What did you mod today?

Thanx! $11 light, throw $40 in parts at it, hours of sanding/drilling/tap'n/soldering/wiring and you got something almost as nice as a FW3A or D4. These clones are a bit over sized for today, and the anodizing and threading isn't so great, but the clones are actually better quality than the original - clones have true alum reflectors while the original had plastic. For this one, the reflector had a hazy finish, pretty bad, so this mod worked out well for it. I do like the feel of the switch though on these - great for ramping

Quoted for truth. What a hobby we have…

Yeah, I never got around to making an F13 into a triple. That’s a nice beefy host, but works quite well with the stock… “host”? Replace the driver and emitter and it kicks arse. Or could. I don’t push mine terribly hard.

Dunno if you can get F13s as hosts-only, so you just buy a complete light and gut it. :laughing:

Great mod. :slight_smile:
I wonder how would it work with XHP50.2…

As you see in the pictures, the LEDs are not jet ready dedomed.

Some Pictures


Turned my franken-Astrolux E02 into a triple. (My first triple! How many years am I behind?) The e-switch was bouncy and the old Anduril had a few kinks that needed fixing so it was time for an overhaul.

The driver is basically the same as before, though this time I made use of the FET footprint of the L4P MCPCB. 3 channels, 1+2 [7135] + 7136 for “Turbo” (a moderate 3 amps).
3x 5000k LH351C (edit: C, not D!) 80CRI in a Carclo 10507. The MCPCB plus the optics’ legs had to be cut down to 18mm for everything to fit. A 10g copper slug sits in the head.

This time I got the “good” 7135s (the Nanjing ones) and the lowest flicker-free level in Anduril is 1. (I also added 10k pull-downs on all 3 channels, that may have helped too.)
Current on “moon” is 1.1mA, quiescent current is 0.25µA (down from 2.4mA / 15µA). (Thanks Toykeeper for all the good work! :beer: )

Yes the 7136 is a bit iffy. It doesn’t like PWM at all due to its soft-start (I only use it for turbo anyways), specs from different mfr’s are all over the place etc etc. I wouldn’t recommend it, it gives you headaches.

There’s one red AUX LED for map reading etc. under the optics but something went horribly wrong and I sure as hell won’t desolder every wire again just to get into the driver compartment… maybe next time.

Flashing… tweaking…flashing…

Can’t complain about the beam. The only visible artifact is the petals in the periphery but otherwise it’s very clean. This is @1m from the wall.

If I wanted this to be ultra-compact I’d go back to the 18350 tube but I feel the reduction in capacity isn’t worth it. Plus it just doesn’t feel right in the hand, the 18650 does (and it’s only 105mm long anyways.)

^ Damn…… Nice Job! :+1:

Very nice, never bought an E01 because of the UI, but I sure like the size and looks!

Currently working on giving an unreliable crelant v4a a new life. 2s2p 14500, 17mm 2s ta narsil driver from lexel, and 5000k Q0 mt-g2 from intl-outdoor when they were bargain priced. Something to work on while waiting for new reflectors from fasttech and replacement emitter for the L6 from banggood. Will post photos in a build thread in the near future.

A brain fart caused me to think I’d soldered to GND when I hadn’t. So the AUX LED is working now.
This is with a cheap chinese red one, probably not too efficient, pulls about 1.2mA total (1k5 resistor). Due to its size it sits somewhat behind the lens (and quite a bit of light is lost internally). I’ll fix this when I find a better LED.

EDIT: found a suitable 0603 LED, it now sits on a little stem right in the middle, directly under the lens. Current draw on “low” is ~55µA, on “high” it’s ~1.2mA.
A 2-die (series) red one would be ideal for this but I don’t think there are any. I think even on low it’s useful with dark-adapted vision, I’ll have to wait until tonight to find out. Pics below.

Low:

High:

I got away with a single-sided driver btw.

Yup once one gets rid of its original innards it’s a nice and very EDC-able little light. It takes all sorts of reflectors and optics due to the screw-on bezel, a few mm +/- don’t matter, very flexible. This one will live a long life I’m pretty sure.

OK, I can confirm. 56 microamps is enough for reading a newspaper in total darkness.
(Although every grandma will tell you “don’t do that, you’ll go blind”)

Ummmm, no. Not going there…

Ohhhhhhhh, suddenly the penny mod i’ve seen mentioned makes sense! It’s not a UK penny… :person_facepalming:

Yeah, i know, a newspaper in this day and age…

Yeah, that’s not where he is not going

Finally getting back into modding.

First two mods:

1) Thrunite TH20 Headlamp, change LED to 219C 3500K 90 CRI.
Loving this headlamp now. So much more pleasant and calming than stock LED with wonderful color rendering.

2) Eagletac M30LC2-C, changed XP-G2 70 CRI Leds to Luminus SST-20 3500K 95 CRI Leds.
There is a noticeable drop in output with the new LEDs. The light out throws my Zebralight SC600w MK III Hi by a small but still noticeable amount. The center intensity is higher than the Zebralight, but the spot is much narrower too. Its my first high CRI “thrower” and I am very impressed by the color rendering of these LEDs. Its refreshing to see colors pop from a distance. It makes reds/browns pop much more than the 3500K Nichia 219C above. The best part about this light is that it maintains the highest level without overheating at all, and its fully regulated. My guess is that it now outputs about 750 lumens, but this is purely a guess based on my perception of other lights. The spill is quite dim compared to the main spot so its very good at not blowing out your night vision so you can focus on the center spot in the distance. I am curious to see how an XP-L Hi 80 CRI 4000K Led would do in this light, but sourcing these seems expensive.

Modified TomE and TK’s RampingIOS to run on the new attiny412 (and in single-channel mode). Loaded it up on my D25 headlamp. The UI is so much better now (vs the D25’s original UI)! Full details in this post.


You say that (“the UI is so much better now!”) as if there were something wrong with ToyKeepers UI to begin with.

Edit: Ah, I am going to assume you mean the light is better with Anduril Ramping IOS than with the OEM UI… sometimes I’m so dense. :person_facepalming:

Yup, I definitely meant “better than the D25’s stock UI”. Thanks Dale, I just added clarification.

gChart that’s an awesome mod :+1: