New-117 (TK35 clone) mod. Turn a TK35 into a TK35UE (Updated with Beamshots 3-jan-2015)

The information is very helpful Ronin42, thanks a lot for that. :beer:

I might buy one soon or later, and before that happen I need to make some cash flow arrangement first. :slight_smile:

the tk35 clone reflector has a big ring at the outside. a C8 reflector wil give you a bit better throw i think. but im not sure you would be able to see it. maybe with a XM-L, but not with the MT-G2. i dont have a C8 reflector or light at the moment so im not able to test.

Wow the C8 reflector idea in interesting! MY pet peve about MT-G2 light’s is the artifacts in the corona of the beam caused by the extreme amount of light that comes directly out the front of the emitter, I ALWAYS prefer to use OP reflector’s for MT light’s to try and hide this effet, it doesnt fix it totally but it does help to hid it. I no longer have the 117 I did (did it for a customer) but I have some more interested folks asking about them, I also have plenty of C8 reflector’s, may have to give that a go for next time.

I received my Mt-G2 emitters, opened up the reflector and gave it a try.

not bad. But in the process of measuring the reflectors I had shorted one of the clones out. a little three leg (hard to see) black box thingy “ao8k” was kaput.

wight helped me to identify the (ao8k) and source replacements. (Thank you wight) They arrived (man are they small) well I found that the original location of the board that the (ao8k) needed to be soldered to was missing a solder pad, it was just gone. Well this board seems to have two of (places for ao8k (on the board you can see an open three pad area to the right of the ao8k) and the two sense resistors) and so I soldered a replacement on the second area, this worked until I switched to high zzzzaapp. Replaced it again again, zzzaappp.

So it looks like I cant “fix” this board to make the ao8k to work.

Screw the (a8ok) (for now) how do I make it a working single mode light that runs on high?

My question is specifically from where to where do I run a wire or wires to by pass the (ao8k thingy) it is the only part that I need to by pass (everything else seems to work?).

Help

sorry I did not post any photos but the board is identical the the ones in this thread (same light).

I think that the most basic 1-wire mod would be to connect L- to GND. Ideally you’d also bypass L+ around the inductor to BAT+.

Vcc should be BAT+, but I’d double check rather than trusting what I’m saying.

You may have a fairly hot light if you do this. You may melt/damage springs or switches.

wight,

Got it. Thanks.

btw you say to double check, what is it I am double checking? continuity? voltage? amps? (man I sound dumb) :slight_smile:

I will run used laptop pulls (no INR cells for this baby). should I run my high iR cells so that there is some resistance in the system?

It sounds like “we” are not using anything on the boards except the hot wires. as there are resistors on the board, I doubled the stock ones, shorted “r2” with solid copper wire and doubled “r1”.

I am fine with it running hot and not being able to use it for long periods of time, (I have other lights for that).

All in all “I have been warened”.

I guess there are various ways to double check that. I’d probably visually inspect it to see whether that’s BAT. If a visual inspection wasn’t practical I’d do continuity checks between BAT and Vcc. Just checking voltage is OK and will at least let you differentiate Vcc and Vdd (one of them is probably ~5v or less I assume).

It sounds like you’re doing a bunch of unnecessary things with resistors. You should be bypassing all of them with your wiring for straight-DD.

Trace things back from the LED to the batteries:

  • LED- goes to GND (BAT-)
  • LED+ goes to BAT+

If you find anything in between then move wires.

Well I did not know what Vcc and Vdd are so I looked them up:

From power - What is the difference between \$V_{CC}\$, \$V_{DD}\$, \$V_{EE}\$, \$V_{SS}\$ - Electrical Engineering Stack Exchange

“Back in the Pleistocene (1960s or earlier), logic was implemented with bipolar transistors. Even more specifically, they were NPN because for some reasons I’m not going to get into, NPN were faster. Back then it made sense to someone that the positive supply voltage would be called Vcc where the ”c” stands for collector. Sometimes (but less commonly) the negative supply was called Vee where “e” stands for emitter.

When FET logic came about, the same kind of naming was used, but now the positive supply was Vdd (drain) and the negative Vss (source). With CMOS this makes no sense, but it persists anyway. Note that the “C” in CMOS stands for “complementary”. That means both N and P channel devices are used in about equal numbers. A CMOS inverter is just a P channel and a N channel MOSFET in its simplest form. With roughly equal numbers of N and P channel devices, drains aren’t more likely to be positive than sources, and vice versa. However, the Vdd and Vss names have stuck for historical reasons. Technically Vcc/Vee is for bipolar and Vdd/Vss for FETs, but in practice today Vcc and Vdd mean the same, and Vee and Vss mean the same.”

Ok so now I must have misunderstood you.

If we are going direct then I take the positive (red) and the neg (black) and run it streight to the emitter. I think you were tryiing to tell me which pads to use (that was really my question)

Maybe we got off track with Vcc and Vdd?

