After many Courui modification posts here on BLF, thought I could also give it a try. Why not, how hard can it actually be :)?
Hope You can enjoy my build as much as I did. It was a great journey and quite a challenge.
Project cost (shipping included):
- Courui D01 (Gearbest) - $28,00
- Omten switch (Fasttech) - $0,60
- Fet driver 22mm (Mountain el.) - $17,00
- XML-2 U3 1A (International outdoor store) - $5,00
- Maxtoch PCMCB 31,5mm (Banggood) - $4,00
- 18650 Samsung 25R (Fasttech) - $15,00
- Copper tube 35mm (Ebay) - $7,00
- Copper sheet 1mm (Local hardware store) - $4,00
- Screws 2mm (Ebay) - $2,00
- Other supplies (Local hardware store) - $5,00
So let as begin:
1. Improving a switch.
All springs removed, preparing a copper base.
2. Cut, sanded, polished and soldered.
3. Battery compartment inside look
4. Switch side parts all together
5. Springs soldered to contact plate, 18AWG wires going trough directly to the switch. Small copper plates are soldered on the top for better contact with the batteries.
!https://i.imgur.com/oLsMgXI.jpg !
6. All sanded and polished
!https://i.imgur.com/pnQg92k.jpg !
7. Inside look
8. Three wires from springs and one more from copper plate are soldered to one side of omten switch. One continuous 18 AWG wire is soldered from switch to three body contacts.
9. Naked original driver. Preparing it for better ground contact with the body of the flashlight.
10. Drivers battery side. Making a copper circle and the ring for better ground and battery “+” contact.
11. Sanded, polished and soldered.
12. Drilled a hole. Plan is to solder drivers “+” wire directly to copper circle below.
!https://i.imgur.com/4Fuwdwu.jpg !
13. Finished and in place.
14. A look inside the body.
15. Sanding threads to gain more space for the pill.
16. Three 1mm copper circles ready for soldering
17. Soldered together
18. It looks like a big heavy coin. It took 2 hours to file, sand and polish this.
19. Ready to go inside?
20. YES
21. Inside look
22. Copper cylinders, cut and trimmed to fit inside the body
23. It is a tight fit
24. Soldered together, it’s a mess!
25. One ring to rule them all :bigsmile:
26. Another angle
27. Marking “the coin” for drilling
28. Threading holes and tightening the pill to the body
29. Coin and ring are ready to be wed. There is a coil of solder wire between them ready to be melted.
30. Married!!!
31. Another mess to be cleaned
32. You have to admit that this looks very nice.
33. Other side
34. Screwed tightly to the body
35. Inside look
36. Boring part about soldering driver to contact plate and electronic switch is skipped. The pill is alive!
37. Gasoline dedome - check, thermal paste - check. Reflector is going to sit on the PCMCB.
38. Reflector is sanded to gain clearance from the wires.
39. Sanding the body of the flashlight to lower the reflector down with 400 grid paper. It should sit on the PCMCB.
40. Sanded body and a perfect tight fit.
41. Job Done!
42. Courui D01 and my beloved ZY-T08 (ZY-T08 Mod - picture heavy with beamshots) side by side.
I will try to make some beamshots later, it is daylight now in Croatia.
Current readings also later, batteries are in the charger (unfortunately I have only two Samsung 25R-s, others are in the mail).
Cheers .