I used a tough little knife, Buck Strider Mini, and worked around til the bezel was loose enough to remove. Filed down a 16mm Noctigon til it fit in place of the stock aluminum mcpcb, then used a 365nm UV light to locate a preferred XM-L2 tint in my bins… as it so turned out I removed one of the 4 XM-L2 U2’s that came in my Nitecore TM16 (it has XHP-35’s now)
Thinned the Noctigon a bit to match the stock thickness, leaving it a hair tall…. bezel and TIR went back in nicely and it now has a near perfect neutral tint, probably a 1D to make a guess at it (Nitecore doesn’t specify tint bin)
My mom’s pearl white Buick LaCrosse looks splendid in the light from this S1A now so I’m happy with it.
No scratches, no gap, looks stock but has the nicer tint. A win for sure. Thanks for clearing up the style of bezel for me, appreciate it.
Beam before modification… the plant light is a Cree COB rated at 93CRI for comparison sakes…
(…)
The solid copper S1A in Rose Gold PVA…after the mod…
(…)
And the beam after the mod, much nicer color! The picture on the wall is a 16×20 canvas of my son when he was little.
(…)
The ceiling tiles, for white balance perception, are white styrofoam.
Dale, can you please tell the diameter of the LED plate? Or, if you can’t say that, can you tell me what diameter the flashlight take (14mm or 16 mm)?
Thank you in advance
I think it was a 14mm MCPCB, I’ll measure it here directly and let you know. Took a good bit of filing on a 16mm Noctigon. Had to thin the Noctigon down some too.
I think it was a 14mm MCPCB, I’ll measure it here directly and let you know. Took a good bit of filing on a 16mm Noctigon. Had to thin the Noctigon down some too.
Thank you Dale I thought it would be 14mm too, but couldn’t be sure! These are only measurements for a future mod
Thanks
Nice work Steel! Sweet pics too, thanks for sharing!
At least it has a chunk of heat sink that’s one piece, so maybe it did need a little tightening up, fairly easily corrected it looks like and now it’s a very sweet light, good job all around!
Well, maybe not *the* moon, but moon levels, at least.
I added dynamic CPU underclocking and some idle modes to make low levels more efficient. The result is that moon mode runtime went up by about 3X or 4X.
Calling all cars! Or tinkerers. I have a gutted novatac Wichita that I want to become a Flashlight again. It needs the driver, led, reflector and lens. Wondering who has the time they can undertake this project for me in the USA. My screen name at aol is my address if you want pics of the light from me.
The tail switch is intact and I don’t expect you to work for free. I prefer to put a nw led. I would love to have a photo red in it. If you can put a triple in there with a secondary red led running a ramping driver, I’d be ecstatic!!! You can skip the alligator grips, Swarovski button, and tri-color gold lanyard. Pm me for suggestions
Well, maybe not *the* moon, but moon levels, at least.
I added dynamic CPU underclocking and some idle modes to make low levels more efficient. The result is that moon mode runtime went up by about 3X or 4X.
What firmware did you make this change in?
That was in Anduril. I haven’t tried to apply the change to other FSM UIs, but it would probably be pretty trivial for most of them.
Modded a Sipik 98. Replaced the driver with a DrJones H17F. Replaced emitter with a dedomed SST40 on copper Noctigon.
I don’t have any Toluene so dedomed the emitter by slicing it with an x-acto knife while the LED was just below reflow temperature. The driver space in the pill fit a 20mm driver. Fortunately I had a brass 17mm—>20mm driver adaptor ring from Mountain Electronics on hand.
The light has a hollow pill. I didn’t build a heatsink to put under the pill, but I was very generous in applying Arctic Silver 5 to the edges. of the star.
Light works perfectly. It’s bulkier than my other zoomies, but also much brighter and throwier.
I’m undecided if I want to further mod this light. Additional mods I’m considering:
Shorten the light – easiest way is to reduce the length of the pill, back of the head, or the heat sink fins. There’s a lot of empty space in the pill that could be salvaged. Might be able to reduce the length of the light 1 cm.
mod tailcap to make it illuminated.
apply sideswitch mod like I did with the smaller Aleto N8 a few years ago. The sideswitch mod is fairly difficult, but applying it would allow me to take another cm off the length of the light and switch the UI to the D4 UI.
