Trotto Blog

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10-11-06	McGizmo U2A3 Mod

This is a modified Surefire U2 that I won in an auction that Don (McGizmo) held on CPF. Don took a stock Surefire U2 and replaced the stock head with one of his Aleph3 heads. The bottom of the stock head, which contains the selector ring, led and driver, were left alone. The top of the head was removed, and the Aleph3 head was externally threaded to fit on the remaining stock U2 head. Here is the U2A3 shown next to a stock U2 and L5.

The Aleph3 reflector is both a larger diameter, and deeper than the stock U2 reflector. It also has a bit more aggressive orange peel surface.


The U2A3 hotspot is alot tighter, and the side spill is just a bit wider, although maybe slightly dimmer. But there is NO doughnut hole effect past just a couple feet. The A3 head is not all that much larger then the stock U2 head, and I may start to EDC the U2A3 in place of the stock U2.


As stated in the auction, the U2A3 has a problem with its level selector ring. Instead of the usual 1 through 6 levels, it is missing levels 3 and 4. It steps up through the levels as so: 1, 2, 1, 2, 5, 6 This is not a huge deal, as I found I used level 1 and 6 the most anyway. The light is still worth more than what my winning bid was, especially after Don's extremely generous 20% off discount he gave to all the auction winners.
I did come comparisons of the three lights, and how the beam patterns performed. I think that my stock U2 may be putting out slightly more lumens, due to the Luxeon lottery. So the comparison may not be completely fair. But I was mainly comparing the beam shape itself. The stock U2 is very nice indoors, with short to medium range. It may actually be the better choice for shorter distances. The U2A3 has a bit more throw, which is noticeable once you use the lights outdoors. I noticed it could reach the tree tops alittle better at a couple hundred feet. I need to use the lights alittle more in the real world, but I think overal, I like the U2A3 beam better. The beam is more uniform and there is no doughnut hole what so ever beyond a few feet. The stock U2 still has a slight hole, with a bit of warmer tint in the middle.

As I expected, the U2A3 is yet another outstanding creation by Don. I have a couple other A3 heads that I still need to assemble, one of them will definitely be using a Luxeon5 setup. The A3 has the best Luxeon5 beam I have ever seen.