BLF style 18650 1s thrower( poor mans Olight M2X)

Sheesh… That was a lot of work and finicking, but it’s finished now and working.
So i have a XP-L HI in it on 12x 7135, so it’s pretty bright.

The worst part turned out to be coming up with a centring gasket…
Had to make my own from a piece of plastic tube, and had to glue it on the LED board, because:

The focussing.
Turns out i get the best result with nothing between reflector and LED board.
So the centring gasket has no bottom flange, so that it can go all the way towards the reflector.
Had i known this, i would have made the centring gasket thinner, because now it sticks out a little bit inside the reflector, slightly shrouding the sides of the LED, but probably not noticeable as a loss in output.

Thankfully the reflector doesn’t touch the + and - traces of the LED board.
I can adjust the pill from the back of the head, that’s why i made 2 slots for tweezers on the bottom of the pill.
I think i’ll put something thin (kapton tape perhaps) in between LED board and reflector for a little piece of mind eventually.

One thing i think sould be improved yet is the thermal path from pill to head, which is only the threads now.
Maybe a ring of some sorts between pill outer ledge and the head.

Dark outside now, i’ll have a look if the beam is as parallel as possible.

LOL Yeah, it was just barely screwed in there, about half a turn or something.
So i decided to recess the driver board a little, which was not easy without a lathe, but it worked out okay.

This light needed a LOT of work…

I was thinking about your comments when i was busy doing this light, and i managed to flatten the pill shelf a little with a rotary tool and a disc with some sanding paper on it.
The little cavity in the middle is still there though…

And maybe you’re right, it would be better and easier to use a big DTP board, although i wonder how it should be mounted on the pill…

Like this BLF style 18650 1s thrower( poor mans Olight M2X) - #205 by giorgoskok

Post 205

Okay, that’s just clamped between pill and reflector.
But it will make the pill even taller / longer, and then you have to cut off like 3 mm form the front end of the tube, and like 2 mm from the rear of the pill.

Here’s the result of my modding:
(click on pics to expand)

I ruined the tiny Philips head screws when i tightened them with force. :person_facepalming:
Not sure if i can get them out again…
I use a 1mm diameter copper wire (tinned) as a ring between head and pill.
That way i can tighten the pill in the head so that the threads make a good thermal path.
Raising the pill 1mm is just about right for a tight focus (fortunately).
This means the pill is not pushing the LED board against the reflector, i estimate there is around 0.3mm space between LED board and reflector.
Everything stays rather cool, i expected more heat.
I couldn’t even find my Fujik thermal goo, so i used a bit of silicone grease for better thermal conductivity (filling the gaps)
Seems to work. :slight_smile:
And silicone grease doesn’t dry out.

About the output:

Compared it with Convoy C8 with XP-L HI U6 and this Supwildfire is a lot brighter and has a considerably tighter beam. (of course)
BUT…. …then i compared it with my Brynite B158 with (one of my 2) dedomed old stock XP-G2 (bin unknown, tint was 3D i think, maybe even 3U) on 8x 7135 and the Brynite leaves them totally in the dust… I mean, totally…
…and then i took out my Jacob A60 with dedomed XP-E2 R5 on 6x 7135 and it blows this Supwildfire away too, and so does my Uniquefire UF-T20 with better (but still a bit crappy) lens and also a dedomed XP-E2 R5 on 6x 7135.

So, i think i should either have used my last good old stock XP-G2 in this light or buy another aspheric zoomer…
Yeah, i expected more…

(edit) I have a rather bright corona around the hotspot.
Maybe my reflector is not as good as others?
I don’t know…
The C8 has a similar beam pattern (but a larger projection), so i guess it’s normal…

Hmm , maybe .

With dedomed xm-l2 focus wasn’t good with 1mm . My spacer is paper thin now , and focus seems to be just about right .

I think without a spacer would be ideal , but i dont have much time to create a custom centering ring now .

You have misunderstood what i wrote. (it was not clear what i wrote)
The 1mm distance is the copper wire ring between pill and head, so it’s under the pill rim / ledge.
The space between LED board and reflector is probably only 0.3 mm.

Yep sorry.

I edited it, it wasn’t clear.

You did fine and very interesting job here with your modd but that is just to much job. For similar I guess I would need couple of hours myself.

In 26mm mod pill will not be taller and you don’t have to cut anything. It is as easy as gluing thin copper disc(have you heard about artic alumina?), file, rasp or even lathe to make everything flat to that copper disc, 26mm pcb up on top of that and you are good to with: either gluing(AA), just thinly thermal paste(reflector has fairly enough pressure to mcpcb surface), or you can even add a screw(which imho is totally unnecessary).

I think you must buy Osram Oslon Black Flat(few of them than choose the best like Djozz said).

And BTW where are lux meter results?

Edit:
“Everything stays rather cool, i expected more heat.”

That is first sign that something is not right.

Same happens with mine current modd (26mm mcpcb are still on boat) but since I have lux meter I see that I have 260 kcd in first 5 seconds and then drastically drop to 150 kcd with good old XP-G2 S3 2B. Current draw around 4.5A.

In my light I got the best focus with both the centering piece paper-thin and the reflector base sanded thinner.

I don’t have a lux meter.

Well, it turns out one of the 12 7135 is not working, i measured 3.88 Amperes.
For the rest, it is a big head, so it just doesn’t get very hot.
The thermal path is good.

To my surprise the difference between LED board touching the reflector and with a 0.5 mm (approximately) gap between them is not really clear.
It seems it doesn’t make a difference.

Djozz could possible gain happen with drilling how to say that bottom ring of reflector.

I mean on this and to totally flat that with main reflector catching surface? Possible more light catching could happen? And it seems that reflector has enough “meat” to withstand that?

Yeah, i was thinking about removing the bottom ring too.
Then you have a hole of around 21mm, so you can use a stock 20mm LED board.
(edit: i was mistaking the Courui reflector for this one…)
But how to centre it?

Centering was the main reason to keep the bottom of the reflector intact, I think it is half a mm now, so it can still hold a centering ring. The centering piece that I used neither fitted the reflector nor the led (the Black Flat is slightly bigger than the XP-G). So I had to ream the reflector hole a bit and I had to ream the hole in the centering piece a bit. It had the advantage that I could ream it to an exact tight fit so the led is really dead-center with a minimum of play while tightening the bezel (not zero play unfortunately, closing the bezel took a few tries before the hotspot was right).

Btw, I can recommend a good reamer for flashlight modding, I have this one:

Ooh that looks like a real useful tool djozz. I have just been using a small circular file and it doesn’t work great.

Djozz,

Thanks on advice. Sadly but I never thought about that tool. Now I will try to find something similar in local store.

You mentioned that Osram Oslon Black Flat is bigger than XP-G2? But you actually thought on a base not emittier itself? OBF should be XP-E2 size right?

Hey, i think i have the same one, only the handle is a little different.
I also have a smaller one.
A ‘must have’ tool i.m.o.

By the way, a while back i saw you have the same 80 Watt soldering iron as i do.
You know, the one (from Conrad?) that gets crazy hot. :smiley:

Just checked drawer and I also have something similar for accu drill

I will sacrifice one reflector and drill that circle completely in hope that reflector will catch more light.