TrustFire TR-801 mod

Flashlight Modding and DIY Parts
1

A short while back, due to a mix up at Tmart's US warehouse, I received a TrustFire TR-801 instead of an UltraFire UF-F10 (TK35 clone). Due to the inconvenience, as well as due to their fantastic customer service, they refunded my money and let me keep the TR-801. What's a guy to do with a light that's a few years old and running a Q5 LED? Why, turn that bowl of lemons into lemonade, of course!

The TR-801 is anodized in a very dark green instead of the usual black, grey or gold colors most lights these days come in. My example arrived in near flawless condition cosmetically. No scratches, nicks or dings anywhere on it and perfect anodizing throughout. Not a bad looking light and exactly the same shape and length as a UF-2100 except that it might have a little bit more mass. The original beam was pretty ringy in spite of a MOP reflector (like most every XR-E I've had) and the driver had only 3 modes, Low, High and strobe. An extremely "meh" light.
Thanks, "meh" cat!

A quick disassembly, a driver swap with a 2A 5-mode driver (100%/30%/5%/Strobe/SOS), an LED swap for a Nichia 219 on a 20mm star trimmed to 16mm, a crenelated bezel filed down to a smooth, flat satin finish, and a switch boot swap for one with better feel and "Voila!" a suddenly remarkable and pleasant to use EDC light!!

It's beautiful!

Thanks to the wonderful Nichia 219 High CRI emitter, the output from this light is now simply gorgeous! Not ringy at all in person and with a perfect all-purpose output profile. Great for indoor use or to light up the back yard. Tail draw is 1.69A on high.

Thanks for taking the time to check this out. Keep modding, folks!!

Johnny

2

Lemonade indeed. Well done.

What tool and technique did you use on the bezel?

3

Thanks, man! I just used a rasp to remove the crenelations then some fine grit sand paper to remove any fine marks left by the rasp as well as smooth the edge sharpness for better pocket comfort. I followed it with a polish using newspaper.

4

Forget the lemonade:

Get your engineers to build a combustible lemon to burn their house down!

5

Great mod .

I'll take it .

6

Nichia 219, Hmmmm, never heard of it.

Great mod!Laughing

7

what the heck does that mean? Since I’m the engineer here I take it you want my house to burn down?

8

A very nice sweet mod there JohnnyMac. Does it get very hot at 1.69 amps in this small form?

9

Not at all hot. Warm some but not much. It’s really an overbuilt host unlike the UF-2100 body. The pill is brass but large and quite heavy. The head and body thread onto either half of it with the middle exposed in that blingy band of brass.

10

Nice. 8) I need to put together a parts box of stars, drivers, o-rings etc. And I do need to get some nichea 219’s to play with. What reflector size is compatible with them?

11

I think just about anything. This one was an XR-E reflector and works great. Ideally an XP-"X" reflector due to similar size I'd imagine.

12

Excellent, I think I’ll try and get one in my c8 q5 work light. 8)

13

And just because I can't have a "CREE" label on my new Nichia light...

While I was at it I couldn't leave it with a TrustFire logo either since I modded it head to toe...

The new labels would look a lot better if the body was black instead of green but who cares? I sure don't and I'm all that matters.

14

Nice, you should add a link to the “old lights worthwhile” thread.

15

Not a bad idea, mate. :wink:

16

Nice work JM…I have been thinking of intalling a 1.4amp 3 mode and XPG-2 in mine.I really like what you did with the bezel, makes the light look so much better!

17

The “meh cat” and “It’s beautiful” pictures made me laugh!

Moded light looks awesome! you did a great job!

18

Nice job on an old light. The image macros gave me a good laugh too! Just shows how you can get diamonds from coal and elbow grease.