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Hi old4570, nice to see you here! That is one nice mod. I'm just waiting for more stock budget lights to come out with a XPG-R bin. =)

btw, I've edited the post so the pics show up. To show pics from a URL, you need to click "Extension Components" button and "Add Images".

Then just paste the URL up top then click on the "Get Image Size" a few times until the correct size is auto-detected. Then click Insert. Done!

(No idea how to just get a nice picture icon like most other forums on the toolbar itself... If I figure that out, I'll change it. =P)

Thank you , was wondering about how to post pic .

Yes I have ordered a XP-G R5 Ultrafire C1 [ always meant to buy a C1 ] from KD . Should be in the post as I type this , and hopefully will arrive in the coming week . 

I have several XP-G R5 self made pills , so look forward to testing this one . The S2 should be out shortly , so will be upgrading several flashlights . 

Looks like Ive found some where else to post reviews on the more affordable lights . 

Wow , went over to CPF and looks like some posts have been deleted . 

CPF is becoming just a little like , how can I put this , discriminatory , dictatorial , I've run out of nice words ! 

Hi Old,

I'm intrigued by your  construction. Is that drop-in considerably brighter than the Solarforce low-voltage drop-in? Is that driver still the best choice for a 2xAA setup, or are there better ones out there? Is the spring of the driver long enough to make safe contact with the battery?

Best regards

                     Vectrex

Brightness is just a little more than the Solarforce Low Voltage drop ins with 2xAA , possibly 10 to 20 Lumen depending on the individual pill .

The spring on the driver is fine in this body [ 9P 501C ] 

Is there a better driver ??  There really is no other driver ..  KD has another buck boost driver , but for some reason it does not work with 2xAA , seems to work with 1xAA but 2xAA seems to trigger a low voltage warning in the driver .. If your looking for dedicated 2xAA and not doing swaps , then there are a lot of Boost drivers to chose from ...

http://www.kaidomain.com/CategoryPage.aspx?CategoryId=34  

http://www.dealextreme.com/products.dx/category.917

But the one linked to offers different modes / setts of modes , and a good voltage range .http://www.kaidomain.com/ProductDetails.aspx?ProductId=5313

I would like to try some others , but the product descriptions just bite ...  

Thanks for the fast reply. That's a shame that there are not more alternatives. At the moment I would go for a 2xAA only setup with modes (hi/med/low, memory) and an XP-G R5. There are some boost drivers, but they all seem to be inferior to the driver you linked. But I think for 10-20 Lumen it's not worth the effort, or maybe as a solder training for when the stock buck boost driver with 4x7135 come out.

XP-G R5 is rated to 1.5A now ... and offers 320+ OTF at said current level ..  400+ if there is no lens or bezel to get in the way . 

So 200OTF is not bad fully regulated or boosted as the case may be .  The Solarforce drivers feed a lot more current with a CR123A or 18650 ... And still offer good output with 2xAA ..

Now thats a driver I would like to buy ... 

 But for multimode and boost capable , yeah , not much to chose from . 

So you are saying it is not possible to get much more out of the 2x AA setup? Maybe I desolder my existing SF drop-in and replace the existing XR-E R2 ez900 with XP-G R5 from Kai. Hmm, I have a friend who is an electronic engineer and he likes to create PCBs, I wonder if he is willing and able to create the perfect driver for a 2xAA setup.

Possibly , but I havent tried any of the single mode boost drivers , they may be better , but KD's product description is so bad I have no idea what size they are ... 

Or much of an idea on details , they really need to pay some ones airfair to go over there and update there product descriptions in good english ! 

I ordered a Superfire 501C on Ebay with a Xenon drop-in for 8.99 $. May need to find a spacing tube, cause I hate rattling batteries. An alu or PVC tube with inner diameter of 15mm and outer diameter of 18mm should fit?

Yes 18mm OD should be fine ..

18 days after shipping my 501C arrived in Germany. I like it a lot. I like it even better than my Solarforce L2R bodies. But the rattling  is very annoying in 2xAA mode, so I sawed off an old 2AA Maglite-Clone battery tube, fits perfectly and rattling stopped completely. BTW fits very good in this bike mount and in these scope rings together with this rail. Good recommendation old4570, thanks.

No problem , I also like mine very much ..