Did some reflector mods to a couple old Zoomies I had laying around:
Placing a small reflector inside an aspheric zoomie is something I tried years ago with mixed results. Adding a small reflector around the LED below the aspheric lens does the following:
- It eliminates rings caused by reflections off the inside of the bezel giving a very even ring-free beam… in flood mode.
- It adds a hotspot to the center of the flood beam pattern. The hotspot typically isn’t very bright or focused, which is not surprising considering the reflector is tiny and not particularly well focused. However, it does dramatically increase the usefulness of the floodbeam as the hotspot is at least twice as bright as the rest of the flood. The reflector makes beam pattern in flood resembles a floody conventional reflector flashlight rather than a typical zoomie.
- The downside of adding reflector is spot mode can look quite awful in white wall hunting. In typical well-built aspheric light, in spot mode all you see is an image of the LED. With this mod, you still see the image of the LED, but it is also surrounded by an image of the reflector surface. This typically looks like a gigantic, rather dim “donut” surrounding the LED image. And if there are any scratches, spots or defects on the reflector they’ll be in sharp focus. While this “donut” does look ugly, it should be noted that it doesn’t affect the throw at all, and it is dim enough to only be an issue for white wall hunting.
- Effectively the reflector gives greatly improved flood beam, at the cost of an ugly throw beam, while still maintaining max possible throw.
- With the reflector the flood mode is as wide as that typically found on a decently built zoomie. However, it should be noted that most zoomies can be modded for extra-wide flood by making it so the bezel can retract further bringing the top of the LED closer to the bottom of the lens. This is not practical with the reflector mod described here.
Recently I installed new reflectors on a couple lights: A Sipik 58 (the silver one) and a Probe Shiny generic zoomie (the black one). The Sipik already had a reflector I’d installed years ago, but had done a poor job on it and the reflector image was very ugly. The new reflector has much fewer defects in donut mode. The Probe Shiny did not have a reflector before. I didn’t do quite as good a job cutting and filing the reflector as on the Sipik, but it still works.
Both lights now use the same reflector: I took the reflector from a new 2xAA Incan maglite, cut off the tabs on the side of the reflector, filed off the bottom and chopped off the top. Result is a very small and shallow reflector that I then placed around the LED in these zoomies. Incan maglite reflectors work well because they are much wider at the base than reflectors designed for LED lights.
Here are some beamshots from very close range in max flood mode. These are cheap aspheric zoomies. Notice how the beams have a nice hotspot now courtesy of the reflector. Without the reflector the beam pattern is a perfectly even circle with no hotspot. The one on the left is the 4000K 5D. The one on the right is the slice-dedomed SST40. NOTE: my phone camera’s colors are off as the SST40 doesn’t look at all green in-person.
To hold the reflector in place I glued the reflector to a plastic retaining ring using Fiberfix glue I love this glue. It’s essentially super glue that comes out of the tube slightly gooey. What makes it unique is the dispenser has a blue LED in the back. After you stick on some of the glue, flip the dispenser around and shine the blue LED on it. It full cures instantly (less than a second) when the LED is shined on it. And it seems strong enough to take the heat from the sides of the pill without melting.
- I installed the plastic retaining ring
- Held the reflector in position
- Dabbed on a tiny amount of Fiberfix on one side between the reflector and ring then cured it.
- Repeated a few more times until the reflector was completely anchored.
Unfortunately, I don’t have pictures of these lights in throw mode right now as I need a bigger blank while to produce them. Will try to get some up so you can see the donut.
This reflector mod works best on zoomes that use a press-fit retaining ring. I’m not sure it would work with a screwed down 16mm star as the tops of the screws might get in the way of the bottom of the reflector.
Both of these lights have been previously modded:
Sipik 58 - with following mods:
- Reflector mod
- Noctigon Copper star with XPL HI 5D 4000K neutral tint.
- DrJones lummodrv driver (3 amps, ramping firmware).
- tailcap electronic switch with contact wire running along a channel carved down the inside of the battery tube.
- runs on one IMR 14500.
- stock 18mm plastic aspheric lens replaced with uncoated glass lens (soon to be replaced with coated glass lens).
- Anodizing removed and bare aluminum polished up.
Probe Shiny 18650 zoomie - with following mods:
- Reflector mod
- Noctigon copper star with slice-dedomed SST40
- DrJones H17F FET+7135 driver
- Stock tailcap guts replaced with lighted tailcap and retaining ring (original tailcap had press-fit switch guts, but did have threading for a retaining ring. I salvaged a compatible ring from another light).
- Run on Sony VTC5A or VTC6
On max power, the Probe Shiny is much brighter than the Sipik 58