What did you mod today?

Flashlight Modding and DIY Parts
2278

been on a modding rampage the last few weeks. I collected parts for the last year and hardly built anything, then put together like 40 lights in the last 2 weeks lol.

Some of the highlights are listed below in the order my eyes fall on them, if you want more details let me know. They basically all have TA drivers running either narsil or bistro

8x SRK XM-L2 U2 3D with narsil Texas Avenger driver making 10,000 lumens
8x SRK with mixed tint (aka, left over) XM-L2’s and TA narsil driver making 10,000 lumens
8x SRK with XHP50’s making 17,000+ lumens also on narsil
XHP35 HI 1504 with 1000m of throw
L2 with XHP35

MT-12 with XP-L2 80cri making 1900 lumens and very little tint shift
MT-12 219C 90+ CRI
Supfire F3-L2 with 219C 90+ CRI
Supfire L3? with xhp50, hoping to get an XHP50.2 to replace it with shortly
L6 with TA driver swap making 6000 lumens in an otherwise stock light, not this last 2 weeks but still a favorite.

SRK with left over XP-G2’s and 219A’s in a mixed tint setup making 3500 lumens
WF-502b, the best looking P60 host I have for sure, with a 219C and 105C driver it works quite well but not as quality as my solarforce hosts
S41S 219C making over 3000 lumens and gets HOT even with thin wires to reduce current, pulls over 23A on a single 30Q!
VG10 with 219C, the best “p60 sized” host I have found, it is a P60 with a good heat path.
Convoy M1 with 4000k XP-L2 80CRI making ~1900 lumens and I truly love it, one of my new favitrotes. almost no tint shift (no more then last gen cree anyways) and amazing output and beam.

X6 Triple 219C, 3400 lumens great high CRI flooder but the heat is overpowering in short order
X6 XP-L HI 3B, 3800 lumens and while still floody it is much more usable due to less heat and tighter beam.
Convoy S8 with triple 219C, one word, HOT, although it handles the heat surprisingly well for the first minute. Great tint and output but the high modes are just show off modes.
Convoy S6 XP-L HI V2 3C, the best overall beam pattern of any of the tube lights I think, the TIR gives it a good run though but they are very differnt. if only it was high CRI.
Cheap little C8 sized light with an oslon square LED with a shaved dome that is a true pencel thrower

4X SRK with XP-L HI and TA Narsil driver. Pulls about 15A and makes 5000 lumens and throws a beam almost 600m, GREAT all around light.
3X busget king SRK. I used leftover XM-L’s in this one with a left over FET+1 driver, no shelf but good thermal paste. Great 2500 lumen beater light that I don’t care about as long as I don’t put high drain cells in it.
SK68 with 219C and TA driver, surprisingly nice light, handles the heat quite nice as well.
trustfire F25 with 219C and 105C driver with biscotti, very nice stainless steel light and one of the nicer 14500 lights I have

Cheap AA light off ebay with 219C making ~500 lumens with a 14500 with just an emitter swap
Lumintop tool with 219C D320 making a bit over 500 lumens with a 10440, just emitter swap
Fake hugsby XP-1 with XP-L2 emitter swap making 650 lumens on a 10440

Lots and lots of Convoy S2 and S2+ builds in all shapes and sizes, XP-L2, XP-L hi, Triples, lots of 219C’s TIR optics, reflectors, Mixed tint, de-shrouded bezels, lighted tailcaps, you name it. Think I built like 10 of them.

There are lots more cheap lights or lights that didn’t make a big impression on me but that is the quick version. I think I have officially “completed” my collection of budget and cheap lights that I know about. Well except for a jaxman Z1 or cometa, I want one of those. Everything else I want moves out of the budget realme and thus will have to wait till I have more funds then I do now.

That is unless someone knows of some super duper light I simply must have.

I can’t wait for the 90CRI XP-L2’s to come out. If the M1 is an indication of what they will be like I can see me changing over to them in many many lights moving forward.

2279

WOW!! thats like a lifetime of DIY for me.

2280

lol, well it was a year of parts collecting that lead up to that. I generally collect parts, and knowledge for an extended period and then have everything come together very quickly once I move into the “doing” stage.

