What did you mod today?

So in a light that in general pulls less current (TK05, SP10, etc.), it’d probably be better to use a B instead of D, for the higher current density (smaller chip), eh?

I was thinking that initially, but hearing about it in this case kinda solidifies it for me.

Springs were replaced with thick phosfor-bronze springs which have one-third the resistance of a steel spring but the resistance is not as low as a by-passed spring.

@djozz, why did you have to do the mod before I did?

You should’ve waited until I did mine :+1:

Also, I have the Kaidomain AR lens, and there seems to be a reverse tint shift happening. The tint actually gets better with the Kaidomain AR lens.

Sorry :innocent:
That is good to know about the KD lens, I will have to get one then.

Recently built a parts-bin light, or as a fellow member called the Light-on-Cash build as it was sort of inspired by the Johnny Cash song One Piece At A Time.

This was built using various bits I’ve had for years. Courui D01 head and lens, Convoy L6 reflector, Solarforce M8 pill with a Convoy C8 battery tube bored out for a Sanyo 20700A cell. I made the tail cap and head adapter to make it all come together. Driver is an old FET of Wight’s design with a simple L-M-H UI. An SIR800DP was used for high power, it pulls 8.91A at the tail for 2028 lumens out the front. Low is 100 lumens with Med a little over 600 if I recall correctly. (not at my computer, wife is still sleeping)

It was a bit of a challenge getting the M8 pill opened and consequently using it without modification but I managed. Actually built it to use an IlluminationMachines faceted reflector but ended up liking the L6 reflector better in it. Still need to make some adjustments to optimize that change.

Put a new XHP70.2 in my Convoy M1 and proceeded to drop the bezel and lens and it broke in two. Then, I was looking at my Emisar D1 like, hmm how close is this lens to fitting… Proceed to remove the bezel, the lens slides off the top and this one now has 2 chips in the lens. Not a successful modding day.

Recieved the LD-B4 and luxeon V together with the ILC-1 illuminated tailcap module from led4power to mod it in my convoy L2.
Haven’t modded any light for a while and I totally forgot how small everything is…

As I already thought the ILC-1 module doesn’t fit right in the L2 tailcap. It is the correct diameter but the L2 uses a forward clicky and those are longer than a reverse clicky that’s being used inside the module.

So I needed to make a spacer to fill out the gap. First I wanted to 3d print a clear spacer to go on top but clear filament turns a bit frosted when printed.
That leaves me with just normal PLA filament. (print quality is not very good on these small parts, still figuring everything out and fine tuning the settings)

Luckily I had some spare tailswitch pcb’s laying around to make a separate contact board so I could make the spacer on the backside.

Here you see the module inside the spacer:

Backside:

The space tailswitch pcb:

Illuminated tailcap module ready:

Installed it inside the tailcap:

Soldered the spring on the driver and bypassed it:

Led installed and wires added:

And illuminated tailcap works! This is actually the first illuminated tailcap I have. Really liking it!

This convoy L2 had previously a XPL-HI and fet driver in it. The tailcap current was, if I remember correctly, around 4A.
It is now around 5.5A. Not as high as I had hoped as I used the 9A version of the LD-B4 so I was expecting some higher current.
I use a Basen 4500 mAh 26650 in it, they supposed to be decent performers. Even with a other keeppower 26650 and some other 18650 cells I didn’t get any higher than 5A.

Nevertheless. I really Love the 4000K tint of the luxeon V!!

Nice work thijsco , but it should do more amps indeed.

I have had days like that. Recently it took me just 5 minutes to totally destroy a Solarforce Z2 trying to get the bezel off.

DQG AAA Clicky with Samsung LH351D 4000K 90 CRI.

Output went from around 140lm with the XP-G2 to 174lm.

A tricky swap due to the board being populated on both sides so I applied JB weld & sticky aluminium foil to the underside to hold the components in place/ not burn them then heated it up to do the business with a jet lighter :-)

.

DQG Hobi Ti Nichia 219C 5000K 10440 with magnetic forward tail clicky switch.

thijsco, are you checking current with a standard multimeter? They won’t read the higher currents we get from FET drivers, will always show low. A clamp meter is the way to go, we did sort of a group buy here on the UNI-T clamp meter a while back with the idea of everyone being on the same page current reading wise by having the same meter.

The XP-L HI can and should do over 6A, a high binned variant will approach 7A. If you are indeed using a clamp meter and still getting low current, check your grounds. The way that switch went in could be keeping ground path low, not sure. If I knew other things like a clamp meter, bypassed springs, driver ground path good, I’d then double check that tail switch assembly… :wink:

CRX? What can anyone say but Wow!?

Thanks mate, I had been wanting to change that emitter for ages but don’t have a hot air station so didn’t want to attempt it before. Old JB weld & duct foil does it again :smiley:

@CRX, have you tried using a skillet for reflow jobs?

I’ve tried it on a fake XML T6, and it did the job very well. Although I don’t have a replacement emitter. Would a 3000k XML2 be good though?

On the lathe, I have a 5” chuck with 3 jaws. The jaws have a tongue-and-groove to the back side that slots them into the chuck and there are circular “gears” that drive the jaws in the chuck when you turn the T wrench. This allows each jaw to move simultaneously with the other jaws and also makes them self centering. There are two sets, an inner and outer set. The outer set has smooth ends on each of the sections and are squared away, while the inner set can be used as a sort of spreader to clamp inside a tube edge, but they wouldn’t spread really far before falling out of the chuck. That said, I had to cut something yesterday, a large thick walled section of pipe, that was beyond my chuck’s abilities. The 1” wide section of pipe could actually slip OVER my chuck! So I used the outer end of the teeth, the squared face with no teeth on it, to hold this large cross section of Sch 40 Aluminum pipe. Pretty hairy endeavor! It went well and I managed to get it done but it was pretty stressful. lol

Here’s a pic of my filthy lathe with a bar of 4.25” Aluminum clamped in. See the jaws sticking out? These smooth flat ends are what I used to hold the even larger 5”+ Sch 40 Aluminum pipe! The are the second set of jaws, I used the inner set (the normal set) as they have steps that took them away from my inside threading job) Yes, this is a very large bezel to hold a lens on a light. A 130mm lens… :wink:

I got threads cut and was shaping it down some when it started wobbling… I stopped just before it came loose and went airborne. lol Dropping a glass lens and breaking it is one thing, spending hours shaping something on the lathe and having it fly loose and get gouged by the teeth of the jaws and the cutting tool or impacted on the concrete floor, disastrous!

PS: I found that by leaving it semi-dirty it doesn’t rust up. Try to keep it clean and rust grows on it like weeds! It was exceptionally dirty in the above pic because I’d been working on it for 2 days and hadn’t cleared all the chips and shavings yet. lol

That’s a clever trick CRX. Hope I can remember it for if the occasion arises.

Dale, do you have a big build you’ll be sharing soon? :nerd_face:

I have a small aluminium block that I normally use but the problem with the DQG clicky AAA is the integrated board has components on both sides so you really need a hot air station or hold a soldering iron on the centre contact from underneath to reflow.
Here’s a pic of the jb weld potted components sanded down a bit after the swap.

It really depends what you like, 3000K is too warm for me, I like 4000-6000K usually.
Great chat on CRI & stuff here :slight_smile:

PinkPanda, I just rebuilt my 6th scratch build upon acquiring an even larger reflector. :wink:

So DBC-06.7 is now v2 with a 124mm reflector in place of the 97.5mm one it was first built with. I got lucky, again, and acquired a large ® reflector. It now does 1.05Mcd (50M lux test) for 1.2734 miles throw. :smiley: Still using the single 32650 with FET+1 Bistro driver but it’s got an 26mm MaxToch MCPCB re-flowed to the 35mm copper pill and carrying an XP-L V3 3A HI. This is good for 6.42A at 1538.7 lumens out the front.

The widest point on the bezel measures 5.35” or 135mm. It’s beastly, for sure!

I just realized, the LOC (Light On Cash) parts bin build partly visible on the right got fitted with a Convoy L6 reflector BECAUSE the Courui reflector wasn’t being used at the time I built my first scratch built light on the left of the big one… so the D01 or “Fathead” reflector is in my DBC-01. lol

Funny how the years have made the Fathead shrink, isn’t it? :wink: Even the BTU Shocker looks pretty tame next to the new beast. And so it goes…. time waits on no man. :sunglasses:

:slight_smile:

Not so much a mod as a finish i use on had work lights, just a wire wheel on a bench grinder, plenty of grip for oil/water/hydraulic fluids on gloves.

plus a 5 sec scuff on the wire wheel and she ir ready to go agian, not for every one but after a few years i kinda like it. i usually have a lit tail cap but these are toolbag bastards.