Surefire Shotgun Forend WeaponLights LED Upgrade

[_CY_]

Surefire Shotgun Forend WeaponLights LED Upgrade

LED drop-in upgrades have been available for Surefire incandescent lights using P-60 bulbs for quite sometime. So upgrading Surefire Shotgun Forend light on my Scattergun Technologies TR870 was a natural choice.

Stock P-60 incandescent bulb puts out about 60 lumens out the front end with a fairly short runtime. New Cree P-60 drop-in puts out 300+ lumens out the front end at 1,000 milliamp current draw.

with the advent of Cree LED emitters ... overnight lumens doubled for the same current consumption. improvement in lumen output and just as important ... color range of light output.

incandescent lights have always enjoyed a huge advantage in perceived illumination for outdoor use. Indecent bulbs achieve this through generating many different wavelengths of light to arrive at final output. vs LED emitters put out a very narrow range of light.

some folks prefer a warm temperature shifting to green... others prefer a cooler temperature of light shifting to blue. with a majority of folks preferring a bright white light towards blue.

This mod requires either a reaming tool or a lathe. since new drop-in P-60 modules upgrades come out all the time... it's better to mode the light to accept what has become a standard size P-60 module. which has a larger diameter than original P-60 bulb.

P-60 bulb next to aftermarket Cree P-60 drop-in

Surefire flashlight tube bore is enlarged in a lathe to accept Cree P-60 drop-in

Beamshot leaning towards blue for new Cree P-60 drop-in

 

[Dr_Mitch]

This is awesome. It seems strange to have to modify the light to accept something with the same designator, "P-60".

 

[HiredHand]

Is the Cree bulb more tightly focused that original p-60? When did the new larger diameter P-60 become the new standard?

 

[repete34]

Surefire sells conversion kits also...

http://www.surefire.com/ConversionKits

http://www.surefire.com/WeaponLightAccessories

Simply remove the bezel and P60L, P60, or P61 emitter currently installed on the flashlight and screw on the KX4 LED head to convert.

http://www.surefire.com/KX4-LED-Conversion-Head

 

[_CY_]

thanks for pointing out Surefire's conversions... this is one of the few time, Surefire is doing catchup. P-60 conversions were out for several years before Surefire offered them.

these P-60 drop-in will work fine in Surefire 6P type lights. but will not drop-in some Surefire weapons lights, which has slightly smaller internal dimensions.

here's the info for what I ordered for $11.80 shipped VS Surefire module for $90 with less output.

note Cree XP-G R5 is currently the highest output available without doing a custom module yourself.

the catch is knowing what module to order... Deal Extreme is a reputable company that I've been ordering from for 4+ years.

here's the link for the module in single mode... you don't want multi mode for this conversion.

http://www.dealextreme.com/details.dx/sku.32953

Cree XP-G R5 5-Mode 320-Lumen White Light LED Drop-in Module (26.5mm*29.3mm/18V Max)

here's a link to all the drop-in available from deal extreme
http://www.dealextreme.com/search.dx/search.Cree Drop-in Module for Surefire 6P

deal extreme offers free shipping on all their products... no matter how small... excellent customer service.

Surefire sells conversion kits also...

http://www.surefire.com/ConversionKits

http://www.surefire.com/WeaponLightAccessories

Simply remove the bezel and P60L, P60, or P61 emitter currently installed on the flashlight and screw on the KX4 LED head to convert.

http://www.surefire.com/KX4-LED-Conversion-Head

 

[_CY_]

good question with a strange answer...

the original P-60 LED replacement was developed on Candlepower Forums (CPF). naturally a real Surefire P-60 Bulb was used as a base or mule.

a ton of engineering was put into a Surefire incandescent bulb.
a robust and long live bulb coupled with shock system resulted in a product that was the best in the world.

the modders at CPF used the reflector, etc to make the world's first P-60 drop-in using a three watt Luxeon LED emitter and single stage buck/boost circuit.

then a group buy was put together for a small run of P-60 drop-in.
from that first group buy... every Chinese mfg copied each other from that original design.... resulting in a new standard size P-60 drop-in.

fast forward to today... from that initial CPF flashlight mod... an entire sub category of flashlights has spawn.

http://www.dealextreme.com/search.dx/search.Cree Drop-in Module for Surefire 6P

here's an old pic testing a Ubin Luxeon emitter...

[Broken External Image]

Is the Cree bulb more tightly focused that original p-60? When did the new larger diameter P-60 become the new standard?

 

[okkaps]

I upgraded my forend a while back and thought it was strange it didn't "drop in" since it took the P60 also. I also upgraded my Surefire weaponlight and it was truely a "drop in" thankfully. I don't have a lathe so I made necessary adjustments with the spring...it works no complaints.

+1 for dealextreme and the Cree drop in. A HUGE improvement for around 10 bucks is a no brainer!

 

[Glocktogo]

I just went with a Malkoff Devices drop in when I upgraded my last incandescent.

 

[_CY_]

looks like there's a new Cree out... XML T-6
almost ordered another drop-in tonight

probably should wait a bit to see how things shake out with the new emitters.

 

[Glocktogo]

I need to get another drop in, this time for my C2 Centurion. Who has the best deals on the latest drop-in's?