But it doesn’t zoom! 
man that driver looks nasty, thanks for the pics 
Thanks I’ll have a go at pulling mine apart. I think I have a short someplace, it’s flickering now.
How about heating a bit outer casing (with hot water for example), to expand slightly, maybe that would help to push out the pill easier!
Funny, was about to report on my take-apart success this eve and came across this thread! I got the pill out of my SC03 by one tap of the hammer on a copper pipe that fit in the battery tube pretty well (1/2" copper pipe with a 16 mm OD). Basically same stuff as above, but no damage really. I measured 15.6 mm for the driver diameter -- that kind of stinks, and also noticed nothing obvious for resistor modding.
Maybe a BLF 15DD could be squeezed in there? Don't think there's clearance. My SC03 has a high parasitic drain, while my SC01 doesn't. I don't see anything obviously wrong with the SC03 driver so far.
Those screws have nothing but a hollow cylinder shape in the heads - nothing shaped to use a tool on. I was able to get them out with a larger needlenose by gripping them on the outside edge -- weird.
Nice Tom. I had a feeling a hammer would be the better way (as mentioned in OP) Thanks for verifying. Any special plans for yours?
[quote=WarHawk-AVG]
And RacerR86 has coined a new phrase here at BLF...if it's completely trashed and totalled...it's not destroyed...its "scratched" :D
[/quote]
:D
Well, pretty backlogged right now, so may have to put this off for quite a while. Planning on a XM-L2 T6 4C on 16mm copper, better wires. Maybe for me, best option you listed is the 10mm driver stuck in there.
Finally (only one year) later got around to finishing the SC01 mod, using a BLF 15DD driver shaved down. Here's some pics of the process/parts:
Blue wire on left is for the switch, blue wire on the right is to fix the trace I destroyed:
The short black wire near the top is an extra ground wire, jammed in between the SinkPAD and edge of pill:
Where the "K" was in SinkPAD was an attempt to make a spot to solder the grnd wire to. That didn't work - just could not get solder to stick to the SinkPAD at all. Think the heat is taken away so quick you can't solder to it - that's what I'm guessing:
The LED is an XM-L2 T5 5B1 (my favorite tint). With a WindyFire 14500,I measured 3.85A at the tail:
Turbo lumens: 1003 @start, 874 @30 secs, throw: 8.5 kcd (184 meters)
moon: 4 lumens, lo: 52 lumens, med: 129 lumens, hi: 394 lumens
With my custom switch software, it has 5 nice modes, click goes from moon to turbo, hold goes from turbo down to moon, long hold is strobe. Current mode locks in by 1-2 secs, so click from ON turns the light OFF. But even when locked in, a hold will decrement the mode.
This is really nice light now - great tint, great power. I wish I got this mod done sooner. No idea if anyone else out there has modded one of these like this with a piggyback driver, but if I were to go it again (which I will), I'll use a 12mm DD driver instead - fitting that 15mm shaved like that was a real PIA. I actually filed/sanded thru a trace and had to add a replacement wire. I ordered 12mm DD boards to do the SC03 with.
Both my SC01 and SC03 had died - both had stock driver problems.
Missing from the pics is some details:
- on the bare stock driver, I had to add extensions using thin copper strip (from a copper sheet) to get access to the batt + and switch connection, because the angled in BLF15DD board blocked the pads.
- I used Arctic Alumina epoxy to set the driver assembly into the pill - little was used at the base of the BLF15DD to secure it to the stock drivers, and more was used on the top edge of the switch board to secure it into the pill top (original stock setup was like that too)
- I added a ground wire (like there was originally) to be sure I got a better ground than from the mount of the stock driver (jammed the wire against the pill).
Edit 05/11: 12mm OSHPark boards arrived today. Will size one up for the SC03.
Nice work!! I still have a stock SC01 around, love the size and tint but can’t stand the UI. I have no skills in modding nor time, and could never figure which parts to get either, so it will be gifted someday. I envy modders’ skill so much.
I just dug up mine after all this time.
It was a cheap deal from Banggood at the time with the XM-L in it, in stead of the promised XM-L2.
We gave Neal a hard time about that i.i.r.c.
It’s actually quite a good looking light.
So i dig up this topic too, because i have never really used the SC01 because of the gruesome PWM…
But i just popped out the pill from the rear with a piece of tube, so i guess i’m looking for a better driver, or at least one without that dreadful low PWM frequency…
But i have no idea where to look for a suitable driver…
…and i guess it’s impossible to tune that PWM frequency up…?
Yep, can't tweak the PWM in the stock driver and can't replace the drive, unless someone could do an OSHPark design to match the foot print, and transfer the switch board, and then hopefully, the bigger thickness of an OSHPark driver could be worked out some how.
That's why I went the route I did with the angled piggybacked driver. Did the same mod with a OTR M3.