SAiK SA-305 WW XM-L Upgrade

Looks like a sweet light for modding and gifting. I'll def. have to pick one or two up. Nice job...

Sorry to hear about your left eye. Rule #1 when grinding anything is safety glasses!

THanks! Yeah, I was wearing a filter mask for the grinding dust but didn’t figure on any chips (if there was going to be any) going anywhere but to the side but of course there was and one did. I put the safety glasses on immediately for the rest of the grinding but I guess the horse had already left the barn by that point. Live and learn.

I've recently switched to using harborfreight lab goggles after a piece of plastic came off what I was grinding and deflected under my safety glasses and into my eye.

anyway, nice mod. If you had recessed the driver into the pill, would a 26650 be closer to fitting? Are there enough threads on the tail cap to add a ring/spacer to get a few more mm? I guess if you say it won't fit...I'll take your word for it;)

Ever used devcon aluminum putty? It is a little expensive for general repair (ie where you'd use jb weld). I bed rifles with it.

It has a lot of aluminum in it. Once it has set up, if you resurface it the same as the surrounding aluminum, it looks very similar. Although I must say, I have some, and if that were my mod I wouldn't bother filling that tiny gap with it just for looks;)

Hmmm…Even with the driver flush I kind of doubt a 26650, especially a protected one, would fit. It would be very close for an unprotected cell to fit but it would be tough to have the driver flush with the bottom of the heat sink unless you raised the emitter, thickened/changed the heatsink, and modified the reflector to be shorter. To me it’s not worth it and I’d rather just go with a 26500 and keep the trouble down.

It sure would have been great if the fat body was just a couple mm fatter and longer so it could fit a 32650 cell. That would be pimp!

At least you kept your sense of humor. Wink

Glad you didn't have to go to ER. I think the SAiK would be a great stock light if they would redesign it a little and put a real emitter in it.

Honestly the real reason I didn’t want to go was having to pay a $100 deductable for the hospital visit. That would have turned this $30 total investment into a $130 torch and it would have killed me knowing what I could have just gone and bought for $130 in the first place. A V60C for example!

Hmm, looks very interesting! It seems as though that hotspot is really tight, at least compared to my MCU-C88 w/ XML, but that might be due to the distance the light was from the wall.

Another good mod for this light. Nice work.

Thanks!

Nice mod, JohnnyMac.

A 26650 will definitely not work. Maybe a 32600.

This si how it looks.

Photo from: http://laserpointerforums.com/f52/2w-saik-sa-305-26650-host-w-massive-mohrenberg-heatsink-58842-5.html

The 32600 cells are 5000mAh.

Just a thought - what about using (3) 14500's in parallel in a battery carrier? I know the existing carrier is series, could it be modded? Probably still easier to go with the 25500 cell. Really disappointed the 26650 and 32650 are a no go! This could have been nearly perfect for my need! What do you think about an XP-G driven with the 1.4A Nanjg driver in this? Stock reflector ok for XP-G too? Looking for good throw with useable spill.

How hard is it to grind the lens? Of course I'll wear safety glasses!

Oh, and what size emitter board fits the p60 pill? 16mm?

Thanks,
-Garry

Nice deatailed info and great mod. Never tought that the saik internals are that bad...

32600? I thought the body is too narrow for a 32XXX cell? Body need bored?

-Garry

Sure would be nice if a 32600 did fit. I think Old Lumens measured the battery tube I.D. at around 31mm IIRC. I will have to break out the calipers and measure mine to confirm. Perhaps older versions were a hair wider or the one in that pic was bored out a little. Rereading the pic description, that is a 26650 and not a 32650. There is quite a bit of meat in the tail cap of this beast. Perhaps someone with a lathe could easily bore out more depth in the tail cap and fit a 26650. Wouldn’t be hard to take another 5mm or metal out of it.

Unlike most 3*AA or 3*AAA carriers that are designed to be 65mm long, they appear to have made this carrier as short as possible to keep the overall length of the light down. A shame really as I'd love to be able to fit a full sized 32650 in it. Would be perfect!!

Yes 16mm, and down.

On the same forum I've found this:

But it all depends on the heatsink size and driver size combination.

Garry, I think an XP-G at 1.4A would work great.

The glass is easy to grind. just very time consuming. I went through 2 or 3 2" sanding drums on my drill press just to grind down 1 lens. Glass eats the hell out of the drums. If you have a belt sander it'd be easier I suppose.

As for 3*14500 cells in parallel I'm sure it's easily doable. Shouldn't be too hard to rebuild the battery carrier or even make a better one from scratch. I'd rather just go with a 26500 for less money and more capacity and keep the 3*AA carrier for emergency use. I'm sure if you had access to a lathe/mill you could take enough metal out of the beefy tailcap to fit a 26650 cell. That tail cap weighs almost as much as the whole rest of the light. LOL.

Hey Johnny,

Just got my Saik in and I'm thinking of maybe changing my mind to an XM-L with either the 1.4A or 2.8A driver. How is the 2.8A driver on 3 AA's? Can the AA's handle that current draw? (Thinking NiMh cells, not alkalines, but what would alkalines be like?) Thinking this light would make a good "flooder" with XM-L.

-Garry

Garry! The batteries or the holder just dont allow it to be bright with the xm-l compared with other lights. If I put in an 18650 and work it to get a connection it really comes to life. If all your using is AA cells then the 1.4A is plenty. If you want to run li-ion then a 2.8A is a must. Let me know what you end up doing. Good luck!

Johnny

Hmm. . . decisions decisions! The only LED on me right now is a DX XP-G R5 (7000k). I’d like a neutral white XM-L really, but not sure where to buy one. Any suggestions?
I’ll probably just put the XP-G in for now and maybe swap to an XM-L later. I would like to go with 3AA’s.
-Garry