What did you mod today?

I modded a C8+ Desert Tan with a white flat, warm white/gold lighted tail switch, and LD-A4 driver 5A from led4power.com. It's a mini light saber! I don't have the exact figures but it looks like it easily beats my L2 with a MTN buck driver 5.1A driving a XP-L HI. Next I will put a white flat in the L2ā€¦

Hereā€™s a couple of images of my C8+

Tadaaaa:
B158B 4,55A 13x7135 driver: 345500cd

Same driver and led in Convoy C8+: 209000 cd

Same driver and led in Eagle eye X6(still need some focusing because Iā€™m not happy with numbers): 117000 cd

Very nice :heart_eyes: I had considered this before but never followed through with it. Nice to know it can be done :+1:

First post, but - as per zak.wilsonā€™s post re: Wowtac A2S and LH351D (SPHWHTL3DA0GF4RTS6), I did an emitter swap today. Didnā€™t think to take too many photos as I had some time pressure, but I think I did it the hard way - removed the battery terminal end, desoldered, and then took the emitter board out, and swapped it. Really should take beamshotsā€¦

I really should have thought that one out longer. There had to be a better way to remove the board. Resoldering the four wires from switch and emitter was NOT fun.

Thanks! And interesting: my clear C8 with dedomed XP-G2 S4 2B does 180kcd, so that is 16% improvement for the white flat. My B158 with XP-G2 S4 2B does 322kcd, so that is 7% improvement. So YMMV probably depending on individual led differences.

And it also can be more or less difference because of measurements error. And the XP-G2 only make that performance fully charged. Osram can maintain better when battery depletes because of low forward voltage

Modded Q8 with Luxeon MZ: led4power
And in 2nd step I bridged the springs.
Stock LED: 5200 Lumen
Stock LED Bypass: 6500 Lumen
Luxeon MZ: 7000 Lumen
Luxeon MZ Bypass: 10000 Lumen

I noticed no stepdown but the flashlight was realy hot.

4 donuts? or itā€™s just too bright to notice? :slight_smile:

Well I reckon Iā€™m gonna have to get an image hosting service so I can post pics of my project. Who says P60 is dead? I started with a 2ā€ diameter 6061 aluminum barstock today and started boring and threading some parts together, using an old infared P60 dropin for the dimensions. The plan is to have a triple emitter P60 built by someone since electronics arent my strong point, and my host is to be heavily finned and slotted for heat dispersion. Its coming along well but I havent decided on a dropin yet. Really it depends on how much the wife lets me spend haha. May have to get a cheaper one from Kaidomain for now and wait on a Sky Lumens or PflexPro for later. Boring the body for 26650 and a sleeve for 18650 option. My first flashlight build but Ive been machining for my entire life.

That's pretty insane! 10K lumens at 90 CRI in a Q8. The spring bypasses made a huge difference. I thought the dual springs were better than that, but I always pull the inside ones and replace with a bypass.

That must be 8+ amps per LED. Did you need anything special for centering, or drilling out the reflector holes?

I have a quad MZ that I measured at 28 amps on a single 18650. You can bet this is pulling at least 8 per

Please provide us more info if you could. Did you measure throw? How's the beam - does it have a significant hole? Are those 10K at startup and calibrated with maukka lights?

@TomE, donā€™t forget the dual springs are still made of steel.

Steel wire has extremely high resistance compared to copper alloys, even in a dual spring setup.

One advantage they have is that they limit current if the cells get into a short.

A dual BeCu spring setup in a short, if they do not fail due to heat, can actually be dangerous to the user.

Re-modded a Convoy S8 shorty today with a 1mm2 White Flat, BLF-A6 driver with brass post (no tail spring bypass), and a lighted tail with 660nm 0603 leds. I messed a lot with a centerpiece that did not work well, and it appeared that the stock reflector was very poor so after a change to a different one the beam was much better. One centerpiece and one reflector later, and an in the meantime rather battered led I got the focus right and it measures 41 kcd now with a great clean hotspot :sunglasses:

The 660nm leds give a nice almost crimson red but appear not very bright because the human eye can hardly see that wavelength. They should be great in the Fireflies E07 that Iā€™m going to order sometime in the future.

Roof tops are at 50 meter

Sweet :open_mouth:
I didnā€™t think a ā€œsmallā€ SMO reflector would work so good with these leds but it does!!

BTW, is that a short tube for the S2+ Convoys?
I like the shape of the S8!

Yea, I think I know, but of course they are coated steel, and under compression, and depends on the quality. I've modded over a dozen Q8's and can't recall getting that high of a difference from just the springs -- I could be wrong, but a 25% jump is pretty big. I thought our decision to go with standard double springs, though not our first choice, was better performance than single springs. I argued for heavier gauge inner springs though. The current goes through the coating, not much, or not at all through the steel - takes the path of least resistance.

I don't understand the heatsinking tailcap, and dangerous to the cell's life part of that... I'm at a total loss there.

Here's comparisons on a Q8 prototype of dual stock springs vs. bypasses:

Oh yeah I forgot to say ā€œin a shortā€.

A dual spring array made of a copper alloy may not fail under extremely high current, so the cells may suffer.

Also, I do wonder why they didnā€™t listen to your recommendations. That wouldā€™ve been great.

I shorted a BeCu single spring and it would have failed had I let it. Either way itā€™s a non-issue because we use bypasses so often something else will just get nuked in its place. See Tom E burning up his switch trace :slight_smile:

Haha. Something else will get burned up. I just donā€™t want that to be a 100C 18650.

Itā€™s what we learn along the way, make new fusesā€¦ :wink: