Utorch UT01 Mod BLF A6 Driver With NarsilMQ8 1500 lumen's

Dude, this is simply great!! I am one of those that wish to have skills and tools and knowledge to do something alike!
Great work, really!!! :+1:
Wish I could make this to my Manker E11! It would turn my favourite light ever!!!

I have a Klarus Mi7 ti that has the same A6 NarsilM attiny85 heart transplant. I prefer the UT01. I just like the looks and feel of it better, a great UI and generous output that handles the heat better than the Titanium Mi7. Its my favorite small light at the moment. Really like the loosen tail to lock out and NarsilM also has a lock out, I don’t want a accidental turn on in my pocket. Its a nice host but Narsil in such a small EDC light puts it over the top for me.
Thanks for your comments.

It is the same UI as the Q8 two channel, NarsilMQ8.hex
I got about a 150.00 in the light. :frowning:
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Just kidding, Didn’t want to make you feel bad.
Light and all with new led around $27 and several hours of tedious work.
Thanks for your comments.

I love my UT01 and since it failed recently I am thinking in doing this mod to return it back to the rotation. I think I understand the hole process but I am new to flashlight modding and I have some silly questions. I am a bit worried about the switch fixture, specifically the heat the FET will produce and the epoxy. Is this something to worry about? How hot could the FET go at max output levels? Did you use any thermal paste?

Great post! Thank you very much for sharing this mod!

This is a great mod!

Where can I get one ?

Only thermal paste used was under he MCPCB. This mod only draws a little over 4 amps from the battery. The light does get hot (wouldn’t fry a egg) but not nearly as hot as the D4 or my DGQ 4th running a triple that draws 14 amps from a Samsung 30Q. The UT01 copes with the heat pretty well for a small light. 4 amps out of this FET driver is nothing compared to 14 with the DGQ using the same driver setup. What limits the current in this light is the smaller battery (more voltage sag) and the smaller wires and the higher vf of the xp-l. With a xp-l2 it probably will draw quite a bit more current.
The Efest 650mah (purple) is one of the better batteries you can use to keep voltage sag to a minimum in a 14500 size. Even though this is a the top of the chart for a 14500 it doesn’t hold a candle to what a good 18650 will do. You can compare battery sag for different current loads here on this very informative site. Battery test-review 18650 comparator
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As for the switch, its soldered to the top added board and to the A6 board FET ground to the ground switch leg to give it some more rigidness. Each side of the switch has to isolated from each other, the other side of the switch leg goes to pin2 of the attiny85. This can be done on the board underneath the switch. This piece of driver board I used is the outside rim where the ground contact would be. So it has a copper layer under the outside ring, you can see the black center section behind the switch and the gold section under the front of the switch in the pic above. Just cut the copper layer in half with a knife or dremel tool and mount the switch between the cut, now you have two sides to solder to and there isolated from each other. The epoxy maybe the week link but the switch has one leg solder directly to the FET ground and my experiences with epoxy has been when you use it between to flat surfaces and applying pressure keeping the epoxy to a minimum thickness it creates a suction that’s pretty hard to break usually. I don’t know how much heat the FET is making but I wouldn’t think its a lot with 4 amps. :smiley:
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I have found better and cheaper :money_mouth_face: switches to use that are made of tin on the outside case that make solder directly to the board a breeze, no need to cut the copper layer.
These are my favorites and these work well too.
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To make a driver swap easier in the UT01, I would just use a mtn electronics 17mm FET+7135 driver loaded with a electronic switch firmware (the D4 V2 ramping being similar to NarsilM). or you could use a regulated board at 3 amps.
Then you would just need to mount the switch and solder the switch legs to the appropriate locations and your done.
Happy modding :beer:

Good thing nowadays we have the GT Micro driver to fit in the Utorch UT01 / Manker E11 / Lumintop EDC05 :P (physically identical in size and shape to the original/s in these lights)

Did my EDC05 with the GT Micro driver few days ago and it was a much less painful process than all the work that has been put in here (probably less satisfactory as well, but.. )

It was still painful to press fit the bezel and the switch without the necessary tools, but few little scuffs here'n there later, it all came into place :)

Very happy with my unbranded EDC05 running Narsil (although I should've enlarged the switch hole as it is with the Micro, so the indicator LED would actually be visible, as it's located underside the switch's PCB.. )

Got the driver configured with the indicator LED Off for now and not sure if I won't leave it at that since a 14500 cell only holds so much juice inside it anyways..

Still waiting for Gearbest to deliver my UT01 (because it has a screw in bezel, thus it'll result in a much cleaner job) for almost a month now and the order barely got shipped on yesterday.. :/

I guess I'll buy another GT Micro driver meanwhile. I'm happy with the EDC05 still, but i really can't stand the press fit bezel and the scuffs that had to result from me pressing it in..

I also haven't had any kind of grinder to get the copper MCPCB slimmer for this host (in fact this would apply to all of these 3 hosts equally true) thus the bezel still got ~.2mm a bit over being flush with the head.

Even though I've used a slimmer o-ring for the glass lens, the reflector and the body had slight grooves for it, thus slim to no difference had resulted from it (at least the pressure on the bezel was bit lower though)

With the Utorch UT01 / Manker E11 hosts this would still be mitigated to a degree because of the screw in bezels - just screw the bezel ~1 turn less, but it's still going to be fit and not going anywhere.

