Cree Led Bulb R5 3.7-18V 500 Lumens for Surefire Flashlight Torch C2 G2 Z2 P60 P61 6P 9P G3 S3 D2

I moved some rather important points to the top of the review, so they wouldn't be buried at the end... I finally got around to some testing, and...For the record, the ones I bought from IT Mall were *NOT* Cree chips, but LatticeBright. LBs are perfectly serviceable chips, but are *not* Cree, so that was a bit of sloppy advertising. Efficiency-wise, they're a few steps behind Cree, so won't be as bright for the same input current. Just be clear about this. So if you're okay with that, then these modules will be perfectly fine.More importantly, though, these are *ABSOLUTELY NOT* meant for anything beyond a single Li cell, 4.2V *TOPS*. With a single 18650, I was getting 0.9A at the tailcap, perfectly reasonable for maybe 3W. With 2 18350s for a *very* short time, current spiked to almost 3A (at double the voltage!!), and the LED went dim and *very* blue. In short, that's cooking the crap outta the LED. Kids, do *NOT* try that at home. A second or two just to get a reading was more than enough. Back to 1 cell, it survived its ordeal and went back to normal, but you do *not* want to try that, unless you *want* your innocent LatticeBright chip to die a horrible fiery death.So, no, it's not a bucking regulator (brightness should have held constant and tailcap amps *halved* with 2 cells), nor is it even regulated. As in not even any 7135s to keep the LED from frying, just crowbarred right across the battery. Damn, I gotta drop that from 5 stars down to 3 at best. It'll work fine in a cheapie host, bright with decent runtime, but damn, *don't* try it with 2 cells!Now, aesthetics...After being driven batty with incessant 5-mode nonsense in like *every* single UF host, I decided to get a nice 1-mode drop-in to replace at least some of them. I don't understand this fetish for strobe and SOS and other blinky modes, and if you're using different brightness levels, start with *low* and go higher, eh? Makes no sense to blind yourself in a dark room with max-lumens and then throttle down (forget about having any night-vision left), when my Foursevens does it right and starts out in firefly mode and then progresses to brighter levels (before going into idiotic strobe/beacon/SOS modes, ugh).So, now I have some nice 1-mode donks when I need something to daylight a dark hallway or backyard. In a '501 or '502, the orange-peel reflector smooths out the beam somewhat, eliminates most artifacts, and gives some rather useful spill all around. If I need a pencil-beam for spotting owls in trees, I'll use my C8 with less waste. (Oh, if only I could find a nice bright 1-mode drop-in for *that*...)I honestly can't tell just by eyeballing it if these happen to be true 500lm modules, as they don't seem *that* bright as far as the hotspot (about comparable to my C8), but the spill is significant, so that might be where the rest goes. I'd be happy if they're actually just 300lm, as that's plenty bright, and I have *zero* complaints about these.On the bright (haha) side, at least nobody's claiming 1200lm, like everyone and his grandmother are doing...Anyway, I bought 2, but should've bought 4 or 5 instead at the price I paid. They're well worth it. (Update: at the 5bux I paid, still so, if only for the pill and reflector, or just throwing into a cheapie host.)Oh yeah... me personally? Unless I actually *see* an inductor on the driver-board, I assume they're linear-only and good for only one Li cell, like 3.0-4.2V. These might very well be switchers and can handle up to 18V, but I'm content with powering them with a single cell and just not taking the chance. Maybe someone else can confirm if they can handle multiple cells without going poof. Or measure tailcap amps with 1 and 2 cells, see if 2 cells ~halves the current vs 1 cell.(Update: did that... and almost regret doing so. Bloody Hell...)

I was skeptical about this upgrade when I ordered it, but figured that I could afford to give it a try for $10.HOLY MOTHER OF GOD!!!!!! I used it to upgrade the old 90 lumen Surefire weapon light I keep on a home defense gun--it is now easily 3x brighter with a good white center spot and quite a bit more peripheral throw than the original head. I doubt that it's really 500 lumen...probably closer to 300 based on a comparison with my Surefire LX2 Lumamax.(rated at 200) This new head does have more spill, so it's not going to increase the distance of the beam much, but indoors, it lights up the whole room--which is pretty much what I was looking for. At hallway distances it's BRIGHT. (I flashed myself in the mirror 30 minutes ago and I'm still seeing spots.)Seriously, if you have an old incandescent 6P (or a flashlight that uses a P60 head) this is a very inexpensive way to boost the output into retina burning territory.I didn't give it 5 stars for 2 reasons: This part shipped from China and took about a month to arrive....but for 10 bucks, it was worth the wait.The other reason is that I want to see how well it holds up to recoil and use before giving it full marks.

I purchased a used Pelican P6 from a friend for a great price. The original bulb was considered bright back in its day (65 lumens), but just doesn't cut it for a tactical flashlight anymore. I purchased this product and it dropped right in once I carefully removed the large spring as others described here. Running on two CR 123 batteries, I cannot believe the difference! The light is well focused at the center and is intense. I don't have a way to measure, but I'd say it's well over 200 lumens, maybe closer to 300. I gauge that by comparing it to a couple other lights I own with known output.This was a cheap and effective upgrade to an otherwise outdated light. I plan to do the same to an old Surefire light I have.The only issue I found is the rim of the reflector is a bit thick in my particular application. When I screw the light's bezel back on, it doesn't screw back down to where it was. The new bulb assembly is solidly installed, however.Next question is "How long will it last?" I suppose it should be much more durable than the traditional bulb it replaced. I'll be plenty happy if I get a couple years use out of it.

The light is extremely bright and brought my Surefire G2 back to life even with half dead batteries. However it take some engineering to make it work properly. First the outer spring needs to be removed for the light to fit since it is too long. The problem is that the outer spring is used to complete the circuit. If you look inside the light body you can see a metal ring that the outer spring is supposed to rest on to complete the circuit. Not only is the outer sprint too long, but it is also too large in diameter to make contact with the metal ring. To solve the problem I sacrificed the original surefire bulb by removing the outer spring which is smaller then the led replacement spring. I then placed the original surefire spring on to the new bulb and dropped it into place. The head screwed on all the way down nice and tight and the light works perfectly. My original incandescent bulb will no longer work since the spring was soldered on, but I have no intentions of ever going back to it so that it was worth the sacrifice a light that is bright as daylight and last longer on the batteries.