Love your mod FtC. You have made a very nice one of light. I especially like how you could use the driver board from Oshpark.
For my SK-68, the 15 mm. OSH Park BLF SK68 driver was needed mainly to allow space to bridge the gap between the pill and the thick finned battery tube with a heat conducting cylinder, to take high current better. For this SK-58, a two sided 17 mm. driver wouldn’t leave room for a protected 14500 without running out of thread at both ends of the body. The heat transfer is a secondary advantage.
I received a silver SK-58 today from Popkind for $6.16, http://www.popkind.com/SK58-Adjustable-Zoom-Focus-LED-Flashlight-Lamp-Torch-s85918.html . So they are now my favorite supplier.
12/22/14 Received another silver one mode SK-58 with “Sipik” under the slide for $6.16 from Popkind. But not much luck with other small items from them.
hm, they only show black as of right now. SKU: 85918
It must depend on what they have in stock. You could try adding a message about what kind you want, but I don’t know if that would help or not.
Added: or what they can find for drop shipping.
I think once I get back from vacation I’ll mod my remaining unmodded SK58. It’s a newer version using an XPE emitter. The emitter is much too recessed into the light resulting in a much narrower than desired spillbeam.
I’m thinking replace the driver with a one of the 15mm drivers from RMM, and then replace the emitter with a domed Nichia 219B. Then do the usual focus modifications to let the lens retract closer to the top of the LED for wider flood. I have all the parts on-hand already.
I’d be interested in seeing how the 219B does in a zoomie. Not expecting spectacular throw, but at least the tint should look nice.
I am interested in how you get more flood without losing throw. I think shortening the pill in front and the sliding bezel in back would do it. Or add discs behind the star, lengthen the front to get back the throw and shorten the back of the sliding bezel to get more flood.
The Mountain Electronics Web site says that 15 mm. drivers are out of stock. I am still not good at assembling surface mount circuit boards.
Have you ever looked at the “SK78”?
http://www.popkind.com/Sipik-SK78-Retractable-Cree-Q4-3W-LED-Flashlight-1-AA—s79546.html
> Mountain Electronics Web site says that 15 mm. drivers are out of stock.
I’m sure after the holidays he’ll be taking orders again. I just toggle the ‘notify me’ thing when that happens.
I tried once to get one back in October, but I don’t like the shape. Thanks for the link though.
Goal Is to get the Back of the lens to retract as close as possible to the top of the emitter.
Some ways to do those:
- Bend strips o f aluminum num into c- rings and place them at the top of the pill threads. ThIs prevents th pill from seating fully in the body.
2. File off the top of the pill above the lens
3. File off the bottom of the Sliding bezel.
4. File off the top portion of the knurling on the body.
That will all work in the right combinations. On some lights, the bezel ring obstructs the flood. Thick lenses have a maximum angle beyond which the flood can’t be increased.
The two radical ways are:
Take off the bezel ring and lens.
Unscrew the pill and take the whole sliding part off.
I often wish I could get a “mule” bezel and glass lens to put on after removing the whole lens-and-slider thing from these little lights.
So far haven’t found a matching thread by random tries. Some day I’ll find a thread gauge and figure out what I need to cover the emitter once the light’s been dezoomed.