Hey ouchy foot, I hope this helps with the build, good luck with it, I know what that slot in yours is for now, getting the driver out of mine will be interesting to say the least…. :bigsmile:
As I said, if you need any help just shout.
to be honest it’s probably held in place quite nicely by the wires you used, which offer some degree of “suspension”. I’d pot it more to help keep the chips cool than anything else. I have a couple of bike lights using similar drivers, one attached to the host and the other floating, and a year or so of bouncing down the bike path hasn’t done them any harm.
I should have potted it. The roche host has a slot to allow the brass ring to be prised up, the d5 doesn’t. I’d have to unsolder the emitter, push through from the star side then pot and refit. Since it’ll likely see most use on low (it warms up nicely on high) I think it’ll be ok, I more meant potential shorting, this I’m less worried about as the cavity is mostly anodised.
Another thing I noticed during my restless nights sleep, the baby blue gitd tailcap holds it charge for far longer than the green ones, if night time location is important then these are the ones to go for.
I must say, I’m really rather taken with this little light, its throwy enough for its size and emitter and very usefull day to day, what I need is a holster to suit it now. :bigsmile:
Actually I have been pondering that exact question as concerning my own build. I’ll have to wait til I get my contact plate until I decide which of my solutions will be utilized. Being my first build, and time on my hands, I’m thinking of adding some redundant wiring as well.
I would have liked to see a pic of the underside wiring of the driver to your contact plate before you hooked it all up to the LED.
Thanks for reminding me, that’s what the broken link shows…
There, I fixed it :bigsmile:
Great build a long, thanks for taking the time to share.
I was thinking. That would make a nice host for a 3 XPG board and optic 
Just dont, I already have a triple xp-g 20mm star….and drivers and you could make a screw in brass pill as the reflector is threaded into the head…… and there’s space for my favorite 3.7a driver ( I already checked that…)……you just had to didn’t you you b! 
:bigsmile:
Nice Gords.
hehehe DOOOOOOOOO IITTTTTTTT !
Mine you, with a 3.7A driver why not go for a quad det up eh?
I was more thinking if the 4a driver will fit, why not order the 5a driver…. J)
I think from memory the Roche F8 came after the D5, and the original is the shadow VG10:
http://www.cnqualitygoods.com/goods.php?id=1282
I’ve been digging these lights for a while and ended up getting the VG10 because it was conveniently available locally where I am. Like you, I just modded the VG10 2 days ago with a 3A Nanj driver, and was going to post a show and tell like you’ve done, although I didn’t want people to see my shoddy soldering. :bigsmile: . I’ll add the pics to this thread. The D5 is virtually identical to the VG10, with some slight modifications to the exterior. Interior setup is exactly the same.
Good thing about these hosts is the star is mounted directly to the body for good thermal transfer. The tailcap switch design is kind of sucky as it causes connection issues from time to time and can take some fiddling to get right sometimes.
I’d noticed the similarities to the shadow, nice to have that confirmed. :bigsmile:
I decided that after a few days at work that I needed to conduct my first submerged test. J)
Happy to report this little light passed both a shower, a bath, repeated switch operations and being left in the charge of my two year old at bath time. 
I can do no more, I’ve reviewed the host, abused the host and showed how to build your own. Go forth now and build.
I’ve also had a request from a mechanic friend to demo some lights. I’m that impressed, I shall be pushing for a run of this build, and supply them with a couple of Panasonic cells , a charger and niteize head strap as a complete set up. I suspect they will annihilate the snap on lights they were considering in both price, quality and versatility. 8)
Gords. I just noted that you “screwed in the reflector carefully”. Looking at your D5 host I see that the reflector is threaded in. The reflector on the Roche F8 is not threaded in, but held in place by pressure from the bezel screwing down on it. It is hard to tell from the photo, but the reflector of the Roche may be deeper, which may explain why protected cells are too long.
It is strange that two lights that look exactly the same on the outside can be quite different on the inside. I ordered a Convoy M2 host, which is also an exact duplicate in outer apperarance to the Roche and the D5. I will make a comparison and let everyone know my findings. I’m wondering if the fact that most of my cells are too wide to fit, indicates that the Roche hasn’t been milled out as much, leaving a heavier build. It does have good heft to it.
I can see we have the same tail switch. Do you think you could point me to a forward tactical clicky switch I could swap in?
Like your style!
hi ouchy foot, I’d noticed the reflector difference, the threads surprised me when I first saw the reflector. The d5 feels very hefty too for its size, I bet blindfolded, you wouldn’t tell the difference, me either, I just think Roche machines the tubes a little tight for some reason.
With regards the fwd clicky, maybe email ric, I’ve never seen this type of switch before and I struggle to believe its 3 amp rated.
I’m also planning to order an m2 or two, but modding/building will have to take a back seat for a bit, we’re trying to buy our first house (my own man cave :bigsmile: ) any builds I do now will be for others for cash. 
I’ve been wanting to buy a couple 18340 IMRs, but couldn’t figure what I’d do with them. Any suggestion for this host running two of them?
I found this switch. Looks like I might just be able to do a straight swap.
http://intl-outdoor.com/forward-clickytactical-switch-module-17mm-pcb-p-461.html
that switch set up looks very different to the d5 switch, the d5 switch sits in a brass threaded tube with a nylon retainer screwed in, that switch you linked looks like what is to me, a standard set up.