I thought I would start a thread on what I'm going to do, to improve the stock Defiant thrower from Home Depot. It's a "made for Brinkman" light and in stock form it is respectable, but it needs a mod. Hell, they all need a mod.
In it's stock form, this light boasts an XM-L led and a very large reflector. It runs on three "C" Alkalines. I will be changing the driver, the switch and using three Sub-C NiMH batteries in it. I will mod the heat sink and cut down the barrel for the shorter cells.
Just a couple stock photos of the light
The pill is removed. It really is a fairly thick aluminum pill, but hollow.
The section of the light that the pill goes into. This is massive and has large fins. It's a great heat sink if you can get the heat out to it. That's the mission here.
The stock driver, trash bound, as I am going to use a NANJG 8x7135 (or maybe 10x, or 12x).
Inside the pill.
I will fill that coupling with copper shot and solder. It will be a much better heat sink.
The pill in the outer housing. I will fill that gap too, so the heat gets to the outside quickly. (more copper please).
Switch section
Switch and plastic housing. I will ditch this switch in favor of a 5 amp Judco.
The bare switch section leaves a lot of room for possibilities.
That's all so far. Basically I just looked it over and decided how I could increase the heat sink area and I will be starting the actual work sometime next week.
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01-26-2013 Finished.
Switch parts. The housing, a 5 amp Judco, the boot, the plastic inserts, copper rounds and contact plates.
I had to cut out the plastic insert that held the old switch, in order to get the Judco in there. On the right is the piece I removed.
The Judco fits, but I had to sand off the threads around the button, to get into the boot.
Boot, Switch and plastic insert in place.
One wire goes thru to the back and one stays for the front.
Copper round soldered to contact plate. Wire is soldered on the contact plate too.
Same thing on both ends.
The copper pill is in place and it's ready to finish.
8x7135 Driver with 4 extra 7135 chips (12 chips total).
LED is back in and the pill is in place. It's finished.
Driver with spring in place. Ready to button it all up.
Garage with twofluorescentsflourescents on.
High mode on the Defiant, with 3 Alkalines.
I did not cut down the bodyNiMH 3xSub C Nimh. I tried them and it's no brighter with them in.
I don't know what's up with the driver. I only have high and medium. When I switch to low, there's nothing and clicking again is back to high. I think the program was written wrong, why else would there be a position for low (cycles to it and thru it) and not have any output?
All done, probably not worth the mod, leave it stock and enjoy it.