Hold up. I can buy a GT Micro driver and drop it into my UT01? Details on the installation and how to buy this driver please…

But who sells the driver ?

Yes, the GT Micro driver it's pretty much a drop in 99%compatible (I shave 1% off because of the indicator LED not ideally positioned - or at least not without enlarging the switch hole on the EDC05 that is.. Maybe it's not the case for the other two hosts)

Myself, I've bought the EDC05 "host" (as in I requested specifically to be not assembled but in all pieces) and the GT Micro driver from the AliExpress official Lumintop store. I've just had a chat with the seller that I've broke my few hours old EDC05 light trying to mod it and I'd like to buy one with the bezel off and maybe even the switch booth as well. Turns out the seller just took a EDC05 from the assembly line and sent it in pieces, packed in nice bags, even the emitter cut off from the reel and not soldered on the original aluminum MCPCB and the glass in the protection electrostatic foil. As a nice touch and addition, the seller also included the GT Micro (I assume) copper MCPCB that I've overlooked to ask for (because of the higher power output of the GT Micro's driver.

I'll edit in a link later on.

EDIT:

The link seller sent me with the amount of payment for the items that I've requested: https://www.aliexpress.com/item/32793243604.html?spm=a2g0s.9042311.0.0.73434c4d6fFbV3

That is after I've had a chat with the seller about what I want in detail. I can also see that my feedback has got approved - thus you can see the pics of what has been bought / sent / received :)

Cheers!

EDIT2:

Basically, what has been sent:

EDIT3:

Demo.. (mind the professionalism behind the video making tho.. )

Does that gt micro mcpcb fit the ut01 too, can’t remember what’s in it now

You'll likely have to sand it a bit, in both diameter and thickness if you have the means. In my case, I've only had to shave about 0.2mm in diameter.

Also not sure what I've been sent it's the actual Micro MCPCB, or just a generic 15mm or so one (it's now in and bezel pressed, so no way out of there any longer.. )

EDIT:

Oh, just to answer your question, now that I've had both the UT01 in hand and the GT Micro opened up to pull out the driver:

- Yes, I was correct in assuming that you'd need to sand the Micro's MCPCB down about 0.2mm ~ 0.3mm to have it fit in the UT01

Myself, I've just used the original MCPCB/emitter in the UT01, not only because I was lazy (which I definitely am.. ) but also to see if it would make a big difference.

I can conclude that both my EDC05 (sanded Copper MCPCB) and the UT01 (original Aluminum MCPCB) are getting hot quite as fast.

I'd imagine that the AL MCPCB it's too thin to make a big difference, and the copper one has so little thermal mass as well as the host itself, than it doesn't really matter..

Well, it had to be done..

Just couldn't stand the thought of that indicator light just staying there with only a bit of Aluminum standing in it's way.

So, pulled out the rubber booth with a toothpick and removed the ring from underneath this time to avoid scratches.

Lucky me, I've left just enough slack on the wires so I could push the driver down a bit and start "milling" that hole.

The result:

Cheers!

Extra content following :)

My Utorch UT01 just came the other day, so, obviously, it had to go through the same procedure..

It's only, good thing I've had a body from another donor EDC05, otherwise the original UT01 one wouldn't take protected cells..

The End!..

You just like protected cells or is LVP missing from GT Micro driver?

I just don't have unprotected cells in general. Usually I prefer capacity over current. As for the GT Micro driver I'm not sure whether it has lvp or not.. Really I haven't bothered looking that up or ever run a cell dry.

I’ve done many mods to my lights but this is the only one I’m not comfortable doing myself. My Manker U11 has a press-fit bezel and I don’t want to break the lens trying this. Does anyone know anyone here that would be willing to perform this mod for me in exchange for cash money? This has been my backup, backpack light and hasn’t been in my rotation for years because I absolutley hate the long-press off UI.

Manker U11 doesn't have a press fit bezel, it's only 2 threads and very hard to grip on that bezel with no notches or anything cut for any tools to fit in.

I've struggled a bit to open up my Manker U12 and also I was wondering at first if it wasn't a press fit bezel. Fortunately, it's not the case.

I was thinking of a different light. Is there a way to do this to my U11 and E11?

Not sure what about the U11, but definitely on the E11 it's possible to swap in a GT Micro driver, just as I did on my Utorch UT01, which same as the E11, has a screw in bezel.

I've bought the UT01 especially as a host for this mod purpose, as my Lumintop EDC05 had a press fit bezel, thus I've damaged my first one, before buying the second one completely disassembled.

For the U11, I think I'd try a Thrunite T1 driver, but first I have in mind finding a SMO reflector and maybe an XHP35 to fit inside it. The driver compartment it's kinda shallow and it'll only take a single PCB driver.

A stacked 2 PCB driver or a driver with a big inductor likely won't fit and you'd have to be a bit creative about the switch PCB as well.

If you're interested in the internals of the Manker U11, this would be a good start with plenty detailed pictures: http://forum.fonarevka.ru/showthread.php?t=38570/

GL & HF!