ZY-T08 Mod - picture heavy with beamshots

This mod is generally for newcomers like I am because this flashlight was around for a while and some great mod’s are already done. Nothing fancy and new in this build, just a great and cheap flashlight with lots of potential. Maybe this bulid will encourage members who never done any major modification to their flashlights to step up and do it. Also wanted to say that I have never (before this) done any electronics soldering, shaping metal, soldering metal and removing the dome from led emitter. I’ll try to be as detailed as possible, with lots of pictures and some basic info on this build.

Project cost:

  1. Zy-T08 from Tmart - $18,99
  2. XML-2 U3 1A bare Led from intl-outdoor - $4,98
  3. Maxtoch PCMCB 26 mm - from Banggood - $3,39
  4. Driver LD-1 (5A) bought from a member here - $15,00
  5. Omten Tailcap switch from Fasttech - $0,60
  6. Artic alumina from ebay - around $12,00 (this thermal glue will last for many other builds)
  7. Other supplies (solder wire, copper etc.) local hardware store - $20 (these supplies will also last for other builds)

So let’s start.

First measurements showed 2,2 A at the tail switch (stock), so nothing to be excited about although the light was pretty nice as it was. The plan was to do a replace switch, copper braid springs, improve heatsinking, add a 18 or 20 AWG wires, swap emitter and driver. These modifications turned out to be a harder then I expected but I had a great time and can’t wait to do another mod.

1. Improving a switch.
I removed switch and springs and made a copper plate which would be a base for improved springs.

2. All soldered and polished

3. Old and new switch - different in length, height, width

4. Inserting a 18 AWG wire inside a spring and soldering a copper plate on top. Stock springs were very soft and didn’t hold batteries firmly in place. Shaking the stock flashlight caused battery movement inside a body. This solved that problem and reduced overall current resistance.

5. Tailcap modification finished

6. The difference in height between old and new switch was significant so I had to make some adjustments. Preparing for adding a epoxy putty spacer on aluminium switch cover.

7. Epoxy putty applied.

8. Sanding spacer. Good to know when sanding flat surfaces and want to keep them perfectly flat: Put sanding paper on a flat surface like plexiglass or glass and sand the object in “number 8 motions”. Just push the object against the sanding paper and write number 8. Of course, you have to turn the object around periodically (by 90 degrees) to get a perfect flat surface.

9. Nearly done. Just have to trim it down to the right height and polish with 2000 grit sand paper.

10. Inside look at the copper braided springs

11. Tailcap finished. Did a new tail current measurement and now it shows 2,5A so improvement is significant.

12. Improving a pill heatsinking. Making a copper ring for the bottom of the pill.

13. Threads that need to be removed. These threads do not make any contact with the pill, it’s a empty space. Inserting a copper ring should improve that. Marking with a blue marker.

14. Sanded these threads using a dremel tool.

15. Making a copper heatsink inside a pill. I used copper fittings bought at local hardware store.

16. Trimmed to fit inside a pill.

17. Adding a top copper plate.

18. Copper plate is press fitted inside cylinder.

19. Soldering copper.

20. Done! Cleaned and polished.

21. Making a copper plate for the top of the pill.

22. Drilling holes to make a better contact with copper cylinder below and to maintain a good contact with aluminum.

23. Making small rods to fit inside the holes for connecting top plate, pill and bottom cylinder. Don’t know what material is this but it had some “copperish” color. Pure copper rods would be better but this is what I had.

24. Preparing for soldering.

25. Soldered together.

26. Top view.

27. I Soldered copper top plate to the rods below, cleaned and polished the pill and that’s it.

28. I sanded down the outer ring of the pill (again figure 8 flat surface sanding) to get a better clearance for the wires and trimmed the MCPCB to fit inside.

29. LD-1 5A driver, stripped stock driver, pill.

30. All wired using 18 and 20 AWG wires. To make a better ground contact, 18 AWG wire is soldered directly from the pill to the contact plate. Also added a small copper heatsink on the driver.

31. De-domed led, Maxtoch MCPCB and arctic alumina thermal paste. Reflector is going to sit on the MCPCB. No centering ring.

32. Finished!

33. Control picture, lots of street light. Distance is around 60 meters.

34. Just to compare, this is my Convoy C8 (XML-2 U3 1A on Noctigon and smooth reflector at 3,6 A)

35. ZY-T08 at 4.5 A on shitty ultrafire batteries. New 25R’s are in the mail. I also managed to light up a white wall 400 meters away with no problem. ZY-T08 throws like crazy.

36. Side by side. Convoy C8 and ZY-T08.

That’s it! Hope You enjoy this mod. If You have any questions I would be happy to answer them. Cheers :beer:.

Wow, nice build.
You’ve put some serious effort in that puppy.

awesome build! i love what you did with the pill.

That’s no beginners mod, that took a lot of cutting dremeling and sanding to do. Good job.

wow I'm impressed! You put some serious love into that pill. I don't know where you came up with the idea to drop cut pieces of solder in around those rods but that is brilliant! This type of build is what makes me want to drop some coin into a 1-off build myself, possibly literally dropping coins in a light too.. Heh I have a "super yz-t08" comming from MTNelectronics today according to USPS, you have me really excited about it with your beamshots, I have an xml2-u3-1a XinTD and an xpg2 XinTD to compare it to! Might have to get off work early just to check it out haha waiting on darkness again as usual, unfortunately the sun just came out!

thumbs up

Great job, well done.

10 out of 10. Amazing mod and to top it of the light works. Thanks for sharing.

That is some awesome work. I’m stalled about halfway through a very similar build. This is some great motivation to get back after it. I really like what you did with the pill… I may have to incorporate some at least one of your ideas - adding copper on top to raise the LED seems much better than trying to file the lip on the pill down to get it to screw in further.

I’ve got a few cut pieces of pipe press fit into the pill already… but it never occurred to me to drill holes in the aluminum to solder a copper spacer on top to the copper below. Nice work!

Sounds good, but I can’t see any photos at all.

Thanks guys :beer: .

I did some tailcap current measuring and got some numbers that don’t make sense to me.

From 2x freshly charged old sanyo’s (1s2p) led pulled 3,70 A (batteries are old and I didn’t expect them to go as high as this)
From 1x freshly charged old sanyo (1s1p) led pulled 2,93 A - this is what I don’t get. According to this, two batteries should “give” around 6A when connected parallel.

Similar thing with shitty ultrafires:
1s2p - 4,4 A
1s1p - 3,8 A

Forgive my ignorance but could someone help me understand this. Thanks.

i think the problem is the voltage drop over the batteries.

Very nice mod.

I agree with dentillozie that it is probably voltage sag. 2 cells will sag less than 1, but not by much. You could have some resistance, but it doesn't look like it. Probably have an emitter with a high Vf. If you can measure the voltage accross the emitter, that would give you some good info. Here is a chart djozz made when he tested an xml2 on copper some time ago. Link to thread in picture.

Wow, that's the world's nicest ZY-T08 mod, and that's coming from someone who has done a lot of them. Pretty awesome!

The only real resistence left that I can see is the contact plate maybe?
You could drill threw and solder the driver directly to a fitting copper-sealing under it propably ? That would take care of that.
If that doesn’t work WarHawg made a contact plate for it (don’t know if tested): Link to OSHpark .

That was your FIRST mod ???!!!
Amazed.

I can already tell you that the emitter has a high vF. All of the new XM-L2s I've tested have a high vF, and since it is a U3 it is a newer XM-L2.

Thanks again to all of You guys and for Your answers and comments :beer: . Good feedback is a real boost.

Made some measurements and these are the results:

DMM wires (12 AWG) 0.1 Ohm
From tail cap to pill 0.2 Ohms
From contact plate (battery side) to led+ 0.2 Ohms

Freshly charged ultrafires, both 4.18V
Hi 3.79V at led + & -
Med 3.02V
Low 2.69V
Moon 2.58V

Does these numbers confirm high Vf?

Yeah, that is pretty high. If you look at djozz's chart above, his older XM-L2 had a Vf of about 4.65 3.65 at 4.4amps. Decent cells will sag to 3.9 volts under even at just a 1 amp load. Sounds like you identified your issue. High emitter Vf and cell voltage sag.

Bet you're even happier to have some 25R's on the way now. Please report what they do tail current wise. I'm curious.

Great mod!

I got one that had horrible corrosion in the switch and I wasn’t sure what to do. Your plate on the tail is perfect. Thanks for sharing.