It is well known that Samll Sun ZY-T08 is one of the best budget throwers out there.
Last batch that came into my hands was from tmart and had an aluminium reflector and a dual small fet driver with four wire pads:
In stock form is ok but it can be modded for extra fine focusing.
I ended up with these adjustments which were made in a lathe:
Maxtoch 26mm fits perfectly:
No need for centering ring, reflector sits on mcpcb:
Without lens
With lens & stock bezel
With sanded bezel
Stock bezel caused a double ring in the outer sibe of beam
Some beamshots of stock T08
I relocate L+ pad to B+ and I see 4.5 amps and I have one mode and 600 cd lux (1m ceiling bounce method), from 250 cd lux in stock form. With first gen T08 I had seen around 620 cd lux in one of my mods, I think the big FET was the reason.
Thanks for reading.
Great mod on zy-t08, I bought a same one from tmart and I’m doing a bit heavier modding mainly on switch side, pill, driver (piggyback), and keeping parallel batteries. Now I’m just waiting for some parts to come to finish this build. I have a few questions if You don’t mind. How (and how much) did you sand stock bezel to eliminate double ring? Why did You shorten the driver side of the pill from 7mm to 6,2 mm (is it for lifting the pill towards reflector?)? What clearance do You have between reflector and wires on MCPCB now? Does reflector completely sits on MCPCB?
I sanded just to remove the gloss with 600 grid paper. I shorten the top side of the pill, along with the bottom part, to lift the pill upper to the reflector and to let the reflector sit lower to the led and completely on mcpcb. Finally, I don’t use any material/insulation disc between reflector and mcpcb, wires are soldered away from alluminium reflector.
That’s a big help for me in adjusting reflector to get a proper output. Can You please post a picture (or write down) how did You solder wires away from reflector.
Nice work. Lots of attention to detail. You're making me want to mod one of these lights now. Mine is still stock.
I think you will find that focus will improve for throw if you back the emitter out a tad. Your emitter's beam is probably not hitting a small portion of the bottom of your reflector. You'll get a smaller, more intense hot spot, but will loss some spill.
I will try to take some more beamshots with my slr camera.
After a couple of years trying to get the most lumens, I realized that focusing with a decent reflector is the most important parameter in flashlights.
I’m pretty much in the same boat… been meaning to mod mine for a while. Mine’s been on my workbench torn apart for a week or two. I can’t remember if I ever even turned it on completely stock. I wish I had a lathe to turn the lip on the pill down some to get it to screw in farther. It’s going to be messy to do with a file, I’m afraid.
I have poked around the driver with my DMM a little — moving the LED leads to the other pads puts the light in straight direct drive (hence the one mode). The pad marked B+ is just connected straight to the positive battery contact. Seems like it’d be an ideal driver to clean off and stack something else on top if you wanted modes. I absolutely can’t stand strobe modes, so there’s no chance of me using the stock driver in any other way.
So far all I’ve done is cut a piece of copper pipe and squeezed it into the pill. I’ll probably do another few pieces until I can get the diameter down far enough to fit a 7135-based driver to get modes and low voltage protection. Then I’ll clean off the stock driver and use it as a contact for the batteries. The 7135 driver (not sure which one I’ll use yet) will be soldered in place for ground.
Thanks zeremefico for those measurements on the pill! Should save me a lot of trial and error in trying to file the pill down to get the focus right. I think I have that exact same caliper.
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