Mod Advice For a Cheapo Flashlight (switch issue)

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.

Here’s an update on my flashlight mod.

I feel a little silly having a post just for a cheapo flashlight mod, given the other post devoted to the awesome flashlight mods that occur daily here on BLF: What did you mod today?

But for those that are interested, thank you for letting me indulge in your time.

I have come up with a design that I think will work.

In regards to the thermal transfer, here’s my solution. It’s a brass nut that just barely fits into the flashlight head.


Once I modified the existing driver and used the existing LED, it’s very close in length to the original plastic pill.




There is enough room between the nut sides for the wires.

The 1 outstanding issue I had with this flashlight was with the retaining nut. It is thin, hard to put into place, and even harder to remove. Very frustrating to work with! So I went to my local hardware store for a replacement. They didn’t have anything even close and suggested that I contact the manufacturer of the flashlight. Very funny. It even broke while I was at the store since it was very brittle. Argh!
This was a deal breaker for me. If I’m not able to have a suitable retaining nut for the flashlight, it didn’t seem worth spending any more time modifying the flashlight, let alone spending any money on it.
Rather than just throwing flashlight into the garbage, here’s how I spent 2+ hours making a retaining nut.






Success! Much, much better than the original.
And, does the flashlight still work after all this?

Yes! Now I’m awaiting my new parts and will post an update once I’m done.

After some additional research here on BLF, I have tweaked my design from a “hollow” pill to a “solid” pill. I was able to get a ½ inch copper cap from my local farm and fleet store for $0.38 (JMF Copper Pipe Cap). It appears to be a better option since copper conducts heat better than brass and there will be more surface area next to the LED MCPCB.

Initially I thought the heavier brass nut would be better since it should be able to absorb more heat, but it seems it is more important to move heat faster away from the LED.

It will be more work since I’ll need to shorten the copper cap, drill holes for the LED wires, and create a way to support the driver for the positive terminal of the battery, but I think it will be worth it.

From left to right, the original plastic pill, brass nut (10.1 grams), and copper cap (6.0 grams, but probably around 5 grams after shortening).

I’m looking forward to getting the driver and LED from Mountain Electronics and putting everything together.

Any thoughts or suggestions are always welcome.

Just wanted to give a quick update on my mod. I have not given up and have spent quite a bit of time and effort (but not money) on making this cheapo flashlight better. I will create a new post that shows the steps I took rather than just adding on to this post. Trust me, the end result was worth it.

But here’s something that I learned along the way.

I wanted the current plastic reflector to have more flood. So I connected the new Nichia LED to some batteries to experiment.

Here’s what the reflector looked like on the ceiling.

I thought shortening it would make it floodier.


Here is the result of my brilliant idea (are you sitting down?).

Yuck! Very disappointing, but I learned that I shouldn’t be messing around with reflectors.

And 1 more issue. I’ve noticed now that the flashlight has the new driver and LED, the reverse clicky switch is temperamental, especially when on high. It is not noticeable on low, and minimal on medium. But when on high, any movement of the switch makes the LED flicker and the lumens fluctuate. Sometimes it’s very bright, sometimes it’s close to the medium mode. I’ve swapped the switch from the other same cheapo flashlights, but the same thing happens. Apparently the flashlight is cheap from head to tail. So I ordered a new switch from my favorite flashlight store: Omten 1217 Reverse Clicky Switch 250V 1.5A
Hopefully this will resolve this issue.

if u use this emitter u might not need to mess with the reflector. it seems to be the same size and height as the original except it is warm white.

Gotta start somewhere and cheap mods are a great place to practice your chops.

You could always omit the reflector and make it a mule!

I think you may be right Prometheus. But I was really tempted by the infamous “Nichia” LED. I did swap the reflector from another 1 of those cheapo flashlights and now it looks much better. And I was able to put the shortened reflector back into the other cheapo flashlight along with a conical washer to bring it back to it’s original glory self, so no loss.

Agreed. Even though it’s costing me more than the flashlight would ever be worth, it’s been fun and a great learning experience.