What did you mod today?

Very nice mod! Whats the output like after the mod? Will you put a clear lens on it afterwards?

I received my first Emisar yesterday, a D1S. Phenomenal light! But it probably had less than a minute on the stock electronics before it was modded :smiley:

Custom 5A linear driver running 5x CN5710’s (in dual channel: 1+4) and a Attiny412. Has programming pads for easy flashing. Running TomE/TK’s RampingIOS. Also put in a 1mm² White Flat from Hank with his gasket.

Can you tell I’m a sucker for symmetry?

I did a few before & after numbers, along with my B158 and L2 for comparison.

Flashlight Volts Amps Lumens Lux
D1S, stock XP-L HI and FET+1 driver 4.075V 5.33A 1540lm 127,425lx
D1S, 5A driver and White Flat 4.079V 4.98A 958lm 272,880lx
B158, FET+1 and XP-L HI 4.066V 4.78A 461lm 185,925lx
L2, FET+1 and dedomed SST-40 4.188V 9.48A 1946lm 256,250lx

Observations / Notes:

  • The beam, while a bit cool from the White Flat, is tight and beautiful.
  • I didn’t play with the focus. It’s possible it could be better with some adjustments, but I’m pretty pleased.
  • I knew the optics of the B158 would have quite a bit of loss, but I wasn’t imagining anything that drastic. It could be my lumen tube reading low, but the other measurements seem about right :frowning:
  • These CN5710’s don’t like very high frequency PWM. Spec is max 2kHz, which is what I have it running at. I tried them briefly at 13kHz and they really didn’t like that. If I put these in a light I planned on using on low very much, I’d use a digipot to dial in the amperage.
  • Lux measured at 5 meters on a cheap UNI-T meter from Banggood.
  • Lumens measured in a DIY lumen tube with a Adafruit #1980 / TSL2591 sensor
  • Amps measured at tailcap with short, heavy wire and a clamp meter

There is a ton of info about the mod at the broken imgur gallery link I just fixed :person_facepalming:

Output with the sw45k is about 135 lumens, down from 235 lumens with the stock XP-L2, which is significantly lower than Zebralight’s claimed 320 lumens. All their frosted glass headlamps seem to measure 25-30% lower than spec for whatever reason. The H53Fw is rated only 10 lumens lower than the H53w, which is clearly incorrect given the frosted lens drops the output almost 10%.

I replaced the lens with a stock frosted Zebralight lens. The 219B has a fair bit of egg yolk in the small reflector, but it’s completely eliminated by the frosted glass and looks awesome. I wouldn’t mind a bit more output, but this was more a proof of concept than anything. I think a dedomed 5000K LH351D would be perfect in this light. I am really fond of this little light and would like to try other AA Zebralights.

Another photo with the reflector and potting removed:

I did say earlier I was using fast PWM on these, but I totally forgot I was running on 1mHz clock. My “fast” PWM isn’t actually very fast at all :person_facepalming:

Protective carbon fibre felt lined holster & spare cell carrier/ charger for the LAN Mokume Gane.

Nice stuff (as always) CRX.
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My mod today is nothing so ambitious, just an upgrade of my D25 Headlamp from its original basic 5-levels+hidden modes to a stepless ramping UI.

Thanks to the efforts of gChart, who effectively remapped the original (PIC?) MCU to a similar footprint Attiny412 MCU (Attiny412), and ported/re-flashed the MCU with TomE/ToyKeeper’s excellent (D4?) RampingIOS – the D25 has gone from meh to awesome!

Original UI mode level range, 5-levels from 2.38A to 0.08A (draw at tailcap)

Upgraded RampingIOS range, ramping from 2.38A to 0.01A (draw at tailcap)

In addition to ramping and the exanded level range, the headlamp now has -

  • Battery Voltage indicator using blinkies,
  • Thermal Management,
  • Last-mode-Memory, and
  • direct access to both Minimum (long-press from Off) and Maximum (double click) from Off.

Love the collaboration with members here pc_light. Nice work. :+1:

At about half the output with the 219b, looks like the LH351D dedomed would indeed be a good option for this light. Do you think you will swap one in to replace the 219b in your H53fw?

That’s freaking awesome pc-light

Thanks but gChart did the heavy lifting.

FWIW, here’s a trick I used for this mod that has helped with similar mods involving complicated wire paths. I wrapped a piece of shrink tubing around the LED lead wire ends before pulling the electronics module out to solder.

The tubing gives me enough slack to work on the driver and I can simply pull the lead wires back through afterwards without having to thread inside the tube.

Love it, pc_light and gChart what you guys did!! These are one of the best regular priced deal lights around, for these 2 styles of headlamps! I got one of each now, 2 headlamps for like $26 total shipped, and they are moddable, very lightweight so very practical, and of course e-switch so we can run our best firmware. All around a true moddable winner! I really have to control myself from ordering a case of these things, of course knowing that's a lot of mod'n... But actually, your mod of a MCU replacement is about as easy as it gets, as long as you have the capability to reflow an SMD.

Ohh, not to mention you retain the stock USB charging....

This is where I bought mine from: https://www.aliexpress.com/item/XM-L2-Mini-Head-Lamp

$12 for the single LED, $14 for the double LED.

Thanks guys. And that’s a great tip, Pc_light - wish I would have thought of that!

Arrow finally got 8000 of these ’412s in stock… but of course with an MOQ of 4000 :person_facepalming:

Does this count


Probably not, doesn’t look like you’ve modded anything :wink:

Well i dont touch the factory parts just make new ones to add to it

You... I like you.

Gotta go buy heat shrink tube...

Replaced the XPL HI 5D I had in my modded Sipik 58 with LED Lenser style optic with an Oslon flat from International Outdoors.

The FET driver proved to be too much for the emitter to handle even when powered by just by an ICR 14500. Ended up swapping out the Oslon and replacing it with an SST20 4000K 95 CRI. Definitely better than the Oslon, but not sure if it’s any better than the XPL HI.

The higher binned SST-20's, like the 5000K or 6500K, should do better than a XPL HI V2 but don't think the 95 CRI's will. Haven't seen direct evidence of this, but the #'s Hank has on his Emisar web page listings show some of this, given the optics/power setup.

Soooo beamshot ? kCd ? :innocent:

Well, the SST-20s do have 30% more candela/lumen compared to the XP-L HI.

Meaning:
SST-20 65CRI = Tighter and more intense hotspot compared to the XP-L HI, meaning you get more throw.
SST-20 95CRI = Tighter, but less intense hotspot, meaning you will get about the same throw as the XP-L HI.