What did you mod today?

A quick and dirty one. I’ve been meaning to do this to a light for ages but just not to this light. I shrink wrapped my D25c ti. It probably won’t last long.

How is current reduced for low-mode? Is this a matter of voltage supplied to the AMC7135 via PWM? Sorry for a really stupid question - novice here :blush: .

Yes. 7135’s have three pins: VDD (positive input), Ground, and Out (low level / negative output). When voltage is supplied to VDD, the Ground is allow to flow to Out* (restricted to ~350mA). When voltage is removed from VDD, current stops flowing. By pulsing VDD (via PWM) you can vary the effective (not actual) current being sent to the LED. If you use the MCU (attiny13a in this case) to supply a 10% duty cycle PWM signal, the 7135 is enabled for 10% of the time. Over the course of a second, you’d get 350mA for 0.1 second followed by 0.9 second of no current flow. Of course we use a much faster frequency than 1 Hz (Hz is cycles per second)… more like 8 - 16 kHz. Because of it switching so fast, our eyes usually cannot detect the on-off switching (unless a lower frequency is used) and we just see the average state of the LED, so we see it as if 35mA had been constantly applied to the LED.

I’m sure there are some nuances here that I may have mis-stated, but that’s the gist of it.

*the direction that current flows can be stated in a couple different ways, see Conventional Current vs Electron Current.

That made me wonder how this light level compares with trits. And the level is even lower! My integrating sphere could only just measure it, take it as a ballpark number but my LT1 measured 0.001 lumen output on the aux leds alone (switch led off).

I have 3 of these with the most god-awful, butt ugly tints I’ve ever seen. Now I know what you can build for me…

Nitecore D10 anduril (14500 powered, sort of a mini fw1a)

Hardest part wasn’t the custom driver, it was sourcing the 3 hosts I purchased. This particular one was NIB and I paid a good bit for it, I was also thankfully able to scrounge 2 more used ones for a much better deal.

Luxeon V2 5000k

Oshpark boards in the new black fr4/clear mask (ugly, stick with purple!). FET+1, uses GT Mini FW target.

I only have 1 super old Efest 14500 for testing untill my li ion wholesale order gets here next week.

Nice mod on an ancient light! The D10 is rather large (for 14500) and boring looking but the piston-drive is special.

I rather like how the black frp / clear mask of the driver looks.

I don’t hate the black/clear but IMO it’s kinda boring looking compared to purple (it’s what oshpark is known for after all).

I think it’d look better with a hatched ground pour instead of solid Cu. If I run across any more hosts and need to order more boards I think I’ll update it so it’s prettier.
I also don’t like how hard the silk screen is to read with this color scheme.

This is the first reflector in which I’ve actually been pleased with the luxeon v2, LOVE the emitter behind a triple optic but IMO the beam from a reflector was lacking… Not in this case, it’s perfect!

As to the plain body, I’m really hoping to find a Balder HD1

Awesome! I am willing to do that in the one I bought a while ago, but haven’t ordered the driver yet!
Did you just swapped the driver or did you have to do any trick inside the pill (because of the wires,etc)? If that is the case,fo you have any photos that may help the mod?

Thanks in advance!

Great work!!

Does it just like smaller reflectors? It’s fantastic in my D25C.

I think it has to do with the reflectors depth:width. I tried them in an S2+ with OP shorty 20mm reflector and an Olight S15 (also very short overall but Ø=20mm) and both of them were ringy and had a pretty strong tint shift from spill to Corona to Hotspot.
The D10 reflector (also Ø=~20mm) has a much better depth:width ratio, I’d guess that’s why.

Also note the centering ring setup of the D10 keeps the reflector quite high off the 3535 emitter (originally XR-E).

20mm TIR lens won’t fit?

Modded a Astrolux EC01.

All with Liitokala Lii40A Battery

Stock: 4300 Lumen
AWG20 Bypassed: 5300 Lumen
Dedomed: 4900 Lumen (Dedomed like ZozzV6 did on the XHP70.2)

Nice little HotRod

Sadly the LED is colder than XHP50.2 3B which have 5000K.
This flashlight is advertised and sold as 5000K, i think it’s 2A Tint with 5700K.

I would bet the issue is centering height, then, if you’re getting rings. That’s been my experience, anyway. What’s really odd to me is the tint shift, as I never see that at all with the Luxeon Vs and the V2s are a close second there, at least in the lights I’ve had them in.

Nickel Boron?
Actually I’ve been reading on that just today and thought it would make a good surface finish for a flashlight. It’s interesting to see it was actually used this way. Could you please share your thoughts about it?

NIB = New In Box

Ah…not that interesting then. :wink:

Yeah, I like your idea better :slight_smile:

You can now enter your modded lights in the Old Lumens Competition too.

Not much of a mod, but here’s what I just did. We’ll see what it does tonight.

A $0.59 bowl from Target. I think it would be better if the bowl was a little more translucent. I drilled it out with a 2-1/2” hole saw and trimmed the edges a little with an Exacto blade.