Nice mod. Love the persistence and the final outcome. Well done.
Thanks.
I’m glad it worked out. I love the tiny size and grippy knurling of this light. It feels great in the hand. It just needed a better UI, more output, and less risk of accidental pocket activation.
So this is what Boba Fetts flashlight would look like…
Even with the “damage” you did in attempting to get the head off, you still turned out a fine mod. This is very impressive, and if you cannot get the head off, with your skills, methinks no one will. I was looking at small finish washers to protect the switch on my Tiny III 18650, your aluminum cover looks very much like what I envisioned a properly sized finish washer would do for mine. I would try hot glue to hold mine on first….
Once again, very nicely done mod, I would love some 30 foot beamshots against the original if you have time. Great job.
I replaced the homemade switch plate with a filed down #6 finishing washer. Definitely looks better. I’ll try to get a picture up tomorrow.
Also been trying a QTC pill between the tailcap and battery. This light is superbright without the QTC but gets offly burny on the fingers. Like too hot to touch in 15 seconds or so. And even at 50% power too hot in maybe 30 seconds. The QTC pill reduces output and solves that problem.
Would probably be better to use a non-FET driver of maybe 3-4 amps. Unfortunately, a Nanjg 105C is quite a bit thicker than the BLF17DD and I don’t really want a longer light. That and I like the moonlight mode.
Or perhaps I should try thinner wires between the driver and star. I’m using standard 22 gauge. Maybe I should opt for extra small wires in the hope it will generate more resistance and help keep the output to a more practical level.
I made a few other changes to this light:
- I replaced the 3 mismatched LEDS with 3 XPG2 4000K 5A2 tint. Gives a beautiful slightly warm tint with no green. I really like this tint. Previously, the 3 LEDs I had in the light consisted of one with 5A2 tint, one with 3C tint, and one with 1A tint.
- replaced the Mountain Electronics Driver with a Nanjg 105C with DrJones Mokkadrv firmware. Added 4 extra 7135 chips for 4.5 amps. The old driver was producing something like 7 or 9 amps on a fresh cell on turbo. The head got too hot to touch within 15 seconds or so. It felt somewhat dangerous. And after I left it on too long on high, the driver actually suffered some damage and lost access to the 2 lowest modes including moonlight. Perhaps the 7135 chip burned out and only the FET was still working (the 3 higher modes all still worked).
The new driver limits current to 4.5 amps. It gets hot, but never too hot to hold as long as it is held in the hand. Much safer. Output is lower, but still quite respectable. I figure maybe 1100-1300 lumens compared to 1700-2000 with the FET. I also really like the simple Mokkadrv interface. Single click from off to turn on at max. Single click from on to turn off. Long click from off turns on at minimum. Long click from on cycles modes between low, medium, and max. Double-click activates strobe. No mode memory.
New driver has a couple downsides though. Due to the row of 7135 chips on the bottom, it’s thicker than the old one. This makes the light approximately 1-2mm longer with battery installed. Also, it doesn’t have as big a range of output as the old driver. The high isn’t as high, and the low isn’t moonlight.
- I replaced the aluminum button shroud with #6 finishing washer. I expanded the opening in the washer with needle nose pliers (insert pliers into opening, then expand the jaws of the pliers) and then filed the bottom and inside of the hole to fit. The new nickel-plated brass shroud matches the steel bezel and switch button much better. The light looks like it was manufactured with it as part of the switch. It doesn’t look like an add-on at all.
Awesome job on the light! I'm impressed! :)
Any more pictures?!
Using a finishing washer around the switch worked way better than the cut aluminum sheet I originally used. The finishing washer looks like the light was manufactured with it!
Here’s what I did:
- I started with a #6 nickel plated brass finishing washer.
- The opening in the washer was too small for the button. I inserted needle nose pliers then expanded the jaws to widen the hole. At first this made the washer oval shaped, so I rotated and repeated until the washer was circular and the opening was much wider.
- It still wasn’t quite wide enough though. I inserted a round needle file and filed the inside of the washer till it was sufficiently wide.
- The washer was too tall. I couldn’t press the button with finger. I filed the bottom of the washer with a hand file until it was short enough that I could easily press it with a finger or thumb, but not too far… I still wanted a raised ridge around the button to prevent accidental pocket activation.
- I glued the washer using some conductive silver epoxy I had on hand. Alternatively, I’d use arctic alumina epoxy. I paid special attention to make sure there was epoxy below the washer on all sides. I didn’t want it getting caught in my pocket and having the washer ripped off. Before I put on the epoxy I wrapped the entire light in black gaffers tape except for a small opening at the switch. That way I didn’t have to worry about epoxy accidentally getting spread to other parts of the light.
- After the epoxy cured I trimmed it, making sure the portion below the sides of the washer was vertical. I also removed excess epoxy from inside the knurling near the button.
- I then painted the epoxy to match surrounding anodizing, using acrylic hobby paint. I used grey primer mixed with some tan and medium metalizer to get as close a match as possible. I shaded the paint to be slightly darker at the top and bottom.
- To protect the paint I brushed on a layer of liquid super glue.
- After the super glue dried I brushed a layer of dullcoat on to reduce the sheen.
Note: the above pictures are the switch mod done to an otherwise unmodified DQG Tiny III. I’ll likely destroy the internals on this one and transfer over the internals from my completed Tiny III triple. That way I’ll have a triple without a scratched up body.
WTH man… these things are not growing on trees… Seriously, I like the light with damage, it makes it look like you kicked someones A$$ with it, or you used it to secure your climbing rope on K2 when you ran out of chocks or, well, you get the point……
On the ulterior motive side, I want to see what you do the second time around on one of these…
And the finish washer mod looks great, I like the epoxy trimming and painting to match, seriously nice work. I did this with a stainless steel #6 finish washer, and have not put it on yet, but I can guarantee the stainless was MUCH harder than the brass. I still have a flat spot on the tip of one of my filing fingers…
Heh.
I went ahead anyways and tried to mod my second DQG Tiny III. Ran into a problem though and still haven’t been able to figure out what’s causing it.
The mod seemed to go off without a hitch. I performed all the steps as per the previous mod. But something isn’t working right!
The driver works fine. All modes work perfectly. But when the light is off, the LEDs will still light up in a low moonlight mode. This won’t happen right away. After I do the driver install and screw it all back together. Then after 10 minutes or so it flickers in off mode then turns on with that low moonlight. Only doing a tailcap lockout disables it.
So far I haven’t been able to isolate the cause. I tried:
- Building and installing an alternate identical driver, with completely different driver and switch wires.
- Checking positive and negative leads on the star to verify there’s no accidental ground connection.
- Repeatedly scraping the bottom of the remains of the stock MPCB and checking to be sure I didn’t miss any SMDs.
But so far nothing works! I don’t think it’s the driver. The driver I’m using doesn’t even have a low moonlight mode. Also I tried a duplicate driver and still got the unintended moonlight. And the same driver works fine in my other DQG host without this problem.
I’m at a loss to figure out what the problem is though. Could it be the switch? Perhaps the switch is defective and leaving a high resistance connection even in off mode? Not sure how that would cause the LED to light up though. Also, how is the LED lighting up when the driver is off when the only connection to positive is by going through the driver? And why only in this host and not the other identical one?
Anyone have any ideas? I’m thinking the next thing to try is to bypass the switch and see if that removes the unintended moonlight. If that’s the case then, I’ll have to see if I can replace the switch… could be difficult as I’m not sure how to get it out.
what driver and firmware are you using?
Nanjg 105c with 4 extra 7135 chips added (12 total). Firmware is DrJones Mokkadrv.
I find it rather odd that this unintended “moonlight” only appears when the driver is used in one host and not the other.
And I don’t think it’s a fault in the driver construction, as a I built a duplicate driver that had the same exact problem… but only when used in the one host.
hmm I’ve seen weird things with e-switches on dual channel drivers, but I’m afraid I can’t be much help on the Nanjg
GADzoooks!
I would bypass the switch, if that doesn’t work, then another driver (or swap it in from the old Triple cubed) . In my experience with trailer lights, it is ALWAYS the ground if you hooked up the wires in the right order. I don’t know if that applies here though… The switch may have some issues with that specific driver, sometimes the tolerances do not stack in our favor….
I think I figured out the problem.
Keeps fingers crossed hoping I got it right
For the bottom of the driver I was using a copper post made of 3 pieces of sheet copper layered on top of each other. I don’t think I made the post quite high enough so with flat top cells part of the cathode might’ve been touching the tops of the lower layer of 7135 chips or possibly the resistor. Not sure if that’s the issue, but I noticed the light worked better with button top cells.
I stuck the remains of the foam ring that was on the underside of the original driver around the copper post and now it seems to work fine. Hopefully it will continue to do so.
After insulating everything possible with arctic alumina or Kapton tape I fixed the problem with the unintended moonlight. I also discovered and fixed a loose ground connection from the driver to the body.
Trouble-shooting this was an exhaustive process. The leadwires and bondpads on the star are really showing wear. There’s a real risk that with too many more desolders I might have to install fresh driver wires. I might even need to reflow to and grind down a fresh star.
I discovered another problem. The switch PCB seems to be press-fit from the inside of the light. Somehow it got pushed down making the switch take an excessive amount of force to operate. I pushed it back up and used arctic alumina to fix it in place. Unfortunately, I got a little too enthusiastic with the probe pushing it in and think I damaged one of the vias through the board to the switch. Result is the switch in the unscratched host no longer works! GRRRR.
I’m not sure any of the microswitches I have on hand will fit. I’m going to have to see if I can pry out the PCB and install a different switch, or maybe bypass the PCB. Oh well… task for another day.
Took the host with the broken switch and tried to remove the switch.
Prying it out from the inside didn’t work. I ended up completely destroying and removing the switch mechanism… everything up to the metal cover cap. I did come across a thin rubber membrane inside the switch mechanism. I think this does mean the stock switch is waterproof.
Not so the replacement switch I’m going to try to install though…
Finally got it all working in the new unscratched host.
4.5 amp DrJones Mokkdrv driver
3x XPG2 neutral 4000k 5A2 tint.
After destroying the original switch I had to install a replacement switch. I glued a small micro momentary switch I had on hand in the pocket where the original switch went with arctic alumina. Was a pain to get working after I accidentally ripped one of the contacts off, but it works now. All modes function fine. The new switch has a softer touch and is more responsive than the old switch. The old one didn’t always function even when I felt it click. New one always functions with a click.
This light still has a downside though: Now that I have everything working I’m thinking 4.5 amps is too much! At max power it gets hot quite fast. Too hot to touch in 1 minute or so. Thinking I might strip off 2 or 3 of the 7135 chips.
I am in awe of your persistence sir….