Oh, and if you’re willing to replace the driver entirely and drop the mis-matched extension tube, running a single 26650, this would make for a killer D80 on steroids. 
I like the F3X for this exact reflector size, the light will loose its good looks and good feel when a bigger head is made. I agree on the bit clumsy way the pill is fitted in and would like to see a shelf design without pill like the D80. I do not agree on creating more mass in the head, I’d rather see a good heat path to that generous amount of fins to get rid of the heat rather than sink it in a chunk of aluminium.
I am liking your thinking and that is the tentative plan and I am needing a lot of input. Oh, though I haven’t gone public yet there is a 15% discount for BLF at Lucky Sun’s Alie store, that was something the product manager offered us and I think it was a sort of good faith thing on his end, I didn’t ask for it, so that was really decent but I knew he wanted something so this is what I offered him, the F3X-4 and as Dale mentioned a HD2010/Courui D01 slayer to set a bar.
Yes I just caught djozz thoughts and I agree and whatever is done would have to maintain the complete integrity of the light and it’s looks as it is now, so when I mention larger head, I am thinking a proportional sort of larger head which will take working with their engineers to machine it around the proper reflector, that’s why I mentioned that style of reflector, we have to have something to work around for a dimensional change or so I believe.
The bigger badder bro to baby D80, same style but clean up all the mistakes and garbage and yes driver is gone, UI gone replaced with Narsil hopefully, really who does put the turbo in between Strobe and SOS…?
And maybe a side switch, the extension will be done right, the logo done right, the cut outs for those wires on the back of the reflector done right, no space or gaps around the LEDs, a complete rebuild of a nice looking light to sit right along side the D80,
So as Dale said for him to be interested it’s either it’s done completely right or we/he/me/BLF won’t waste our time and I have told their product manger that those conditions are not negotiable, the great part of this is, Lucky Sun seem ready to go, a little jumpy but I don’t blame them, it’s a big deal for them.
I’d really like to get in touch with Steve Kronological and since it’s been about a year now since his last epic build just maybe he’s rested up and willing to manage another Lucky Sun build,
The D80 project from what I was able to tell seemed to go pretty smooth, that is working with their engineers and them hitting that target goal of I think it was 4A at the tail, I am probably wrong on that number but they did going back through some of my notes seem to work very well with our build team, so just maybe.
Honestly, the only thing I would change is the ability to use an off-the-shelf copper DTP Noctigon triple. If the F3X could use that, it would be perfect for what it is.
And if it could use the A6 driver, mmm-mmm… …droool…
Well, the BLF D80 did not go smooth at all, it was a royal pain to get anything changed from stock over at Luckysun, they cut corners everywhere in the proces and the end product did not meet the BLF specifications and was a clear compromise, let’s say a great start for a further mod.
After the group buy they did pick up on our ideas though after all, and brought a rather improved D80 to the market with various BLF ideas.
Personally I do not think a new gen. L3X should have a side switch. Apart from my personal preference for tail clickies, it kills all simple modding options.
While a side switch would be cool, yeah it would really complicate things for those who want to mod it.
There are some lights that could really use a side switch, this isn’t one of them.
OBTW - if you make another change, get rid of the silly black centering pieces, make them white. I replaced one with a white piece (since I lost it), and it looks much better. Yeah, yeah, the black centering rings are different, but I can’t imagine they help with light transmission.
Spent the afternoon making a very heavy duty copper pill for the F3X. I had a reflector that is a little more normal in the spacing of the emitters, has the high peak in the middle where the 3 reflector cups join, so I cut that to fit in, reshaped it here and there, made the driver bay fit a 17mm driver so I can drop in an FET that I am about to built. Brass retaining ring to hold the driver in. Literally just came in, I’ll get some pics as I go further…
Oh, and I got new XP-L W2 1D’s in the mail today. Wondering what 3 of em will do in this light…. 
When I first got the d80 I thought it would be great if it had a side switch as well. So I made one. Well I started to make one;) it’s not done yet as it’s been a complicated build. I was going to use dr jones RGBW driver with four xml RGBW leds and one high cri cree xpg3.
I added chips to each channel as well as populated one of Richards 16x amc7135 expansion boards. Well… obviously there is not room for this in the d80 so I set my plan aside till I could learn diptrace to build a custom two layer board with an fet for white led. I have the board laid out on diptrace now. And that’s as far as I got. I haven’t figured out how to export and prepare the files for oshpark. Anyway…
All that to say, the d80 with side switch feels like it should have always been there, but not sure if I’m alone on that or not.
wow, that is one complicated ambitious build!! seeing how far you got already it deserves to be finished at some point. Already a peek down the reflector seeing those 4 XM-L colours must be glorious…
Thanks guys for all the input and that is a great looking D80 project LightRider, makes me start thinking Tom E switch & Narsil again, lots of pros and cons for sure.
Thin walls on the head, hum ya, I do remember that, I wish he’d have sent that F3 DHL so I could be looking at it right now,
But it always did strike me as a great mod light but had so many issues for me back then, driver was just insane.
Eason sent me a message tonight and tomorrow I am going to really see just what his full intentions are, how far are they willing to go, all of which I have done a number of times actually but this time will be the last time and it’s full bore or nothing.
Dale’s made it very clear to me what he expects for him to be interested and I’m hoping to hear what some of you others would expect to see for your interest and involvement also please,
Dale set the bar I think reasonable for his support, and I am in full agreement, some of which I mentioned up above, some standards and no goofing with a company who’s going to try and clown around using old parts, or who knows, sort of difficult to read between the lines in Chinese.
I can say that repeatedly LS has sworn to being extremely sincere on this project, let me try and see what his feelings are on putting some more metal into this light for starters, better heat dissipation?
I get edgy when he starts to remind me that they have engineers also, yes I am bright enough to assume they do, probably the same ones who designed this light to begin with …?
I’m beat, my Dads in the hospital so it’s been a long day,
Thanks everyone…
No, no, no, not more metal!!! This light must not end up like the SS BLF X6, which is beautiful but completely useless because of its weight. There’s only so many people who like to carry around flashlights weighing a ton (I know Dale is one of them ).
*You need an amount of metal to make a decent heat path from the led to the shell: when there is a shelf under the ledboard it is a good idea to make it a decent thickness (like 5mm) to provide a wide path for the heat to flow to the side of the flashlight.
*You need an amount of metal to create good fins, the current F3X has that well covered already.
*You do not need a ton of metal for the heat to sink in, you will never win that battle: make the flashlight twice as heavy and you win an extra minute runtime before that chunk is saturated with heat and the flashlight’s heat management is just as bad as when that chunk was not there. And for that extra minute on turbo your coat hangs to the side from the weight of your flashlight and after a while you will take the other flashlight with you on trips.
Nitecore knows how to do it, they made the EA4 and EA8 and the whole of BLF was disdainful over the thin build and lack of heatsinking, and guess what: it worked fine with no signs of serious heat-sag. Olight knows how to do it, I just bought the X7 Marauder with its massive heat production, the light is not exceptionally heavy at all, it is thick where it matters but lightweight where the heat path allows it.
My opinion: you need material thickness to make a smooth heatpath to the shell and have it spread out there and create enough surface area for the heat to dissipate, but it is a balance, too much and it does more harm than it adds performance.
djozz…. Yes, yes yes I am sorry brother, I definitely choose the wrong wording there, and it’s funny that I was just sitting here swapping the switch out of a new Astro X6 and thinking Geez this is a heavy light, ha ha ha….
I do fully understand what you are saying, Please don’t panic, but really a darn good reason to panic if perhaps you believed I was actually insane??
But really I was not thinking Anvil like Steel or cast iron and making a F3 out of it, alloy’s are what is the metals of today well in my mind anyhow, well economically speaking I guess for the most part, maybe one of the medium grade aircraft aluminums and I don’t recall the grades off the top of my head but it would be a decent alloy that LS could work into their budget and still produce the size needed to make thicker deeper fins, shelf, tube walls etc. I have thought that diameter could be probably no more that an additional 5mm max and length of head for maybe a deeper reflector perhaps no more than an additional 3-5mm…?
