For sale - My efforts on the "Good host for you" host

Flashlight Modding and DIY Parts
1

I’ve got other projects I want to get on with so this is now for sale. $50 plus shipping.

I don’t know if the host has a name??? I bought it from Simon - good flashlight host for you

I stuck an xml t6 in it and ran it at 3 amps. I wasn’t all that impressed. I thought ‘I could’ve bought a light just like this, stock, and I wouldn’t have had to work on it myself’. So I planned a light BLF worthy.

My initial plans -
Custom pill
dedomed sst-50
9 amp driver
batteries I kinda have already

I made the pill before I realised I should take some pics. Not that you’ll have missed much, my work is not ideal. I started with 1” copper bar, cut it to length, drilled it from one end. Because of the shape of the drill bit I got in there with a dremel as well. I don’t have the gear to thread the bar so it will have to be a press fit which meant I needed to grind off the threads in the neck of the host. I wasn’t 100% sure how much space I was going to have and I knew it was going to be a tight fit so I pressed it into the neck before finishing the work I needed to do on it. It didn’t press in as far as I was planning which means the led sits a little high. Later, when I fitted the driver I found out it was a squeeze on that side as well.

Whilst doing all this work and looking at the stock pill it occurred to me that it resembles a C8 pill. I don’t know if it will fit, maybe someone that purchased this light and owns a C8 might be able to clarify. If it does fit then there are copper pills available from vesture-of-blood. That would’ve made it so much easier for me.

So being a bit backwards myself I made a rib for the led to mount to after pressing it in the neck :zipper_mouth_face:





In this next pic you can see I used too much solder :~

This is the driver


I had to add a spacer between the circuit board and the contact board otherwise the driver gets squished when the battery tube screws in.


The contacts on either side of the led is actually the remains of an sst-90. I don’t know why I was hanging on to a dead led but I found a use for it. It was already dedomed, I flipped it and cut the + and - contacts so I was left with the centre pad. I then cut it in half and use one for each side.


Just don’t laugh at my soldering. I know I’m rubbish :_(


The contact board gets clamped when the battery tube screws in. The thickness of the board plus the spacer I put in means I can’t screw the battery tube all the way. The head doesn’t go all the way on either, I’ll get a pic of that later.

That was as many pics as I got before I did some test runs. I knew the current was too much but I was honestly expecting it to survive. I did a quick on/off. The tint looked really blue. I wasn’t sure why at first so forged on. This time I turned it on and quickly tried to move to a lower mode. The instant it turned on it was the tint I was expecting then moved into the blue that I saw before. I did manage to click to another mode but either the led or the driver died. I don’t know which because the first took out the second. :_( It really cheesed me off so I left it for a day. Of course, I stewed on it and had to fix it up so fitted another 9 amp driver this time powering an sst-90.

I’m happier with it now but it needs a tweak here and there. I might get beamshots this weekend.

2

Nice work. Gonna be a very good light.

I'm a big fan of putting emitters directly on copper pills as opposed to copper base and then copper pill. More effort, but I think worth it in cases where you really want to push the amps.

Looking forward to seeing more.

3

Very creative.

4

I would cover the wires with Kapton tape in case it’s shorting…but daggum that is one HECK of a nice build!!!

at 9A is going to be a barn burner! Awesome!

5

That ought to fry a few retinas! Mother of god! Love it! And love that picture where you show the led mounted on that copper heatsink. Sweet :-)

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Yeh, I’m a fan of mounting the led to big lumps of copper. I think it is related to my fetish for luminus led’s. They have a big pad on the back which gives them a good thermal path. Because they are big they are also easier for me to work with. They are not too efficient but they put out lotsa light! J)

Hmmm… creative… you make it sound like I put some thought into it :wink: Thanks

Good thinking. Thanks for the suggestion, I’ll see what I come with.

Not that I’ll be aiming for retinas 0:) but thanks anyway.

I drilled out the base of the reflector some, to suit the bigger sst-90.

So I haven’t really managed to shoe horn the whole lot in neatly. Here is a shot of the gaps between the head, neck and battery tube. I think the shot above showing the gap between the neck and tube is before I fitted the spacer as it seems even bigger now. I think I’ll cut down the tube a little to suit, not really what I wanted since that part makes the connection to the contact board. You can also see the neck is a lighter shade of colour now due to reflowing the led a couple of times.

The led seems pretty close to centre though. I half pleased with myself since that was the first go with the sst-90. I’ll be making something to stop the reflector from screwing right down to the led 1. because it shorts out on one of the wires and 2. because I don’t want to crack the corners off the led (because of the way it is mounted).

One other thing I need to do is copper braid the spring in the tail cap.

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Great mod. I Love the work you did mounting the emitter.
How is that 9A driver. It’s one of the few I’ve never tried.

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Your not missing much. This one makes a whining noise. I’ve only run it a couple of times. Clearly audible on mid and less audible on high (iirc). I briefly had it hooked to a ampere meter, almost 9 on high, about 4-5 mid, and I guess it was about 1 amp on low though I wasn’t really paying attention on that one. I’m not real big on the finer points, so long as it’s in the ball park.

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Ha!, nice to know I'm not the only one with slightly discolored anodized midsections. I done that to a couple lights that I converted to integrated copper "pills". It seems every time I make one, I end up reflowing numerous times. My avatar is from one of those lights.

That gap to the head won't be noticeable unless one is looking for it. You could use a thick o-ring there to make it more water resistant and possibly dress it up.

That emitter looks beautiful in that light.

10

well done,the driver you used is it 26mm?

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The main board is 24mm and the contact board is 26mm.

ImA4Wheelr your post just made me feel a whole lot better :bigsmile:

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So the red o-ring showing was more than I could live with. The only way to fix the problem was to take it apart :weary: In the end I’m glad I did. I worked on it with the led still on :~ I drill the inside of the pill a little deeper and made it slightly shorter (at the back end). When I refitted the pill I had trouble fitting the driver as it was catching on the original pill threads. I suspect that was half the trouble before. The driver that blew up with the sst-50 seemed to fit that little bit better than this one.

When I got it half way back together I tested to see it worked. It didn’t :_( Luckily I hadn’t blown anything though, it was just shorting like WarHawk indicated (thanks buddy). So a little isolation work -

Now I had enough room for the driver that I could almost make the joint between neck and tube disappear. The gap between head and neck was noticeably bigger as well. This I could deal with because it was screwed onto plenty of thread.

I have a host that I’ve been cannibalizing for parts and it had a perfect diameter for filling the void in my new light.

A little braid on the spring and I’m done! :party:



I did a quick tail current check. My batteries were nearing flat when I took the measurement.

It’s been raining the last couple of nights so haven’t been able to go out for beamshots. Though, I had to test it, of course :crown: At the end of the test I noticed something a bit weird. A vapour spot on the lens. I’m assuming the air inside the torch is rather humid to be able to do this??

13

Nice improvements. I really like that collection of lights you have in that case.

Did you recently clean any of the parts in your light with alcohol before assembly? I get a fogged lens like that if I don't get the alcohol fully evaporated off before assembly.

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Thanks Wheelie.

I haven’t used any alcohol on it. Today I opened it up and cleaned the lens with a soft cloth. I also watered the reflector and blew it out with the air compressor. I haven’t put it through a decent test to see f it will happen again.

No rain tonight! so I got some quick beamshots. I forgot to label the pics though :stuck_out_tongue:
Good Host For You (GHFY)

Low

Mid

High

It has a similar beam profile to my FM turbo C head. Only the GHFY has a much better tint. This is a comparison shot. (sorry the colour isn’t right)

GHFY

Turbo C head

Another P60 direct drive xml t6

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^ Nice beam shots. Looks like it still has some good throw despite the large emitter. That's the type of beam pattern I find most useful, most of the time.

It appears there is no area lighting in what, I assume, is your back yard, but it feels like you home is in a a suburban-type neighborhood.

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Very astute observations wheelie :nerd_face:

It does have some throw. The only downside is it has a very light donut hole in the spot (oops, did I forget to mention that?). It doesn’t show up in the pics, of course. I’m thinking I’m gonna reflow the same kind of led to the turbo c head because the tint is so much better.

It is my backyard and it is not big as I am in the burbs. Normally there is a bit more light pollution but the weather lately is keeping my neighbours indoors more than usual. There is a street light over the back but it’s a little way off. It had also rained earlier in the day and everything is still damp, you know how everything seems darker at night when it’s wet?

I think i’ll be putting this up for sale shortly.

17

Light is now for sale :beer:

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I haven't tried to sell a light, but I think you are supposed to open a thread in the "Want to Sell" forum. Maybe you can just reclassify this thread.

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That did occur to me but I also thought most BLF’ers would rather make it themselves than buy someone elses hack job. I’m advertising at the market place.