I have several SK68’s and SK98’s. Generally the quality that I’ve received (for the prices I’ve paid) are acceptable to actually pretty decent. There is something about these two designs that I like and I’ve found them to be either nice little back up lights or nice little lights to toss in the car or around the house or to give as little gifts to friends and family.
I’d like to look into a bit of modding with each. I’ve already done some modding on a couple of 98’s that I’ve liked and I often refer back to that thread. I’d like to see what possibilities are available for each, perhaps that you’ve done and how you’ve like the mod.
I like several ‘blinky’ functions such as strobe, SOS and beacon. If anyone knows of a driver that provides these, along with various levels of brightness I’d like to hear about it. I like strobe as a self-defense tool. I like SOS and beacon from an emergency preparedness perspective. Personal preference. If you’ve found any particular LED’s as good for them, particularly for the 68’s I’d like to hear about it.
If you switch to liion you could go with guppy drive from RMM and the tail threads will pass a 16 mm cell so reaming the tube for a 16500 can boost run time. Kaidomain has a huge selection of drivers but you’ll need to narrow the choices to 15mm.
It’s a big difficulty to find decent 15mm driver…usually those are the same as in stock SK68’s - High/Low/Strobe. Hate that UI… If you have a link to a better one - would be very grateful.
For SK-68: XP-E2. Depends on the model you get, but for the typical 3-mode driver, you can use the pencil trick on the capacitor to make it a lot more convenient. That also lets you keep the AA Alkaline/NiMH option available. Mountain has a custom 15mm 7135-based driver available if you are okay with using Lithium only. I’ve also had a couple of very cheap 15mm single-mode 7135 drivers from FastTech that would work.
[edit]I found the simple 1-mode driver, it’s actually at DX. http://www.dx.com/p/2-7v-6v-3w-cree-circuit-board-for-flashlights-15mm-2-7mm-25518
has 2x 7135 chips and pads for a third. As simple as this is, it should be pretty easy to flow a third in place… Not sure but I think I had purchased the version that’s fully populated with all three 7135s somewhere; that would be my preference, for a full amp out, decent level for such a small light.
Alternatively, your choice of a high-CRI Nichia or something if that’s your preference, but I vastly prefer the beam pattern of the XP-G2 sized die over the larger XP-L HI or similar in this size of light.
yeah, i LOVED the pencil trick… made me like a couple budget zoomies enough i can wait to change the drivers. (you might have to explain the pencil trick if he’s new)
I would be also very curious about pencil trick. I rather tried soldering, as pencil did not work for me Another topic was what to solder…with my knowledge I had to try various options.
To expensive? Thats the joys of modding turning something into a custom light to suit your needs and sometimes the mod can cost many times more than the light.
Some SK98 hosts are worth something mod wise but, honestly, an SK68 mod is faaar from newb friendly. All of the corners have already been cut in the majority of the available hosts in the market, and turning it into something worthwile requires a level of effort and cost with ranges starting from nothing less than absurd. It's $2-4 of junk, so better set it where it belongs: the dustbin. You'll save money.
Start with something which actually at least has a positive value/cost quotient, something also cheap and fake but good ;-) (a CFG01, for example, can start doing really good with just an emitter swap).
This 3- mode boost driver (l,m,h) from kd is 16 mm but can be sanded to 15 mm. And This one is 15mm(l,h,strobe). The pill’s not hard to fix and the switch is already an Omten 1288, solder the spring to the base plate to remove one mechanical connection.
If you do choose to try it just be careful it is a very snug fit. I cooked a couple of them using way too much soldering iron. At the time I did not have a temperature controlled iron.
The last one I did I put a CREE XP-E2 U5 Torch LED on Noctigon 16mm MCPCB also from Mountain, and it still works fine. I carry it almost everywhere I go. The 68 host that it is in was what turned out to be an actual Ultrafire. Trust me that did not make any difference in the quality of the host.
I have beat that light to death, it has been dropped more times than I can remember, I dropped it twice last night at work. To this day that little piece of junk has not let me down. I have had to change the tail switch a couple of times but that is it. It is about 3 years old now and still kicking out light when I hit the button. I am sure it could use a lens change but nothing else. People still freak out when I turn it on in a very dark area and they see that tiny flashlight pumping out all of that light.
I have lights that I have paid 10 times as much for and they were not as dependable.
Recently I bought about a few SK68’s for modding. Now I’m trying to solder brass disc into the pill…it’s still not a great success, but now I can feel the head when running on 14500.
Also tried to mount TIR optics and glue the moving bezel. Results were interesting, pretty cute AA light. Of course I also swapped the leds.
Another topic was what to solder…with my knowledge I had to try various options.