Metal is NOT the word I should have used at all, might as well have said lets make it out of Steel, I am sorry, I think I almost gave you a stroke and that would make me feel terrible, believe that… 
Your thickness I think is right there in the ball park for sure, no more than 3mm really, L2 walls on the tube are only 2.5mm or so.
I’ve been looking at some of my lights like a Jax X1 or any of the big Convoys, either L2-6 and the size and thickness to weight and what I thought was a weight in the area of something like just under an L2 as a weight example and that might even be pushing it.
We have to think LS budget also,
I wish I had that light in my hand right now, imagine an additional 5mm diameter head and tell me what you think and then 3mm to 5mm additional length of the head and does that seem right or is it to much…?
That much additional steel should work perfectly… 
I actually think that the current head size of the F3X is sufficient, there is only so much power you can get out of a 26650 battery. The only case that it might be usefull to have a sized-up head is when 2x26650 batteries in series are used with full-blown XHP50’s (or other 6V leds). But in that case I want to see that in the stock light :evil:
I didn’t actually say anything about a triple XHP-50, I pointed at the original D80 and wished for a big brother, larger head with larger reflector to meet or beat the HD2010 or Courui D01, keeping the 26650 tube size.
I got the F3X assembled last night, between eating supper and watching the Cowboys deal with the ambitious Vikings. The emitters work if I apply power to their circuit, but the driver gives me zip. I most likely accidentally flashed an e-switch firmware. :person_facepalming:
Will take it apart and flash Bistro Mini and see what I get (Biscotti, for those that came in late). I built a standard A17DD S08 driver with no 7135 chip, so it should work fine with this firmware. (Well, sort of standard, it’s got the top end SIR404DP FET)
I like the extension tube a lot more than the main tube, so I fitted it to the head and am using it for the primary…
This required removing some of the length from the female threaded end and recutting the o-ring landing…
The copper pill was made with a taller top side for the 3 16mm Noctigons to sit on, and threaded almost all the way down, leaving only the section at the very tail end smooth. The shelf in the head was recessed about 4-5mm to allow the copper pill to sit deeper so the surface would be in the same position as the original, this brought the driver further to the rear and does away with the large brass retaining ring that came in the light. I screwed the pill in tight then recut the inside of the head, also resurfacing the copper pill so it and the newly cut head were flush as the triple 16mm Noctigons will overlap the copper slightly.
With the copper pill threaded into the head (did I mention I also recut the threads in the head so they’re all the way out the back?) the driver bay has it’s own brass retaining ring to secure the A17DDS08 FET driver and make solid ground.
It’s fully assembled, but the idiot hack that flashed the MCU used the wrong file. (I’ve got over a hundred files to flash, sometimes they’re not clearly labeled, woe is me!) So (Oh Goody!) I get to disassemble it and address the driver.
As far as head mass a heat sinking, I have found the d80 to be an excellent host and the f3x head with led shelf would be as well. It can handle a lot of power because, as djozz said, it is all about a clear heat path and lots of surface area to get rid of the heat. A large massed head will pull the heat away a bit quicker over the first couple minutes, but ones the head is saturated, its saturated either way. So it comes down to air contact and surface area as the thermal conductivity of aluminum is much more efficient than its emissivity. Anyway, for its size, the d80 handles heat very well. This is why I chose it to hold my 58watt RGBW experiment
All well and good, no doubt.
But with an extension tube and 4 XHP-50’s making over 7000 lumens it just wasn’t even close to being enough. Too hot to touch in less than 20 seconds.
Ahhh, um, ya! 
Ya, I don’t choose my projects wisely :person_facepalming:
Looks to me like you just like the challenge. Simple projects are nowhere near as rewarding as a complicated near-impossible build. Like Jos attacking that aluminum mcpcb and making it direct thermal path, you just have to get creative and be dedicated, not mind putting in some hours to get where you wish to be. I’m sure Jos is extremely pleased after pulling THAT one off!
Sometimes it’s nice to just do an emitter swap and enjoy a more favorable tint in a nice light. That can be rewarding on a smaller scale. But the real puzzlers, the time consumers that draw a little blood along the way, those are the real savers.