I thought Lexel’s noble work is temporarily halted or on hold for the time being? The man is going through surgery and we wish him well and fast recovery.
It is. I was made aware of this yesterday night. But it’s ok. I am in no hurry. My L6 is my test subject, if everything goes well I have so many other lights I wanna mod. Next in line is my MF02.
You don’t have to buy a roll of leds, there are small kits with different colors, like sampler kits, you can buy. The only down side is it comes from China, so it might take 2+ weeks for them to get in.
Lexels L6 switch costs about $3 USD and can have 4 leds on it. Each led has it’s own resistor and he can match the values so all the colors are the same brightness.
Here are some pictures I got from F.i.l.a.s. These are the only pictures I’ve ever seen of his L6 switch. It’s kind of new thing and not well known yet.
You just run one power wire for the leds, one power wire for the switch and one ground wire to it.
Wow 3$. Almost feels like a steal! Hahaha. Yes I am very interested. As long as it feels the same quality as the Stock L6 switch I’ll be definitely getting one of those. Thanks Jason
The problem with Texas Ace is that he ships it from the US. Shipping will be more expensive than the driver it self. I was looking at MTN Electronics and they have the L6 driver even a bit cheaper but shipping alone was 16$. It’s not worth it.
I’m new in BLF, I bought RRT-3 in 2011. It’s a quite powerful flashlight at that moment.
She’s still a good light, I still love her ring control UI as usual. Buy now days, 1950lumens seem a bit under power for such a ‘big’ light.
I would like to upgrade my Jetbeam Raptor RRT-3 to
XHP50.2 x 3 (original mcpcb is xm-l t6 x3 in series)
Hopefully you may offer a suitable driver for this mods?
Thanks for your advise.
I’d bypass the spring and reflow to xml2s, but it’s doesn’t impressed me.
May be I should consider SST-40 and increase the output ampage but I’m not sure which capacitor shall I change.
I’ll upload the driver photos by tomorrow.
Hopefully can get some new ideas to increase the output.
Btw, Lexel replied my PM and it’s too much work and $$$ for this mods.
The SST-40 has a lower forward voltage. It will produce extra output at the same amperage.
That’s such an old light design. Nowadays you could get something like a BLF Q8 for $45 that can do 5000 lumen, etc… Maybe there is a modern day equivalent.
My guess is that almost any mod for that light will be a challenge. Retaining the functionality of the mode ring with a new driver will be a challenge.
New emitters with the existing driver could deliver more output due to increased efficiency, though it probably wouldn’t be enough to really notice. Chances are you will have to reuse the existing MCPCB or cobble together something. The existing MCPCB will limit you to 5050 emitters, like XM-L2, SST-40, XHP50 (likely won’t work with existing driver, also heat may be an issue).
Modding the driver could deliver more current, but on its own, maybe just enough to notice, but this again runs into the heat issue without an MCPCB replacement. Perhaps the two together would produce enough improvement to feel worthwhile.
Lexel responded your message already? Hmmm. I thought he wasn’t answering just yet due to his hand surgery. I’m still waiting his response on my L6 driver. Should be a lot easier than what you are looking for, damn, awesome project.
I’m pretty new to the flashlight acquisition world, with the exception of some Maglights acquired of decades and a few disposable LEDs. But lately I have acquired a few of these: a couple of Olight, a couple of Imalent, a couple ThorFire (including BLF Q8), and quite a few Astrolux. The interface that I really like is the one in the BLF Q8. I wish all of my flashlights had the ramping feature. I would like to upgrade my Astrolux MF01 and MF02 lights to have the ramping feature. I’ve never done any flashlight modding, but from reading this forum what Lexel is offering may be what I’m looking for to accomplish this. I’ve watched a few videos regarding this, such as those put out by Matt at AdventureSportFlashlights. I’m not sure that I’m ready for this, but I really do want to get these two lights, especially the MF01, having a ramping mode. Please don’t beat me up for this, but is there a minimalist way to accomplish this? Perhaps requiring just a little soldering and not wholesale replacement of parts on a driver board. Any constructive advice that you can give or direction that you can point me would be appreciated. I’d like to do the same with some Astrolux C8s I have, so perhaps I should start there first.
The MF01 requires replacing the driver board completely plus modifying the leds wires to get the voltages correct. So it’s not too hard. I don’t think it’s glued. It is glued.
The MF02 requires a driver swap, but it is glued shut. You’ll need special tools and techniques (vice, heat gun, strap wrenches, etc…) to get it opened up.
To use NarsilM (ramping) requires a light with an e-switch or electronic switch (simple contact usually side mounted). The regular C8’s use a mechanical on/off switch (usually tail mounted) so they won’t work.