Hi express,
In reply to your pm, If your having a hard time navigating Lighthound, I would suggest using the search feature. Looking for a drop-in... search ''drop-in"(with the dash). The bar is extremely small & its about half way down the left side of the of every page. I just searched it & got exactly 50 different drop-ins. I don't have much knowledge on AA & AAA lights because I just don't have any
As far as your choice of "P60/D26" drop-ins.
XRE-R2: has lower lumens, max about 290lms w/a straight beam for throw not much beam spill. Used in a wide variety of older Streamlights & Surefires.
XPG-R5, S2: has mid range lumens, max about 350 for the R5 & 500lms for the S2 w/a straight beam with adequate beam spill. Now replacing the XRE in most of the name brand lights as they play catch up with the Chinese companies in the lumens game.
XML-T6, U2: has high lumens average about 450 to 800lms w/a floodier beam, big hotspot & very adequate beam spill. Some companies are pushing it to 1100lms.
"New''
XP-G2: Newer brother of XPG-R5 & XPG-S2. Same beam profile but higher lumens & a good neutral white. I haven't seen any in single drop ins yet. Seen it quoted around 560lms, I think..
As far as lumens go in any of these LEDs, its all about how hard they are driven. -amps.
These are the main three cree LEDs you will see on Lighthound or elsewhere. Not to confuse but there is different versions of each of those listed LEDs too.! Cool, neutral, warm, thus the different Bin tags like R5, T6 or S2, but I won't get into that, its too confusing as it is.
Candlepowerforums.com is a HUGE community of flashlight junkies & the word plethora doesn't even begin to explain the amount of knowledge to be learned on there. I suggest you check it out if your dipping your toes in building your own & trying to save moooolah cuz if you don't get it right you'll end up having to return, ship, buy, you'll be over a hundo before you know it & at that point you might as well have bought a new SF Fury an Elzetta or an tricked out Malkoff.
Batteries...
Cr123's- very long shelf life. 10yrs. Downside is, they can get pricey. But bulk ain't too bad. 3volts each. Some ppl argue availability in a SHTF situation but there around if you know where to get em, plus buy bulk & store for ten years, pretty impressive if u ask me.
Alkaline- cheap, readily available. Downside not a lot of juice & runtime to power the higher lumen lights, 2AA's end to end makes for a longer light host & might be too big for certain ppls preferences when talking the little real estate available on a SG forend. Alkalines have a 1.5 voltage, put two together you have 3v, YAY.. I can ADD HAHA!! In the drop in world, most drop-ins labeled "low voltage" mean for the use of ONE lion cell which means no more than 4.2v. You need to find something with a lower high end rating & an extremely low cut off voltage if you want those AA's to work with it. As far as I know you will not get that 350 out of that drop-in using AA's or AAA's. It kinda works like this,
http://www.lighthound.com/Lighthound-AA-Flashlight-Cree-U2-LED-_p_4130.html READ THE RATINGS BELOW, it might help explain differences. The 14500 is a AA sized lion. (Not to be confused with a energizer "lithium", its totally different) In other words you need disposable or rechargeable lions to achieve your 350 max unless your buying a complete dedicated AA light from some other company. Uggh this is confusing.. I know, explaining the best I can.:???:
Rechargeable Lions- When talking about a light that will be used everyday I would suggest these. & Yes rechargeable battery options, its just as mind boggling as the led versions.. Solarforce lights are generally produced to use 18650`s or CR123's. 16340' are rechargeable CR123's & so are RCR123's. Most rechargeables you will be putting into the light will have a 3.7volt nominal voltage. You will see the single 18650 cell drop-ins rated above 3.7 because when fully charged & hot off the charger the lions are usually 4.2volts so they produce the led driver to be able to handle that higher fresh of the charger voltage. So when deciding on what drop in you want you have to take what & how many you will be running into consideration. Rechargeable lions & IMR's will give you the most runtime & power out of any flashlight battery. Also, for a noob ( its ok..we all were once), I would only buy protected Lions, not unprotected. Disadvantages.. If you over discharge unprotected ones & then recharge, they have been known to have issues & become unstable. Lions whether they be protected or not, self discharge after so much time. I believe the amount of time were talking is months (someone correct me if I'm wrong please, I've just never tested the theory where as I use em all the time so I charge em all the time.)
In my opinion I would go with CR123's in a weapon light that might sit for years unused. Nailbender makes good drop-ins & ones dedicated for CR123's, but they can pricey... Another good Modder but not on Lighthound is a dude named Vinhguyen, you can find him on the candlepowerforums. Again, a really good place to learn everything I'm stating.
P60 HOSTS/BODIES
There are all sorts of configurations,
AAA
Built in a normal P60 size & use a special cradle to stack batteries inside of a the host.
