Driver retaining ring that clears Nanjg 105c in Convoy S series?

I just picked up my two new M2 hosts from the group buy (thanks vex_zg) and I really like that the driver retainer ring clears the AMC chips on the Nanjg driver. Does any of the Convoy S series have a retaining ring that clears the driver like that? From the S series I only have the S2, and it does not. I either filed them thinner or soldered the driver to pill.

M2 photo shamelessly stolen from RaceR86’s review: Review: Convoy M2 2014 Version (XM-L2 T6 4C, 1x18650)

I guess I can assume that none of the Convoy S series retaining ring clears the driver in stock form?

> Convoy S series retaining ring

Needs some filing, ’oogle — click for an image search on the results page — will find pictures

https://www.google.com/search?q=site:budgetlightforum.com+convoy+driver+retaining+ring+notch

I have several S2, S2+, S3, S6. Some were bought as hosts, some as complete lights.

Here is how I got it:

  • S2, S2+, S6: These come soldered when it is a double-sided driver (Nanjg 6x or 8x). And not soldered when it is a single-sided driver (Nanjg 3x or 4x). All my soldered ones came from official channels and this is not an indication of fakes.
  • S3: These do not have a pill (integrated emitter shelf). These always have a ring (there is no brass to solder the driver to!). The ring is bigger than on the other models and should fit both single and double-sided drivers.

I have long since reworked the ones that had double-sided boards with aftermarket single-sided drivers. The rings are available loose at FastTech:

https://www.fasttech.com/p/1583600

Oops. I tried just tightening the retaining ring down on top of the 7135s on several flashlights.

And — butterfingers! — have dropped several of them and broken the 7135s. Details at:

Having now broken three of the 7135s by just tightening the retaining ring down pressing on the 7135s — and then eventually dropping the flashlight.
I’m going back to filing down notches (or else filing the corners off the 7135s)

Isn’t it easier to just solder the driver to the pill?

I’m not a fan of soldering drivers, and press-fit even less, but even if you don’t want to solder allllll the way around the periphery, just a few solder-blobs would work.

Personal preference for keeping it easy to update the flashlight host body.
Once solder gets into the threads of a pill it’s hard to clean out again, to remove a driver.
Once a pill is hot enough to accept solder, the solder tends to spread out quite a bit.
And I like being able to replace drivers and LEDs in flashlights — there’s so often one that’s newer to try.
Retaining rings make it easy to swap drivers and using one makes sure the driver is in flat and well grounded.

Threads size is same to convoy S lights.

You can buy driver retainer-rings from FT. The original is on the left.
I hollowed the ring (at the driver side) out with a small grinding stone attached to my power drill.
When you do it right, the ring just “cups” the AMC’s

I used the ball-shaped thingy, second from the right in the Piranha (Black & Decker) blister.