What did you mod today?

Today I swapped the led in my new Jetbeam E10R.

The hard part was getting the bezel off, it was glued tight and needed a lot of bravery and near-demolishing of the flashlight. I got it off by 1) clamping the flashlight in a vice (the flat bits on the head were clamped in), 2) heating up the bezel fast and very hot with a small blowr torch with hot flame (more moderate heating with a small flame did not work), 3)after heating up wrapping the very hot bezel very fast and tight in a strip of inner tire and applying lots of force by hand. As you can see in the picture, the centering piece is partly melted, and cracked (but still very functional luckily).

It now has a Nichia 219B V1 sw45 R9080. Lost lots of light: currently on a 14500 high=350lm med=30lm low=2.5lm. This light has a great mode spacing IMO! The beam profile with this led is still very good and the tint, well… :heart_eyes:

Btw, the AR lens is slightly brown-ish and the tint looses (estimated by eye) a few hundred Kelvin because of that. Eventually I will try to find a non-coated 15mm lens for it

What always helps winning the fight is starting it by telling the light that you are prepared to kill it if needed :rage:

The hard part is having to back your words and provide the nessasary discipline. I have found the lights don’t respond either way so I stopped with the threats. I’ve saved a couple lights this way. :smiley:

I usually follow through being a man of my word, lost one or two thay way.
I warned them… :smiley:

Speak softly and carry a big hammer. I don’t threaten, I act. Then I start over. Being a carpenter my aim is better than average but they don’t know that. I think it’s more humane they don’t know what’s coming. :innocent:

More like a hack than a mod. And another case of polishing a turd from me, LoL.
This is the pill of one of those el cheapo Ultrafire zoomies. Originally it’s hollow, with just a tiny ledge for the star to sit on. So I filed a 5 cent coin and drilled two holes in it.

Before the hack, at 3 amps, in my usual ceiling test I got about a 4-5% drop in luminosity after 30 secs, and 10% after 5 minutes. According to Cree’s data that’s about 47ºC after 30 secs and 70ºC after 5 mins.
With the hack in place I measured a 6% drop in the output, give or take, after 5 minutes. That’s supposed to be about 55ºC, so a whooping 15ºC of improvement there

All in all:

Before: 47ºC after 30 secs, 70ºC after 5 mins
After: 39ºC after 30 secs, 55ºC after 5 mins

Today three of my lights that where using 105C/D drivers with that crappy stock firmware got a new life.

Convoy C8 with dedomed xp-g2 led running on 12 7135 chips
Convoy S2+ with Nichia 219C led running on 8 7135 chips
UF SK98 with dedomed xp-g2 led running on 6 7135 chips

I flashed their drivers with biscotti firmware. It was first time i did something like this so i may say that i leveled up my skills. Following some instructions that i found here on this forum made this much easier than expected, 10/10 :slight_smile:

Here is one picture of my setup

Nice job BobbyMK. FW editing and flashing was sort of a leap for me, but as you said it really wasn’t too hard with the documentation on the forum. It really opens up a new area of customization.

A few odds and sods. Successfully rolled and brazed .25mm sheet brass into an 18650 tube for woodifying the thinner 18650 host tubes that are only ~20mm OD at the o-ring lands(S2+, X6, E2L, etc). Also a few coats of epoxy on a mahogany tube and filled a custom copper C8 spacer with an aluminum slug tapped so it can be screwed to the stock pill(old style).

Today, I finally did a mod where I could use a Khatod quad optic, which is quite a bit taller than the Carclo.
Astrolux K01.
Removed the reflector and single MCPCB (which, oddly, was a 16mm DTP copper, even though the cavity can take a 20mm) and measured it against the T-pad/Khatod and found I would need about a 5mm spacer. I had an S2+ copper spacer from Mtn, but it was closer to 10mm. I managed to grind and file it down to an appropriate thickness.it slid in nice and snug with a little Antec 7 diamond thermal compound… I had to grind the bottom half of the legs on the optic to match the MCPCB, which didn’t leave much material, but enough, to fit in to the pill.
For now, I just reused the stock driver and wires.
I am extremely pleased with the result! The only T-pad I had already populated had some XP-G3 S5 3A. These optics are, as I had hoped, way more narrow than a 10507 Carclo. It is almost as narrow as the stock reflector, but has 4 LED’s feeding the spot!
I can’t wait to check it out in the dark!
I’ll probably swap the driver out eventually for something with active thermal management and do a spring bypass in the tail, but I’m real happy with the way it turned out!

A teaser for a scratch-build I’m planning. It will be a 7x C8 reflector light with dedomed XPL emitters. 125mm diameter head. 2s 26650; the same electrical setup as my 7xXPL convoy L2. The drawing is actual size, with a convoy C8 for scale.

A drawing of the head, with my 7xXPL L2 for scale.

Should do around 9000 lumens OTF and 800+ Kcd. Made from “off the shelf” aluminum plate and tubing.

That will be one heck of a flashlight EasyB! Looking forward to it.

Thats scary EasyB. :+1:

After my UF1504 only put out around 200kcd I figured the bottle neck was that dang half inch long solid brass button resting on the tailcap spring. I don’t understand why brass buttons are used. I always have to drill through them. Drilled a hold down the middle and ran a bypass wire up through. Hoping that will at least double the throw numbers. Haven’t taken measurements yet.

On the road i3. Dedomed dtp xpg2, Fet driver, omten switch and double springs.

Real nice little light, joy to mod. Still don’t know if I keep it like this or put a 4000k 219c in it.

Tint vs throw, that’s the question…

Dedome a 5000K 219C. You end up with about 4000K, lots of throw and nicer tint than most dedomed Crees.

I have some 4000k’s laying around. Guess I’ll try to dedome those first.

Is slicing the dome still the way to go? Or is there a new proofed method for 219c’s?

Maglite 2AA - Triple mini mag mod

Bored out the head using a 19,5mm drill :

Modded a threaded copper pill from Rey Ti , added a 16mm round copper plate to make the flat surface on top , all using only hand tools , and installed a fet driver and nichia 219b hi cri leds on KD board and optics :

Added some solder on the bottom , now even flat top batteries work :

And inside the head :

About the tube , i shortened it using the human lathe method kyfishguy described :

It could be better of course :slight_smile: .

Changed tailcap’s spring to a bigger and more flexible one :

Khaki painting was in pretty bad shaped , so i removed it from the areas without knurling .

And final product :

Thanks to kyfishguy for helping me , and Lexel for providing the light .

I guess that modding Maglites will never cease, it is sort of tradition on BLF to do them. I will do mine one day!

Nice mod, giorgoskok!

Buying an led conversion for a 2AA mag was the first mod I ever did. That’s where it started for me :smiley: nice mod giorgoskok