Defiant 51 led, 4xAA Mod (Picture Heavy)

The black one on the right above is how the light started out. There are many mouse-overs here to save space.

Decided to mod this light because I need to make a non-lithium, multi-emitter light for a gift and was inspired by Old-Lumens build here. It's not near as nice as his as I didn't have the the same type of materials or skills. Also, I needed to spend as little as possible by using scraps and leftovers as much as possible. This light is going to a non-flashaholic.

Eneloops are a snug fit. Almost too snug. 26650's fit nicely with no modification due to a cup inside the tail cap. Spring compresses well for it.

Here are some of the parts I fabbed for the build. Discs were cut from .021" copper sheet. I used 2 additional disks for the top of the pill. They were sanded flat and soldered together with silver bearing solder. Below is just one disk before sanding. The pill is thick to increase run time on high.

Lined walls in head and top of battery tube to help move heat to the tube as fast as possible. Not as good as a solid copper pill, but this is a true budget build. Work great. You can feel the heat moving nicely.

Added 6 more chips to the 2.8 amp Nanjg 105C. Used wire to hold them together. I just have fried a couple of them because I am only getting 4.3+ amps to the emitter and at the tail.

Used a 1/2" coupling to hold driver. Fits over 1/2" copper pipe piece attached to driver. Allows future easy access.

Used copper around TIR to help move heat faster from pill. Didn't bother focusing. TIR rest directly on the emitter bases. Since emitter will only be driven around 1.5 amps each, I used those copper bases from FT. Gouged a thin line to the base in the center of the thermal pads to give some direct path.

Cell holder has terrible springs. Fabbed connectors/holders from .021" copper sheet.

The beam has a little throw, but mostly flood. Has some artifacts. Guessing around 10kcd. Will measure soon.

Runs around 5 minutes tail standing at room temperature before it starts getting uncomfortable to pick up.

Nice mod Ima! I picked up one of those SST-50 reflectors for my Defiant 51 LED.

-Garry

Wow! What's original, the switch cover?

Nice job of re-manufacturing.

Thank you Garry and Gj. This mod took a lot of work. I kept changing the plan as it progressed. All in all, I like the light. If it was mine, I would go 26650, xml2, real copper bases, and metal reflector like O-L did.

It's good to see others doing mods from info found here. Did you want have an orange light when done? If not, then 60/40 solder will melt at a lower temp and you can actually solder inside a head like that and not get to the orange stage, before the solder melts.

Those eneloops are pretty tight in those lights and 14500s are even worse. Like you say a single li-ion would probably be best, but for novices, eneloops are probably best.

That TIR, is that one of the ones for XR-E? They are pretty floody. I wish they had some 50mm or so made specifically for XM-L, but the ones I have seen that were labeled XM-L, were actually XR-E with the big holes in them.

If you want a fairly good pair of scissors for copper up to 18ga, I got 2 pair that cut well (good stainless), from the sewing department of Wal-Mart. They were both in one package and had black plastic handles and not expensive either. The longest one works well because you get more leverage when cutting.

What a terrific mod ImA4Wheelr. I applaud you for your achievement and effort. I’m telling you nothing when I say that OL guy has a lot to answer for. :slight_smile:

ImA4Wheelr,

Great job doing it your way. I'm a big fan of these hosts!

Brian

Thank you O-L, MRsDNF, and Kyfishguy.

Here is the reflector I used. It does seem like it is meant for a smaller emitter as the xml's are a snug fit and it is quite floody.

The orange was an accident. Luckily, my wife says the recipient's favorite color is orange (Clemson fan). So happy accident. You are right about 60/40 being a better choice. Having a hard time getting all the parts to match though. Still touching them up with a torch. The color seems to shift for several days after torched.

I'll definitely check out those scissors. Thanks for the tips O-L. Much appreciated.