Going through all of my lights today and sorting out the cells and so on then going to spread them around where they will be the best positioned to be used and I think it will have been a very effective collection of lights, if not a bit overkill. I am Texan, what do you expect? lol.

Although I am now looking bigger for future lights, thinking a 50k lumen would be fun and even have some ideas on a 100k lumen monster light but those will have to wait for quite awhile.

2281

I modded a cardboard box.

The box prior to the mod:

The box after the mod:

Quite a useful little box now.

2282

What do the buttons do?

2283

One is prime, the other is detonate.
The wires connect to the plastic explosive :wink:

2284

Well, I was happy with this light for about an hour…
Jaxman E2 Nichia 219B 4000K had the stock driver with 4*7135 L, M, H
Now has New FW Convoy driver with 8*7135 on mode #2; 0.1, 1, 10, 35, 100%

2285

Modded two Klarus XT11GT now with XHP35 HI E4-3C neutral white emitter.

15.5% brighter than the D4 XHP35HI
No donut hole and dome artifacts like the XHP35 HD
much more pleasant color and tint


left XHP35 HI E4-3C 5470-5000K on right XHP35 HD E4 6500K


2286

I put a 219B in my brand new Thrunite Ti5T

2287

The right button unclips the programmer from the MCU via small relays inside the box.
The left button is a forward clicky power switch.

It makes firmware development and testing much smoother. I’ve been using this system for a long time but wanted another setup so I don’t have to keep carrying it around between my two main locations.

2288

Klarus Mi7 with tritium switch

2289

Titanium X6 Triple
Nichia 219C 5000K D280 80+ CRI, XP32 soldered to pill. MtnE new ver Fet +1 Bistro. bypassed SW, Ledil sanded thin and polished to fit it under AR Glass.
Refinished exterior and some work went into tube to get it smooth and uniform.





2290

Nice :+1:
(could do with some black on it though) :laughing:

2291

Thanks CRX,
That Mi7 looks awesome too. I really like the Trit SW and the highlights around it.

I have well over an hour in that tube getting it to present form. The tubes were knurled and I guess they weren’t up to par. Knurling was ground off, but still had signs of it left and not too smooth or round. Had to refinish the whole light to match. Also dropped a hot XP32 board on the floor and wasted all 3 emitters as it fell flat on the domes. I was ready to go back to bed and try getting up on the other side. Was a wake up call and another coffee later, things went better. Happy with the build.

2292

That’s why i always butter the underside of the MCPCB :smiley:

2293

This is the picture that goes with my earlier post : What did you mod today? - #2278 by Texas_Ace

Well after a year of collecting parts, building a few lights and generally having a great time on BLF I finally got down and dirty and knocked out some real lights.

Put together about 40 of them since the year started and I officially finished all of the lights I currently own as of yesterday. (well except for some C8’s, but I am waiting for a triple setup to prototype for kiriba-ru before I build those).

I had them all out charging the cells yesterday and gave them a head count, turns out I have officially joined the Century club with over 100 flashlights (some didn’t make it into the picture as I kept remembering more I had stashed around the house and cars).

So with them all out I decided to take a family picture or 5:

I think I have officially exhausted my options for budget lights at this point and my collection offers everything from 17,000 lumen flood monsters to 1000m throwers. I have a trade pending for a cometa which is one light I am missing, a mid sized zoomie.

See what ya’ll can point out, if you have any questions about the builds feel free to ask.

2294

One of “My” days that would have worked.

Still have 2 Ti-1 tube lights from Rey. May do the BC black or bluing on one of those to get it in the blocks.

2295

That’s some going Texas_Ace :+1:

2296

LOL, I know it is bragging but what can I say, after a year of reseach, buying and preperation to see it all come together I am a bit excited.

The issue has proven to be to actually be able to use them all!

I am quite sure that I will be reducing the quantity before long, you just can’t use this many at once. Although it makes for one fun picture to have them all in one place at least once.

2297

Impressive TA !

That’s a very interesting collection , especially the fact that most of the lights (should) have your drivers in there (and the fact you built them all of course) :wink: