What did you mod today?

I would add a second and third nut inside the bars on the “handle” side so you can’t accidentally bend the bars when you apply force.

Not a flashlight, but for a flashlight.

@Cereal_killer
The picture was taken bofore i removed the lens /tir. . . I actually added the mentioned nuts to make it more sturdy when i am applying preasure. And the head is secured well. No movement at all!
Only the lether was slipping on the smooth surface of the Primus 100 jaws. The jaws on the big vise are stamped. And i glued the lether onto some old vise jaws. There will be no slipping or twisting tomorrow. And aslong i get it above 150°C/302°F but not above 170°C/338°F i am good. (most threadlocker give up above 150°C/302°F but if you have the wrong Aluminium and HAIII Anodizing it could chip because of the different thermal expansion coefficient if it is getting to warm) So i use my hot air solderstation with the biggest nozel and set it to 160°C/320 and give it time to get to temperatur. You really can feel that the glue is getting softer. But this stuff is still a mess!

Put a XHP50.2 (4000K 80CRI J2) in a Jaxman M8 - OP reflector (mini C8)

With the 17mm MTN-BST2 boost driver I estimate about 1,950 lm

Good luck Docc!

Nice combination contactcr. I have a MiniC8 with a wrong mod, you remind me to do something nice with it.

contactcr, are you only running one cell in the M8? I ask because the 50.2 is a 6V emitter and 2 cells makes for 8.4V, so a buck driver would be proper instead of a boost driver. Does the boost driver work in that instance? Seems odd that it would, since your overhead is a couple of V over the emitter requirement. Talking to Richard about his Boost circuit I sure didn’t think it’d work that way… as per the norm these days I seem to be missing something.

Edit: Aha! It sunk in, the Mini C8… I was thinking of the M2 because I saw “Jaxman” and 50.2… I put one of those in my M2 with an FET driver. Nevermind, just lost over here…

Tonight I did an emitter swap in a Nitecore Tube for a 5mm Yuji 3200k 95CRI. Stock Tube on the left, Yuji Tube on the right.

Here’s an album!

Re: the boosted mini C8. I like the throw and spill from this reflector and LED, good balance of both, but man this green shifted corona means its going to be outside only duty. With boost efficiency its prob better that way anyhow.

Another thing im not fond of is this brass pill. I’m spoiled with integrated shelf lights. This one barely transfers heat to the head which means it steps down too quick. The middle modes being constant output is nice though.

The brass pill is great for modding the light, did you use some thermal paste on the brass pill’s thread going back in? That helps a lot in some cases. Usually the reason is that in “standard” threads there is a lot of slop or free play, I’m told they need that excess so all the random parts in a box can be assembled without issue. But I’ve seen some things where the threads barely held, almost slipped teeth.

A thin copper foil can be wrapped around the threads for a more effective thermal transfer, snug the pill in and notice the difference. (an old P-60 drop-in trick)

Nice, will have to give it a try. In the comparison photo above, is the Tube on default-at-first-click Low or High? The brightness difference would indicate that the Yuji is many times more efficient than the OEM.

Oh how I wish it was. In that pic the stock Tube is ramped up about half way just to match the brightness of the Yuji Tube which was on at full power so I could get a good picture of the tint difference. My Yuji emitter is being run at about 25mA while the stock emitter is run at about 100mA, so it’s got substantially less output. But the tint is SO much easier on the eyes.

Now that the tube was clampt in a big vise it was almost to easy to open. But cleaning the threads was a pain in the A…
I wanted to install 3 ice blue leds behind the TIR. I had them soldert together and glued to a strip of GITD tape. But i put the leds to high up on the strip. And when i installed the TIR i noticed that i did not have enough space. But that was enough for today. So i went only with the one led that is original at the switch (but changed the red one to ice blue). I love Narsil in my H03!!! Puts out a lot more light/heat at turbo. But its nice to have another light with this awesome UI!!! All wires are silikone wire, Led wire is 20AWG switch wires 30awg. I have to think about the tail spring. At the moment this is the point where i can gain the most. But it is already way to much power for such a small and lightweight host.
Maybe tomorrow i will try to put the 3 additional leds (behind the TIR) in again.
Must be a good day with very stady hands. To solder 0603 leds on a pcb thats easy but to solder them in a free configuration to a 0,1mm copper wire + the resistors. No that is requiring a very good day.

Oh well, better tint is still a good reason for swapping. I might play with resistor and push to 50mA.

Thanks.

Dale,

You were right, as usual. I made a huge mess with thermal paste and screwed it back in. It was way easier to screw in after cleaning the threads and using paste. It’s a pretty noticeable difference. The head will get warm now and the light is maintaining 2-3x more output than before so thanks for that.

Same glamour shots below. It’s oven baked and I swapped the switch boot with a clear one.

Glad that helped, nice bake job! :slight_smile:

The new TIR back light is ready and works fine. Only problem now is a stripped thread. The original screws are M1,6*2.5mm. Extreme short! On the front SS frame you loose 1mm and at the o-ring another bit. So the srew was only in with 1/2- 3/4 turn. I ordered a few A2 1,6*4mm screws. Will have to grind the screw head a little bit (3mm to 2,5mm). But i have to wait 2-3 days for the package.
On the picture you see two strips of copper foil (what you use for making Tiffany glass art) on Kapton tape. Next i soldert the leds to the foil added the leads and covert it with UV resin. Then cut it out with scissors and glued it inside the head. On the picture is the light without the Stainless Steel frame. The color is more ice blue with a glimmer of purple/pink if you see it in real. And it is more dimm in real. Also i disconnected the switch led so only the TIR backlight is connected with the Switchled output from the driver (NarsilM).

Update.
Not happy with the build quality from Skillhunt. Trying to screw in a longer srew was not possible because there is no thread in the holes. Only at the first mm (i think instead of cutting a thread into the holes they screwd the SS screws directly into the holes). But with the slightly longer ones this is not going to work. So i ordered a set of 3 M1,6 threadcutters. That should not be a problem with a light in this class.

It’s not so much a matter of the class of light, but a parameter set by it’s designers. They saw no need for longer threads, they made the light fit their design… that is all. Some of these guys are seriously OCD, they probably thought it was a fine matter of paying attention to detail, only making the threads as long as they Absolutely Had to be…

When you mod lights, you acquire tools to do so. You simply would not believe the stacks of flashlight related bits I have over here!

I have a lot of threadcutters. But not the 1,6mm i need. And i forgot how expensive they are (if you want to buy the good stuff).
Here are a few pictures of the head (so you can see how far the oring is standing over the edge). And a picture of the frame with the original screws. Not much to work with. I had hoped that they cut the threads with a threadcutter not with the SS screw. But that will be fixed soon! I really like the TIR backlight! Wanted to do this for a long time!

Sheesh! That’s cutting it awfully close!

In a pinch you can take the longer screw and cut a groove down each side of the screw with a thin dremel type cutting disc. This works especially well with harden screws and threading into softer metals like aluminum. Don’t go to deep with the grooves though and take your time reversing direction when tight or the screw will break off. Nice job TheOnlyDocc :+1: