The typical centering technique is to have a plastic ring. It is fiddly to tweak…
Some manufaturers like Armytek use self-centering reflectors. Then tuning focus requires just centering LED on the shelf and … I’m not sure if you can tune reflector height. But with a pill based light, tweaking height would be easy.
Centering and focusing the White Flat in a smooth reflector is a matter of less than a 10th of a millimeter in all directions, anything other than physical guidance between led and reflector (=the centerpiece) will not be accurate enough to get the perfect hotspot that must be.
Successfully installed Lexel aux board on my friend’s FW3. Tight space and small solder pad makes soldering difficult. Solder is not neat here, after the first power on test, I re-tidied the solder and cleaned the rest of the flux. I was not able to reflash the firmware so I took power directly from the battery. Aux led always lights up even if the main led is on, but it does not affect the beam at all. Love the color combination of the led here.
I added a lighted tail, a ring of six 630nm leds plus two 4k7 resistors under the red silicon cap. It so appears that this Convoy driver leaks enough current for a weak lighted tail without using a bleeder resistor, and the operation is not affected. The current draw is 0.27 A so about half a year on a 1100mAh cell. The light is too weak to be considered bling but it makes the light very easy to spot in the dark.
Edit: I wasn’t happy about the low tail light so I added a 1K bleeder resistor to the driver, soldered at the battery side from the base of the spring to a self-made solder pad by scratching some solder mask from the ground pour. Operation of the light is still fine, the current went up to 0.600 mA (2.5 months on a 1100mAh cell) and the light output is way more visible and to my liking.
Budget 14500 Li-ion charger
Ikea usb charger + 1 TP 4056
^Nice charger build. I wonder if a readymade li-charger is actually more expensive but it is also the fun of building it. 
Djozz, very nice pocket thrower. Is that using a 18500 cell?
Is that 5A linear driver the one discussed here?
How do you like it?
It uses a 18350 cell, the longer reflector of the S5 makes it 4mm longer than a S2+ shorty.
Almost that driver, it is the 5 amp version, but it looks the same. I like that it is cheap, that current is regulated and that it has 4 well-spaced modes and the low is a nice low-low. I do not like the memory it has because I need my lights to behave predictable.
I’ve tried to identify the regulator chip on Simon’s new driver, but no success. It appears to be labelled “SVA11” or something to that effect. I’ve used the QX7138 in a similar fashion, but it’s limited to 3A. You guys have any idea?
The pleasure to mod is priceless !
modded two original RRT-01 to sw40 9080, w kaidomain reflector and centering ring, xp star, and lubricated control ring w Nyogel 767a for very firm resistance, then fine tuned with a bit of nano oil to get the right “feel”.
Over the last couple of weeks I modified UI of my Emisar D4S.
Of the interesting changes I made lockout mode much more prominent.
- after power is connected the light starts locked out rather than off
- 3 clicks from off goes to lockout
- 3 clicks from on goes to lockout as well
- 3 clicks from lockout goes to off
Some time ago I requested mode memory that doesn’t last too long. Now I implemented a variant of that:
- mode memory is reset upon lockout
TODO: autolockout after 10 minutes or so
TODO: exiting lockout starts the light (how? depends on the exact click sequence)
It’s too early to tell whether that’s comfortable. Actually I may prefer something even shorter than 3-clock, but that’s for later experimentation.
Keep on experimenting Agro. Nothing beats a physical design that prevents unwanted activation, but a very convenient software solution is the next best thing.
I’d like to know too. I have a quick go at identifying it but just as you I’ve come up short.
I can make some good pics of the driver tonight if that helps?
That could engage more people in the hunt, please do!
In return for the good pics ( 
) can someone point to how to remove memory on this driver, maybe as simple as a pencil trick on one of the caps? (there are too many caps on this driver :weary: ).
Can’t help with the memory removal, but have you looked at the other linear driver from Simon? It has an interesting UI that allows brightness configuration of each mode, and does not have memory.
Regarding that regulation chip, I’m curious how it works. My understanding is that the FET is dissipating the heat to regulate the current. Is that regulator chip sensing the current and driving the FET gate?
I bought 5 of these drivers with memory, I liked the simple and clear operation, while the other type came with very confusing information on the Convoy site. In the meantime that one may have proven to be better for me, but I still have 4 drivers to go… :person_facepalming: