This is my new favorite “Big” light. I have one or two other lights that are brighter, and I have a couple other lights that will throw a tiny but further, but I don’t have any others with such a great balance of both plus fantastic run times and more compact than my other monsters. This is how I got there.
(SP03 is in the middle)
I traded a fully modded X6-SE for this light from another member here at BLF. He wanted something smaller, I wanted something bigger so it worked out perfectly. Otherwise I would probably never get my hands on something with an msrp this high. The SP03 is a pop-can light similar to an SRK but with a much bigger head/reflector and a removable handle. If you haven’t checked out the reviews, you should. Overall it’s awesome. One thing I didn’t like was the Battery+ contact. It was just a plated ring on the driver just like an SRK or a Courui. I’ve noticed on my Courui that it wears very quickly, so I wanted a more durable contact like a Blackshadow Terminator has.
(the stock contact, photo cred to JM)
I took the driver out (which was a royal pain due to glue) and took it with me to Home Depot and bought a sampling of washers with different coatings the same size as the contact ring. The first one I tried was cheap zinc-plated steel. I ruffed up one side with sandpaper, applied some aggressive plumbers flux, and hit it with a torch. Sure enough my solder stuck to it and I was able to solder it to the driver. I polished the other side and now I have a nice Batt+ contact that won’t wear down.
When you order from Oshpark, you order in sets of 3, so I had DoubleUp driver boards leftover from my G36 mod. I piggy-backed it onto the stock driver and potted the underside with duct-seal to keep anything from shorting out. The driver gives me a FET turbo, a non-PWM mid mode of 1.5amps, and I gave it a low mode of 0.075amps. On four Samsung 30Q’s High should be pretty smokin, mid is very usable and will last close to 8 hours, and low will last 160 hours (6.5 days) before I need to recharge.
For the emitters I dedomed three XM-L2 “U3” 2A’s. In the beamshots below they look quite green, but that’s because I didn’t adjust the white balance on my camera. The tint is pretty nice in real life. They are all wired in parallel. I used 18awg to ground the driver to the contact board and to run from Batt+ up to the first emitter, then 20awg to connect Batt+ to each emitter and take Led- down to the driver. I also used 20awg to bypass the tail springs. I didn’t do anything on the other side of the tail PCB because the traces were already huge.
Again, I don’t have a way of doing any real measurements on this light, so here are two comparison beamshots. These look dark because I wanted to show a real comparison between one of my brightest lights and my best thrower. I used ISO 50 and 1/2000 exposure time on my camera. In both images the SP03 is on the right. The left image is with my Courui with dedomed XP-G2 and FET driver running on Samsung 20R’s (not 100% charged), the right image is with my DST XHP-70 running at 8amps. As you can see there is a donut in the DST’s beam. There also appears to be a donut in the Courui’s beam, but that would have disappeared had I been able to back further away from the wall.
My Favorite Modded Lights: X6R, S8 , X2R , M6, SP03
Major Projects: Illuminated Tailcap, TripleDown/TripleStack Driver
Very nice pd. This mod should increase throw immensely.
djozz quotes, "it came with chinese lettering that is chinese to me".
"My man mousehole needs one too"
old4570 said "I'm not an expert , so don't suffer from any such technical restrictions".
Old-Lumens. Highly admired and cherished member of Budget Light Forum. 11.5.2011 - 20.12.16. RIP.
Nice mod!
love the SP03’s large triple reflector and design.
You could always mod your SP03 to get 11000+ lumens like this one. J)
That Canadian flashlight guy & Lantern Guru -Den / DBSARlight
I post late at night here because I know you Aussies always have nice things to say
It’s really just a simple driver/emitter swap, but I’m very pleased with the results.
My Favorite Modded Lights: X6R, S8 , X2R , M6, SP03
Major Projects: Illuminated Tailcap, TripleDown/TripleStack Driver
That light is to me the ultimate “mod”. It’s about the most you can do without starting from scratch with a lathe or pipes/etc. But I don’t think you could call it compact anymore lol.
My Favorite Modded Lights: X6R, S8 , X2R , M6, SP03
Major Projects: Illuminated Tailcap, TripleDown/TripleStack Driver
true its definitely not compact anymore at a foot long. (and heavy with eight 18650 cells.
That Canadian flashlight guy & Lantern Guru -Den / DBSARlight
Hey - I thought the group buys were killing off the modding, & you come along & ruin it with something nice like this!
Nice mod! And it looks very do-able too
I guess 3500 well thrown lumen ?
link to djozz tests
Haha that thread was the whole reason I posted this. Normally I wouldn’t take the time for pics and such on a emitter/driver swap.
I would guess right around there, I could probably get more with a UCLp lens (I wasn’t very careful about keeping the stock lens clean). It really is a very useful beam for outdoors
My Favorite Modded Lights: X6R, S8 , X2R , M6, SP03
Major Projects: Illuminated Tailcap, TripleDown/TripleStack Driver
Very nice mod. I guess I'll have to add the SP03 to my list of future hosts. When modding, I always like the "little finishing touches" like taking the time to "Plate" the battery contact area on the driver.
I have been looking for a decent SRK replacement, but a little pricey. Windyfire has it on their site for 54 and change, don’t know what shipping would be. Looks well built as well.
EDC rotation:
FW1A, LH351D 4000k (second favorite)
FW3A, LH351D 3500k
FW3A, SST20 FD2 4000k
FW3A, Nichia 4000k sw40 r9080 (favorite light!)
FW3A, Cree XP-L Hi 5A3
Emisar D4V2, SST20 4000k
S2+, XM-L2 T6 4C