What did you mod today?

First post in this thread.
Modded my old sx5 headlamp to Quad nichia e21a, 22.5mm Yajiamei optics and TA Driver (Flashed Anduril). Really nice beam, tint, CRI and UI. Works with 26650, 18650, 3xaa and 3xaaa. Now its my favorite headlamp again.

More info here

The baking process to change color of Type II ano takes pretty high heat. The surface of the aluminum has been given a harder aluminum oxide surface that is microns thick due to the acid bath process of anodizing. Before sealing the honeycomb pattern of tubes that anodization creates, a dye bath is used to impart the color into these tubes, then a sealing process closes the tops of the tubes to keep the dye in. Baking the light breaks the closed tops and breaks down the dye hence changing it’s color. In this baking process the annealement of the aluminum is also altered due to the high heat and extended time it takes. So the structure of the aluminum itself is changed as well as the depth of the aluminum oxide surface. So in hard use, the light will suffer in aesthetics and is more prone to actually break in extremes.

Now, I’m no engineer and I certainly don’t anneal aluminum into a T6 hardness level, but the above is what I remember reading about it all. Taken with a grain of salt your french fries will taste yummier, I can’t promise anything else due to my forgetful and random memory nature…

Seeing the post below really makes me wish that budget manufacturers used better ano than they do….

I have only 1 light that would semi-survive in my backpack. Lumintop GT Mini. Everything else I put there was full of dings and scratches after 2 weeks.

Quality ano + base metal can’t cost that much, can it?

Now some Details for this mod:

Here you have Pictures: https://www.taschenlampen-forum.de/media/albums/blf-q8.2372/

On My EagleEye X7 with Luxeon MZ, I have 2700 Lumen at startup.

I checked the Lumens with my sphere: Wieselflinks Lumenkugel / Ulbrichtkugel | Taschenlampen Forum
It is not maukka-calibrated. But I hope, it is calibratet nearly correct.

The above Lumen readings were made with Sony VTC6, but I did not recharge them between the different readings.

Today I have made some readings with another stock Q8 (after the group buy, that means #2001+). The above readings was with a Q8 from the group buy #501-2000, but now it has bypassed springs too.
The Luxeon MZ is in a Q8 from the first 500 flashlights.
It seems that they have improved the spring quality after the first 2000 flashlights.

Now VTC6 fresh from the charger for each lumen reading:
Luxeon MZ with stock Q8 springs #2001+: 9000 Lumen and after 30sec: 8000 Lumen
Luxeon MZ with bypass: 1010 Lumen and after 30 sec: 8800 Lumen.
Stock Q8 #2001+: 6500 Lumen and after 30sec: 6150 Lumen
Stock Q8 with bypassed springs: 6800 Lumen and after 30sec: 6450 Lumen

I have off-centered the LEDs like at my Skyray King with XHP50 (Report Pictures), but for the Luxeon MZ I got a circle and center-hotspot, like you can see in the pictures linked above.
Thats why I used dc-fix foil to make it smooth.

Any further questions?

Wow, I don’t believe I’ve ever seen someone put a FET on an MCPCB like that!

Great mods!

Wieselflinkpro,

Can you try putting the D-C Fix lens in the stock Q8 and measure output? I want to see how much different the output is and I believe it will be a good test of your sphere’s baffle.

Thanks for the further details on the Q8 MZ mod! Makes more sense now.

aswang - that SX5 headlamp is nice! I was using it for a while for work on the bench as-is stock, but it's CW with a big black hole in the middle of the beam, but even with the issues, it's a rock solid headlamp I'm using with a 26650, well balanced, fits comfortably, nice headband, unlike several I've used. What you did to it I'd love to do. I got mine heavily discounted at HKequipment last year. It's built like a tank as well, ol school.

Modded my garage today, got a new garage door :smiley:
Also put another 7135 onto my C8.

Nope not a machinist and don’t have a background in the industry. I don’t even work in a technical field. Pretty much everything I know about lights I learned from BLF or CPF.

What makes last night’s metal switch mod so easy is at heart it’s really just a homemade replacement switchboot. The new boot is composed of a circle of rubber sheet the same diameter as the stock boot. An aluminum circle is glued on top of the new boot to make the metal button.

Just modded a laserpointer, better heatsinks and focus.
Also purchased another S2+ to mod later when it comes in.

Hey could you show a pic of the laser pointer?

What power level is it set at?

SX5 was a solid performer and seem to be built really well. I also like that it can run on multiple types of battery. But I haven’t used it for a while because of the emitter and not so nice beam. My modded H03 became my headlamp of choice. I was planning on leaving the driver as is and just replace the emitter and reflector. But the bright flash before going to moonlight mode really annoyed me so decided to replace the driver too. Now with the mod its my favorite work headlamp. I forgot how comfy and balanced it sits on the head with the separate battery pack.

A friend of mine has these on his truck, and asked me if I can get him some more “down-the-trail” range…

I used Carclo TIR lenses and XHP35 HI LEDs… made a new custom face out of some composite material I had laying around.

Google Photos
Google Photos

Obligatory beam shots… the stand of trees are about 170 yaards away.

Google Photos
Google Photos
Google Photos

I've been using this dual LED headlamp for a while now: https://www.aliexpress.com/item/XM-L2-Mini-Head-Lamp-Outdoor-White-Light-Headlamp.

I swapped the LED's to XM-L2 3D's for now, might be tuff to swap to decent MCPCB's, but cant get access to the driver yet - probably glued. This is a really decent cheap headlamp. The UI is not bad at all for my use, and it's light weight though the headstrap is a pain because it keeps loosening up, but better headstraps should work with it.

What driver and other changes did you make? I have a larger 6.5” model sitting here to mod

Those seem popular here and decent build quality especially considering the price. Nicron headlamps also seem to be nice candidates for headlamp host. I have their more expensive H30 which I modded. Its well built and stock output is good but UI is horrible (cycle to off). Modded mine to fet+1 and LH351D and it’s a nice throwy heeadlamp (21Kcd at turbo). Could increase throw with xpl-hi or sst-20s or White flat. I broke the driver though because of too much tinkering so now its sitting on my work bench.

Post #7000!

(at the moment)

I just made the new face plate to hold the Carclo optics, I believe 10048? Have to check my DigiKey receipts. The beamshot was hardwired into a 5200mAh 3s LiPo running the two XHP35s in parallel so a little over-driven, but I probably could run all 4 with it. Because the optic holder and MCPCB stick out past the original lens height I had to make a face plate with an integrated bezel for each TIR. I decided since I had only 1/2” stuff to make the bezel taller to add to the “projector” effect.

Haven’t decided on a driver yet, since I want to make sure I get one compatible for automotive use. But I want to incorporate either modes or ramping of some sort.

Look here: Q8 modding - #1556 by Wieselflinkpro

Received my black S2+ host and immediately proceeded to give it a bit of heat treatment before transplanting my Luxeon V triple into it. Makes the little hot rod look a bit more gnarly and hot rod-like!