at a little over 2700 mA through the tailcap. After five minutes, the flashlight was hot, but not so hot that I couldn’t touch it. It also dimmed slightly from initial turn-on but it is still brighter than my P60 MC-E mod.

With a McClicky switch in the tailcap, this is a really nice, bright flashlight now.

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Cree MC-E LED P60 Drop-in

The current high lumen output LEDs use multiple chips on a single die. The Seoul Semiconductor Z-Power LED P7 and the Cree XLamp® MC-E LED are two examples that are in popular use by flashlight modders.

DealExtreme Cree MC-E LED 3-Mode Drop-in Module

I recently bought a DealExtreme Cree MC-E LED 3-Mode Drop-in Module ($18.30 USD) for my Surefire 6P flashlight (the 6P body is bored to work with a single 18650 battery).

The DealExtreme P60 size drop-in works with 2.7V~4.2V – a single Li-Ion 18650 battery, single RCR123A battery or CR123A battery. There is also a not too low level mode and annoying strobe mode. In the Surefire 6P host (about 5.2″ long – 13.2 cm), the DealExtreme Cree MC-E drop-in is an extremely bright flashlight in a small package. There is an extensive list of similar sized flashlights that use P60 size drop-ins in this Candlepowerforums.com thread.

DealExtreme seems optimistic in their description of the MC-E drop-in brightness as 410 lumens. It has more flood and less of a hot spot than the Malkoff M30. For comparison, my Malkoff Devices M30 output is rated at a realistic 235 lumens. My SSC P7 mod, inspired by jirik_cz, gives me the feeling that I am seeing everything. If not for the $125 USD cost, I would be all over the Malkoff M60 MC-E (NLA).

In my flickr set below, there are beamshots comparing the Cree MC-E, Cree XR-E and SSC P7. I centered the beam of each light on the scrawny tree against the fence.

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SSC P7 in an Ultrafire C2

Over at the CandlePower Forums mod discussions, the Seoul Semiconductors Z-Power LED P7 has been one of the most popular LEDs. The reason is simple: it puts out 700-900 lumens at 2800 ma. That’s very bright.

In the Home Made and Modified Lights section, jirik_cz modded his Ultrafire C2 flashlight with a SSC P7. For power, he used a Li-Ion 18650 3.7V battery directly driving the LED. It is a simple and elegant mod.

I happened to have a spare Ultrafire C2 flashlight waiting for a great idea like jirik_cz’s mod. I already had the P7 emitter (C bin) mounted on a heat sink base. An advantage of having the P7 emitter on a heat sink base is that the positive base of the bare emitter is isolated from ground.

I used a Dremel to enlarge the Ultrafire pill so the P7, on some heat sink compound, fit perfectly.

For the positive battery contact side of the pill, I stripped a 17mm diameter circuit board and soldered the LED leads to it. To accommodate the larger diameter LED, (the Ultrafire C2 uses a Cree XLamp® XR-E LED), I enlarged the hole in the reflector with a reamer.

Thanks to jirik_cz, now I have a 5″ (130mm) long flashlight that is a bright as my Roar of the Penguin.

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Some Bright LEDs

Cree LEDs and Seoul Semiconductor LEDs Cree XLamp XR-E LED Seoul Semiconductors Z-Power LED P4 (U bin) Seoul Semiconductors Z-Power LED P7 (C bin)

In an endless quest for brighter LEDs for my flashlight modding, I received some LEDs today that I ordered from DealExtreme.com. DealExtreme is a Hong Kong based vendor that sells DIY flashlight parts, among a lot of other (some interesting, some not) – junk.

Seoul Semiconductors Z-Power LED P4 (U bin)
Cree XLamp® XR-E LED (Q5 bin)
Seoul Semiconductors Z-Power LED P7 (C Bin)

Seoul Semiconductors says, “(the) Z-Power LED P7 series is single LED package providing the world highest brightness of 900 lumens and the efficacy of 90 lumens per watt to replace the conventional bulbs.”

These are all my posts about flashlights.