Transformation T̶u̶e̶s̶d̶a̶y Saturday - Convoy S8 Mod - Updated 1/17/16

Very nice job on the light. Lots of lights out there but only one just like this.

That is really nice. I love it when an intricate build comes together.

Thanks. I just re-did the tail led with the new board and added one of those ring magnets from banggood.

Very nice build! Any chance I could get the .c code you used as I’m attempting something a little similar but I can’t get the firmware to work.

Sorry I missed your post, I was working on this light again and just noticed it. If you still want the code, here is the latest iteration.


I was just coming back to say that I swapped out the driver in favor of a FET+1. I managed to stack an extra 7135 then solder them to the pcb with a piece of electrical tape under the output pin to isolate it, then solder some 24awg wire directly to the pins for the red output. Works great. My main motivation was to get the clean look of a single-sided board, but the extra lumens are a nice bonus :bigsmile: It now draws 6.2amps, good for about 2400 lumens.

Wow! Sounds like a very neat light to me. I have to learn how to flash these drivers NOW. No clue about coding at all, but with all those codes readily available, I couldn’t think of anything that I’d want that hasn’t been done…

So you get 6.2amps to the 2 XP-L and about 0,7amps to the red XP-E in each of the two max modes? That is brilliant, especially that added 7135 for more red light ouput. That illuminated tailcap is also very nice, have to give that a try someday.

Overall a very impressing light pilotdog!

The firmware is very similar to what I’m using :slight_smile: I’m still tweaking bits of mine to give me my perfect modes.

Haha. My white + red light also uses FET + 1 driver with extra 7135 stacked. Funny how similar yet different they’ve turned out. Think I’m going to build one like yours but with 219’s instead of XP-L as a gift for my brothers birthday.

WOW…incredible!

excellent work my friend!

Totally missed this one, excellent job on this!! I've been thinking of the same thing, didn't know it was already done. Like the FET+1 mod. I'm hoping to do it with a ATTiny85 though so I can add some tricks with advanced modes.

This light is still the one I grab when i want to show off a light to muggles, but there were a few little things that were keeping me from grabbing it when I actually needed a flashlight. So tonight, I did a total rebuild.

  • Swapped out the optic from a narrow spot clear to a narrow spot frosted to smooth out the square projection of the dies.
  • Swapped one of the XP-L’s for a new one that has a bit better tint, and I swapped the other XP-L for a dedomed XP-G2 to get back the throw I lost with the frosted optic.
  • Got rid of the FET+1 driver, and put in the first of my TripleDown drivers. It has 2*7135 controlling the Red XP-E, 3*7135 for low and a non-PWM medium mode, and FET turbo.
  • In the tail I kept the blue led’s, but they are on the new Rev4 lighted tailcap PCB. I have two brightness settings now, one that is a little brighter than before that I can use when i’m showing off in the daylight, and a lower setting that is more practical in real use.
  • I kept the tail magnet, but sunk the switch boot down further so that the magnet makes better contact and sticks much stronger than it did before.
  • Finished it off by giving it a brighter polish than it had originally.

Pics in the OP

Wow super cool build. What is the beam like with the different leds?
How does UI work on your driver?

A nice light indeed. It’s very satisfying to run your own driver designs in a light, isn’t it? :slight_smile:

The base firmware is blf-a6, so it is the very standard way of mode switching, but the order is moon red, max red (760ma), low white, medium white, turbo white.

Both white led’s are always on together. You can definitely tell by the beam that it’s two leds, it’s sort of a flat beam shape.

This looks great pilotdog68!

You take any beam shots ? Very interested in the Red. How does it do ?

The red is quite nice. I used deep (photo) red XP-E so it is a deeper red than the newer XP-E2’s. It does well for it’s purpose. I could probably have made it even brighter by stacking another 7135, but it’s bright enough as it is and that could have caused fitment issues in the pill. I usually just use the high red mode to ceiling bounce in a room at night. It gives the effect of having the whole room lit up by a very low-impact red moon mode essentially.

I can try to take beamshots tonight, but the so far every camera I’ve tried doesn’t capture the red accurately.

This is very interesting. I have been on a quest to find a white/red flashlight with good output on red. Don’t like the UI on most.

Could the BLF A6 firmware be reworked to have the light come on at low/red or low/white or memory, and have the modes like this

Red/ strobe—-Red /battery level—-Red /Hi—-Red/Med—-Red/ low—-white/low—-white/med—white/hi—

Short press it goes to white modes. Long press it goes backwards to red modes.

Yeah, I don’t see why not. I don’t use the mode reversing because I have never been able to get it to work reliably, but you could program it so that the red modes are in the place of the hidden modes in the blf-a6 firmware, and change the strobe and batt-check so it’s red only.

That sounds easy enough to do.

Hows the firmware holding up?