What did you mod today?

Yupp, but nothing major. To add the OTC I changed the OTC pin to be the one next to the GND pin, so that I can solder it across those two pins. Also brought Battcheck_VpT to this firmware a while ago.

I built this zener modded FET driver, using an Attiny13 from an old 105C type of driver (one without stars, mode group with/without blinkies sekected after a flash in low mode).
Long story short: I first tried to zener-mod (swapped the diode for a 220 Ohm resistor and soldered the zener parallel to C1) the BLF-A6 driver, zener-mod worked but the user interface was messed-up bigtime, then teied to zenermod a AK-47C but it did not work, probably because the circuitry is a bit different from the 105C. So for the third attempt I built the driver from the picture because I built that one before and it works, except that the low voltage warning kicks in at 3.5V.

I used this driver together with a (my only) Nichia 144A SM453 in a S8 type host, modded the tail section a bit to accomodate 2x 18350 batteries. The mod was succesful, got a bright working light!

I hoped for 3A but the voltage of the 144A is so low that on those two little cells it drawed 5.8A, way too much for this led on the non-DTP board, the output was way over max.

Before something went wrong I made these shots, first a lens projection of the die, then a beamshot from 2.5 meter to the wall. As can be seen the die looks fairly ok (much less ‘spiegelei’ like some of the earlier samples), but the beam from the small OP reflector still has an unpleasant yellow hotspot. The perhaps bright side is: a distinct spot without donut hole.

I had to take the pictures on high setting to avoid pwm effects, and the 30 seconds on near 6A appeared too much, the led got too hot and died :frowning:

Exit 144A led, I was too careless. I will save this host+driver for a XHP50.2

There they are, not easy editing on a phone underway in the train :smiley:

Thank you!

Modified my Convoy S3 tail switch today


http://www.gearbest.com/christmas-supplies/pp_560582.html

Very cute, but the pram is not finished without a decent lightbar:

:laughing:

One of the first lights i bought, a Jetbeam Element E3S with potted FET+1 driver, 5D XM-L2 on T-Pad and I filed in a couple of thumb cutouts.

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Also hacked a couple of Xiaomi speakers so both can work at the same time connected via a USB cable.
Only one needs to be powered up in operation so when the battery gets low just switch over to the other one :sunglasses:

The E3S is such a good looking light.

DQG AA Ti Rebuild

rebuilt a dead emitter S41S head today. Used 2X XP-L HI V2 3A and 2X XP-L HI V2 5A2
Guess I shoulda put the different tints opposing. Was concentrating on getting the XP-L HI polarity right more.
I used the last version original MCPCB and made sure to reverse the polarity of the emitters and wires. Used solder paste on the board to the head and screwed it down (no washers) before it cooled. Used 18 AWG and wanted to bridge the negative wire over to the back tab of the FET and the FET moved almost instantly. Bad solder on the other 4 legs, Got centered again and made sure the legs were now soldered down, Neg wire bridge was successful. That made me take a better look at the New BG A6 driver and found weak legs on the MCU.

Tried the original X6 driver but it kept kicking out of the higher modes with a double flicker and went to lower mode. The beefed up A6 is doing great so far.

Really like the tint in all modes. Blends well, not the 50/50 shades I thought might hapen.

I opened my brand new B158B, and make it a DD single mode (no driver).
It sure kicks some kCds with a 30Q !

Those new pills are really cool to mod, you have a contact plate and then a standard 105C driver (8*7135) floating inside :slight_smile:

Just finished a Convoy S3 triple
Spacer from kiriba, XP-G2 R5 4C from Simon @ $1.50ea on a Noctigon. NUV Fet+1 Bistro from MtnE.
Soldered this Noctigon myself, yay… Soldered the MCPCB to spacer and spacer thermal epoxied into host. Bypassed SW spring.

Lapped the spacer into head to assure as much contact as possible.

One emitter slightly off color in ML.


Although not an in depth mod really , I thought I would post this since the Thorfire VG10 seems to be a hot item in another thread right now on sale through Amazon.

Also this IS the older version of the VG10 with the press fit driver in it and NOT the one with the screw out retaining ring like the newer model has.
All that was done to this light was a simple MCPCB swap using a Noctigon board with XM-L2 U4 1A dedomed emitter on it and a spring bypass. It did make a big difference in the throw and the tint of the light in the end though.

Original at 95 yards from gate

Mod at 95 yards from gate

Seems that the emitters are not ok. Two are blueisch and perhaps a little dedomed, similar to the Astrolux S41S with the first glued head (e.g. ENEDED - #376 by Bruno28). The third is too dim.

I am More than familiar with S41 issues. These were 1.50ea so I am not at all woried. Run it till it dies completely. I’m not good at reflowing yet.

Since I gave away my On The road i3 (modded with BLF-A6 driver and XP-G3 4000K 90CRI) recently, which was my favourite EDC, I had to rebuild it. I had two spare On-The-Road I3 zoomies waiting for modding, and yesterday I re-made my EDC, with the BLF-A6 driver again but now with the Nichia 219C 3500K 92CRI. It is even nicer than the XP-G3 one for three reasons:

1) the tint is even better,

2) the die of the 219C looks way less ugly than the XP-G3 (but still ugly enough to add a 1.5mm thick brass ring behind the pill to stop the slider just before sharp focus of the die),

3) that brass ring causes the pill to be a bit further out, allowing the slider to get closer to the led in flood position causing an even wider spill than the stock i3 :-)

I made no pictures of the mod, apart from this one:

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Today I modded the second i3, and made pictures of the mod this time. Since the i3 came out I wanted to mod it with a 365nm led, because it is the only small zoomie with a glass lens (polycarbonate optics do not transmit 365nm, PMMA a bit better so they claim, but have not tried that). The stock i3 has a somewhat silly reflector-ish ring screwed in the pill that you want to get rid of anyway (not good for a nice beam), and without it there was just room for even a 2mm thick ZWB2 filter on top of the (21mm diameter) pill:

The led will be a LiteOn 3535-size 365nm led, which is about the brightest 365nm led around in that footprint, but it needs the ZWB2 filter because it emits quite some greenish light as byproduct. Unfortunately the tickness of a Noctigon combined this led sticks out of the pill, in the way of the filter, so as so often before I had to sand down a Noctigon to 1mm. I soldered a copper handle on the board so that I could use the disc sander (and lots of water to cool the board every few seconds).

The led had to be reflowed on the board, and the board soldered to the brass pill (because there will be no disc anymore to screw down the board).

At this point I noticed that the latest few LiteOn 365nm leds that I ordered have a different die than before. I tested this led with the old die very well and I'm not sure how this one will perform. The plan was a AK-47 C1 driver, for 1050mA, and I hope that is also a sweetspot for this new led

The stock i3 has a brass ring to put the driver in, that can be press-fit into the pill, but that ring allows only a 15mm driver. Without the ring the driver can be 16mm which is easily made by sanding down a 17mm driver a bit. I hate soldering drivers to pills though, so I created a bulge for the driver to become press-fit and make negative electric contact at the same time. The bulge is a piece of wire (actually a lead from a common resistor) bended in a circle through a via and outside around the board, then soldered in and filed to shape.

And here is the driver in place. I soldered a thin brass disc on the batt+ pad to be able to use my flat top Efest 16340 cells. The second star was connected to ground for low-med-high, no memory.

To attach the ZWB2 filter to the top of the pill, I used some (ancient) double-sided tape:

I left the top cover of the tape in place because the pill first had to be screwed into the body, with the filter in place at this point, I would not have any grip on the pill to do that. After screwing the pill in place I could stick the ZWB2 filter on the pill. In the event that it gets loose there is no real problem, the filter can not go anywhere and will float between led and lens without loosing function (but I don't like the idea of it rattling, the sticky layer on top of the pill will at least prevent that)

Here's the light without the lens but with the filter attached to the pill:

The lens was sanded rough on the edge and blackened with a black permanent marker, it helps eliminating an ugly and wide ring in the beam of the i3, and you certainly do not want that ring in 365nm because of safety reasons (btw, this light will be far from safe anyway for non-educated folks who happen to grab it to see what it does, no light to be seen and still retina damage).

The bezel was blackened on the inside with some heater paint to prevent possible reflections og UV-light to the side, it does not stick very well on stainless steel, so it will wear off eventually.

There you go:

The camera picks up the 365nm a bit, with your eyes you will hardly see the led, if you are stupid enough to look into the flashlight this way.

So does it work? Oh yes it does. The output is comparable to a 1050mA S2+ shorty-mod that I did with this same led (but old die), so the new die seems to work well enough. The spot is a bit brighter (and tighter) than the S2+ spot, and the flood is very even which can be useful too. All in all, I think this light is about as functional as my S2+ shorty-UV, but it is smaller and has a higher cool-factor because it is a zoomie!

Great job!

I think I should try reflowing new emitter with some method, my TIP is CW-tinted which means it is pretty nasty green :frowning:

Nice UV zoomie djozz :+1:

Thanks! I modded my hobby-corner of the livingroom into this mess today: