What did you mod today?

You make some very interesting and unusual lights. I bet the Knucklehead would be a popular item if you could make a bunch of them.

I have motion-freezing strobes in several of my firmwares, either with fixed timing or automatic variable. I haven’t done a smoothly-adjustable one yet, but you can get that in tterev3’s MELD if you ask nicely. I got him to drop the flash time to 2 ms, though I’ve since found that’s too long for good motion stopping. I generally use 1 ms for slow strobes or 0.3ms for fast strobes.

Although I’ve been meaning to make an e-switch UI with operator-adjustable strobes, I’ve instead demonstrated my expertise in procrastination. It doesn’t help that almost nobody except me (and now you) seems to be interested.

So… maybe someday? :wink:

It’s a rainy day & the other day a cu BLF A01 (Old Lumens Version) came with NMM :confounded: Being as the light is essentially useless to me I decided to transplant it’s Nichia 219B (feels like in the 5000k tint?) into an old light which severely needed updating.

So just a simple emitter swap can do wonders…
My 4 sevens ti 1AA Quark originally had a XPG NW R4(or R5) put in when those emitters 1st came out & now it gets to crawl out of it’s drawer to be of some use.

Got my 3rd S41S and reflowed 219C D320 to it. Too hot to hold in 15 seconds and pulls just over 18A.

Also replaced the qlite spring on the H17f for my convoy s2+ triple with a brass button. Now that pulls 13 amps. (XP-L HI V3 3C). Pulled about 10a with qlite spring.

Last two small projects before the summer vacation :

Re-flowed a new LED in my fresh from the mail box Jetbeam JET- µ, the LED was a gift included in a recent flashlight purchase, Thanks djozz :beer:

Eagle Eye X6 with a Luminus SST-40 LED and BLF A6 driver :


X6 SST-40 6500K (left) C8S XHP50.2 3A (right)

The SST-40 is pulling 8,58A from a fully charged VTC6. I like the new emitter from Luminus but the tint is to cold for me. The drivers 45 sec step-down is about right it does get hot very fast.

Thanks for the reports on the SST-40, khas. I’m excited about the possibilities of this emitter and have ordered a couple from KD. Do you have any other quantitative output info? Like candela of the X6 with SST-40, or ceiling bounce numbers comparing it to an XPL direct drive?

I’d not heard of the SST-40, so yes indeed thanks for the heads up and in one of my favorite lights no less! :smiley:

The official specs states 1608 lm @ 5A with a 85C junction temperature for the N4 bin, I don’t have any reliable way to test output, but I know djozz is working on a test of the SST-40 so I will leaves the numbers to him.

I had the SST-40 in a Thorfire C8S before and got 8,09A at the LED with a 20 awg wire loop and a clamp meter.

EDIT : Test by djozz here

I modded a J20 last night. XHP50's FET driver. Used the wires it came with and I'm running 3x26650 Imren IMR's, supposed to be "60amps" IDK for sure but they are high drain IMR. All emitters parallel. It's pretty bright.

I see you’ve mastered the art of the understatement.

Maybe next you can master the art of the beamshot? :smiley:

Here’s a preview of how that thing looks indoors:

Hilarious! I waited a few moments for the picture to load before I realized what you did… :smiley:

Working on it, yesterday, knucklehead II :slight_smile:
800lm 10250 powered this time

I will not wait for the battery tube replacement of the Astrolux S42 that came in today, so I created enough space with the current battery tube for an Aspire 18350 battery to fit: Upcoming Astrolux S42 18350/18650 quad w side button and usb charging - #200 by djozz

Finally was able to crack open a few stubborn lights with thread lock on them. The pine board method worked great. Lights I opened were:

  • original glued bezel Astrolux S41
  • Nitecore MH20 bezel
  • Lumintop SD26 bezel
  • 3 K2's, FandyFire and SolarStorm

Some with pics, not all. SD26:

Older FandyFire K2:

The full K2 family:

Those springs were a source of lots of lost amps on a DD FET mod.

Weapons of choice. I got two of those Husky strap wrenches, think I got them online a while back. The board is 2 1/2" by 3/4" pine. The hole is 1 1/2" for the SD26 and K2 tailcaps. The clamps are pretty decent ones, 5" and 6" size. You really have to crank down on the C clamps, otherwise the light will still rotate in the hole. Doing the 3 K2 tailcaps, it got harder and harder. First two were done with the battery tube in the hole and the strap wrench on the tailcap. Last one was slipping bad, so put the knurled tailcap in the hole and strap wrench on the battery tube.

The S41 used a smaller hole, than the MH20 slightly larger - same technique but different board/hole from what's shown below. I knew these husky strap wrenches were good, but was always really hard to use two simultaneously. By using the clamped board, it gives you a rock slid foundation you can easily hold, then the strap wrench can produce a huge amount of torque. For the old FF K2, a couple of years ago I tried everything - strap wrenches, torch, even boiled it in a bag for 30 mins - nothing worked. The main reason to get the K2 tailcap off is to add a bypass wire on that super long spring - way too much lose's there.

This went not so bad, but it's all in the prep work. If I were to do it again, I'd use a slightly wider board at 3.5" or so. The hole has to be a pretty tight fit as well, and you use the cut slits as compression points. The great thing about this method is no damage whatsoever. At first I thought there were marks, but then easily rubbed off with isop. alcohol. Also the trick to the strap wrench is make the loop loose, then when you start twisting, that metal swivel flips over and creates incredible pressure while pinching the strap, so no need to hold it tight. Only thing I should have used was some steel pipe to help tightening those C clamps, and might have helped over the handle of the strap wrench as well.

Copying from the buck and Boost thread, its been quite a fun week. Finished up 3 builds today, all using the new KD H1-A Boost driver in places it shouldn’t fit. Well, I made it fit. I like this driver a lot, it allows me to put 2S+ emitters in more places just using a single cell, with around 90% efficiency to boot.

1st up is the light engine I made for the new Desert Tan S2+ when I get it. MTG2 4000K at 3.5A. In a Green S2+ for a test bed. Really cool to have an MTG2 on a single cell in an S2+. Pill is a stock pill with the driver pocket machined out. Reflector is stock reflector with the emitter hole enlarged by hand with a hobby knife.

Next up is my new XHP50.2 Convoy C8. Running an H2 30G 80+ CRI emitter at 3.5 amps. I love this light, super bright and even on full blast the C8 host can take the heat. I had to machine out the driver pocket and file the driver ground ring to the vias, but the stock retaining ring allows a near 20mm driver in the hole.


Finally we have a Blue S2+ triple with 3x XP-G3 S4 E1 (6500K) emitters in series, running about 1.2A. This light is a gift for my fiance, so I chose a current that can be run on high continuously without overheating so she can set it down and use it for area lighting without worry. She also likes cold white, hence the 6500K emitters. The triple series setup works fantastic, and I really like the mode spacing on this driver. Low really is nice and low, while high is crazy bright for only 1.2A. Copper pill is one from kiriba-ru which I modified for 20mm driver. Very nice pill.

Nice mods Jensen567. Your fiance is a lucky girl.
Thanks for the tips and pictures Tom. They will come in handy.

Thanks for explaining the pine board method Tom E. If I run across this issue, I would stick the boards into a vice since I only have 1 c-clamp. Those springs do look pretty cool despite the loss of current.

How did you mad it fit? Did you reduced the diameter a bit or did you only soldered it to the pill?
Hoy did you do it on the convoy C8? There is only room for 17mm driver, isn’t it?

I was sceptical about this idea, but he done it well. He bored driver place and underdriver place.
Imgur

Yes, for the S2+ pills I bored out the driver pocket to fit the 20mm board, then soldered it to the pill. For the C8 I was lucky that the stock retaining ring is almost 20mm, so I expanded the pocket, then shaved the edges of the driver until it just cleared so I could use the retaining ring. If that didn’t work it would have been harder, since I can’t just solder it to aluminum.