Sorry this was not easier. I am not trying to be difficult.

As far as I know, Vcc and Vdd are commonly used to identify supply voltages. As we can clearly see, the Chinese driver house WS has used both identifiers on this board. One identifier is for the unregulated Vbat (battery input voltage) and the other is for the regulated voltage fed to the MCU. (this is regulated with a Zener and load resistor combo).

The key is that when both are in use on the same board it’s very safe to assume that they are not referring to the same supply voltage.

Thank you again,

Yes it looks like I will stick with your:

“Trace things back from the LED to the batteries:

•LED- goes to GND ring (BAT-)
•LED+ goes to center BAT+ (vcc)

and see if I can trace it back so it works.

wight

Thank you again for all the help.

Also if anyone wants to make this a 1 mode DD light it works well.

Like wight said take the vcc aka (hot) (most voltage) and move it to the center
The ground “should” work where it is but (I had to bridge some solder through a hole to get to the otherside and then bridge it again othe ring).

I also stripped all the components of the middle board (aka the ringed battery carrier board) so it is just a way to get juice from the inner board to the emitter.

I did run new heavy wires for the (+/-) from the inner board to the ring board and then from the emitter board to the emitter. (so four wires total).

But in hind sight the is a very simple MT-G2 mod.

And I still think this is a great form factor.

I’m looking at a TK35 clone right now. Is the tail end cap supposed to be plastic? I’ve got an aluminum head, aluminum body, plastic battery carrier… and plastic end cap held on with screws.

Yup, surprised me also.

Nitecore P36 the same way, I guess the cost to cnc them is just way too high compaired to injection molding.

Ya the phil flat heads threw me also but I thinkthey had a hard time finding such a short machine thread, (I assume)

With used laptop pulls the DD is really working out well. Maybe if I ran INR cells it would get too hot too fast but now it is a very usable single mode light, so thanks again for entertaining my rudimentary questions.

Oh the DD is now so much brighter then the resistor mod version (I have one of each).

Now lets see how to a mod the resistor version to run truly like direct drive but retain the modes? humm?

As an addendum:

I read 3.1ish amps at the emitter on the DD “driver” with used lap top pull NCR18650A cells but only .875amps on the resistor mod flashlight? same cells.

Mine just arrived, it’s pretty dusty outside but not too bad. A few little nicks here and there.
Don’t have time since I just have my exams but will get to it in a matter of weeks/months.
PWM is just discusting, on low it’s so slow that you can see single light spots if you move it around fast.
I’m planning to make it a around house and farm light.
Haven’t decided yet if it gets a XM-L2 6A2 with 80+ cri or an XP-L 3D tint. Maybe a XP-L U6 5A3 80+ but I’d need to order that one.

As for the driver, I’ll try to mod the stock one first and if that isn’t satisfying put a LD34 or something similar in it. A modded LD29 might work too. The connector for the head will get a copper sealing for better contact and less abuse.

As this is a 2S light the oppertunity is to exploite the new 6V families of high power emitters. Any cree has its place but with 2S 18650 cells the light is just begging to install a MT-G2, XHP 50 or 70, MKR

I like the form factor no matter what goes in it (feels tough as nails). I took my new Direct Drive TK35UE clone for a walk last night and it is really a wonderfully well rounded usable light, lots of throw (in an urban envrionment) 300m maybe and for a single emitter it may be the best flood availible.

I bought a new AR lens form richard (RMM) so now I have extras, I ran across a nugget here on blf that said that one can lightly sand an old plain lens to yeild a more floody light, as it is totally replaceable I am gong to give it a whirl.

Your light, your call, but I am now happy being an MT-G2 snob.

Martin (M4D MAX)
has a code for $10 MT-G2 emitters deliverd from BG. check out his thread.

can you link the thread? that is very intresting.

That is pretty much it.

To answer you question directly, no.

But the concept that you can sand your lens to make it more hazey/foggy I think it pretty clear.

get sand paper. (probibly start with smoother then rougher, and some may want to use the wet/dry type.

take an old (what ever that means to you) lens.

and lighty sand it and then try it out, if you want more then sand more. if you dont like it put your “new” lens back in.

BTW on my clone that still has modes the power is way down. but boy oh boy the DD one (one off and on no other modes) boy the the light look great.

I cant belive that “improving” the sprongsmaks that much of a difference and I am trying to figure out what else it could be?

I assume that dentillozie was asking about the deal thread, but I could be wrong. M4D M4X´s deals

If you only get 3.1A in DD it’s because you have weak cells or high resistance in the light. Probably weak cells IMO. The light with the stock buck driver still in place fares worse because the losses in the buck circuit are too high to even begin to regulate at such a low voltage (again, due to weak cells and/or resistive losses).

I wanted to fritter away some time in front of Eagle, I succeeded:

wight - [WIP] 6v-LED TK35 clone driver thing: for TK35 and ‘friends’

that look great man!