I waved my magic Grizzly at a bar of aluminum and turned it’s heart into gold. Er, well, copper anyway.
The copper pill is 35mm diameter and 35mm deep, with the top 10mm smooth and mated to the aluminum battery tube, the lower 25mm is threaded at 0.75mm thread pitch and has a driver bay cut in. This will be DBC-06.
I waved my magic Grizzly at a bar of aluminum and turned it’s heart into gold. Er, well, copper anyway.
The copper pill is 35mm diameter and 35mm deep, with the top 10mm smooth and mated to the aluminum battery tube, the lower 25mm is threaded at 0.75mm thread pitch and has a driver bay cut in. This will be DBC-06.
Nice job on that one. Looks like it should carry the heat well for whatever monster you create out of it…..lol
Thanks robo, the tube is bored for a single 32650 due to it’s 6000mAh capacity. I have the reflector out of my Olight SR-90 Intimidator and am working out how to mount it, so I’m going for a thrower here… when I first got the Intimidator I had it doing 665Kcd in the big light with a de-domed XM-L2, so I’m hoping with the better emitters out today I can hit a mile. That’s the project goal anyway.
I’ve got a big 4 1/4” diameter chunk of 6061 in the chuck of the lathe and need to get back out there spinning it up…
Edit: Will try to remember to shoot a pic of this massive hunk of aluminum in the 5” jaws, before my hands get all oily and dirty.
It is a LiFePO4 battery so nominal voltage 3V instead of 3.7, that makes its use a bit special.
Special, like using a boost driver to increase voltage?
Could be needed, or use two in series with buck driver.
Or for a modern led like 219C, XP-L2 or Luxeon V, a LiFePO4 cell together with a lineair or direct driver will form a very efficient flashlight, although the led will not quite be driven to the max.
It is a LiFePO4 battery so nominal voltage 3V instead of 3.7, that makes its use a bit special.
3.2v actually, but yeah you would need a boost driver for most LEDs.
For me, even with a 1s flashlight I would like a boost driver because I thoroughly hate direct drive.
I think it would be pretty crazy if someone built a flashlight to use these massive batteries though
It’s been a while since I started to think about this, but as I am not a chemist, I took a while to perceive that I had at home all I needed!
So, today I decided to mod the Sofirn SF10 host!
Sure;) I followed djozz video in some things, so the process was quite simple, despite the precautions that must be taken.
In detail:
1 – I took everything out of the flashlight (internals, o-rings, clip)
2 – I put black adhesive tape on the threads to avoid water from entering, BUT during the process I ended up taking the tape out because this particular host can be ALL stripped, inside and outside, as there are no ways to make ‘shorts’, and the threads don’t allow physical lock-out. They are not anodized.
3 – I put some “pearls” of caustic soda (I had a bottle of drain cleaner, to clean the kitchen or WC pipes) inside a glass and added some water. I mixed it up smoothly (already with gloves and googles, to avoid skin contact).
4 – Then I started to put the flashlight parts inside the glass and checking how they were! I often cleaned them with flowing water to check the state, and re-inserted them on the glass. I also used an old tooth brush with the solution in the glass to “polish” the knurling in some points. ALWAYS WITH GLOVES
5 – When the parts were all “de-anodized” I washed them with flowing water and dried them with kitchen paper. After this, I lubricated the threads again and put everything back on its place
I took few photos as I was with gloves and with caustic soda on the hands so…
Here they are :
That is one extreme mod A380. I also like the real rustic look of it. Nice work.
My current and or voltage measurements are only relevent to anything that I measure.
Budget light hobby proudly sponsored by my Mastercard and unknowingly paid for by a hard working wife.
djozz said "it came with chinese lettering that is chinese to me".
old4570 said "I'm not an expert , so don't suffer from any such technical restrictions".
Old-Lumens. Highly admired and cherished member of Budget Light Forum. 11.5.2011 - 20.12.16. RIP.
Looks like a really nice piece of junk.
Nobody will ever think to steal it.
Cool job!
Nice job A380.
And once you start using it parts will become shiny again from wear, adding to the character!
link to djozz tests
Thanks!
Djozz, it’s more heavy t’han before, so don’t think I’m going to use much more.
Dale, can you please tell the diameter of the LED plate? Or, if you can’t say that, can you tell me what diameter the flashlight take (14mm or 16 mm)?
Thank you in advance
REVIEWS: Amutorch S3 / AM S3 vs Neal 219c / Amutorch AM30 / Nitefox UT20 / Sofirn SF14 & SP10A / Sofirn SP32A / Sofirn SP10B / Odepro KL52 / Acebeam H20 / SS AAA / Wuben TO10R / BlitzWolf BW-ET1 / Odepro B018 / DQG Slim Ti / XTAR PB2 Charger / Nitefox ES10K / Nitefox K3 / Amutorch AX1 / Amutorch VG10 / Olight M2R Warrior / OTR M1 / Wuben E05 / OTR i3 / Wuben T70 / OTR M3 Pro
Tricks: 1 / 2 / 3 / 4 / 5 / 6 / 7 / 8 TIR Lenses: 1 / 2 Others: Biscotti 3 & 1*7135 Triple TIR & XP-G2
MY GIVEAWAY (FW3A)
I think it was a 14mm MCPCB, I’ll measure it here directly and let you know. Took a good bit of filing on a 16mm Noctigon. Had to thin the Noctigon down some too.
Measured, yes it’s 14mm.
Dale
Thank you Dale
I thought it would be 14mm too, but couldn’t be sure! These are only measurements for a future mod 
Thanks
EDIT: Thanks for the confirmation Dale
REVIEWS: Amutorch S3 / AM S3 vs Neal 219c / Amutorch AM30 / Nitefox UT20 / Sofirn SF14 & SP10A / Sofirn SP32A / Sofirn SP10B / Odepro KL52 / Acebeam H20 / SS AAA / Wuben TO10R / BlitzWolf BW-ET1 / Odepro B018 / DQG Slim Ti / XTAR PB2 Charger / Nitefox ES10K / Nitefox K3 / Amutorch AX1 / Amutorch VG10 / Olight M2R Warrior / OTR M1 / Wuben E05 / OTR i3 / Wuben T70 / OTR M3 Pro
Tricks: 1 / 2 / 3 / 4 / 5 / 6 / 7 / 8 TIR Lenses: 1 / 2 Others: Biscotti 3 & 1*7135 Triple TIR & XP-G2
MY GIVEAWAY (FW3A)
Manker U11 18650
NarsilM V1.0 3C1S
L6 Switch PCB
Blue LED
Moon
10K Very nice
Sorry for my poor english.
Nice work Steel! Sweet pics too, thanks for sharing!
At least it has a chunk of heat sink that’s one piece, so maybe it did need a little tightening up, fairly easily corrected it looks like and now it’s a very sweet light, good job all around!
Dale
What firmware did you make this change in?
EDC rotation:
Convoy S2+, 6*7135, XM-L2 3D, 10 degree TIR, PilotDog lighted tailcap.
Convoy S2+, H17F, XM-L2 4C, lighted tailcap
Zebralight SC52w-L2
Zebralight SC62w
Olight S1A
Olight S1R
Steel that is beautiful. And I sold my U11 just 3 hours ago…
Reviews: Wuben T70, Sofirn SP32A, Thorfire VG15S, Thorfire VG10S, Thorfire TG06S
Mods: Small sun T08 MT-G2, Eagle eye X6 triple XPL, Ultrafire F13 MT-G2, Convoy C8 XHP70, Solarstorm T3 triple XP-L HI
Big flashlight measurement and beamshot collection
3D printing stuff for flashlights
My flashlight related Instagram
My Flashlight related Youtube channel called Tech-test
Calling all cars! Or tinkerers. I have a gutted novatac Wichita that I want to become a Flashlight again. It needs the driver, led, reflector and lens. Wondering who has the time they can undertake this project for me in the USA. My screen name at aol is my address if you want pics of the light from me.
The tail switch is intact and I don’t expect you to work for free. I prefer to put a nw led. I would love to have a photo red in it. If you can put a triple in there with a secondary red led running a ramping driver, I’d be ecstatic!!! You can skip the alligator grips, Swarovski button, and tri-color gold lanyard. Pm me for suggestions
Forgive me pilotdog if I hijacked your thread
never fear shadows…it means a light shines nearby
“What will you mod for me today” sounds close enough to the thread topic to me, I reckon your post suits here well
link to djozz tests
I only get to Amsterdam every 20 years otherwise I would’ve given you a shot at this
never fear shadows…it means a light shines nearby
That was in Anduril. I haven’t tried to apply the change to other FSM UIs, but it would probably be pretty trivial for most of them.
Fairly simple mod today.
Modded a Sipik 98. Replaced the driver with a DrJones H17F. Replaced emitter with a dedomed SST40 on copper Noctigon.
I don’t have any Toluene so dedomed the emitter by slicing it with an x-acto knife while the LED was just below reflow temperature. The driver space in the pill fit a 20mm driver. Fortunately I had a brass 17mm—>20mm driver adaptor ring from Mountain Electronics on hand.
The light has a hollow pill. I didn’t build a heatsink to put under the pill, but I was very generous in applying Arctic Silver 5 to the edges. of the star.
Light works perfectly. It’s bulkier than my other zoomies, but also much brighter and throwier.
I’m undecided if I want to further mod this light. Additional mods I’m considering:
I waved my magic Grizzly at a bar of aluminum and turned it’s heart into gold. Er, well, copper anyway.
The copper pill is 35mm diameter and 35mm deep, with the top 10mm smooth and mated to the aluminum battery tube, the lower 25mm is threaded at 0.75mm thread pitch and has a driver bay cut in. This will be DBC-06.
Dale
Nice job on that one. Looks like it should carry the heat well for whatever monster you create out of it…..lol
Click any link to see MY REVIEWS:
Maxtoch M24 Sniper / Maxtoch 2X Shooter (2016 factory dedomed) , 2X - XHP 70.2 / Maxtoch Xsword / M1 Archer *** ### ThruNite // Archer 2A V3 / Ti4T / TN4A HI / TH10 / TH20 / C2 Mini / TC12 V2 / T01 / , neutron 2C V3 , TC20 / Catapult V6 / TC15 / *** ### Olight // H2R Nova , S10R III / S30R III / H1 Nova / H1 R Nova / X7 Marauder , PL Mini , M2R warrior //// Orca T11 / Nitecore EC20 / BLF A6 / Custom Convoy C8 / Lixada Triple 3800LM / Lixada 1000LM / LuxStone X30 / Manker E02 / Manker E14 II / ### Thorfire /// PF03 , PF04 , Upgraded PF04 , C8 , S-50 , VG-10 , VG25 , C8s , BL30 , TK4A , S1 , VG15 S , TK 18 //// ##WowTac// A4 , A1 (original) , A2 headlamp , A3 //// Acebeam L16 /// Massdrop (Lumintop) Brass EDC
Thanks robo, the tube is bored for a single 32650 due to it’s 6000mAh capacity. I have the reflector out of my Olight SR-90 Intimidator and am working out how to mount it, so I’m going for a thrower here… when I first got the Intimidator I had it doing 665Kcd in the big light with a de-domed XM-L2, so I’m hoping with the better emitters out today I can hit a mile. That’s the project goal anyway.
I’ve got a big 4 1/4” diameter chunk of 6061 in the chuck of the lathe and need to get back out there spinning it up…
Edit: Will try to remember to shoot a pic of this massive hunk of aluminum in the 5” jaws, before my hands get all oily and dirty.
Dale
Why not use a 40152 for it’s 11000mAh capacity?
The OPTOFIRE - 4.63Mcd aspheric LED flashlight The SYNIOSBEAM - 10Mcd recoil LED flashlight List of the farthest throwing flashlights
Whoa, impressive!
What’s the skinny on these 40152’s? Best brand, where to get the good ones, ect.?
First I ever heard of them, how would you (Enderman) use them in / for a build? http://www.headwaybatteryandcable.com/products/20120301569.shtml
KB1428 “Live Life WOT”
It is a LiFePO4 battery so nominal voltage 3V instead of 3.7, that makes its use a bit special.
link to djozz tests
Special, like using a boost driver to increase voltage?
KB1428 “Live Life WOT”
Could be needed, or use two in series with buck driver.
Or for a modern led like 219C, XP-L2 or Luxeon V, a LiFePO4 cell together with a lineair or direct driver will form a very efficient flashlight, although the led will not quite be driven to the max.
link to djozz tests
You can get them here and they are the good ones:
http://www.batteryspace.com/LiFePO4-40152SE-Cell-3.2V-15-Ah-150ASurge-Ra...
http://www.a123rc.com/goods-1558-High+Power+Lifepo4+40152+cells.html
Otherwise you would need to get them from aliexpress, and that would require a minimum order quantity, complicated shipping and import papers, etc etc etc.
3.2v actually, but yeah you would need a boost driver for most LEDs.
For me, even with a 1s flashlight I would like a boost driver because I thoroughly hate direct drive.
I think it would be pretty crazy if someone built a flashlight to use these massive batteries though
The OPTOFIRE - 4.63Mcd aspheric LED flashlight The SYNIOSBEAM - 10Mcd recoil LED flashlight List of the farthest throwing flashlights
I modded a Utorch UT01 with a new led, eventually it will be a lantern. (mod thread in progress)
link to djozz tests
The Phoenix arisen!
Dale
It’s been a while since I started to think about this, but as I am not a chemist, I took a while to perceive that I had at home all I needed!
So, today I decided to mod the Sofirn SF10 host!
Materials used: 1 glass; caustic soda; cold water; latex gloves; tweezers; goggles; plastic tape!
Before and after
I like it more now 
Inspiration:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KpB4y42sKrw (Thanks djozz !!!)
http://budgetlightforum.com/node/487
REVIEWS: Amutorch S3 / AM S3 vs Neal 219c / Amutorch AM30 / Nitefox UT20 / Sofirn SF14 & SP10A / Sofirn SP32A / Sofirn SP10B / Odepro KL52 / Acebeam H20 / SS AAA / Wuben TO10R / BlitzWolf BW-ET1 / Odepro B018 / DQG Slim Ti / XTAR PB2 Charger / Nitefox ES10K / Nitefox K3 / Amutorch AX1 / Amutorch VG10 / Olight M2R Warrior / OTR M1 / Wuben E05 / OTR i3 / Wuben T70 / OTR M3 Pro
Tricks: 1 / 2 / 3 / 4 / 5 / 6 / 7 / 8 TIR Lenses: 1 / 2 Others: Biscotti 3 & 1*7135 Triple TIR & XP-G2
MY GIVEAWAY (FW3A)
wow nice work MascaratumB
can you tell us more how u did it
Edit: typo
Sure;) I followed djozz video in some things, so the process was quite simple, despite the precautions that must be taken.
In detail:
1 – I took everything out of the flashlight (internals, o-rings, clip)
2 – I put black adhesive tape on the threads to avoid water from entering, BUT during the process I ended up taking the tape out because this particular host can be ALL stripped, inside and outside, as there are no ways to make ‘shorts’, and the threads don’t allow physical lock-out. They are not anodized.
3 – I put some “pearls” of caustic soda (I had a bottle of drain cleaner, to clean the kitchen or WC pipes) inside a glass and added some water. I mixed it up smoothly (already with gloves and googles, to avoid skin contact).
4 – Then I started to put the flashlight parts inside the glass and checking how they were! I often cleaned them with flowing water to check the state, and re-inserted them on the glass. I also used an old tooth brush with the solution in the glass to “polish” the knurling in some points. ALWAYS WITH GLOVES
5 – When the parts were all “de-anodized” I washed them with flowing water and dried them with kitchen paper. After this, I lubricated the threads again and put everything back on its place
I took few photos as I was with gloves and with caustic soda on the hands so…
Here they are :
Hope this helps, but feel free to place any doubt
REVIEWS: Amutorch S3 / AM S3 vs Neal 219c / Amutorch AM30 / Nitefox UT20 / Sofirn SF14 & SP10A / Sofirn SP32A / Sofirn SP10B / Odepro KL52 / Acebeam H20 / SS AAA / Wuben TO10R / BlitzWolf BW-ET1 / Odepro B018 / DQG Slim Ti / XTAR PB2 Charger / Nitefox ES10K / Nitefox K3 / Amutorch AX1 / Amutorch VG10 / Olight M2R Warrior / OTR M1 / Wuben E05 / OTR i3 / Wuben T70 / OTR M3 Pro
Tricks: 1 / 2 / 3 / 4 / 5 / 6 / 7 / 8 TIR Lenses: 1 / 2 Others: Biscotti 3 & 1*7135 Triple TIR & XP-G2
MY GIVEAWAY (FW3A)
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