AA
They are built longer than normal to accommodate the longer length. If they are not longer then the company will usually sell an adapter.
CR123/16340/RCR123/18650
These will be your most common host. Two CR123's are generally speaking the same length of an 18650. The diameter is just wider on the 18650, thus the reason they rattle inside of most Solar force hosts. The rattle is usually only a problem with the nit picky. Lol.
P60/D26 is an industry standard size for modular lights. Its a 34mm bezel size. I beleive it originated with Surefire & their 6P light which was modular, it stuck as the clones started to appear.
Oh yeah, I'm not a 100% sure but the L2N you mentioned in the PM doesn't take AA as far as I know. At least not without some adapter. I could be wrong though.
Here are some simple battery, light breakdown & drop-in breakdown w/the pill out of reflector comparisons for you. Biggest to smallest is 18650, RCR123, CR123, AA, AAA. All bare reflectors are P60/D26. Lights are Dereelight DBS w/a 46mm head & a custom screw in 1000lm XML-U2 pill, wicked old Surefire G2 w/a Lighthound XPG-R5, Surefire G2X w/a XP-G2 320lm, Solar force L2T w/a custom 1000lm XML-U2 drop-in.
As you said you read some of my other posts about lights, Im actually eating my words & bought a Tan Single mode Surefire G2X. Reason being is because they recently upgraded it to a somewhat respectable 320 lumens, was selling at a great price point of $66 & matches nicley with the existing Tan on my 590a1 & breaks up the black.. You can get the older 200lm versions for almost $50. That's pretty cheap for a Surefire. Only catch is, they are not rated for weapons like they're brother the 6PX, but if I was to bet, I would say they will hold up better than the Solar force on a weapon, especially a 12ga. Don't get me wrong my solar forces are awesome for there ''lego-ability'' & option to mod w/a1000lm drop in, through SF that kind of output would probably equal $600. Lol.
Also, I beleive I have the $14 Lighthound XPG-R5 drop in you are thinking of buying but in a CR123/18650 rating. Its suppose to be rated at 350lms. In comparison to the XP-G2 that is in my upgraded Surefire G2X. I personally think the G2X is brighter even though its rated less. Its also a more pleasant beam, its a neutral white compared to a cool blue with the XPG-R5. All said & done you'll probably spend about $50 - $70 after shipping & adding things you want but don't need to your cart.:grin:
So maybe that Older G2X will work for you if you looking at price points.
I'm not sure if these pics will post & I apologize for the quality, just snapped em real quick in my basement with a crap cell cam. All are P60/D26 drop-ins
Here's a $14 XPG-R5 drop-in. Supposedly 350lm.
Here is the new Surefire G2X with the XP-G2, notice the color difference. Nice neutral tone. SF Rated 320lm.
Here is a VihnGuhyen XML-U2 driven to its full potential @4.2amps somewhere around 1000lms. (According to vendor)
Here's the link for the drop-ins if you haven't already found it.
http://www.lighthound.com/search.asp?keyword=drop-in&search=GO
Here the Surefire G2X I just bought.
http://www.bravocompanyusa.com/SureFire-G2X-Tactical-Single-Output-LED-p/sf-g2x-c-tn.htm
Heres its less expensive 200lm version
http://www.bravocompanyusa.com/SureFire-G2X-Tactical-Single-Output-LED-Tan-p/sf g2x-a-tn.htm
Oh yeah, one more thing Express, Are you confused yet
? Not trying to, just a lot of options when DIY'ing. It overwhelming most the time. How are you planning mounting the light & how are you planning on activating the light? I figured these two out the hard way after purchasing all the products I needed. Are you going to use a tape switch to connect way up there to a mount on the muzzle break? Or are you going to use a railed forend & activate w/your thumb? Are you going to use an offset mount to get a comfortable angle or a straight one with a tape switch. I've found that trying to manipulate the light when its on the opposite side of my cycling hand to be really tricky, never mind in a high stress situation. Same goes for having it directly under the for end right in front of my knuckles. I found it best for me to mount it with an offset up high left side easily accessible by my thumb.
Well that's all Express, my brain is taxed for now. If this didn't help any, I would suggest calling Lighthound & asking for a tech. They have an actual store down in TX & could probably explain all that in about 2 secs as oppose to reading about it all.
If anyone would like to add to what I have said or can correct me on anything, please do as I am no guru & what I discussed really just scratches the surface of options when it comes to what Express is trying to do.
Later Y'ALL!!
Sent from my Nexus 7 using Tapatalk 2
she hates the fact that i can guess my gifts. i do know that the one present under the tree resembles 300-500 rounds of 40 s&w so hopefully shotty accessories are next....
