VINH'S CREATIONS. Watt makes them so special?..........

Vinh is more known to modding and upping output from regular production lights. He actually does physical mods by updating drivers, dedome leds, circuits boards, etc…. He has Electrical Engineering background. Some of his modded lights still fetch pretty good bread. BUT his lights are on EXPENSIVE side.

Personally, I would spend a good chunk for high output, throw production light. Say Acebeam X70 for instance.

Modded lights are fun but you have to factor is it really worth it?

100,000 lumen light with great throw distance not far fetched and right around corner.

OK. YEAH. I can see where the E.E. COULD possibly help. :laughing: :open_mouth: :beer: :+1: :student:

Yeah man. Engineering background HELPS A LOT. I am a Mechanical Structure/Interface Design Engineer myself so me and Vinh have something in common. Just different Engineering backgrounds.

BTW, I hope to someday produce my own brand of lights while having fun at it. Maybe me and Vinh can team up? Kinda hard though as we live in different States.

Curios to this myself… But I’d like to clarify the question a little. What does Vinh do that the modders and builders here at BLF don’t? Or is he just your average BLF modder/builder that has made a good business from it?

His lights are quality modifications. You need to know what your buying though. He made my tn40 go from 5000 lumens to 9000lms and 350k lux to 500k lux but he used xhp35 LEDs that are 12v emitters. Now I have very little capacity and a ton of amperage draw.
Do your research, but whatever you decide he will stand behind his products and provide excellent customer service.

From what I have seen at his YouTube channel (link ) he is a modder with a more commercial and professional attitude towards his products and services. Prices are higher, but from the CPF threads I read, he also pays more attention to detail when manufacturing the products. He also gives a warranty for his product(s).

Technically any technical modder could do what SkyLumen is doing with a lot of time and dedication (+interest), but from where I sit it looks like this is Vinh’s main job and profession? Most other modders (I presume) have a day job with a regular salary and I don’t think many would want to quit that income to do flashlight modding as a full-time profession? Please correct me if I am wrong here, I know there are professional business owners and shops here (MTN and the other really good shops on here).

I’ve been following his creations for a while. I have a feeling he is just a good modder like quite a few BLFers. Above average but not very special. His fame is high-budget mods of large lights, very very rare in here but happen from time to time to him.

I don’t think his lights are expensive though I’m not well aware of what other modders charge.

Before I became a bit more active on this forum, I was mainly a lurker on the other forum.
I hope I don’t have to explain the differences of both fora. But BLF is more: monkey see is monkey do.
And the other forum is more of: monkey see is monkey buy. More of $metoo.

Vinh has a keen eye for the technical possibilities of the not-so-budget brands and models.
And for years he has invested every spare moment in exploiting these possibilities.
Working extremely hard, fast responses, keeping promises, good aftersales and a keen eye for business.
You know the slogan: quality, speed and low cost, pick two out of three. It’s all up to you.
Mix that with forum members that are willing to pay dearly for out-doing each other, and he has a market.
I don’t know about today, but the man even had a waiting list for some models.
People sent back their mk-II in unopened boxes when they heard he launched a mk-III in the meantime.

And for those who assume he is a junkfood eating couch-potato, living in a cellar with his mother. He isn’t.
He works out, drives a muscle car, and has a lovely wife.
Just a luckey guy who doesn’t need a 9-5 job, because he has a hobby he loves, and is getting payed for it.

No, I’m not on his payroll, and have none of his lights (he cancelled the sale and refunded me within a day).
This forum has members that can match him in a lot of aspects. But only a few have a full deck of talents.

In no way I’m I questioning him, his prices or his business model. I know how much time it takes to mod lights, and if you are doing it as a business you have to get paid for that time or it’s not a successful business. My interest is purely about Vinh mods vs BLF mods.

I know. If I wrote those words to clarify a bit about Vinh, the person, it sure wasn’t your post that triggered it.

Puts more time into it to perfect it, he’s not doing some secret mods we don’t know about, he’s just cherry picking LED’s for max output and hes got mad centering / focus skills.

I’d say he’s a bit better than your average modder but again what makes his stuff special is the time / detail he puts into it, he’s not got a magic wand he’s doing stuff with a soldering iron and screw drivers same as the rest of us.

Not talking trash, he’s a great builder & modder for sure, his attention to detail is unmatched by 99% of flashlight modder but he’s only doing the same stuff the rest of us are using the same tools and supplies and parts its just that he’s perfected the techniques [cause his business depends on it].

He’s 10’ tall and can take on 15 men—— No No he’s 12’ tall and can take on 20 men——- Sir Vinhiam :wink:

Just an alright guy making a living with something he likes

Every forum, not only flashlight related have their guru draining fat wallet worshippers. No mystery.
Mike

As usual spoken by the Empty Wallet bellyachers

I think he’s a good and pretty honest guy. I did try several his lights. My first was his modded Manker MK 34 with a different finish. It was $320, whereas the unmodded light sells for $149. So I would say that’s expensive. My problem with it was twofold. First and most importantly to me, the glowing of the button no longer worked with his mod. This is one of my favorite features of any flashlight that offers it. I just love to see flashlights breathing on my desk. My biggest complaint was that his website and he never mentioned that he would disable that feature. That was a big deal to me. Secondly, the new finish on the light did not seem very even or smooth, and I found it much less appealing than the factory finish. To his credit he graciously excepted the return so that was good. But I do feel his website should give a lot more information then it does.

I did have a third problem with the light. It was supposed to be much brighter but I could see no difference. That convinced me to stick with factory lights or custom lights from Custom makers like I did have a third problem with the light. It was supposed to be much brighter but I could see no difference. That convinced me to stick with factory lights or custom lights from Custom makers like Livingston and McGizmo.

I’ve noticed when people sell these vn lights second hand they struggle to get the high prices they ask for , they depreciate very quickly.
I think his stuff is expensive , just look at Hank wang with the new D1s with the flat white led which is similar to what vn is doing at a fraction of the cost.

I’ve grown more and more interested with is lights over the years. I’ll keep it short and simple because people here have already sum’d it up:

- the extent of his mods are too often nothing greater than what a lot of blf members can do, but he’s made a business out of it

- his worth ethic and customer service are top notch

- he is honest

Ive eyeballed a few lights on his site and ended up snagging a Toolvn, still waiting on the AA version to release. I have no complaints, he made it EXACTLY how I asked through email. Its solid, well centered, perfect tint, and even has added thermal mass.

Ive been emailing back and forth with Vinh asking questions about everything from potential mods to questions about his drivers and he has been a pleasure to work with and even though ive only bought one light, he still responds kindly.

IDK, he seems like a good dude, especially with the charity work he does. Ill happily support a small business like that.

That’s because Hank will be able to mass produce them off factory lines while Vinh has to hand mod each one.

Vinh hasn’t been able to implement the white flat properly yet in his single led direct driver throwers, so he’s sticking to multi emitter ones for now.

Vinh is a small-time (as in not a big or even mid-size corp) maker and modder that sells his mods to people that’ll buy them. I’ve had my talks with the dude here and there on his Youtube channel (Sky Lumen), and he was civil and helpful when I had questions about this or that.

That said, I’m just not a lumen fanatic, and his focus on extreme outputs doesn’t tickle my fancy; on the contrary, I don’t much care for the reduced runtimes that the increased power entails.

(he launched a Sky Lumen V2 pocket rocket a while back, but outside of the extreme power potential [2000 lumens off an 18650 tube light was HUGE back in 2015], it’s no different from what you’d expect from Dale or TK)