An EXCELLENT Mod For Beginners!

Next you can swap a nichia and get em hooked on tint young. It worked for cigarette companies!

I just wish I could solder small parts like that when I was a beginner.
I’d call that a pretty skilled project for a newbie and I’ve been doing it for 60 years, but a soldering station makes all the difference.
YMMV
:beer:

your voice got even better yet on this one? and i am enjoying the “quirky” little gestures… looks like you are getting “comfortable” doing more videos, and having fun… the quirkly little movements and pointing at links is becoming very natural, and, its turning into your “style” or “signature”.

i think your comfort doing this had vastly improved and makes it higher quality.

so… enjoy being comfortable and just pump out more videos… it was informative and well done.

Nice video, it handles almost all aspects of basic modding.

It however does make it look easier than it really is when you are a starter, especially the act of soldering itself looks dead simple in the video while it took me years to really get the hang of exactly the right heat, heating up time, how to position the solder iron,time to let the solder flow, maintaining the tip etc. to make nice clean solder joints.
I would advice a newby to take an old circuit board and start with desoldering/soldering components for a while to get a feel for the stuff.

I thought I was bad at soldering until I got a Metcal station for cheap ($150ish with a wand and a bunch of tips) on Ebay. It doesn’t need to be quite that fancy to have an impact, but soldering with the cheapest iron on the market is hard.

Also, tin both pieces before joining them in most situations, tin MCPCB pads before installing the MCPCB in the light and use flux.

Nice vid VoB! What temp do you run your iron at usually?

Some of you guys are making soldering sound really tricky, scaring the noobs.

I guess I never had to learn soldering from scratch on my own. Just learned from someone who knew, about two sentences worth of very important tips, that I listened to, and then no big deal. The video does make it look easier than it, but it's not that hard either. What temperature? Depends how fast and smooth you move. If you're quick and stable, the hotter the better, get it done in 1s like the video and get out. No soldering station or temp control needed. If you don't get it right in under 5s of firm tip contact, stop, let everything cool down, try again. It helps if you can heat sink the parts you're working on in some way. The hard part though is really positioning and holding things steady. You do need to understand that hot solder on a cold surface isn't a solid connection. It probably helps to use solder with lead in it, just don't eat it. Clean your iron tip. "Tin" surfaces before joining them. If you need help transferring heat, a little solder on the iron can help. Finally if you get frustrated, then soldering does get difficult. Don't get frustrated.

I don't really find there's much more to it, and I've used some pretty cheap irons. I wonder how much of the difficulty comments comes from lead-free solder. I haven't used it much, and never with a cheap iron.

Temp has been the source of my problems, never took the time to think or read much about it and was worried I’d ruin my tips with too high of a temperature. Never went much over 575F. Good to know

Excellent video! Really liked the ending phrase, good lux :slight_smile: This will definitely be my first serious mod.

Any idea where I can get an equal driver from Europe or Asia. US shipping is sadly too much…

Will do :slight_smile:

Thanks for letting me know. Feedback on vid quality is helpful too. I’m experimenting with a new mic. Its a lav mic vs the yeti.

It is getting a little easier for me to be on camera, but I’ve definitely got a ways to go.

You may be right. I to keep it simple so people are not intimidated, but without making it look too easy so that if a person struggles they give up. In an upcoming video I am going to make a short segment showing a few of the pitfalls that I have hit even recently with modding.

It varies a bit from project to project, and from tip to tip, but generally around 760F. This gets the solder to wet on mcpcbs quickly. If the board is reflowed to a copper heat sink already is about the only time I ever need to go up at all.

:+1: As a beginner, no more words can say, just feel it’s a useful and great video! Thx!

Excellent video - great information, and straight into it without any waffle. Subbed in yt - I'd love to see more of your build/upgrade vids.

ooi - did you use a centering-ring/spacer at all for this?

Also, does the driver you sell have a temp sensor on it?

I can see how it will improve on the cheap stuff, but will it absolutely destroy the new Convoy C8 XP-L HI from Simon, as well?

What is the cd and beam range on this modified C8 in your video?

EDIT: I re-watched the video, and I see that you got 130k lux @ 1 meter, so that would mean 721 m beam distance. That is impressive, indeed. That is more than the stock C8 from Simon.

Maybe you have a different view, but I take “off the shelf” to be literally what you would buy at a local store as offered to the public, usually for a similar price.

The Convoy C8 I mentioned is offered “off the shelf” to the public on AliExpress. Who buys their C8 at a local store??? I wouldn’t even know which local store to go to in order to find a C8 light.

That’s kind of my point, even a standard C8 is a big improvement on standard shelf items at similar prices.

I would consider any Convoy to be a niche market item, not an “off the shelf” product.

Oh, I got it now. I see where I misquoted the OP. What he really said in the video was:

So I thought he was talking about comparing the C8 he built to other C8 lights you can buy out there.

But anyway, with the numbers he quoted, his mod does appear to be far surpassing even the best C8 offerings out there.

Hi Vince,

Thank you. Yes, I use a centering ring. My driver does not have a temp sensor. You can set a turbo timer on it if you like though.

Great vid. Good job on making modding look easy. Now how far down the rabbit hole have you fallen?

LOL thanks strayz. I wouldn’t say fallen. More of an aggressive purposeful descent, trench shovel in tow, lest at any time the trip should end. :face_with_monocle: