What did you mod today?

Sometimes when a project fails it opens a door to something that works pretty nicely. That’s what happened here… I was going to build up a 4C Maglite with an XHP-35 but it just really didn’t want to handle the power. I even stepped up to a thicker heavier copper heat sink, in testing that one I burned a black pit in a 35. Ok, so, moving right along… Decided to do something else with the 4C Mag… chopped it this morning. :smiley:

Here is the Black 1C (26500) Maglite next to a 2D for size reference…

Here is the 1C Mag next to my early purchased light, got this way back when I was first getting into lights… JayRob from CPF chopped the Red Maglite, ChicagoX from here finned a head, Elektrolumens made the triple insert, and of course, I tweaked it all somewhat. :smiley:

The new threads and o-ring landing cut into the chopped off 4C tube…

Ah, Maglite! Robust construction throughout, look how thick the tubes are!

Made the copper (Te/Cu Alloy) sink on the lathe with a bit of a column to allow for focus like Mag’s are known for, hand cut the opening of the tube to allow an LED style Mag reflector to fit into the mouth… I like the head to be screwed almost all the way down

I inset the tail spring and bypassed it, while a full sized 26650 cell is fatter than a C and won’t fit I may bore it some day for the higher capacity full sized cell, so it’s already set up to accept it if/when I do that…

A wall shot on low in my Limo Room, we have 5% tint on the windows as my wife used to have bad migraines. I used a Samsung LH351D 5000K 80 CRI on a hand carved 13mm BLF/ Alex Wells DTP copper MCPCB, reflow soldered together. Built a PZL driver with 12 of the 350mA 7135 chips, tail amperage shows 3.35A on a Red Efest 26500 at about 97% charged. (This is a 4 year old cell)

This light really fits my hand nicely, with Bistro as the UI it’s pretty versatile and an automatic win for me, also have an AR coated lens in place. This is just one of those satisfying builds that gives one the feeling if a guy could only have one light, this one would definitely be a contender…. :wink:

WICKED hot today, my thermometer was showing 100º by 9:11AM. Same thermometer shows 116.8º on the porch, a different thermometer with a probe right outside my window shows 108º. We tied a record yesterday with an official 106. Blistering out there, and sultry boiling hot at the lathe. But I love it that way, lol.

How remiss of me! It pulls 3.35A at the tail with the old 26500 not quite holding a full charge. (shouldn’t matter with the regulation chips)

1. 0.6355 lumens
2. 9.35
3. 54.855
4. 170.43
5. 250.47
6. 472.305
7. 986.7

With an 18ga spring bypass in the heavy steel tail spring it makes 1045.35 lumens

For the noobs out there… I’ve built hundreds of lights, and yet when I built the PZL driver last night it was direct shorted. I gradually removed components until the board was bare and still, it was a direct short! So I started over and built a new one with the same components, this time fully successful. Sometimes things just go wrong, it is what it is. Don’t be discouraged, take the time and check it out, start over if/when you have to. All part of the game. :smiley:

PZL is a puzzle of a driver, the component’s placement are listed on the mask under the MCU, you have to leave the MCU til last to see where everything goes! lol It has dual channel capability like our FET+1 drivers, but instead of using an FET it’s got multiple 7135 chips. I stacked 4 extra for the little more power. This driver was done by Alex (Wight here ) in a jovial moment. :wink:

The other side is 6 of the 7135 regulation chips, the one to the right of “BLF” is the moon channel. :wink: (With BLF TDC)

Love the light Dale. Theres a few great names from the past in your build. :+1:

Old Lumens showed me how to stack chips. :wink:

And I have all his kit, so a lot of my Maglight mods are based on stuff from Justin.

There’s been a LOT of people help me out along the way here, don’t ya know?! I think I about drove Comfychair crazy back when we were starting the FET craze. lol

Very nice.

It’s been 29°C here sometimes lately and I can hardly move.

All the buzz these days about price point. Man, I bought that chopped Red 1D Maglight from JayRob making 1000 lumens from a de-domed XM-L! Price point? How about $165! And I LOVED IT! (Ok, I didn’t exactly love spending that much on a flashlight but I loved the light, for sure! It used a 32650 protected cell from NOVAE. Anyone heard of em? All that was available in that size back then…

Edit: Come to think on it, the XM-L was domed, we started de-doming long after that.

ROFLMAO CRX!

It’s 42.2º C at the moment…. 47.2ºC earlier on my front porch thermometer. I’ll take 29, all day every day! (where’s my sweater?…)

I think that would turn me into a puddle :smiley:

Nice work on the Maglite Dale, and those are some good old BLF members you mention! I have been here for 6 years only but the turnover of members has been so fast that it feels much longer.

Time flies… look at you Jos! 12,500 posts!

Says the man with 17500 posts. :person_facepalming:

To your 12,200, right? Between the three of us we have posted 42,200 times! OMG! :open_mouth:

(believe me, I know, y’all are contributing worthwhile studies and builds and I’m constantly hammering drivel into the forum…) :stuck_out_tongue:

If I sat here for a week and went back through my post’s and randomly deleted stuff, would it change my post count. lol Who was it did stuff like that a while back? Why does a squirrel come to mind? Who was it that managed to keep his post count the same no matter what he said? Where’sFoy?

Yeah it’s quantity over quality with you guys :laughing:
I’m kiddin, you’re the mainstay of the forum :+1:

20 minutes to 6 in the evening, it’ll likely still be in the 90’s at midnight…

We don’t advise going barefoot… 136.8ºF on the asphalt! And this not even the hot point of the day!

Nice lasers CRX!!!

Are you sure those are just 1.5 MW? I thought with 1.5 MW lasers you couldn’t see the beam unless you put smoke or steam in front. The beams from your lasers are very visible in your pictures. That looks a heck of a light brighter than those little 5 MW cat-toy lasers you buy at the grocery store.

Smoke :wink:

So I calculated them at 400mA current draw * 4.1v cell voltage /1000 = 1.64mW
Does that sound about right?

I can imagine. I heard stories from someone who lived in Corpus Crispy.

@Firelight2, I don’t really think CRX has a 1.5MW laser. Not even a Samsung 30T could output that much power, even 1000 of them would just cut it close.

Also, I think he would’ve left a whole in all of the houses in his neighboor hood, and the FBI and CIA would probably be at his heels.

@DBCustom, back on track, how can you actually survive in this kind of weather? Your energy bill must be ludicrously high, through the stratosphere.

Now, you should probably paint all of your house white, put solar panels everywhere you can, wear white clothes all the time during the summer, have a house isolated with aerogel, and everything possible to make it bearable.

:smiley:

Is that how you calculate the laser CRX? I have a blue one that uses 2 18350’s, pulls … well… all of a sudden I can’t be sure what it pulls, I thought it was 3.3A at the tail… it’s supposed to be like 3W or something. I know it is quite strong, will burn a yellow jacket nest at 25-30’… it doesn’t catch on fire due to the larvae inside but it smokes and smolders. It’s kind of difficult to take the tail current reading because the beam will burn things, guess I can take it outside and lock it down in a bench vise pointed up into the sky, take the reading that way to be on the safe side (provided there’s no airplanes overhead)

My green laser, with a just measured .465A at the tail current draw…

This one is using my DBC-04 battery tube repurposed and with a marine bronze head. I now also have a SS aspheric focusing lens on it.

House is white, I wear cotton, I was born in August when it was 111º, much prefer heat to cold, have worked outdoors the majority of my life. When I delivered building materials, I drank some 3 gallons a day. A gallon of sweet tea to start with and filled up the jug twice with water after that. All in a day’s work.