Mod Advice For a Cheapo Flashlight (switch issue)

No pics and no thumbnails. :frowning:

no images, no thumbs

I cant see them either…. you need to upload to an image host, copy the sharable link URL and post those here.

I use photobucket, but there are others.

The ?’s are still small but the boxes they were in are full size so that’s an improvement. :wink: how are you posting the images?

I question how i SAW THEM FINE, then they disappeared…

Is the hoster down?

They are hosted on some sort of Google site / service. I have seen people having problems with posting some Google hosted images on forums before. I forget the solution, but do believe there is one.

the solution is…

photobucket

Hi everyone, sorry for the technical difficulties! I tried so hard to make Google Photos work, but eventually gave up.

The first time I tried to submit a picture to BLF I created a Flickr account, but I didn’t use it since it seemed Google Photos was working. What’s strange is that the pictures looked fine when I viewed the postings, but apparently that was due to me being logged into Google.

I’m glad that I finally got this figured out and thank you for your patience.

If you put a new led and star it’s going to sit much lower in the light.
Right now the led is very tall and provides the dimension to hold the reflector against the lens.
IMO I don’t think this light is worth modding.

Not worth much, plastic pill, so no thermal path. You might be able to swap an original XR-E in there and get some better output, if you have spares laying around in your kit.

I don’t think dedoming would be worth trying in that light, but I have seen some of those cheap emitters where the dome was just a clear protective plastic cap…

In fact, you could probably find a better fried egg style emitter than what’s in there, but I don’t think it would be worth it. I give lights like that to little kids as toys since they won’t start fires or blind anyone with them.

what about just making a metal pill to replace the plastic one? looks like maybe a press fit on the plastic pill? if its a press fit, its do-able…

I’m just so excited that everyone can see the pictures!

My main goal for a modification would be to change the tint to be more neutral, not for any more lumens. I’d be fine with less lumens as long as the tint was improved.

Is there a LED that would work with the current driver?

Would this one work: Nichia 219C D280 on 16mm Noctigon - 80+ CRI 5000K

Or would it not be compatible?

thats one of those ~1 watt emitters, so it probably sees ~350mah

You could try replacing it with a better emitter on a 16mm board. It will have no thermal path and no mass beyond the MCPCB though, and its anybodys guess how well the die sits relative to the focal point of that reflector. I don’t think todays cree emitters generate much heat at that current… let others correct me though. A more experienced member could probably tell you exactly what that driver does just by looking at it.

Looks like an old Souel P4 emitter so any 3V led should work. If you like the host then modding is worth the time, if you don’t like the host to begin with then don’t bother. Justin would go for it and solder up some copper bits into a new pill. Why not?

Thanks everyone for your suggestions and info.

I’m leaning towards making this my first flashlight mod.

I will spend some time this weekend trying to figure out how to make a thermal path for the LED. Not that it’s really needed due to the low current, but just to see if I can. And I think I should be able to get the reflector to work with a shorter LED since the pill and reflector are press fit against the lens.

My only reservation so far is how well will the new Nichia 219C D280 on 16mm Noctigon - 80+ CRI 5000K work.

  • Will the lumens be adequate? I don’t want to end up with a flashlight that’s always in moonlight mode.

Any assurances that the new LED should be fine would be appreciated.

Hi,

A lot of cheap lights are built/designed like the one you have, i.e., there is no real “pill” or at least no metal pill to hold the emitter board and the driver. Instead, probably because it is cheaper, they just use a plastic or rubber tube and shove the emitter board on one end and the (inevitably no-mode) driver board on the other end.

You can try to just replace the emitter board with a similarly sized emitter board with a desired emitter, and maybe glue it to the front of the plastic tube, but a better way is to get a piece of copper pipe (take the light tube with you to Home Depot or Lowes and try different sizes). I think that that there’s one size (1/2” - try before you buy) that will fit, diameter wise, then you can cut a length needed (you’ll need to do some measuring and maybe filing to get the length right), and glue (or just sit it on one end) the new emitter+emitter board to one end of the of the cut copper tube. Then get a driver (e.g., one of the Nanjgs that fit) and solder that to the other end of the copper pipe and now you have your “light engine”.

Then, it looks like the emitter board goes up against the reflector (make sure you insulate the contacts on the emitter board if the reflector is metallic) and put the rest of the light together.

Then you’ll have your first mod (and a MUCH better light :laughing:!!

BTW, if you are going to mod all 5 lights, make sure you record the final length of the cut copper tube so you can replicate.

Jim

EDIT: Better yet (I forgot about this since it’s been awhile) is that Home Depot/Lowes has copper “caps” that I think can fit into a AA light. The “dome” or closed end of the caps are kind of rounded, so I had to sand /file them down to flat, but then the emitter board/MCPCB sits right on there. Then you drill holes on the top to let the emitter wires through and either glue or solder the driver to the other end.

EDIT 2: Here’s an old thread (there were several where I was going back and forth with q&a): Police Light Mod (pic heavy).

Thanks for the info and advice ohaya. And I really appreciate you passing along that 3 year old thread! Looks very similar to what I need to do.

If all you do is change to a Nichia on a 16mm mcpcb then you’ll likely be quite pleased. If you change the pill to a modified copper pipe cap with an inexpensive boost driver using eneloops you would be thrilled. That same copper cap pill with a 105C driver using a 14500 will blow you away. At least for as long as the switch lasts. With most inexpensive lights the biggest issue is poor grounding from a poor mechanical connection and poor quality switches than melt at higher current.

Perfect timing Rufusbduck! I was just about to order a new LED, and then decided to also order a boost driver for only $2 more AA / AAA Small Boost Drivers - Various Models & Modes . “Thrilled” sounds good to me.

I prefer to keep this an AA flashlight, especially given your warning about the tail switch. And also since my kids will probably use it too.