Ultrafire C2 Archives - A Leslie Wong Blog

July 11, 2009March 25, 2019

Ultrafire C2 modded with a 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.

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.

September 24, 2008July 27, 2021

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.

November 9, 2007March 31, 2020

Ultrafire C2 Flashlight

I ordered an Ultrafire C2 flashlight after reading Ernest Sanada’s great review on CandlePower Forums, but delivery from DealExtreme.com in Hong Kong took 5 weeks. They have good prices, but you can’t expect your stuff right away.

I got impatient and ordered another C2 from BatteryJunction.com (highly recommended) – they only took 4 days for delivery.

The Ultrafire C2 uses a Cree XR-E-7090 P4 LED (PDF) which puts out up to 87.4 lumens @ 350 mA, according to Cree. What this actually means is this flashlight is really bright. The manufacturer also says, “White XLamp LEDs are tested for luminous flux and placed into luminous-flux groups.” Your flashaholic calls it binning -they test the LEDs, then throw them into “bins” depending on their output. These Ultrafire C2s use a P4 bin LED.

The Ultrafire’s exterior aluminum is available in two anodized finishes. One C2 I bought is hard anodized to type III specification – it’s gray. The Battery Junction Ultrafire uses the type II specification anodizing – it’s black.

A couple of days ago, DealExtreme came out with an Ultrafire C2 that uses the Cree XRE-7090 Q5 LED, which has a maximum luminous flux of 114 lumens @ 350 mA. What this actually means is this is really, really bright. I ordered two Cree XR-E Q5‘s on star boards from Kaidomain.com, maybe I can stick one in one of my C2s.

I’m becoming a (noob) flashaholic. The last photograph in this group proves it. It’s a beamshot comparing the AA Maglite (using fresh AA alkaline batteries) and the Ultrafire C2 (using RCR123A 3.7v Li-Ion batteries), taken with a Nikon D70, 18-70mm lens at 55mm, color temperature – 5700K, ISO 400, .7 sec., f8. I’m not sure how meaningful this beamshot is, because it was taken from about 15 feet, but it shows the relative brightness for comparison.

AA Maglite and Ultrafire C2 Flashlight beamshot — AA Maglite (left) – Ultrafire C2 (right) Camera: Nikon D70, 18-70mm lens at 55mm, ISO 400, .7 sec., f8 from about 15 feet