Thanks for that sharpie, this light might be my first attempt at a “mod” 
bella-headlight:
I am also looking for a singe 26650 light and I’m wondering how your modding project tuned out.
Thanks,
Caleb
After recently taking ownership of a BLF / Trustfire A8 I have to say that it is very well built. If you are looking for a mod host this is it! It has an integrated shelf for heat dissipation and uses a 17mm driver. One complaint, it is soldered in…
Decent price on the light…
KD A8
Can't go wrong with an F13 - it's practically a BLF low budget 26650 standard, made popular by group buy deals, mainly by O-L. I got several in various stages of modding. Lots of mods posted here on it as well.
The A8 is also a very well made light. The original has a SS bezel, but there are low cost clones around, probably with an alum bezel. Some don't care for it's format, and I'm not crazy bout it's deep set lens, oversize bezel. Doesn't have the throw of the F13 with it's smaller diameter reflector, but the BLF TrustFire A8 is sure nice quality.
Tom, agreed it has it faults. But, it does spill nicely and will still put light out a good ways. I do not have an F13. I do have the UF-2200 which is more geared toward throw and I have the Shadow JM20 and JM07. Really like them, but will have to have a custom built driver or will have to trash the stock driver for the switch contacts.
Unfortunately the F-13 modding is still on my “to do” list but as others have said there are lots of threads on here on modding options for it 
I got two ThorFire JM07's on that Amazon deal before they sold out quickly - wow, real nice light. One I fully modded running Narsil:
Taking the garbage out:
After it's all together:
Looks good Tom, I hate to trash the stock driver incase something goes wrong. If I was better at Eagle I would just design a complete drop in driver for it and the JM20. The JM20 uses a smaller driver, but the same foot print. The JM20 driver is based on 7135’s.
Tom, did you take that red wire all the way to the spring?
Yes - I pretty much always do that now. Drill a hole thru the stock driver, and the active driver if it doesn't have a hole - just drill right thru the LED+ pad, like on the wight drivers. Usually do the bypass as a separate wire, then try to be sure the 2 wires touch. Bit safer as 2 wires, in case the bypass comes undone for some reason.
Those stock driver switches are awful by the way. You need to beef up their support - they will get pushed backwards. Many times I'm using a little JB Weld to support them, then they are rock solid. I've had those type switch's push off and fail - was repairable though.
Specially important on firmware that needs long presses. For ramping, it's a must.
Had not thought of drilling right thru that center pad, makes sense all the vias to the other side. Should not be anything in the way. I have always used 1 long wire, the little bit of give seems to be an advantage… but if it did get loose that sure could be a problem. The switches do look kinda weak, the next time I have them apart I think I will work them over as well. I really like how well the JM’s are built. The JM07 works perfectly with a lighted tail cap in stock form. It is my truck light and is very easy to find with 6 red and orange LED’s in the tail cap. If I change the driver now, will have the headache of making it work right again…
I like the idea of a 26650 tube light. Has anyone modded an A8 into a triple? Or would that require a larger head diameter.
Should be very doable.
Universal one cell 26650 light?
Shadow JM35 MT-G2 or Xh-p 50.
1800 lumens, 3 modes plus turbo, no blinkies.
K.
Boost driver based 1 cell lights just don't have the efficiency yet - too much loss's of battery amp-hours per lumen.
My triple modded X6 does like 4,000 lumens on one 18650, and probably does 1,800 lumens on medium more efficiently then a 1 cell MT-G2 or XHP50 can do at this time. RIC is say'n he's gotta pretty good boost driver based single 26650 XHP35 light coming out soon - would like to see how that does:
http://www.cnqualitygoods.com/goods.php?id=2244
He's saying 2,400 lumens on turbo, interesting... 1.5A on a XHP35 is equal to 6A on regular XM-L2 because of the 12V input.
I don’t get it. Which two wires? I see one red wire and you say it is connected directly to the spring underneath? Black and blue ones are not connected together as well.
Ok, sorry - Red to red, shown here:
The one inside the spring is the "spring bypass" wire, then you see the other red wire sticking out from the PCB next to it? That's the wire that passes thru both PCB - new piggyback driver and the stock driver.
All these pics come from my ThorFire JM07 album, slide show: photobucket slideshow ThorFire JM07
Direct link: photobucket ThorFire JM07
I got a pretty huge collection of mod pics up there. Not sure if you can navigate around, might want to see if you can.
Thanks for the pictures, Tom. That explains everything and is actually quite ingenious :+1: